u/TUD-13BarryAllen

The character is a child. I am hoping to have somewhat realistic names, names that can exist in real life but also do stand out, and this name matches other names in the story. I'm wondering how people would pronounce it (how you would, and where you are from), and how it would be spelled. I am leaning towards Lanaya. Let me know if it's cozy or if it's too much visually or audibly. Also let me know if there is a name that I'm trying to remember that made me think of this.

This post isn't for everyone but I hope it reaches the people who need it or people who are actively trying to help someone with anxiety and have reached a dead end.

What you are going through may be temporary. With a little work or help, you will see the other side of this.

Sometimes anxiety and other feelings tell us really important things. There's a chance that this trapped feeling or depressed state or nervous energy you get from time to time isn't "just your anxiety" or something wrong with you, maybe it's caused by the situation you are in. Unhealthy marriage, dangerous marriage you don't see the signs of. Unhealthy, dangerous family members. Bad lifestyle choices you aren't thinking through or a life situation that you should put effort into changing. A job that is out of your wheelhouse, which affects your entire life. A class beyond your skill which can affect your entire schooling or social life too. A group of friends who don't support you or actively make bad choices, a town that makes you unhappy or didn't offer what you need.

Never let a bad situation make you feel like a bad person. You are not a problem for being sick as long as you are making the best choices you can. Also never let a person make you feel bad for doing things you genuinely need to do for your health, and never let a partner or friend make you feel ashamed for leaving a difficult situation.

And remember it's okay to feel what you feel. Do what you are sure you need to do. Some people simply can't handle things with grace or stride, whether it's an emergency or a dangerous situation or a big party or a huge meeting. When it comes to things that aren't in your control, you're going to feel how you feel and it's okay if you have doubts or regrets, or if you need to go to your parents or do something that comforts you. It's not crazy if you need to spend a little more time thinking or planning (constructively) than the average person would, if you know for sure something could go wrong in a preventable way. If something could otherwise go really well with more effort and thinking than the average person would put in, put your instincts and attention to use. At the same time, don't worry about being good enough, just make the best choices you can with what you are given and with what you can see.

As for things in your control, don't feel pressured. If that massive birthday party isn't for you, it's okay to just drop by for a while to say hello and happy birthday, then back off for the sake of your health if there's proper communication involved If you're invited to the club or some activity and you know it's going to put you down for days or weeks or have you in a bad place mentally, don't feel bad about politely saying no. Don't let someone make you feel bad for not wanting a huge graduation party if you truly don't want it or it truly isn't your thing, because you have to look out for yourself too and you don't have to be normal. If you don't like going out to meet people and you've tried everything you can to enjoy it, and you know you aren't feeling lonely or isolating yourself, then it's okay to just exist and enjoy being solitary/being with those who make you comfortable. Of course try your best and give yourself chances by testing the comfort zone, but know yourself and respect yourself, too.

Nowadays people are so focused with treating everything or pressuring people to get help for everything including things that don't necessarily hurt them. If your anxiety isn't getting in the way of you having a good life or if you have ways of mitigating your anxiety without constantly being forced out of your comfort zone, maybe it's not you, it's just the situation being too much for you.

I can't stand this hypocrisy and how no one is bringing this up.

Women and FAB (females at birth) have such a hard time bringing the issue up with family or husbands, finding the right doctors, even getting the right information about hysterectomies. It's such a hassle getting one even if it's medically the best option or necessary, even if the patient has spent years figuring it out. It's like bodily autonomy isn't a thing, because the person "can't handle the consequences". It's always about "what if she wants to have a baby?" "What if she regrets it?"

But transgender people get laughed at and spit on when lawmakers outright screw them over or put them in danger, and they're expected to just accept "consequences" when they are a victim of hate crime, assault, the list goes on. How is it that a "groomed and brainwashed" or ill person gets consequences however a fully consenting, sound minded adult can't be trusted to handle the results of a surgery?

I know this is ultimately about phobia and control for most people, but there are people who legitimately don't see the hypocrisy and are so quick to spit on people or clutch their pearls when the situation calls for it.

The playground scene was not only written so well but probably the perfect example of a literary jumpscare. I ended up binging half the book after that scene until I couldn't stay awake anymore. So many other things about this book stood out, like the initial introduction of the mother's secrets where we instantly jumped tones and I was left just reading trying to figure out what was going on, and I was under so much suspense waiting for the mother to ask Bela to let her go into her heart.​ The beach scene was so fresh too, and the ending was bleak with a sense of purpose.

Would love suggestions!

I don't want to provide examples of my own writing because I publish publicly online and​ have a few fanfictions and fictional pieces that are somewhat popular, and I want to stay anonymous.

