u/National-Hotel2024

I check manuscripts, as like a proofreader, so like, just email me at ryanpatrickjordan12@gmail.com, and i will give tips and feedback

I am a 14M, and I just have a few questions: what kind of ya fiction is trending in 2026? (i dont read it very much), how do you name your characters?, and how do you keep chapters long?

Hello, there! My name is Ryan, I am a 14M, and am an aspiring writer. I also proof read my friend's and peers stories and certain sections and give feedback, and if anybody ever needs anything, dm me. :)

When I first picked up Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, I honestly thought it was just going to be a standard, dramatic historical romance. I expected a basic enemies-to-lovers story about a girl who hated a guy, a guy who hated a girl, and a predictable happy ending. I read the entire book through my own dramatic, teenage lens. I completely missed the actual point—like the biting satire, the irony, and the clever commentary on 1800s money problems. Yet, despite entirely misunderstanding the book's deeper literary layers, I fell completely and utterly in love with it.

To me, Elizabeth Bennet was the ultimate icon of stubborn independence. I didn't realize Austen was actually making fun of Elizabeth’s quickness to judge people. I just thought she was incredibly iconic for putting a wealthy aristocrat in his place. Mr. Darcy wasn't a symbol of class rigidity or social awkwardness to me; he was just the original brooding bad boy who needed to be fixed. I spent hours highlighting passages, obsessed with the tension, and treated a classic masterpiece like a high-stakes young adult novel. I loved the rhythm of the language, even if I had to guess what half the words meant using context clues. It quickly became my ultimate comfort book, full of witty banter and dramatic eye contact across a ballroom.

The real comedy began when I tried to apply this new "Austen wisdom" to my actual life. Right after finishing the book, a guy in my science class made a comment about my messy lab notebook. Naturally, I decided he was my personal Mr. Darcy. I convinced myself that he was secretly obsessed with me and that this was the official start of our enemies-to-lovers arc. Instead of just talking to him like a normal human being, I adopted a persona of lofty, Elizabethan disdain. I crossed my arms, offered cold, sarcastic retorts, and refused to share the microscope.

I was determined to make him work for my approval, fully expecting him to deliver a passionate speech about how I had bewitched him, body and soul. Looking back, my own pride and prejudice literally got in the way of passing middle school chemistry. We ended up totally ruining our lab project because I refused to look at his side of the bench. Turns out, he didn't secretly love me at all. He just really wanted me to organize my data so we wouldn't fail the class.

That is the beauty of reading a classic right now. You do not need to understand the nuances of old British inheritance laws to appreciate the story. You just need to connect with characters who are messy, prideful, and deeply human. I love the book for what I see in it today, and I know I will notice different things as I get older. For now, it remains my absolute favorite novel, serving as a hilarious reminder of the time my own teenage drama completely eclipsed a literary masterpiece.

I'm not stupid or anything, it's just it's hard to follow, and this is the only book I have had a problem like this from.

Great Heights

Book Synopsis

Arthur Pendelton is a eighty-two-year-old retired crane operator lost in the shifting fog of aggressive dementia and unhealed grief. For five years since his wife, Martha, passed away, Arthur has lived in total isolation, hoarding her old clothes and conversing with her ghost. In his crumbling mind, the only way to silence the agonizing grief is to recreate the family they never had. He believes that if he can just "fill the void" in Martha's old rocking chair, the crushing weight in his chest will finally lift.

Benji Cho is an isolated, severely overweight thirteen-year-old boy who spends his afternoons wandering the neighborhood to avoid his parents' constant, screaming arguments. When Benji accidentally steps onto Arthur’s porch to retrieve a lost ball, Arthur’s fractured mind snaps. He doesn't see a neighbor; he sees a replacement for the child he and Martha lost decades ago—a captive audience to help him roleplay a happy home.

Arthur drags the boy inside and barricades the doors. What follows is a deeply unsettling, claustrophobic psychological thriller. Benji is trapped in a house frozen in 1974, forced to wear vintage clothes, eat Martha’s old recipes, and act out the delusions of a physically fragile but terrifyingly unpredictable old man. As a massive police manhunt intensifies outside, Benji must figure out how to manipulate Arthur's erratic memory lapses to survive, realizing that the old man's desperate quest to feel better might just cost them both their lives.

Chapter List

• Chapter 1: The Empty Chair Arthur watches the neighborhood from his window, convinced Martha is commanding him to fix their broken home.
• Chapter 2: Trespassing in the Yard Benji fetches his ball from the overgrown lawn; Arthur strikes from the shadows of the porch.
• Chapter 3: Deadbolts and Dust Benji wakes up tied to a heavy dining chair, surrounded by decades of hoarded memories.
• Chapter 4: The Family Dinner Arthur forces Benji to eat a massive, stale meal cooked from Martha’s old recipe book while treating him like a toddler.
• Chapter 5: Sun-Downing As twilight falls, Arthur loses all grip on the present, mistaking Benji for a malevolent intruder before weeping for his wife.
• Chapter 6: Amber Alerts Benji hears his own name broadcast on Arthur’s ancient, static-filled radio while Arthur is asleep.
• Chapter 7: Dressing the Part Arthur demands Benji wear oversized, moth-eaten clothes from the 1970s to match old family photo albums.
• Chapter 8: The Lucidity Trap Arthur has a sudden, terrifyingly clear realization of what he has done, leading to a desperate standoff.
• Chapter 9: Feeding the Grief Benji realizes he can use Arthur's obsession with food and comfort to lower the old man's guard.
• Chapter 10: The Sirens Outside Flashing red and blue lights paint the living room walls; Arthur panics and prepares a final, dark ritual to "join" Martha.
• Chapter 11: Breaking the Illusion Benji uses Arthur's deepest, darkest memories of Martha’s final days to psychologically shatter the old man and reach the front door.
• Chapter 12: Ground Level Benji steps into the fresh air, fundamentally changed by the twisted, tragic week spent inside Arthur's mind.

I would highly recommend it, it is a fast-paced, glamorous thriller, and it later became the start of the James Bond film franchise, starring Sean Connery in 1962. It is the best mature but excellent spy novel out of the bunch.

Hello. I am an aspiring author like most in this subreddit, so, I was wondering, as a collective, how do you expect to get published?, as someone who also wants to get published, I would like to hear some tips if any of you ever HAVE been published, but, I just want to know!

So recently I started university, and I thought my room mate was straight, and I had a massive crush on him, but last night he told me he was gay, and we slept together. Now it has been really awkward and all that. It was my first time and I just want your opinions