#need writing advice

[alnaperera]

I got a few friends to read my writing, and something that came up was the tonal inconsistency. They only read 3 chapters, but by their reactions, well, it doesn't quite fit what the story will become.

The problem is, I don't want to change this? Yes, there's characters dealing with complex trauma or politics in some chapters, and in some, they're complaining about boring work, resolving petty arguments, or rescuing random animals (or people. You could argue that MC was rescued the same way).

Should I be worried about this, or should I keep it its weird self? Or is there an answer in between these?

[katha-angel]

Okay, "Hypothetical" question:

IF you had to write a bit to transition from an interview with two characters and a manager to another pair of characters seeing behind the curtain of the Dinocross Park, how would you do it?

[fleshcatalyst]

Do you need to fully plan out a story before you start writing it. Like should i have an ending to work towards when i start something?

[demonanastasi]

Ship ponderings in my Sindemon comic revamp

For a wee bit, I have been wondering if I should make Satan and Leviathan a couple in the revamp of my comic. They're the only Sindemons who aren't aromantic, and I envision a convo (after Asmodeus's rejection of Leviathan's romantic feelings iirc) between them of Leviathan venting about the strength of their romantic love and the equal pain of its nonreciprocation, crying their eyeballs out, and Satan empathizing because he has felt the same before. A bonding thing between them that could lay foundations for these feelings to develop between them. My concept is that Satan is homosexual, but possibly panromantic -- Leviathan is genderfluid and therefore not always male. Maybe they could be more invested in each other as romantic partners than sexual partners; plus I've heard that romantic connections to individuals can cause the individual to be an exception to one's orientation. Romance ain't my forte so it will take much pondering and second opinions.

Sweet pictures of Satan (left) and Leviathan (right) below, note that Leviathan is dressed up in a captain costume for the story this dialoguebit is for.

[ellierenae]

write unpublishable things. it's good for you.

[neon-crow]

How did yall dip your toes into writing?

I wanna try and get into doing writing, fanficts, poems and the like. But ive no idea how to start cuz its been ages sense I last did any sort of creative writing of any kind. Im open to any kind of suggestions or thoughts cuz I freeze when I try to even being to type ANYTHING up ;w;

Also what tools do yall use so I can kinda get an idea at what im looking at?

[letthemusicmoveyou28]

This is a question for fic writers (or honestly anyone who wants to indulge me lol).

I always feel like I HAVE to write my stories in order start to finish or it won’t work. But often I find myself getting hung up on one specific part even if I know where I want the rest of the story to go.

Does anyone have any tips to get my brain to stop doing that??

Thanks in advance!! 🙏🏻

[worldweaverofmediocrity]

Heroes Rewrite progress:I need help.

So I decicded to rewrite chapters 10-14 of this story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29716569?view_full_work=true

because i did not have enough detailing, but i got stuck on making the chimera boss actually threatening, specifically a loop of the veterans attacking and the chimera dodging.

completed bit of the rewrite below:

An: what’s this, what’s this? Subchapters everywhere! pre(insert post rewrite day here) this and the 2 or 3 subchapters were one big chapter that ended the chimera fight when Kazuma blew its back out which went into Ainz unlocking his spells into Subaru dealing with the KIC. As you can see, I have expanded this. So that’s why the comments are all off from this point onwards.

All prompted by a comment chain on ch14 (the one I numbered). That and a partial reread of early canon, inclusion. I forgot to do several essential things (such as giving them portal weapons from the hourglass sand/giving chimera weapons out) and I've decided to enter rewrite hell for that. This subchapter is dedicated to making the chimera feel dangerous. As it’s due for being part of a world ending calamity.

===

Last time on Isekai Heroes:

Ainz walked up to the corpse and touched it, his left index finger sank up to his first knuckle/finger joint, the corpse felt insanely fluffy even to Ainz’s reduced sense of touch. Alas, the corpse shattered into blue glitter. 

“What?” Ainz asked as he leapt back.

Just in the nick of time as well, for the Chimera reappeared mid swipe and bite from all three heads on his former position. All wounds healed save for the Ram Head’s left horn. Which was reforming out of blue glitter.

“OH COME ON!” Kazuma yelled.

Tanya snapped back into action, pushing herself to cut off the other horn before its revival or heal could trigger. The chimera however blurred out of sight. and spewed another poison cloud.

Today’s Chapter:

Tanya compressed/twisted her spine as she twirled to a halt right before the poison cloud. Tanya held up her arms and a green spherical barrier formed around the poison cloud, which swiftly compressed itself into a small marble.

“Hm?” Tanya narrowed her eyes.

The insides of her calculator-based barrier were dissolving under the touch of the poison. Tanya’s eyes followed an unseen bouncing ball as she mentally scrambled to reinforce her calculations.