I have had a couple comments in the past few years that say my female characters aren't written very well. I don't get responses when I ask for more information. I've had a beta writer tell me to work on my female characters before but he gave me really vague advice. I notice that I have extremely developed male characters and I struggle with female characters even when basing them on people I know or writing fanfictions with premade characters. I'll struggle with entire arcs and plotlines unless I write something extremely generic or otherwise specific, like a plot about motherhood or a story taking place in a certain time period ​such as women's suffrage.

I don't know what the deal is.​ I am female myself.

This is a take I have not seen anyone else post publicly, so I want to get some (real) opinions.

I just want to say first that this is not a hate post. Please read the entire post before commenting or skip if it is not relevant to you. I have extreme respect for Stephen King and all of his classics. He defined horror, he got so many people into the horror genre and reading in general, and he's written some of the best things we'll ever have. I hold every one of his classics to the same regard as The Exorcist, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Haunting of Hill House. Some books, notably Pet Sematary, are actually more horrific than any of those and achieve things those books don't do.

But King nowadays has fallen off very hard. His career reached a peak a long time ago and he's done as a big writer. I think he died out in 2000 and his recent works have issues that need to be addressed in the reading community.

His new books are still good, they're just not spectacular and nothing sets them apart from other thrillers or other books. His horror or thriller books in the past 20 years I wouldn't call thrillers, more suspenseful. There's a lot of overload or lack of foundation that gets patched up by pacing temporarily, then results in poorly supported endings and deus ex machina. His modern books are less self indulgent and more polished, which sounds like a good thing, but in execution it limits his freedom as a writer and storyteller. His lack of freedom and creativity, as well as many flaws in his books, keep small ideas from being successfully fleshed out into entire books.

Some of his new books do feel like he's just selling the name or otherwise using his name to sell books that he writes for fun/for the craft. Using his name is not a bad thing at all but for someone his size, I think it's time for him to either do something paramount (for example break a new boundary, or take different approaches with his horror, especially with his skill level) or otherwise become more low-key, go back to using pen names or doing story collections with his ideas instead of entire books in order to give new authors the chance to move their books out to the public. He should've done so around 15 years ago, even earlier. A lot of his recent works were not necessary, and could've been a collection, or had major flaws not limited to storytelling.

This is my hot take as a long-time reader and a reader looking for new authors/horror. The most recent thing I enjoyed is Doctor Sleep, however Doctor Sleep was not the horror I was expecting despite the good character development and approach to the subject matter. Many reviews I've seen agree with me that it really downplays The Shining. I feel it was unnecessary as it didn't achieve anything new or spectacular, and The Shining should exist alone. I'll be fair to say that the movie adaptation of Doctor Sleep not doing well did affect the reputation of the book and his new works in general considering the high expectations horror fans have for his story adaptations.

Outside of that, the only thing I've enjoyed of his since 2000 ish is Under the Dome. However I'm simply a fan of extreme horror and it was nice to see things I enjoy in a very fast-paced, long book. The existence did not depend on King's storytelling skill, and did not hold his idea of horror as he could've taken it much further with his level of creativity or done things far differently. Not only are many aspects polarizing or commonly disappointing but a big flaw is characters making poor decisions for the sake of plot progression. Things are very bleak with no purpose, there's no statement or greater purpose to either the events or the suffering of the characters. In my opinion, the biggest flaw is the treatment of female characters, which doesn't serve as a message or symbol but rather a plot device and sensationalism.

11/22/63 is wonderful at some points but does not rely on his skills, it could have been written by anyone else. The many flaws in the plot and subject matter amongst other things completely outdo what he did right. He had a chance to do something paramount and outstanding with that, as well as create an epic, educational piece of literature, but his failure to properly address certain subject matters (or otherwise provide context for the way he framed the time period and the social matters) changed my opinions of him as a social commentator. In my opinion being good at social commentary and the handling of societal issues is very important for high scale literature and particularly thrillers/horror authors. The Outsider was a good attempt to portray multiple themes, political currents and aspects of the justice system for example, but was loaded to the point where it was hard to stick to the story or characters. It failed to just choose one good theme and a few good elements and develop them extremely well. I feel Holly was the same way, too much crammed into the same space when a select theme done properly would've suited the story well.

I have issues with Dreamcatcher but I will not criticize it due to the state Stephen King was mentally and physically in. As a writer myself, I have mad respect that he was still able to release a book that many people enjoy after his accident.

