r/novelwriting

So for context, I am a writer and have been working on a novel for some time now. Writing the novel has made me happy and story wise I can't wait to share it with the world.

But just a few months ago, I offered to proofread and give advice on other novels in the making from potential authors. And most if not all were just AI slop.

It really made me want to come here and ask this burning question that's been plaguing me for quite some time; Is the time and energy to be an author even worth it nowadays if AI is just so convenient for people that they just write slop, pass it as a book and potentially garnish more attention, love and praise than real authors and writers?

Feel free to give me the hard truth. And to all my organic writers, stay frosty, my friends.

Is ai acceptable to use for proofreading and such, correcting mistakes and so on

How much should i write before i think about posting the novel on a website

Is it okay if a chapter is shorter but has a better hook or do those two have nothing to do with eachother. What i mean is, if a chapter is shorter but has more stuff packed into it, is it still a good chapter. I know the length doesnt equal quality but i dont want the shorter chapters to flop.

How often should i post at first. I was thinking of 2 chapters per week and after gaining traction and long term viewers i switch to once a week to have more time to write new chapters.

When i write like a summary of the story or like sum it up for someone to hook them to read it, should i sum up the whole story and leave out spoilers or give a short "clickbaity" summary

Not saying the MC was necessarily bad or anything. Sometimes it's just that the rival, the mentor, the crafter, some random side character you weren't even supposed to care about, they end up in a way more interesting situation than the person the story's actually about. If a finished series got one extra story, would you actually want to see what happens next for the original MC, or would you rather follow someone else in that same world instead? And what actually makes a side character interesting enough to carry their own story? Is it their situation, their personality, the fact that you don't already know everything about them?

Need suggestions on whether opening chapter should be in 2121, 1988, or at reading of will in 2018

Here is the timeline I have in mind

Millionaires wife has rare incurable disease in 1988

He wonders if at some future time (1) cure will be discovered and (2) technology will exist to transmit inanimate objects back in time to a specific place and time

He determines to make that happen

Within a month from that determination, he finds a prescription bottle with his wife’s name on it and directions for use. The cure is in his hands

He takes the following steps (as a minimum)

Gets his wife to take the medicine - she and he have a good life together

Establishes a well-funded company called Time Corp that promotes time travel technology and monitors future medical research developments

Writes his will so that the company will continue to function for as long as it takes knowing that all will work out if nobody messes things up

He dies and his will makes almost all of his heirs happy. His executor is appointed and accepts the challenge to move his agenda along

One very intelligent family member sees an opportunity to get a bigger share of the fortune left by the millionaire

Thanks largely to a savvy ex-military daughter-in-law, the family lawyers, some awesome PIs, and a couple of really capable grandsons, the plot fails and the grandfathers dream materializes

In 2121AD Time Corp puts the prescription bottle in a container, throws the switch, and MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

My wording is wonky in the title haha, but I want to get some feedback on structuring a book.

I’m currently in the process of writing a romance novel, and I thought of the opening scene being the proposal. It’s obviously a big deal for the woman, so she sort of mentally is recapping her relationship/journey (aka the middle chunk of the book).

I also thought of having the ending be the prologue then sort of jumping into the events that took place before the proposal.

Thoughts? Is this too cheesy/cliche? If you like the idea, would you advise me to put the ending (the proposal) in the prologue or beginning of ch1?

It is my first time posting here. Right now, I am trying to write a webnovel. Since I have consumed a lot of fiction up until now, I can say that the story is genuinely better than most other generic ones, but I don't know how it turns out on the page. When I look for advice, discussions, etc., about writing, there is one thing I repeatedly find. And that is trusting your readers. As a reader myself, I agree with that. But they never specifically mentioned, as a writer, how much I should trust my readers. Even when they answer, the answer is different from person to person.

Also, there is a thing called the reader's reading comprehension. I don't consider myself that smart or a nerd-type person. Still, when using the internet, I often find some fandoms where they are debating or hating a relatively simple matter, which I didn't even have to give a second thought to understand. Also, there are cases when the writers themselves cleared those matters later, and it matches every time. So, I am confused. Because depending on the readers, I may have to change how I write my story.

So my question to everyone is how much faith I should put in the reader's reading comprehension?

For a better answer, my story is a survivalistic grimdark fantasy.

I’m writing a novel about a man who wakes up… and realizes he’s already dead.
Alex Banks is 26 when he wakes up in a place called Oblivion

He doesn’t know where he is.

He doesn’t remember dying.

And eventually, he discovers that everyone around him is dead too.

But Oblivion isn't exactly what Alex expected an afterlife to be.

It’s a place for souls who still have something unfinished.