“[Shooting Star Bow]!” Kazuma called out.

Past a hill stood the Chimera, the Viper’s tail shook off scales which radiated blue glitter and transformed into several giant wasps. A yellow-white arrow reached its arch’s zenith and shattered into dozens of copies. The newly formed wasps disintegrated under Kazuma’s wrath but the Chimera’s Lion head spat out an explosive fireball to push its body out of the way. The viper molted and its shed skin transformed into several serpents.

“Triplet Maximize Boosted Magic: Reality Slash!” Ainz clawed at the air and towards the Chimera’s current position.

Alas the translucent blades of raw Space failed to materialize, thus Ainz growled as he twirled to slice his Sword at the Chimera. His blade coated with water that detached itself and soared through the air, bisecting zombies, locusts, and wasps before it was vaporized into steam by the Lion’s head.

“I still find it ridiculous that I have to do those chants to get the full power of spells.” Ainz thought as he sent another chantless-Aqua Slash towards the Chimera.

Tanya meanwhile had lined up the bubble of poison with the Chimera and minions position. Green circles appeared around her arm, mana converted to electricity, and the decaying orb passed through the pseudo-railgun. The orb hit the Lion’s head right in the snout and billowed outwards, covering the chimera and it’s minions in purple smoke. One of the prior-casted fire-type spells deto-harmlessly slipped through the smoke and impacted the Chimera inside.

Though the updraft from the fire did push the cloud above the combat area.

“Of course we can’t do a fuel-air bomb with the poison!” Kazuma shouted at Tanya. “If we could, then the Chimera would have used it against us!”

Tanya blushed as she sent a [Chaos Javelin] towards the Chimera, the initial gold spear of energy broke into dozens of smaller copies at the top of its projectile arc, shattering against the Chimera’s pelt.

[afrogirl3005]

Hey Y'all, I'm just letting you guys know that I'm taking requests now so if you have any thing y'all want me to write lmk because I have huge writers block.

[redvisionsproductions]

This is going to be a long explanation but TLDR: I’m writing a story set in a fictional version of the Old West that centers heavily around Native American culture and I need help making sure the concepts it tackles (the negative impact of racism, the preservation of culture and the importance of unity and community during hardship) aren’t problematic or offensive. My biggest concerns are listed at the bottom of the comment. Thanks in advance for reading.

\-------

So for the past two years, I’ve been working on a series of movie screenplays which will be converted into graphic novels (I’m better at writing film scripts than comic scripts - they just make more sense to me and it helps with my illustration process if I do it that way).

The premise revolves around a version of the Old West that has dinosaurs as the animals. The overall story, and the first story arc in particular, revolves around two main characters (a white woman - Emma - and a Native American man - John) living in a small Western town, and whose fathers are murdered by corrupt lawmen. It’s up to Emma and John to find out why they were murdered and get justice for their fathers’ deaths.

Here’s where I started to doubt myself and why I’m here today, writing this:

The reason why these two men were murdered is because there is a village hidden in the woods just north of the western town. This village serves as a refugee camp founded by and for a small collection of Native Americans of different Nations who survived and fled from a brutal war years ago, and are trying to live the rest of their lives in peace. (They’ve chosen to live together because, strength in numbers - I’ll come back to this later)

These men who were murdered were the previous lawmen of the Western town, who were helping *another character* to keep this camp a secret from people who wouldn’t like the idea of refugees living so close to their home (and don’t like POC in general).

Furthermore, one of the main characters in the overarching story is a young Native American man named *Harold*, who is the next stage in human evolution because of his ability to use vibrational communication against the dinosaurs - which helps him protect himself and others from the hostile world they live in. (I'll come back to this as well)

So as you can see, I’ve already spent a lot of time and effort on this story. But I don’t want to move forward with illustrating and publishing if it is problematic. I want to tell a story that takes a firm stance against racism, and encourages unity, justice and freedom.

I’ve done research on how best to avoid using racist stereotypes and reworked the story multiple times so that the story stays as progressive as possible without sacrificing its logic or entertainment value. But to make sure I've done it right, I need help from anybody who can provide an answer.

\--------

My biggest concerns are:

1. Is the depiction of different Nations coming to live together problematic, unrealistic or in any way offensive? From what I understand, these Nations didn’t always get along and I was wondering if it would be considered offensive to depict them as cooperative with each other?

2. Because many of these Nations were never anglicized in this version of history, how would I go about naming the characters that are members of these Nations without entering offensive territory?

3. Is the character of Harold problematic despite being one of the central characters and not a tool used by any "white savior" character? (Please note: I understand that there is a racist trope in literature called “The Magical Native American”. I should clarify that his powers aren't tied to his race or religion - there are multiple characters in this story of different backgrounds with the same powers, who show up in later story arcs.)