I still read his works and will give his current and future books a chance, but he really spoiled me back in his good days and now I just feel exhausted seeing his many newer books in my TBR. I'm expecting The Institute to be really good though not scary or exceptional. I'm waiting for something to bring him back. I personally phase him out in the meantime. Let me know if there's something I'm missing or if there's a book I should reread.

I'm 26F. My camera is not good enough to get a picture of any of them and they vary in size or texture. Since I was maybe 15 I noticed a few stray ones on my body, and now I have them spread on various places of my body. They can last a few weeks or even a few years, I have a couple that are permanent. They are bright red, about 1mm, sometimes flat like a freckle or are very slightly raised. They are isolated and aren't surrounded by any redness or rashes and they are painless even when scratched. They are most common on my breasts or arms and as I get older I notice them on my thighs or one or two on my stomach.

I know they're most likely mundane or benign but I am curious what they are, and if they're a symptom of something that I shouldn't ignore.

A lot of plot twists happen at or near the end or otherwise don't have a massive bearing on what's about to come, they only bridge the gap or serve to change the story as we know it.

I'm looking for books that run similarly to the movie Parasite. They hold their own from the beginning and then have an event or twist, or even many twists, that say "We're only getting started." Things only escalate, because the twist is the story itself.

This certain 3x3 space in my house often has a smell to it. Sometimes it's like old lady smell, sometimes it's very nostalgic, often it's very sweet, or musky and wastey.

The area waits for me to forget the fact that it gets smelly and then the smell comes back and catches me off guard, sometimes similar to old lady smell, sometimes nostalgic, and sometimes just distinct as in sweet or musky or even gross. What is even going on? The space is across from a window but it's not the only window in the area and the windows are always closed. I wipe down the furniture and clean under the furniture often. I keep the area as clean as possible so it's not like I have clothes or objects sitting around, and even then, the smell permeates the air itself In the same way that sawdust or body odor does and covers the entire area specifically without traveling anywhere. I'm not really a believer but I'm starting to think something spiritual or paranormal is going on lol

I'm using fake names and there are some details I won't include, but I will answer questions. I'm here to share the story and maybe get some opinions. I was extremely unsettled and I still am unsettled, because I don't know if it's just a coincidence that I'm overthinking or a case of a changed identity, and in that case it makes me wonder how bad this girl's life was for her to come back as a completely fresh person. Maybe it's a glitch in reality, we can't prove that it isn't. Would love to see anyone else's experiences too.

I used to see Bianca every single day in 7th and 8th grade. We had each other's numbers and we texted occasionally, and we were on good enough terms that when she wasn't with her friend, we could sit at the same table or pod and have conversation. Over the course of time I opened up to her about a few things (which is a big thing for middle schooler me). She knew secrets about me and truly understood me during a rough situation. I feel like she had a rough home life because there was something about her, she kept it real despite getting in trouble often.

She wasn't exactly a floater, more like a chameleon. She could hang out with cool kids because of how pretty she was, she had baby fat and long hair and was really good at makeup, and when she spoke, she had this very unique charismatic voice and unique cadence. Plus she was best friends with one of the coolest girls in school, Jamie. She and Jamie would hang out in real life all the time and they would post on Facebook together or be tagged in things together, which was a thing back then. Jamie was kind of a troublemaker, her brother and a few friends of hers got into severe trouble often, doing substances on school grounds/the bus stop and stealing cars and who knows what else. There was one time I saw Bianca walking with two other kids who looked older than us, one of them had a hood over her face and was acting really sketchy. Bianca never really had good grades and she got in trouble occasionally. She also had a very violent streak to her that caused her to get into an infamous fight at our school, one between her and Jamie which included both of them horribly assaulting a substitute teacher.

I remember when Bianca would get grounded or get her phone taken away, it wasn't like when the other kids got in trouble, there was something off about it and it stuck out like a sore thumb. There were times she missed school or got suspended and it didn't feel the same way it did when other kids missed school or got booted out, but I can't place why. There were a lot of kids at our school who had trouble at home (which affected attendance) and a lot of kids were getting suspended or getting in trouble, getting into fights, etc so it makes me wonder just how bad Bianca's situation was or might have been in order to feel so off.

After 8th grade, Bianca just wiped off the face of the earth. Around the end of the year she started fading out but no one was really asking questions, she never told anyone anything, no one brought attention to it. And then by the end, she was gone for good.

