Hi there! I'm an 18-year-old writer, and I'm looking for beta readers to give me feedback on my manuscript, "Better Than You Found Me." If you'd be interested, please fill out this form! Let me know if you have any questions. I also included a blurb below :)

Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Cassie Blakely never expected her sister, Stella, to die in a car accident. She would’ve given anything to see her again. Until it actually happened.

Shortly after Stella’s death, she begins to appear to Cassie, haunting her. While grieving, Cassie becomes increasingly close with Caleb, a boy who offers to help her figure out why she is seeing her dead sister. But the deeper Cassie digs into her family's secrets, the more difficult it is to decipher what is real or not. And once she gets involved with a group whose history is far darker than she ever imagined, she begins to wonder if seeing her dead sister was a blessing... or a generational curse.

I am trying to write a novel or something and my character is 13 at the start of the book and end of the book with flashbacks to 8 and 11 years.

The plots I’ve used: identity crisis, death of friend at 8, being possessed and cursed by the spirit of misfortune. Being orphaned. Being made to pretend to be her deceased friend who was a daughter of a prestige family (her cousin) being bullied at school, having her deceased friend haunt her, her mother as her age was found committing strange rituals involving dead pets, the protagonist girl dreams to escape to the world of dreams which is real dimension. By the end she being possessed by the spirit of misfortune and her consciousness reaches the fake dimension. Sort of a bad ending. She’s being saved in a sequel.

Should I write an age gap book where a late teen girl falls in love with her friends' widowed father or where a girl falls for a gay pop star? Going for the summer i turned pretty and love hypothesis vibes.

My beta reader pointed out something I hadn't noticed: “I love Maya, but sometimes she sounds like she's telling a story years after it happened.”

Maya was supposed to be sixteen, but her thoughts sounded like they belonged to someone much older. I was writing her feelings the way an adult would explain them, instead of showing how a teenager might actually experience them.

For example, she'd think, “I knew the situation was unfair, but I could also understand my mother's point of view.” It made sense, but it felt too mature. A real teenager might just think, “This is so unfair!” and storm off before even trying to understand the other side.

So I started changing the way I wrote her reactions. Instead of having Maya explain every emotion, I let her get angry, make assumptions, misread people, and hold onto things that probably weren't worth it. I also focused more on the little things she cared about, like someone ignoring her in the hallway or her best friend suddenly acting differently.

Then I asked my seventeen-year-old cousin to read a few pages and mark anything that didn't sound natural. She pointed out four lines, and every single one was a sentence where I'd accidentally slipped back into an adult's way of thinking.

That experience taught me something important: writing a believable teenager isn't about adding slang or making every sentence dramatic. It's about remembering that they haven't figured everything out yet.

Heyy so I am a teen writer for the context who's planning to publish her book once I turn 18. After an year btw.

I need help for the prologue.

The book is basically a dark mafia arrange marriage romance and I know it might sound wattpaddy but I swear it's not guys. It has a proper storyline, reasons, character arcs, developments etc.

Anyways so I js completed the prologue and it is around 2k words. I know it may sound like too many words.

But the thing is the prologue will have the insights about my fmc's life as an established actress, and then it'll shift into her relationship with her family, and then comes the arrange marriage part. How the arrange marriage conversation happened and why is she even agreeing to it.

My alpha readers haven't read it yet and I genuinely need help cuz I know as a reader myself that long prologues can bring down the excitement of the readers.

I assure you there is no info dumping though.

This might easily pass off as chapter one of the book but I am not sure if I want that cuz I wanted the chp 1 of the book to be a few days after the marriage conversation.

I do have an another idea of the prologue which will turn out short and it'll be abt the trauma and past etc.

I am quite confused rn.

Also if anyone's interested in becoming an alpha reader ( genuine people looking forward to help me out only. ), would love to connect with yall.

I’m working on a YA fantasy novel called The Twilight & the Wield, and I’d love some feedback from other teen writers on the actual plot rather than just the blurb.

The story follows Nyvara Vale, a girl who secretly possesses Twilight magic—an outlawed type of magic that lets people manipulate light and darkness, creating llusions. in the process.

