Hello there. On my story, its a scifi/horror story, and i wanna make the villain a political figure that comes from an alien planet, and is there to dominate, while trying to be a strong political figure that people trust in, and one of their objectives is after the main character survives a fatal tragedy, the villain has to hunt them down so there are no witnesses. Is there a way to make this OP alien political figure without making him too malicious, or cliche? Or at least have another motive.

TLDR: how to explain/excuse how an intelligential character is able to resist madness while everyone around him goes coco for Cuthulu-puffs?

The footnotes of the premise is: A PI joins a research team to follow the trail of his missing wife, only to encounter an ancient underground city with an evil cult and the remains of the first research group. Surviving monsters, cultists, and the crazed research teams, he tries to follow the breadcrumbs left by his wife.

My problem is how to explain why my character, unlike everyone else, he stays sane. No “walls without form” stuff, instead he describes the objects he encounters as best he can: “walls that faze out of realty, like rocks under the waves.”

While he’ll have symptoms of migraines, eye strain, vertigo and etc, I want to maintain the character’s sanity so the story doesn’t end up as incomprehensible gibberish. The only examples i find of insanity resistant characters are of… challenged intellect, but says nothing of a [like my MC] competent intellectual character who witnesses eldritch things without a breaking their psyche.

So, how do I write this character who (while not a smarty pants) is intelligential enough to follow clues and explain the stuff he experiences, without going loco unlike… everyone?

PS: his wife seems to be losing her mind too as the last sane member of her group, but still writes {almost} coherently and research her findings for whomever follows behind her.

I don’t want to post the problem im having. I have this daunting feeling my husband will see it and know it’s me. And I need to get my head straight before I talk to him. But I’m lost and was wondering if anyone would be willing to let me privately DM them to ask them.
It is book writing related and I need outside perspective.
Thank you all so much

I'm writing a story where the main conflict is a war, and as a result of that, one of the most major queer side characters (ie one of the queer characters that gets the most page-time) dies after completing his arc. I had always planned for him to die, since before I decided he would be in a relationship with someone. His partner survives, and the loss is the catalyst for their own arc.

Right now I have a pretty balanced straight:queer relationship ratio but most of the queer relationships (apart from this one) are not given much page-time and involve minor characters. However the same might be true for all romantic relationships in my story.

So, yeah. How do I avoid the 'bury your gays' trope when killing off my queer character??

So I’m stuck in character development for so long now. The reason is because I’m having too much information that I thought would be useful for my character and world building. Now my mind is filled with so many questions on how those informations I’ve gathered from my research is gonna work on my characters and it’s confusing me on how I’m gonna make them work. It’s like all the information is getting into my head at once and now my mind is a mess. I’m now having trouble of working even one character like I’m actually lost now. I don’t know if this is how it supposed to be or am I doing too much for a character development stage.

You've all seen this kind of scene in genre movies: a guy does something sinister and secret, usually alone at night, but at first, his action appears very strange - and the audience doesn't understand why, just thinks it's something sinister. They will later on learn the true meaning of his action.

How would one write that scene into the 1st chapter of a novel. The guys is alone, so if we use his POV then how to hide enough of his thoughts not to reveal the true intention. Or is an omnipresent POV better? Is there any other existing genre books that open with that kind of scene.

Many thanks.

So I know "write what you know" doesn't mean that you have to solely focus on your own personal experiences: I've written plenty of stories about people who have experienced things that I haven't, or are in communities I'm not a part of.

The idea I had is about an 18-year-old girl learning that her parents lied to her about the fact that she was donor conceived when a man conceived through the same donor contacts her on an ancestry/DNA site. The story would then follow the drama of their two families connecting, the girl dealing with her parents lying to her, while the guy reckons with the fact that he irrevocably changed her relationship with her parents.

I don't know what it is about this exact scenario that has me worried about how it might come across to people who have more experience with donor conception/IVF. I guess there are other ways for the girl to not be her father's bio kid that don't involve the IVF process, but I just feel like stories about cheating or swingers or whatever have all been told before; plus I really like the idea of the father character coping with internalized toxic masculinity and how his insecurities could have had major medical or social consequences for his daughter -- which happens in real life to a lot of families who aren't up front about the fact that they used a donor.

Obviously I would do as much research and due diligence as I can if I choose to take up this project, but I'm wondering if it would be better in the hands of someone who's life is more closely connected to this. Any thoughts/resources folks would be willing to share are much appreciated :)

My current WIP takes place in the 19th century featuring an uber repressed central protagonist. Long story short, he's bisexual, doesn't have a huge amount of romantic/sexual experience (but what he does have ended poorly and he's learned to associate those things/feelings with shame,) and just generally refuses to admit that he's a human being with a working libido.

