Ignore the crude drawing, and sorry if it doesn't for the sub.

Best I can think to describe it is like, unimpressed? Or just waiting for something interesting? But I feel like there's more emotion than that.

I’m looking to avoid hated tropes in my writing, so any answers are greatly appreciated! Also if you want to explain why you hate it that’d be STELLAR!

Have a great day! ^^

i have an oc species called the penodir. they were, at one point, a species of murder robots. but the thing is they were being manipulated and abused (reset to toddlerhood the moment they developed critical thinking skills) into believing their quarry was non-sapient. their god/king/boss/dad was eventually killed and the truth revealed. being sapient beings with free will, the vast majority attempted to stop.

but the other sophont species of the galactic grouping refused to give them a chance, and now bigotry exists against the penodir. many cannot find legit work because very few non-murder employers (there are no laws in space) will employ them.

the oppression the penodir face is explicitly not intended to be a metaphor for or 1:1 with any type of real world bigotry, but i feel the base principle may be the same

Would you read on?

Just realized I used phenomenon for a super simple concept ;-;..

This laying down position between 2 characters is used so much in movies and I want to put it in this small thing I'm writing but I have no idea how to describe it huhu...

I just need the pure description (or word if there is). Thanks!

Wanted to break the seal and just get this first few pages in front of some readers to get general thoughts - flow, prose, readability, interest, hook.

Notes for readers: Adult fantasy fiction, intended 80k words. Alternate history deep-sea mystery. Drawing from Cornish folklore and myth.

Thanks very much to anyone who reads and leaves their thoughts!

As the title says. I never thought I was a bad writer until I started reading how others wrote and it made me insecure. I want to get better and write more prettier proses/paragraphs (not purple prose) and so it can make my story flow better.

this is a small example of how I wish to write vs how I write:

"The room was already filled with the kind of pretentious murmur that only came from students who were used to these types of courses. He caught two pairs of students debating ethical dilemmas of ancient religious concepts, and the girl he sat beside was actually dissecting historical texts on her laptop, zooming into photos with a translator on the side and everything. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but no. It all seemed vaguely impressive but ultimately struck him as circular and pointless. He set his bag down and sighed, propping his chin on his hand."

mine:

"Maybe I shouldn’t have come so early, only to stand around but I suppose it’s giving me extra time to think about Audley. This might be getting unhealthy. Not only due to the physical strain my body experiences whenever an ounce of jealousy touches me but also the mental stress. All I think about is him. There’s no way to shut my brain up unless I study or keep busy another way. "

So to be fair, this IS a dramatic scene, and it's out of context, but as I'm writing it, it's just feeling superrrrrrr over dramatic. And every scene feels like this. I think I'm trying to be too philosophical. Does anyone have advice for fixing it? Bc it's really fun to write dramatic dialogue, but it's not realistic loll

*Also, sorry for the typos. First draft

The burden of nearly every writer: plot.

So yes, I am looking for advice here. I have entire settings and fully developed characters I'd love to use for stories, but then I never actually finish anything I start because I really struggle coming up with meaningful and cohesive plots. The best I can usually come up with are the same predictable and cliche plots that have been told a million times before.

For example, I have an entire historical fantasy setting I want to write in, including characters for said setting, but as far as plot goes I'm simply stumped. I have specific scenes I'd love to write out purely because I enjoy how the various characters interact in them, but then I have no idea how to connect them together into a wider plot. Even the one story I did have a plot for due to it being based on actual historical events I fell short on due to certain gaps in the timeline I couldn't figure out how to fill. I know, the age old advice is to "just write", but then my character ended becoming something completely inconsistent with the story I was trying to tell. It's meant to be a story of redemption but my character ended up showing naivety rather than complete compliance within the oppressive system he exists in, thus I basically just scraped the story. I didn't see a point in continuing as my original vision for the story no longer existed and the angle I originally wanted is crucial for it.

This brings me to my inquiry. How do writers actually manage to derive plots for their stories? I see so many original ones with lots of twists and turns and I'm over here like "my stories are so cliche". Evidently "just writing" is not the answer since I've tried that, as explained above.

The past few months I’ve gotten into writing with the goal of self publishing. In order to bounce ideas around and review my work I’ve been using LLMs.

Admittedly it was cool at first to have something to bounce ideas, talk about ideas/research concepts, and review writing. But the more I used them I noticed two things: they can’t layer or determine what information is background or what is immediately relevant, and I’ve been using them as a form of procrastination.

I’m tired of being a hypocrite and want to move away from them. Do you have any advice or suggestions for finding resources? Even being able to figure out how to research on my own would be huge.

I write in first person pov, but often find myself starting sentences with “I” when I’m describing an action.

Ex. “I glanced…” “I said…” “I moved…”

Every few sentences, there’s a line that start with “I,” and I feel like it sounds repetitive. Any tips how to begin sentences another way?

I can't really think of a way to avoid so many pronouns without it sounding clunky. But I feel like I'm using pronouns WAY too much in this.

Matheu returns completely filthy, he tried to wipe away a majority of the blood that he can see yet much of it has already been encrusted onto the metal and cotton. Aiko looks as if about to hug him until noticing the mess. But after Matheu sits down to remove the armor, her evident need for contact is quickly sated. The moment his helmet is lifted, her forehead collides with his own, almost knocking them backwards. 

“Are you okay?” he mumbles as his vision returns to normal. Horns nearly pierce his skin from the applied pressure, but he refrains from backing away. 

“No” shaking her head with the horns scraping at his forehead even more.

I’m an avid reader and have always loved to create stories. I have an idea for a novel but I don’t feel like my current writing skills will do is justice so I’ve been writing short stories to practice! This is a part of one of said short stories:)

I would love some feedback but please be gentle since I am a certified wuss haha!

I'm writing a book, about superheroes and supervillains. Obviously a big part of all superhero designs is the name, so I'm trying to figure out good names for various powersets. Anybody want to spitball with me?

So, embarrassing confession: I kind of fell out of writing maybe a year ago when I decided to use AI to help make short stories. Nothing I published or anything like that. They were stories just for me (kind of like bedtime stories or short fanfics on AO3).

The issue is, i’d write the majority of these stories before giving them to ChatGPT to generate further/continue the story (prompts like: “Write a story where [character] and [character] [insert adventure or activity]. [Insert beginning of the story written by myself with a cliffhanger for the bot to play off of]”).

I want to move away from this now and get back into writing my own stories 100% by myself but it’s like I don’t even know where to start anymore. Especially with the main stories. I have one that I need to do a complete overhaul of and another I haven’t even started but all I can think about whenever I think of getting started even on a short story is: “I’m going to have to write the whole thing. Start to finish.”

It’s like I get tired of writing the story halfway through because I’ve gotten so used to having the AI pick it up and finish it for me 😭

I’ve been on a journey to improve my vocabulary lately because one of my long-term goals is to publish a book someday.

For those who write regularly or have published a book, what actually helped you build your vocabulary?

Would love to hear what worked for you.

I was scrolling through pinterest and saw this pic and thought this is the perfect haircut for my protagonist. I don't know how to exactly describe it because it looks longer than chin length hair but shorter than shoulder length hair. I'm not good at describing appearances in general and this is even harder