She’s spent her life hiding what she is because Twilight wielders are persecuted and executed.

Then her best friend Ava becomes seriously ill, and Nyvara discovers that the only way she can afford the treatment is by winning the Twilight Trials, a dangerous competition with a prize of 10,000 silver.

So she enters.

The Trials are basically designed to force contestants into increasingly difficult situations where fighting ability isn't enough. Nyvara has to rely on strategy, deception, and the one thing she absolutely cannot let anyone discover: her magic.

At the same time, she meets Kai Morvane, who claims to be a Fire Wielder. Something about him doesn't add up, though. He watches people more than he talks to them, seems far too good at reading situations, and Nyvara gradually realizes he's hiding something too.

The main plot is basically Nyvara trying to survive the Trials, keep her identity secret, and get the money she needs to save Ava, while the deeper secrets surrounding Twilight magic and the people running the Trials start coming to the surface.

There’s also a slow-burn relationship between Nyvara and Kai, but I want the main story to remain focused on the Trials, magic, friendships, secrets, and Nyvara's choices, rather than turning into a romance with a fantasy plot attached.

I'm still developing the story, so I'm especially interested in hearing what sounds interesting, what sounds predictable, and what you'd want to see happen in a story like this. 🖤

Also, if you're a teen writer working on fantasy too, tell me about your project! I love seeing what other people are writing. 📚✨

Hi, guys! So I recently started high school like a few months ago and I’ve always dreamed about being a famous author. Because of this dream, which I believe was far-fetched, and began working on skills. As any normal writer, I was pretty mediocre (probably still am to be honest), I could barely keep up with a long term form of writing. I lacked in sensory details and realistic dialogue, and my character sounded like they were in freaking Disney movie. So, I gave up. Gave up for three whole months, gave up on my dreams entirely. I didn’t tell my parents about this because I know they would tell me to get back and try harder. They would be right as usual, but it was harder this time. I like to think of myself as a pretty cheerful and easygoing person, however after comparing myself to people with decades of practice, I realized that I was getting depressed. And then one day while reading my favorite book for the millionth time, I soon understood how stupid I was being. To think, I was comparing myself to professionals! I gave myself a nice slap on the face and reread through my writing, cringing every step of the way. Need I mention that I had been reading a lot during my break, and was taking honors english so I did get some better skills. With newfound determination, I started over. From my prologue to may ridiculously short chapters with barely any substance. I kept the storyline just about the same but the dialogue, the humor the romance, Everyhthing was change. Personally, I think I can relate to the man character very well despite being the opposite gender. During the summer, with only two months, I managed to do it. I rewrote an entire book, that had about 30k words in 59 chapters, to a book with the same amount of chapters but with 90k words. My biggest achievement if I say so myself. Look, my book may not be perfect—there might be too many funky sounded sentences to count but I’m gonna keep working and get better at it. And anyone out there whose struggling to write, because of comparison. Please don’t do that. I beg of you. Be yourself, don’t force yourself to write five thousand words in one day. Just take it one step at a time, and before you know it. You’ll have finished a book. So, the moral of this story is, don’t give up! And you guys, tell me what you think of my story and if you guys have ever been in a tight spot like that before. Tell me if you guys wanna see my prologue revised over twenty times! :

Disclaimer: This is not a romance, nor is it a dark romance. These two characters are not a couple, and I'm not planning on making them a couple.

This is supposed to be a realistic showing, even though it takes place in a fantasy genre, showing a one-sided, obsessed, codependent friendship between a guy and a woman. Also, this is not torture p*rn with a female character.

This is supposed to be a dark fantasy villain backstory playing out in real time during the story.

Plot in a nutshell:

I'm got a half faerie man in his early 20s who starts out as the most silent, reserved, soft-spoken, very insecure, and socially awkward toward most people. He is madly obsessed in "love" (this love is one-sided, of course) with his only childhood friend, but the question I'm asking is how to show this obsession and their so-called close "friendship" in a way that does not romanticize the obsessed "love."

Your answer can be simple and short or detailed and long.