The trouble is I want to establish these conflicting desires of wanting sex but feeling like it's wrong without him coming off as a total perv or creepy. He certainly doesn't feel like he's owed sex by anyone and would absolutely take no for an answer, but I don't want to muddy the waters too badly and accidentally turn him into someone the audience isn't going to want to root for.

Hi! I’m writing a story where five characters have the goal of finding someone (one of these characters' grandfather) for the reason that this character believes he will give them a better life. I’m finding it hard to get from a to b, each character has a past that they are running from, trying to make amends for, get revenge, etc. I don't know how to plan the events leading up to them finding this character with their pasts in mind. Any ideas on how to develop that?

My protagonist doesn't have eyes. This wasn't a birth defect, he was born with eyes and lost them later in life. How would you suggest writing descriptions from his perspective without being too wordy in describing other senses that he still does have?

Writing in third person limited pov. Author has two fully functional eyes, but is colourblind.

I finished this first book/arc a while ago but it’s gotta a lot of rough spots and I don’t have a lot of people irl willing to read that sort of stuff so I turn to the lovely world of Reddit

I appreciate any advice and criticism regarding the book whether it’s with the story itself, any spelling or grammar mistakes, or any weird spots in the story that need some patching up

Thank you and enjoy: The Inside Outsider, Welcome to Japan

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rapa9GgFehh0EE_eQVHrATBc_GGgaltJ1bg8F2FE2JI/edit?usp=drivesdk

The criticism I got was fair, I’m trying to find a way to implement them. With that said, of all the sins I committed in writing, the worst one I committed with that piece was submitting the first draft, no editing done whatsoever. I know how to avoid those same mistakes, but how do I remove the shackles that I had placed upon myself? Whenever I start writing, my inner-critic keeps saying “that’s too cliche,” “that’s absolutely just a ripoff of X book/movie/show,” “terrible concept,” etc. How do I overcome this and continue writing?

I’ve seen a lot of people, especially in fandom spaces, that for some reason refuse to read stories in first person. I’ve never understood why and as a writer it kinda sucks for me because first and even second person writing come naturally to me unlike third person, which Ive always struggled with.

First person comes so naturally to me that I constantly slip back into it by accident even when I’m trying to write in third. I’m currently trying to write a story in third person because of this (and also because it’s a good exercise to improve my writing) but it genuinely takes me like 4 times longer to write in third person.

Because of the difficulty I’ve been facing I was motivated to ask you guys, why? Why do so many of you prefer 3rd person so much, sometimes to the point where you refuse to read first person entirely?

Not just book authors, but any kind of story really. I feel like a lot of authors shy away from having any kind of real, lasting consequence—especially for a main character or anyone important to the story.

The characters can go through the biggest war in history, and every single important character comes out all but unscathed. Maybe if they’re feeling extra special they’ll kill off a semi-recurring side character or something. It just feels very unsatisfying to me when reading. I understand why you wouldn’t want to make everyone lose, but at least give me SOMETHING.

And even worse is when a character DOES have consequences… for about 5 seconds and then they’re saved by some miracle. “And he lost his arm in the battle”…”but then it was able to be reattached or regrown or something so it’s like it never happened.” And the worst part is it’s usually a sacrifice the character is making because it’s the only way to win. And then that sacrifice ends up being meaningless because nothing was actually lost.

I’m not sure what this subs rules about mentioning specific books and such are so I won’t give any specific examples but I think we all know at least one example of this.

so one of the characters I'm writing about occasionally engages in street prostitution as a form of self-harm (which might just sound like edgelord shit, but IS actually based on stuff I used to actually do IRL). there is one scene in the middle of the story, where after being broken up with, they go on a whole self-destructive bender and end up with a client who assaults them. then, the way I was planning for the story to go, they just go home, throw their clothes in the trash and don't tell anyone about it until the third act, in which they eventually briefly explain what happened to their partner to showcase character growth.

thing is, I've seen people in writing communities argue that SA should never be presented as a sidenote, and that conflicts with the fact that the main "point" of the story is very much about the characters learning how to stop traumatizing themselves rather than healing from their external traumas. plus, that also involves the character dismissing their own trauma from that incident under the thought that they "brought it on themselves", and that's something that never really gets 100% resolved and I'm not sure if it should be? almost all of the experiences I'm writing about ARE based on some version of things that have personally happened to me, and the reason I'm writing about them IS in order to try and process my own feelings on the matter, but considering it's not exactly "necessary" to the plot, I honestly don't know if I should put this part of the story out where people can read it. do you think there are ways to present that kind of thing that are less likely to be misinterpreted by a reader?

what are your thoughts?

Recently, I've been trying to think of how to make writing approachable again. I'm a screenwriter, but have only finished one script and never published it. It really felt like a fluke. Like I just stumbled into something poetic. After that script, everything I wrote came across as preachy or incoherent.

But more importantly, the act of writing itself became overwhelming. All the things I didn’t understand and needed to improve on crushed my motivation.