The end of middle school was a big deal. The month or even many months before the end, kids were going around getting signatures of classmates on their t-shirts and posting things about each other on Facebook and making summer plans. The kids who were moving away or weren't going to be attending the main high school where everyone went to were signing yearbooks, people talked about missing them, some of the kids would do school projects on where they were going to and they would mention the move in the papers that we filled out for our time capsules. A few of the teachers really loved our students and would go out of their way making memory boards and putting up pictures on the cork board, making PowerPoints short films. Bianca had nothing about her, as if she never existed. She didn't die or get expelled. I would've seen something, Jamie would have changed or someone in her big network would have made a deal of it, the school would have had a memorial or an assembly to bring awareness to illness, drugs, alcohol, whatever would've taken place. My family would have known because my aunt worked for the newspaper and my other aunt has a massive network. Our city is pretty small and almost everyone knows each other somehow. Bianca could've gone missing, but there was never a public record and no one talked about it. None of Bianca's relatives were on the radar despite her being born here and knowing everyone, I couldn't even find a distant relative or something that would explain how she and Jamie were bestest friends to begin with, say, Jamie's mom being co-workers with Bianca's parent, or them having the same cousin.

When I was a junior in high school, which was only two odd years later but was such a long duration of time back then, I randomly met a girl named Hailey.

In high school there were tables by the entrance, where we would hang out outside of class time. The table my friend group had was close to the door, so people would come and go, like friends of my friends would come hang out for a while or friends of their friends would drop by and we had random kids putting their stuff down at our table or watching us play games, so I was used to seeing new people. Hailey was different.

In the middle of my junior year, this random girl came and sat at the table and she started talking to my friend and I. Mostly to me, because when my friend got up, this girl stayed and kept talking to me. She looked at me a certain way, smiling and interested in me, and I chalked it up to her being shy and new to the school. But looking back, it was weird because I wasn't an approachable person, I would wear a hood or glasses and only talked when I had to, so I doubt she was a new student looking for someone to talk to. She was extremely friendly as if she was actively choosing to be part of the table instead of just stopping by for a place to sit. She felt like someone that I had grown up with. Her demeanor, things that she said and things that she did made it feel like we were already friends or had been friends at some point. She did things that girl friends do with each other but wouldn't do with strangers and I can't tell whether it was genuine or forced, like a new kid trying to fit in.

She looked so familiar. I slowly realized she had Bianca’s eye shape and eye color, just with glasses. They had a type of frame that contributed to how her face looked and her face changed a bit when she had them off. Her face looked like Bianca's, her body too. You could tell me that it was in fact Bianca and that she'd lost all the weight in her face and stomach and I'd believe you. She had the same type of hair and same hair color as Bianca, just shorter. Her voice was more lifted than Bianca's was, like she was being more personable, but she had the same vocal fry and the same unique cadences.

I learned her name was Hailey. She ended up back at our table a few times and she sat next to me in a class that we had. We didn't stay friends for that long or even get that close, like there was a reach that never actually led to something. Sometimes it was just unsettling, seeing this doppelganger and never truly knowing her, plus not really being able to hang out with her because she didn't live in the area, but still being her best friend somehow. Hailey has a Facebook profile with three photos on it and really nothing about her life except being mutual friends with select people and having a few average posts.

It's entirely possible that she is Bianca, that Bianca had to go away for a while, and she came back with a new identity and was somehow put back into our district into the main high school. If it was bad enough for her to run away or change it all, there were so many other places she could have gone if not at least the other high school in our city. If that's the case to begin with, it makes me really worry about what she must have gone through or what she possibly could have done during such a bad time of her life, but I'm not going to be the crazy person who tries to ask Hailey for Hailey to turn out to be a completely innocuous average person. If Hailey is not Bianca, then what happened to Bianca? Why can't I find anything about her or her family? Is there some greater conspiracy such as witness protection that my friends and I don't know about and people just know not to talk about? Could this be proof of doppelgangers or glitches?

If anyone has ideas or knows how cases like this work, I would love to hear it. Again, would like any similar stories hopefully something with a happy ending. If this sounds really familiar and you know who I'm talking about by chance, message me with our school name or something to identify yourself and please let me know what you know.

I'm looking for something that isn't your basic haunted house, murder or crime, family horror, aliens etc, but also isn't completely out there to the point where nothing feels real or believable or the author goes extremely deep. Something completely ​ fresh, or uncommon without just adding a simple twist.

I really enjoyed It and Dead Eleven, liked a lot of scenes in Incidents Around the House and Birdbox, I didn't really care for For Human Use but it is also an example of what I'm seeking. The authors don't have to reach, they can just put an idea on me and go with it and I'll accept it for the time being.​

Thank you for any suggestions!

Serious question, not looking for "it can't be fixed" or "everything" kind of answers.

If you could change one thing about TPM or the prequels to drastically improve the quality or make it less controversial, what would it be? TPM sits at 6.5/10 and is widely disliked, the others are in a similar realm.