It is your choice.

I am about 60,000 words into my current project and my protagonist Violet is giving me a headache in the best possible way.

She is seventeen, smart, perceptive about everyone around her except herself, and she makes some decisions in the second act that are genuinely questionable. Not villain level, just the kind of short sighted choices that feel completely authentic to someone her age who is operating from a place of fear and unresolved grief.

The problem I keep running into is the balance between keeping her sympathetic and keeping her honest. Every time I try to soften one of her worse moments to make her more likable it starts to feel false. But when I write her fully as she actually is I worry readers will check out before she gets to her arc.

I have been reading a lot of YA lately specifically to study how other authors handle morally complicated teenage protagonists and I am noticing a pattern where the character is usually given one big obvious redeeming quality that the narrative keeps returning to as a reminder to the reader to keep caring. But I do not want to rely on that as a crutch.

Has anyone found a way to write a protagonist who does legitimately frustrating things without losing the reader entirely? Is it about motivation, consequences, voice, something else entirely?

Would love to hear how other people have navigated this because I feel like I am going in circles with her right now.

hi, 15m here, i m currently studying in grade 10 in india.

i need some serious help regarding writing a romance for an upcoming young author event conducted by our school this month. i m seriously out of time and haven't started to write smth yet cuz i've been busy practicing for my athletics, volleyball and basketball matches. needless to say but i m so cooked rn, i will have to write a whole novel or maybe a novella to even qualify for a higher event before the end of this month.

i m not gonna lie but i m writing a romance for the first time and i m not sure of the starting. i want some help from anyone who's interested to help me in DM or maybe on insta (id - preyas.cy) or perhaps if you know someone who can be a help for me...

I am thinking about writing books about some stuff that I’ve been working on for a while but I have no idea if anyone would be interested in reading about fantasy beings (elves, vampires but weird, shifters, fairies, hybrids and more) living on an alien world with aliens that I’ve created or if that’s just too weird.

I'm looking for a beta reader for my Upper YA suspense/thriller with adult crossover appeal.

Complete at 79K words, it features dual sister POVs, toxic generational secrets, addiction/recovery representation, and a race against time in an eerie coastal setting.

Vibes: Megan Lally's That's Not My Name meets The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

Logline:
After a devastating flood leaves her older sister missing and presumed dead, seventeen-year-old Laurel Douglas uncovers family secrets suggesting Dani is still alive and races to find her before Dani’s failing pacemaker gives out. Meanwhile, an injured and amnesic Dani must uncover why she’s wanted for murder—and why the woman sheltering her is lying about who she is. 

Thank you!

Does anyone want to read my story? I got some people to review some and they said it's good but they've been kindof too busy to read the rest. So if anyone is interested please let me know.

1. I am aiming for it to be a YA dark epic fantasy with gothic horror. My word count is right now at 90,000 and I am in need of some cutting advice and suggestions so please give me ideas. It is also incomplete at 23 chapters so the number will obviously change. It is multi POV, and is split into three acts. The first act is very slow as I want it to focus more on getting to know the characters and who they are and the pace picks up in Act 2. It is also 3rd person.

Act 1 is 6 chapters

Act 2 is 9 chapter

And Act 3(incompelte) should be 12 chapters.

1. It begins with two girls: Violet and Delilah that live in the same town but never actually encountered eachother. They are both seventeen and they are both suffering from a tremendous loss of a parent. Information is typically revealed in each chapter rather than one gaint paragraph of explanation so I don't know how much I could say without giving too much away. Each chapter consists of a fable that is meant to reflect the narrative but not interact with the story almost like a Greek chorus in a play.

2. I'd say the only warning is bodily horror, if you can't deal with blood or bones cracking than you will not like my story. It is also very psychologically driven so it won't really focus on the stakes again, until Act 2 and 3.

Also the chapters are by day so it would be longer than a typical chapter but split up.

Also please don't be afraid to critique me, I genually need to know if it sucks and it is my first draft and I know there is a rule that your first draft is meant to suck and not to revise it, but honestly I don't think i could write the next chapter knowing the past chapters were horrendous.