So I'm doing the only thing I know how to do when faced with a daunting issue.

I'm breaking it down.

My current mindset is to try and write something new, but rather than trying to make something that's overall great, I just want to focus on one thing. Like an artist using a piece to work on their use of shadows or color or composition, I want to just write something that hones in on one particular element of writing.

Of course I'll try to make the rest of it serviceable, but my priority will be on that one thing.

The problem comes to elements I can hone in on. I do well with lists when it comes to understanding what to tackle on a problem. A lot easier to put together a puzzle when all the pieces are spread out. But I could really use some assistance compiling this list.

Some examples of these kinds of elements that immediately come to mind are things like causality within the story, making clear character motivations, finding the line between how much to tell an audience and how much to let them infer what's happening.

If you have similar concepts that could be worth investing time into improving, I'd really appreciate it. 

Thank you!

Hii I already posted this before but I wanted to come back and restate or refresh on a few things. I have this mystery that puzzles a lot of my other characters, and I was hoping to see what other people assumed first to get a better thought process.

There is a family of four, mother, father, and two sons. They live secluded away from the city and when the two boys are about 11 and 13, their mother goes missing. After trying to find her, she is pronounced dead by the family. This sends the family into grief, but the oldest noticeably starts to really decline physically. Half a year goes by, and there was robbery at the house. The father is found shot in his bed, his gun missing, and the house ransacked. The youngest boy also has a gunshot wound on his leg, and the oldest has bruise marks and scratches. They are found in their bedroom, boarded up and hiding. The youngest testified that a man had came through the window and shot at the both of them. The oldest agreed. They used a phone to call their uncle, and when he arrived the robber was no where to be found. The window in the fathers bedroom was open, and his gun missing, but it was never assessed to see if anything else was taken.

Years later, when the two kids are in their mid 20s, a family member while tending to their old house finds a gun in the backyard buried. Sitting just a few feet away behide a tree, It is recalled to be similar to the fathers gun. The gun was full with the exception of 2 bullets.

Any other information you can ask for !!!! But these are the main points 😁

In my story, I think I've made it clear that one character is a killer. I don't know if I intended on this, but it's there now and the other characters don't know it until the end of the story. Does this make the story less interesting? Do you think readers will lose the motivation to keep reading?

Hi, I am new to this so bare with me.

Writing is a new hobby I picked up and I am loving it thus far.

I have multiple problems I want to work on, but lets stick to one for now.

As the title says, I love building suspense. The slow build up, the foreshadowing. But often when I write, I find myself being dissapointed with the pay-off that comes after that. Maybe I just lack the ideas, but when I read it back, I often feel like my characters completely overreacted to the situation. It sometimes feel like the character is bursting into tears because they saw a particular beautiful flower on the sidewalk.

It doesn't feel natural. It lacks the warmth of real live. It sucks, because I feel like I want to write an epic, when all the character does is shopping for clothes. Have you experienced this and how did you overcome this need to 'over fluff' your work?

TLDR: How do you deal with the need to over escalate your scene and the story still being interesting?

I'm getting way ahead of myself here as I've only begun revising the first completed draft of my manuscript, but a few weeks ago I saw a post about AI and proving that you wrote your own work and didn't generate it with AI. The poster was talking about recording their writing and documenting everything. Before seeing that post it had never occurred to me that this is a thing. I had been saving my draft in MS Word and emailing myself the draft every time I saved it (out of paranoia that my computer would crash or I'd lose my hard drive etc..., not for "proving" anything). After I saw that post I turned on track changes which hopefully would be sufficient "digital proof" (idk I'm really not a technology person) of me writing.

So what I have at this point is many saved Word documents of the various iterations of my draft as I continued to write it, and as of some weeks ago that is all with track changes. But the earliest saved word doc I emailed myself I already had written out the first few chapters and then had notes below. I suppose it's possible an editor could accuse me of having used AI for those first chapters? I mean I suppose there's just no end to this and no ultimate proof of anything (I could be a bot for all you know), but now I'm just paranoid I didn't start documenting/proving my writing from the very beginning? I know I'm jumping the gun with this but it's been lingering in the back of my mind.

How do I evaluate/Analyze characters?

How do I evaluate/Analyze characters? I want to be able to better my descriptive writing. I'm not sure what I should start with when it comes to analyzing the characters theme, mindset, figurative language, etc. How do I break it down? I really like media that are able to critically section events/characters and wanted too do this myself.

Back to creative writing after a long break focusing on analytical writing. This is a short piece from the perspective of a lesbian speaker, written in character. The intention was to write something deeply self indulgent and angsty, I guess some sort of exploration of this idea of existence as an aesthetic. I’d love to hear any advice on this.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTc1S_7LgcILhnDIud6whZQAxEhcysHu4qk3NDzFAEO4yau4r4RjTPt-5vWB_I07VQQlPaNBQeNgO4C/pub

Thank You :)