A mother searching endlessly for her child.

A boy who is terrified of the dark.

A man waiting for a lover who may never come back.

People who died carrying one final wish, one regret, or one person they couldn't let go of.

Then Alex discovers something strange.

There may be a way for a soul to return to the living world.

The catch?

They need an object that is deeply connected to their life.

For Alex, that object is his mother's lost wedding ring

So with the help of Max and Maddy — a mysterious girl who seems to know far more about Oblivion than she should — Alex begins searching for it.

But the deeper he goes, the stranger things become.

There are places in Oblivion that even the dead refuse to enter.

There are rules.

And there are consequences for breaking them.

Eventually, Alex starts hearing whispers about something called \*\*the Gates Below.\*\*

Hell.

And then he meets Daniel.

A man who looks at Alex with genuine fear.

Because Daniel knows something about the night Alex died.

Something Alex himself can't remember.

And suddenly the entire story changes.

Why does Alex's mother's ring matter so much?

What actually happened on the night he died?

Why is Maddy hiding the truth about herself?

And if Alex really does get a chance to return to the living world…

\*\*what if the life he's trying to return to isn't the life he remembers?\*\*

I'm calling the novel The Oblivion

It's basically a story about death, guilt, love, unfinished wishes, and the people we leave behind.

I'm curious about something:

\*\*Which mystery would make you want to keep reading?\*\*

1. What happened the night Alex died?
2. What is Maddy hiding?
3. Why does the wedding ring matter?
4. What are the Gates Below?
5. Something else?

And honestly — \*\*would you read this?\*\* 🖤

I’m currently working on this novel and was wondering if anyone would be willing to read the first chapter and give me their honest opinion/feedback.

Just comment below or hit me up in pm.

It’s about sibling bonding. That’s all I’m gonna give for now.

Thank you lovelies!
Hope you have a nice day/evening!

If you want, perhaps I shall read your first paragraph as well.

Imagine getting stuck in a timeloop, but every single fun, empowering trope about time travel is stripped away to make it a living hell. For Maya, Tuesday, October 12th starts as the absolute best day of her life: sunshine, burnt pancakes with best friends, and a carefree road trip to an autumn festival. But at 6:15 PM, a catastrophic semi-truck crash on Route 9 kills them all in an instant. Instead of death, Maya wakes up at 7:30 AM to the exact same alarm, the exact same burnt breakfast, and the exact same day. She is completely alone in retaining her memories, forced to watch her friends replay their innocent, scripted routines over and over again while she desperately tries to cheat death, while slowly descending into insanity.

My book focuses on psychological impact, highlighting the profound weight of the loops, the chilling awareness of dying every single time, and the agonizing experience of feeling all the pain. As the repetition stretches on without end, this relentless trauma slowly chips away at Maya's grip on reality, driving her closer and closer to losing her mind and committing to various harmful behaviours (which I can't describe on this subreddit).

I wrote this because I was so tired of the constant, repetitive plot where time loops are treated like neat little puzzles to be solved with a clever trick. I wanted to show it for what it actually would be: a grueling, deeply traumatic experience that breaks a person down, leading toward an unpredictable ending where things don't just magically snap back into place. Do you think this has potential as a genuinely good book?

Hello All,

I apologize if this has been asked or if it’s a bit too vague. But have any of you dealt with a sense of losing your voice as you improve your technical skill in writing? I don’t my voice is inherently bad and I’m just learning not to suck. I hope. And maybe these feelings are normal or unwarranted. But much of what I end up changing in edits are things I think might be unique to the way I write. This could be a product of me almost solely writing poetry for years and only turning heavily into stories in the past few years, but the feelings there and I wanted to see if others have also felt this.

Its been years now since i released my novel and ive realized a couple things. The title of my novel is a little legthy and it has a word in it i made up that people mispronounce often.

The title is

Oregonia and the Legend of the myce

And im thinking about changing to

The Legend of Oregonia

I had 2 sequels planed. Im currently working one now.

The title was going to be

Oregonia and the lunar fable

But im considering

The fable of Oregonia

Or

The lunar fable of Oregonia

What do you guys think? Is my title making it difficult for my book to be seen or may draw people away? What do you think?

Hey all!
I am writing a fantasy novel. I am really new to writing, using Reddit, and getting advice, so I’m not really sure where to start. I’ve asked questions on Facebook with little feedback. I was directed here. I have tons of questions!

How do you determine how long your book is? Word count?
How do you go about formatting it?
How do you find an editor for your book?
How to decide between traditional versus self publish?
Pros and cons to publishing traditional versus self?
Pros and cons to publishing digitally?

I probably have more but that’s all for now.