r/writers

I m trying to write a story for which I m struggling to find a final sort of thing like iron throne in game of thrones and one piece in one piece....like I want a main goal which to be achieved at the end

So my main question is WHAT IS THAT ONE DESIRES THE MOST

ahh actually oda answered it pretty honestly wealth fame power

But I just can't copy that so I m stuck with

So can u all help me with this

For me it's the "strong female character" who's basically just rude to everyone. Curious what character archetypes everyone else is tired of reading.

New writers tend to become defensive toward negative critiques. This is only natural and the more veteran writers completely understand why. You worked hard on your composition, it's important to you, you've opened yourself up, and it feels like people are dumping on it. Let me be clear, that is not what's happening.

Effective writing is skill, not a talent. You have to train and develop it. Speaking for most of us here, we want your writing to be better, and the only way to do that is through critique. Critiques only exist to make your writing better. One of the best (and harshest) things I was ever told was, "If you want your writing praised, give it to your mom. She'll love it and pin it to the fridge. If you want to get better, learn to listen."

Because of that, I now hate positive critiques. They do me no good because they don't tell me how to improve the piece. Negative critiques are some of the most valuable things on the face of the planet to a writer. It shows you where your missteps are and how you can improve your craft.

Good critiques will have these qualities:

• It's honest and objective
• It's mechanical (if those are the issues)
• It's constructive
• It's qualitative
• It will justify itself and give reasons

All of those make you better. It's not meant to offend or dump on you. If someone says, "Your metaphors are too abstract," that doesn't mean your metaphors have no meaning, that means you need to write them better so the audience can understand them as well as you do. One of the most valuable critiques you will ever get is, "This is not very good and here's why."

Does this mean you should accept all critiques? Hell no. There are bad critiques and they're easy to spot if you know what to look for. The first thing is that it's the opposite of everything above, but there are other telltale elements, and they usual revolve around taste.

• Criticism of the topic as "distasteful" or "offensive" in some way.
• Character portrayals
• "I don't like this."

No, this is your writing. To quote Ted Lasso, "You do whatever you like." You write about what you want in the manner you think is proper. Critiques are not about taste, they are about effectiveness. I call these "sour cream" critiques. Imagine if Wolfgang Puck personally served a dinner for them to rate, and their criticism was, "The dish had sour cream, and I don't like sour cream. One star." That's not a critique. That's a matter of taste. If the dish calls for sour cream, I'm going to use sour cream. If the story needs a character to be described as a "bitch" in the narration, guess which word I'm gonna use. Now, if you tell me that describing her as a "bitch" is inconsistent with the story or the writing style, that's a wholly different conversation, and I can work with that.

The main thing I want to get across is that proper critique is done with your benefit in mind. It's never fun to be told that something you put a lot of effort into isn't where it should be, but don't disregard it. Rewrite it with those critiques in mind. Use those critiques to your advantage and your writing will improve.

(Just to be sure.)

Hi.

This is the first post in this community, I've been writing for a long time, but I've been pretty inactive for a few months now. I do something, start new projects, but everything revolves around the same thing, creating my dark medieval fantasy world.

The problem is that I set the bar too high, I try to make it perfect, and I put too many limits on myself. For example, I want a story that changes lives and is enriching, a world with a detailed encyclopedia, and all of this without feeling plagiarized, which I think is the feeling I always have.

Upon finding this community, I have decided to ask for help from people like me, who have surely gone through the same thing as I have, and the question is, how do I create an ambitious and beautiful world without cutting myself off with restrictions or plagiarism paranoias?

This question has been on my mind every time I begin with a new idea. So, for example if I want to write a story/screenplay inspired by the story of Andreas Mihavecz, the 18 y/o Austrian boy who was forgotten in a basement cell by the police for 18 days, and holds the Guinness World Record for the highest no. of days spent without food or water.

If I begin writing a similar story today, I would not do justice to how horrific his experience might’ve been. In fact I feel like even if I myself do dry fasting (remaining without food or water) for some days, even THAT won’t really be a representation of Andreas’ reality, because I am doing this with my own consent, he however DID NOT consent to his ordeal.

I guess it is somewhat like method acting, but for writing…But how do i actuallly do it? Do I use my imagination? Do I see interviews of people like him, about their experience? But that does not satisfy my cut-off for authenticity. Should it?

Please guide me y’all

Like what do u use for writing. Google Docs or what. I’m looking for new places to write I use Google Docs. But I didn’t know what others thought are better options. Or just different. Preferably free I am not exactly well off. Don’t get me wrong I’ve written a lot of stuff on a google doc. But I wanna try new things.