One thing I think affects the quality in TPM and in the prequels in general is scene construction.

The duration of a lot of the scenes is so choppy. So many scenes go by too quickly, then fade out like a TV movie. It's not suspenseful, instead it ruins the immersion. We have scenes that don't mean anything even when something happens, there's no time for anything to actually play out and it's just a sequence of "then, and then, and then" or "we're here, now we're here". Many of the scenes could've been longer, many elements or developments or plot points could've been weaved together instead of them creating separate irrelevant events that piled into the runtime and thus reduced space for the important scenes. The drama between Padme and Anakin was too calm, their clashing and Anakin's shows of temper could've happened during integral events. A great time would've been the Geonosis Arena, given that was one of the climaxes of the movie and the movie was about them. I actually really like that scene but it feels like climax just for the sake of it, and if we had character development for Anakin or tension between he and Padme, it would've been extremely strong. If Padme was involved before or during Anakin vs Count Dooku, it would've been a good climax in their development and would've served a direct view into just how evil and conflicted Anakin was, leading seamlessly up into ROTS. The intensity of the fight between Qui Gon and Obi Wan and Darth Maul should've been the default intensity for half the movie, not necessarily as thrilling but just active with something truly happening. I have more examples, just wondering what people think. Some scenes could've been cut overall to make room for others.

I know the prequels mainly revolved around just making money/selling toys and targeted children with a cartoonish tone and they also had less room to develop since gaps had to be bridged, but they would've been 7 or 8/10 at least (with TESB being a 10) and would be more widely respected/accepted by fans if things were more organized.

A lot of books have the horror unfolding on stage or in the background. I'm looking more for something where the bad things are implied or can be assumed by the audience, at least for the first half, because I am hoping for something on the long side (over 300 or 400 pages) and I don't expect a story to maintain implications and stay interesting for that long.

Can be about anything. Either the characters don't know about the hoodies and only the audience does, or the characters choose to ignore the horror, or the horror is completely natural to everyone in the story.

Can be any genre, real world or crime or contemporary or supernatural, as long as it's something original and doesn't heavily rely on tropes like ghosts moving objects around the house, noises around the house etc

A lot of books have the horror unfolding on stage or in the background. I'm looking more for something where the bad things are implied or can be assumed by the audience, at least for the first half, because I am hoping for something on the long side (over 300 or 400 pages) and I don't expect a story to maintain implications and stay interesting for that long.

Can be about anything. Either the characters don't know about the hoodies and only the audience does, or the characters choose to ignore the horror, or the horror is completely natural to everyone in the story.

Can be any genre, real world or crime or contemporary or supernatural, as long as it's something original and doesn't heavily rely on tropes like ghosts moving objects around the house, noises around the house etc

Please recommend something similar to Sharp Objects but more intense all the way through. I really liked everything near the end with her and the mother and there were various things I liked or were cathartic for me such as her going into her history of self-harm, but the slow burn didn't really pay off. I'm desensitized so to me something like that would need to be more intense or need to be what kicks the book off, and with Sharp Objects it felt like I kept picking to "earn" it. I really liked the things relating to women and society in the small town but for me personally it was too on the nose, and it was handed to me instead of beneath the surface as I prefer. There were good premises but they didn't reach full potential, maybe because of how desensitized I am, such as I was expecting things to go further with the officer (even if implied) or for things to hit the fan or be more personally conflicted with the love interest. I think these kinds of books generally deserve to be much longer.

I don't mean to put the book down in any way because it was great and I did enjoy it, I'm just difficult as a reader. Looking for something very similar in terms of plot or content or the same vibe, just more extreme, less slow burn or something that's similar to the climax, on topic the whole way thro1ugh and more graphic.

Please recommend something similar to Sharp Objects but more intense all the way through. I really liked everything near the end with her and the mother and there were various things I liked or were cathartic for me such as her going into her history of self-harm, but the slow burn didn't really pay off. I'm desensitized so to me something like that would need to be more intense or need to be what kicks the book off, and with Sharp Objects it felt like I kept picking to "earn" it. I really liked the things relating to women and society in the small town but for me personally it was too on the nose, and it was handed to me instead of beneath the surface as I prefer. There were good premises but they didn't reach full potential, maybe because of how desensitized I am, such as I was expecting things to go further with the officer (even if implied) or for things to hit the fan or be more personally conflicted with the love interest. I think these kinds of books generally deserve to be much longer.

I don't mean to put the book down in any way because it was great and I did enjoy it, I'm just difficult as a reader. Looking for something very similar in terms of plot or content or the same vibe, just more extreme, less slow burn or something that's similar to the climax, on topic the whole way thro1ugh and more graphic.