r/writingadvice

Im writing a fantasy adventure webnovel.

I've heard the advice multiple times that you should have your mc make the decisions that drive your plot to make the story engaging.

My mc isn't exactly prone to do that, there are a couple of the big turning points where she does makes choices that'll drive the plot forward, but for the most part she kinda drifts along with side characters or things just so happens to happen around her.

Is that fine? Or should i try to force her into more decisions?

So I have this story I have in my head but my issue is while I see it vividly in my head Idk how to structure it like how do I string paragraphs together to form a coherent scene that the reader can follow? For context I have ADHD and it can be hard for me to write without a certain guide or structure I can follow like:

Paragrapg A Opening

Paragraph B. Character inner monologue

Paragraph C. Conversation

Paragraph D. ….. ok what do I put here

Paragraph E. Chapter world building

Paragraph F. …… more conversation I guess

Paragraph G. And etc

Edit: I guess what Im really asking for is a “table of contents esqe” like structural guide on writing cuz that would ease some load off my Adhd brain cuz we thrive on structure but struggle on making a routine.

Job suggestions for the main male character

Hello, I need some advice on the main character's profession. He's in a small town, where strange things are happening. He's an outsider both in the town and in his own family. I need some kind of family business where you employ people, but at the same time I go to other people. The food business didn't seem right to me. The story takes place in the present. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, sorry English is not my first language. And for some reason it is a sensitive content.

hi reddit, i (24M) have been willing to write a theatre play for a long long time now.
sometimes this idea pops up in my head but it feels like i am unable to imagine a story i would want to develop. keep in mind that id rather write comedy than drama.
if there are some brilliant minds here, please help me 🙏🏻
i will consider every suggestion or advice you could give me.

Hello everyone! I'm basically really stuck on a story I'm writing. I know what I want to happen in it but I have no clue what ending or plot twist I can give it, heres some of it's story:

This story is a futuristic apocalypse scenario where everyone has a chip in their head (which is the cause of the "infection") and an important detail is that when you get infected you see all infected as human and all human as infected.

As for the story the mc gets attacked in the first chapter and got bit. When she woke up she was somewhere else, basically the second main character comes in and says that she saves the mc. The mc finds out she was bitten and hides it from second mc, and she doesn't seem to be suffering of any effects. Details later and they decided to go to the safe zone which is across the continent. The story is just them walking to there.

My original plot idea was for them to arrive at the camp and second mc gets shot because she was on the last stage of the infected. As for the main mc she was able to be saved since the infection spread slowly. I don't really know about this "plot twist" so any advice would be greatly appreciated <3

When I was plotting my story backwards, I found that a lot of my scenes were repeating with the same conflict, the same goals. I did research and was recommended to change my setting, or add new information in each scene. The problem is my setting is very limited, with everything happening in one mansion. Additionally, whenever I try to spread the clues out for my plot twists, they either dont align with the plot so that the character organically discovers it. How could I fix my story so that my scenes are varied?

I have started writing for the first time in my life . I am genuinely interested in writing my novel . I have currently written approx 4k words . But I have been using help from gemini to improve the writing. I decide my plot and I write it the best I could but then I ask gemini to improve the english . It is okay to do so . I don't know if it's okay to do so please help me .

I want to write a story whose writing style is more like Lord of the Rings. So, for adults and with fewer plot holes and stuff like that. However, I am a total beginner and although I notice the difference between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, I cannot yet fully explain what it is beyond the obvious. Do you have any tips on how I can write a story like this? How can I better differentiate between the different writing styles? or rather, what makes the two books so different. I also apologize for my poor English; I'm using Google Translate, so some things might be different from what I meant.

I'm trying to write a fantasy story blurb, but I don't know what's engaging or what's redundant. Here's what I have as of yet:

In a world lit by a Ringed Blue-Moon and a Red Sun, Ancient ruins contain engraved stones that can be refined into magic. To wield it, a person must bind themselves to an Edict: an ancient stone contract that permanently fuses their soul with that of the ancient author who wrote it. The more they consume magic, the further the two souls merge in a process known as eclipse.

Edicts are stronger the more ancient symbols they possess, and when his parents vanish on a mapping expedition to the forgotten continent, sixteen-year-old Aním inherits an Edict with no markings, but he discovers the stone isn’t actually blank. It is covered in thousands of symbols too small for the naked eye to see. Aním now has the ability to search for answers in the harsh forgotten continent, but there's one problem: Mines are running dry, magic is close to disappearing, and the world Aním knows will perish because of it. 

What will Aním do with this power, and what will happen to his soul?

I love making detailed character bios for the important characters in my series, and one part I like to include is height and weigh. I am terrible with finding out what would be a realistic weight for a character of that height and build. is their any resources or general advice you can offer to help me find out this information. one important part of my writing is good representation so I dont want to describe a character one way and then give a weight that is far to low (I see this happening a lot in some of the media I read and I want to avoid it)

TY for any and all help :3

How does one go about making friends with people who are passionate about writing?
I just started learning and practicing how to write and I want to learn how to write really well. (So far watching bunch of online lessons and reading books.) I understand that people pay professional editors who help them transform their stories better, but what about when you're still just a beginner? I've got a long way to go before I'll be decent so the idea of sharing amateurish writing publicly doesn't sound tempting. (Especially since it invites bunch of people who are really bad at giving useful feedback, or are there just to mock you.)

