Hey everyone I had a question about making a story. You see I have read a series and was absolutely in love with the concept they did. However their universe and setting is so unique that I'm not sure if it would count as plagiarism or not and I would never want to do that. And soooo if I used the same kind of universe and setting would that be plagiarism?
Thank you for any help
I'm trying to write a story which has a portion that takes place in the 80's, It's a bit of a horror that has taken inspiration from Stephen Kinds works. A core cast of the characters at this time are kids that find themselves locked in the basement of an eccentric Toy-Designer and part-time serial Killer. They are supposed to be kidnapped for a span of 1-2 months (maybe longer if any of you thinks that doesn't make sense). They are all meant to survive this event for the other half of the story when they are adults, the only thing is I want them to have long term (survivable) injuries as a result of torture and such from the event. More specifically, I have a character that after this event is meant to be Wheelchair bound in the second portion.
Does anybody have any advice for any site I could use to possibly research these topics and be able to adequately represent the long term effects realistically? or has anyone researched a similar topic for a story and knows a realistic torture method that could lead someone to be wheelchair bound?
(I just want to be medically accurate, im not crazy I swear lol)
I am in the editing trenches with my rom-com and the more I edit chapter one, the more my first line is feeling like a mouthful. I’m not sure if it is like when you say a word so many times it starts to sound weird, or if there is actually something off with it that can be improved. It feels like maybe I can condense it but I’m just not sure how is best in order to keep the intent.
Here is the line:
“I have never been one for violence, but strangling the narcissistic megalomaniac sitting before me is sounding pretty good right about now.”
The context given after is that FMC’s best friend just confessed to dating FMC’s ex-fiancé for a year and that they got together relatively shortly after the engagement broke off.
Any advice or suggestion is appreciated!
I am still working on my story, I can't tell much about it but what I can say is that my story has a lot of action in it, the Heroes fight their enemies by violence as in any action story, now, the thing that worries me is if it is fine to make my characters kill their enemies.
With what I can briefly explain with my characters and the my world building goes like this;
My characters dont like killing Innocents or civilians, even thugs but if killing is required to save the day, they will out of duty to protect others, never out of pleasure in killing
Yet, there are some Magic enemies which are irremedeable since they are magically and naturally evil, No talking or mercy will stop them from killing innocents and the Main Characters, it is beyond their nature ( think of it like Majin Buu from Dragon Ball or Ganon from The Legend of Zelda) Would you say that it is fine for my characters to kill these enemies in order to protect innocents,themselves and save the world or not? Would you say it is fine that a character can both spare or just beat up casual enemies but are willing to kill the magical ones?
On the other hand, there are stories where Heroes are constantly killing their Enemies
Lord of the rings, Naruto, Demon Slayer, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures.
So what are your thoughts?
How would you do it?
I’m writing in third person limited and can decide on if it’s appropriate to call the MC’s parents by their names, or continue refer to them as “his mother/father.” In some books I’ve read the only do mother/father, but in others the narrator uses the parent’s names.
Is there a standard practice for this?
hi, guys! I am trying to create a flawed character that you can still root for and I want tobszill make them a good person! tell me what you think or if there is anything that needs changing
she is 14 yrs old
started swearing at 11 after her mom died
stooped swearing until 13
occasionally skipped gym due to anxiety
forgot to complete community service hours but eventually did them just late
always feels guilty over everything
struggles to focus
feels like an outcasts who doenst fit anywhere
always wondering if her friends are bad influences then feels guilty cause she thinks it makes her look narcissistic
gets angry easily
very polite
kind genourpus and some would say intelligent
anyway tell me your thoughts and anything I can add to make this a more compelling character
I'm writing a script for a project that is very based around the imagery of Rapunzel and plays a lot with the isolation metaphors of it + the themes of mother gothel etc.
The thing is, I'd like to make it sound more flowery or more fairy tale-esque but I'd prefer to not just dive into a thesaurus all the time, but to play with how do I write sentences etc.
Any tips or advice?
EDIT: I do not mean this as a Kid fairy tale, I mean it more in the Grimm gothic fairy tale type, I should've probably clarified that before as it is a project directed to adults that speaks of adults topics!
So I’ve been watching Brandon Sanderson lectures and he suggests writing a few books to practice and understand the writing process and learning what works for you.
I have had this fantasy (maybe sci-fi?) series I’ve wanted to write for ages. I’ve been trying to outline it for a couple weeks now. The idea is it’s a series done in an episodic format. Each episode is it’s own book (like a novella or short story, not a full novel) that has it’s own seperate plot for that episode while also pushing the overarching plot forward in one way or another or it explores the world and characters for fun because I wanted the time and space in the story to do that.
But here’s the problem. I don’t know if it would be better to:
Try using the first few books as the practice and then go back and rewrite them once I’ve developed the skills and learned my process
Or try writing something different instead and then come back and start writing my series once i have experience under my belt.
I know this may be just a matter of opinion but i would appreciate some outside input.
Hey
I’m trying to get into writing again and I built a very cool dystopian story concept.
At same point the protagonist and pov characters suffers from memory loss and changed memories. Not by any natural causes, but by her mind being tampered with.
My problem is how do i convincingly write this amnesia when it happens some win the middle of the story. It’s not just that the character not only has forgotten some things and people close to them but also that their memory was activity changed and altered.
If you as the reader already know what really happened how can I write this without it feeling redundant ?
First I thought of starting the plot basically in the middle and wake up with the pov character, their altered mind and slowly learn what really happened. The problem is, that this story beat is not supposed to be THE thing of this story - the most interesting and important stuff happens before and after it is just something that happens to them iykwim.
But now I’m more likely to start at the actual beginning but I fear that this could also feel repetitive.