Any suggestions/criticism are greatly appreciated.

[coyote-nebula]

To everyone who has lush fields ripe with story ideas but is struggling to go out and actually harvest them with your writer’s scythe: that’s alright. There’s a reason.

I see writers despairing or making self-deprecating jokes about how many wips they have, as if the ability to come up with the idea is equal to the ability to finish it out into an end product.

It isn’t.

A lot of our ideas come about, not because we were determined to be productive writers, but because daydreaming is an internal escape from life’s demands.

Writing is a demand, too.

Resting and relaxing are basic needs, unlike the high level, abstract satisfaction of being creatively productive. That’s why you might daydream (which is a mild and normal form of dissociation) ideas that you feel good about, and then struggle to research, write the words, fill plotholes, check grammar, revise— all the critical thinking and executive function things involved in creation. Your basic needs must be satisfied before your higher needs can be met effectively.

So, if you’re daydreaming about your stories extensively to mitigate stress, it’s expecting a lot of your stressed self to return from fantasy land, sit down in the cold hard real world and do the hard work to write masterpieces of literature. Those operations are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Writing is hard. Making yourself feel guilty is only going to make it harder. You don’t have to atone for entertaining or distracting your mind by making that available to other people. Daydreaming is a valid end in itself.

Don’t feel bad about having ideas but not being able to write them. Scribble some notes if you can, if you want, but above all enjoy the escapism and take care of yourself first. The words will come after.

[writingwithfolklore]

Backstory is Revealed When You Need It, Not Before

                Recently I shared my first 30 pages with my writing mentor, and now I'm sharing her advice with all of you (This is part 2! Find part 1 here). She told me my beginning read very slowly because I was giving backstory before it was relevant in the story, rather than intertwining it with the action.

                What I mean by that is, I was giving a lot of exposition on my world just through my character noting it to herself. I worried that if I didn’t lay down the basics right away, when I did mention it later it would come as a bad shock to readers.

While that might have a logic to it, it's very slow to read just exposition on the world. To get these details through naturally and when they're relevant, while still conveying them in the beginning, we needed to create a conflict for my main character to react to right away.

This way, I could spend the first couple pages revealing the essentials of my world and main character without halting the pacing to a stop.

                Okay, consider these two examples:

Character A avoided the alleyways as they travelled to the store. The city was overrun by gangs who liked to lurk in their dark corners, jumping out at unaware passerby’s for coin or favours.

                Vs.

The back of Character A’s neck prickled as they passed an alleyway that swallowed all light. They were steps away when they heard a raspy voice, “don’t you know you gotta pay the fee to pass through our turf?”

                How this character resolves this conflict will betray who they are as a person. Do they cower? Do they fight back? Do they reveal they have connections to another gang, or the police?

                This little conflict, as well as establishing a vital part of your world and character, should in some small way connect to the bigger conflict up ahead, aka the inciting incident.

                In this example, this specific gang would probably be where the main antagonist is from—or the consequences of how they deal with this follow them into the inciting incident in some way.

                Backstory only when it’s most relevant, not to anticipate when it will be important later.

                Good luck!

[paranoia-art]

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[www-bestiemme]

I’m so unhappy with how Kim looks but I’ve spent 5 hours on this we move on, WHATEVER

[smartass-hoot]

IF YOU COPIED SOMETHING BUT ACCIDENTALLY COPIED SOMETHING ELSE AND LOST THE TEXT YOU ORIGINALLY COPIED, JUST PRESS [ WINDOWS + V ] AND YOU CAN SEE YOUR CLIPBOARD HISTORY

[aidaronan]

PSA: That thing you're writing that doesn't fit someone else's headcanons? Write it anyway.

That thing you wrote and, oh no, someone made a tumblr post that says that characterizations like yours are incorrect, and now you feel like you wrote something "wrong." You didn't. You had a different opinion, consciously or not. You're allowed.

That random word someone says no one should ever use in a story but you kind of want to use it? Use it. (Like sometimes "chuckle" really is the best word for the specific laugh you're describing. Specific words exist to do specific jobs. If the best word for the job is "moist," use fucking "moist.")

I spent a lot of time being concerned about random rules that aren't even real rules, and it's not worth it. You aren't writing something wrong because you have a different opinion on a character or because you like a trope someone else doesn't like.

And most writing rules (yep! even grammar!) can and should be broken if it's effective in the situation. Yes, stories should be reader-friendly, and rules broken for emphasis should be used sparingly, but you HAVE to experiment to get a feel for where the sweet spot is. And! That sweet spot is going to vary based on what you write and who you are writing it for.

Let yourself write the thing you want to write the way you want to write it. Let yourself get a little weird in a lot of ways. Most importantly, do what is FUN for you or what's the fucking point?