I love humor so including that successfully is so important to me. I'd hate to make something absolutely cringey because I didn't get anyone else's perspective.

For context, this character has tried to kill themselves and is now in a coma. The story takes place in Limbo. The character, along the way, was planned to learn how to keep going when things are tough and eventually face the impossible with optimism - in this case escaping death.

The MC was planned to, in her final face off with death, be helped by her new friends who were inspired by her journey and new optimism she held... which inspires her not to give up even though death seems inevitable. She and death come to an agreement and she wakes up, returning to her life with a newfound world view.

A friend of mine, however, thought this ending was trash! He said that the main character living defeats the message of suicide being an irreversible decision/mistake and it's bad it took attempting to appreciate life. So now I'm unsure, how should I go about this ending?

I have been preparing to finally write my passion project book that’s been stuck in my head for years, but I’m not sure if the story should be one really long novel, or split between sequels and whatnot. So I thought I’d ask, at what point does the story become too long to be one book?

Hello everyone!! I'm having a bit of plot block. As in I really want to write but idk WHAT to write, or idk what plot twist to give. So I thought why not get everyone's thoughts about it? This can also be used as reference for people who's facing similar issues like me So here's what I'm asking!

What tropes do you wish to see more off or perhaps less of- I know the miserable feeling when its the same predictable trope which will make you loose interest, or when there's very little media about a really interesting trope! I always found tropes very interesting but when they're unique. For example I absolutely HATE the trope of glorifying sensitive stuff to make it a spicy romance, like even if its Bl or Wl its still weird. But I LOVE when it's friends to enemies(With slowburn, like I want them to slowly become enemies and stir up drama as the plot proceeds instead of at the first few chapters, like you get attached and feel the tension)

Another thing I have no ideas of are plot twists, like I see some of the most predictable plot twists that I can't even call it a twist, and it sucks because the ending or the story itself had so much potential! (I'm unfortunately in that category...)

Another thing I would love to hear your opinions about is what character types (like personality wise) would you like to see more?

Thank you so much for reading this and I hope all of you have a great day and or night! ^0^

I used to be very confident in my writing, but that confidence has decreased so much these last couple years, and I’m not sure why. I look at my writing and I think it’s bland. Could someone read my poem and share their honest opinions? Thank you!

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MIRAGE: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-kC7nwceu3M59H6xNYsPFGfWce1h-niVmyYZasNexVc/edit?usp=drivesdk

Hello friends, I absolutely love reading and grammar and I'd love to become a makeshift editor for anyone who wants one! I've had quite a few of my friends have me edit and reword their stories and books. I really enjoy helping a story be the best it can be. I'm mainly doing this because I need a new hobby. I'm very reliable and won't upright ditch you in the middle of a project. I'm willing to do this for 100% free, just private message me. But also make sure you leave a message under this post so I know who to expect messages from, I won't respond to an unsolicited chat request. I'm so so excited to help!

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I'm writing the Gods for my book, and... I want to be a big number of them. I want them to each have their own... "domain" (im not sure if it's the correct word. But like... God of war, God of wisdom etc. etc.

And I wanted to know if anyone can think of something I can't think of

I will give some... Actually I will write everything I've thought of so far. And... Yeah, here we go:

Time, space, life, death, balance

Land, sea, creation, destruction, chaos

Knowledge, destiny, justice, magic, technique

Vegetation, animals, family, spirit, order, choice

Luck, hope, dreams, suffering, struggle, progress,

War, peace, love, hate,

Humans, elfs, (insert other species)

Sun, moon,, weather, water, fire, (insert elements)

Law, order, sacrifice, secret, lies

Fertility, fun, beauty, harvest, zeal

Trickery, revenge, madness, craving, solitude

Traveling, trade, inventions, hunting, leading

Dungeons, pranks, adventures, partying

(insert arts) (insert 7 deadly sins/7 virtues).

Some of them, I thought of using but disregarded and... Yeah

Okay so i have been daydreaming many years about this fantasy/adventure/action story in my head about magical flowers that grown once every 200 years when they do grow there are certain people picked who are meant to be destined for the flower. This means that the people destined for the flower, they can use it's full magic and strength but also any ordinary person can use the flowers magic or strength. okay i'm waffeling too much about the story..

So in the story there are a group of friends who represent the flowers and they need to collect all the flowers before the main villain and the villain's followers do. These are the characters who represent the flowers: Brownie (also the MC),Freddie, Jee(freddie's brother),Bella, Sam,Stella,Elvira.

then there is also more characters on the side, who help these heros, they are; Leo,Raya,Ayame,Iko,Max,Marson,Poonya,Esmiray.

I got really attached to these characters and loved working on their personality and adding depth to their character however i realised i had too many characters and now i think i might have to delete some, perhaps 1-3. But i also did delete 3 characters before so... i really do not want to delete any characters since i already gave them some depth and feel attached to them 😞 what shall i do? is there anything else i can do? i was thinking perhaps i should make the story a bit longer or something idk-