Maybe some of you could help me or give me inspirations for story’s that tackled something similar.
I am writing a book, but while evaluating it, I experience brain fog where I feel that what I have written is bad, only to realise a few days later that, oh no, wait, it is actually good. However, I have a requirement that means I cannot really wait for a few days, and finding beta readers who are my ideal readers is a little difficult. I would love to know what my options are.
I’ve noticed that whenever I get really deep into a story, I eventually hit a point where I start questioning everything. The characters suddenly feel boring, the plot feels predictable, and sentences I liked a few days ago suddenly seem terrible...
I know every writer goes through periods of doubt but I’m curious how you guys deal with it. Do you push through and keep writing, take a break, completely rewrite things, or just accept that some days the writing is going to feel bad?
I’d especially love to hear from people who’ve been writing for a while. What actually helped you get past that stage without abandoning the story?
Hello everyone. As the title tells you, I am looking for advice on this topic. I want to make every chapter that I write to keep the audience engaged while also being just a really good chapter (for convenience on my end, I'm just going to refer to them as chapters).
I figure its because of these factors:
other than these factors that I have theorised, I have no other ideas, so please give me more tips! any help is appreciated, thanks!
So I happen to be new to writing and I’ve been working on a fantasy story, but I kinda ran into a problem on how I can create a fictional religion. I’ve already been taking inspiration from real life religions like Catholicism and orthodoxy since there the two religions that interest me the most and because I happen to be somewhat educated on thomist theology.(no I’m not a scholar I just like learning theology)
Im hoping to get advice on how I can do it and what it takes to make a religion in a fantasy feel somewhat real and what should I avoid while I create the religion?
Thanks in advance to anyone who gives me advice I very much appreciate it
I have a book that I've been working on. And I like couldn't figure out how to start it. So someone gave the advice of just start of wherever you have the idea start at the end and right backwards start in the middle. But now I have the meal and I basically have the ending but I have no beginning. And I don't know how to start the story. Like I don't know how to give you enough information that you know who these people are and you should care about them and what they are doing and why. It's just frustrating. How do you start a story?
English isn't my first language and I'm pretty bad at using metaphors/idioms and all that stuff when writing fics, aside from that, I'm pretty descriptive and write long fics but will the lack of that kind of language tick off readers?
I have a question about writing in general, but also publishing. I plan to self publish, but because I'm highly against the use of generative AN at all, I wanted to talk about this anyway.
So, I use instagram, youtube, pinterest etc to get inspiration. I curate my feed on them to provide that experience for me. However, in the last couple years, these platforms made the switch to use gen AN, and it's possible that it may be in their algorithms as well, although I am not sure (I would not have an issue with them using AN that isn't generative AN). Despite knowing this, I still use these apps for inspiration. I never use chat bots or anything like that, and I'm staunchly anti generative AN.
Would any publishing houses to your knowledge consider this "AN assisted" writing? I use these apps so much, and they have influenced my mind so much because I'm on them, that I'm worried anything I write now will count as "an assisted". In the past I've also glanced at the overview on google, though now I usually use Duckduckgo.
I'm also not interested in discussing the ethics of "but it's ok for work to be an assisted" if you think that good for you, but I do not agree and I'm not interested in discussing that. I don't consider it ethical personally. I'm also asking objectively what would require the *label* of AN assisted.
If you are going to write dialogue for a character with a heavy accent, would you just write normally and describe the accent after, or would you write it how they pronounce it? Does it matter what one you choose? I personally have no idea how you'd do it. Im new here and I hope this is the right place to ask this!
I'm frankly not much of a writer, I'm far more of an artist, but something's been bothering me for months at this point. How do you create truly unique tales? I feel like every concept I create is a chewed up and apart out mix of other media. Even when I create concepts, I can never tie a story to it. I love vampires but I feel like there's nothing I can do that's new with them. I want something new, that's special to me. I don't want something that's just fun to create I need something special. I just don't know how to create that. I sit and sit and sit in silence in the dark waiting for that lightbulb moment but all I get is more darkness.
How do I create a truly unique idea, or is it just not possible?
I've been working on a narrative since high school that revolves around people gaining abilities based on myths and gods. Think along the lines of Percy Jackson meets superheroes.
The problem here stems from a lot of research, modifications, research, modifications, etc. So one character started off as Lyza Thyme, a character who used the 'Scott Pilgrim' ability, which was fine when we were all fifteen and writing was a fun pass time between classes.
When I got more serious about the work, I decided to take a serious rework of this character. This led to her ability changing to Papa Legba, representing how the spirit was a fan of games and entertaining children, but was also capable of altering the world at large with powerful magics. This was also when I decided that her name would be Giovani because I liked the sound of it more than Lyza.
Then it came to writing her, and I was just like; This character should be Black! I don't have a member of the main cast that is Black yet, she's perfect!
Now the only main cast member that is Black is also the only one with an African ability.
Ok, one isn’t bad. Except it’s not one. The real issue here; Youko Kitagawa is clearly Japanese, user of the only Japanese ability in the main cast... which makes her good with numbers.
Specifically she has Omoikane which allows her to perceive percentage chances of events happening in the world around her. Which just so happens to require her to be good at math to use.
Please tell me I’m over thinking this?
hey guys i want to create a character that is a black trans fem vampire but i am a white queer person. im looking for some tips on creating a black oc as someone who wants to be respectful of a community im not a part of while creating characters.
i asked an acquaintance for advice but they told me that i shouldn’t be writing black characters because its too complicated for me (i did and do countless hours of research already and am thoroughly educated and still learning about black/indigenous/lgbtq+ history and how important it is) so im a bit discouraged but still want to ask for tips and suggestions
thank you!