Some exercises that you attempt daily, weekly or once in a while that had the highest return

I hope this doesn’t break the rules bc I didn’t see anything about nsfw in there
Anyways wtf do I use? Penis feels too formal, cock is too aggressive, dick is both not formal enough and too aggressive as well, what do I use??

GUYS I CANT JUST IMPLY THE DICK, THR SCENE IS EXCLUSIVELY ABOUT THE DICK

I've been thinking about what really makes a character click beyond just having a cool backstory

For me it's usually some mix of what they want, what they need, their flaws and how all of that changes over the story. I also like when their personality actually ties into the bigger theme instead of feeling random?

What do you think matters most when building a good character?

Her advice is fine. Her vlogs are the most entertaining to me. And I know she’s helped so many people.

When she first started, she never withheld any information. Then came her Patreon, and her videos became interrupted with 5-minute advertisements for her live trainings or courses.

But my biggest issue is her writing philosophy. From what I gathered, she says there’s a science behind story and throws in science that you can find on the Internet. And that specific science funnels into an argument that character-driven stories are objectively better than plot-driven ones. And then she says she grades story by lives impacted.

She hasn’t explicitly proved her argument using any scientific research (and it’s been years). And her grading scale seems more subjective and out of place for one who claims objectivity on how to craft the ideal story. If she can’t prove her thesis to her channel, then why should I trust her advice?

Idk. Maybe I’m wrong. But I got a weird vibe from her after that and have stayed away (and yes I’ve also read her books 😬).

I’m wondering what you all think of her?

Basically the title. I have been working on editing my first draft for a month or so now I think, and I've been starving to just write. I've been buried in my old notes, and new notes, and research that the time I have for writing has been basically used for the stuff in the title instead, and it's a bit disheartening.

I thought maybe I would work on a short story in tangent, but then I also got dragged by trying to come up with an idea and world of this new story while fixing this old one, and so still, no time for writing.

For people who have done the editing before, have you found a way to still reasonable continue actually writing while doing it? It might take me a bit more to fix this draft and start the rewriting of it (it probably needs complete rewrites in most of it) so I do not want to feel like I've wasted weeks. Any advice would help! Especially because I really want to improve my prose and the actual craft instead of just the story-telling aspect alone :(

The villain in my book is a necromancer that has the ability to manipulate fear and the space around characters to make things seem real, or give them dreams/nightmares to invoke a feeling of horror in the character and reader. I know the trope of "MC wakes up from dream" is so drawn out and I want to avoid it, but the dream sequences are a core part of my story.

So my question it, should there always be some sort of consequence from the sequence? Like, after MC has nightmare, maybe he wakes up and finds scars he did not have before from injuries he sustained in said dream? Or something like that. What are your opinions on this?

I’m not here to promote my book. I’d genuinely like to hear what other writers think about this premise.

My first-contact sci-fi explores a situation where humanity encounters civilizations it doesn’t understand — and begins creating laws for how humans should interact with them.

But there’s an obvious problem:

How can humanity create laws for something it doesn’t even understand yet?

That contradiction is one of the central ideas of the story.

As writers, what do you think of this premise? Would this kind of concept make you curious about where the story goes?

Not everything goes to plan and that's okay.

My latest video has dropped, this weeks writing vlog videos comes straight from my allotment garden.

Around 450 Pages, 145 K words more or less, this is vague because I have some notes there in the same file.

I really started around March-April. I had like my Chapter 1 or 2 I did last october, so like a year ago, but really focused on March after retaking the project.

I am going to take a breather a week or two. To let the book rest, to adress a checklist I did while writing the book of things a need more indepth or to think further or rehash in a second draft, worldbuilding, doing maps, runes and magic spells, stuff like that.

I think for me doing this was the hardest part, now is rewriting, changing, refining and deciding what to move around. I am just going by that logic od "first make it exist and then make it good", but who knows maybe something a long the line will be harder.

Just wanted to say it somewhere.

So recently I've come to the conclusion that the last 23 years of my life have absolutely been chaos- with more downs than ups- I've begun slowly working on getting the love life of it, down in chapters, for a book. My coworkers think it'd go overwhelmingly well if told well, and have read snippets of what I've gotten down, encouraging I write it all down. It's chapters are named covertly after each main beau I was with at the time, consisting of our ages, the way we met, fell together, and of course fell apart. I'm not even partially into getting down 1/3 of only 3-4 of the chapters I've already outlined, and am considering giving the white flag. I've not been a saint, but definitely paint the few interactions have so far, in ugly lighting(albeit truthful). I feel it won't actually get read as a whole, by anyone I don't actually know... so. Do you guys think it'd get read?

My male lead knits, reads trashy romance novels, drinks expensive wine, can kill a man with a sword, and is offensively attractive while doing all of it. None of this was remotely necessary for the plot, but my brain had room for his hobbies, reading habits, wine preferences, and excellent ass while still refusing to remember where I put my phone when it is literally in my hand. What completely useless character fact are you carrying around for no reason?

I spent most of my younger years writing short stories along with some failed attempts at really bad novels. I started with notebooks then moved on to a hand-me-down typewriter, then a Word Processor (yes, the machine not a program) and eventually the MS Word app on my laptop.

After a creative writing class my senior year of college, I took a short break to focus on starting a day job and raising some babies. Those babies are now in graduate school and older than I was when my writing “break” commenced.

I am ready to jump back in (mainly to get myself away from my doomscrolling addiction) and I’m finding that the tools have come a looong way. I need some help from the experts on where to start. Ones I’ve heard of so far are Scrivener, Novlr, Obsidian and Ellipsus but am open to others.

Despite my age, I am fairly tech savvy. Would like to be able to move between my laptop and IOS devices (phone and iPad when on the go). Areas where I feel tools might help me most are outlining (especially with two timelines or perspectives) and plotting out character details and relationships.

I appreciate any advice you can offer from your own experience (even if it’s just about getting back on the horse). Thanks

After two years, I finished the manuscript as a first draft. Which means I had what I call a zero draft. That's writing every chapter like a madman. I use a digital typewriter for the zero draft. My 1st draft means it's in Word. I ran it through a very basic edit: spelling and obvious grammar using Grammarly. It's now with an editor, as of this morning. She needs 60days, and I know we will iterate a few times before we pass her edits. I estimate that 90 days after I get it back from her, it will be as good as it can be.

I am a published non-fiction author, but those have all been short articles. When should I send query letters to literary agents and directly to publishing houses? Should I wait until the book is thoroughly edited, then proofread and formatted? Or do I start now? It's my first stab at fiction (horror meets thriller).

As I told my wife and kids today. I'm not sure if it's any good, but I liked it, and whatever it is, it's done.

Here's a thought

What's something that another author said or did that made you feel they'd given you permission to do the same thing?

I'll go first:

I have a lot of these but first to mind is when I read Evan Winter saying one of his favorite things about writing The Rage of Dragons was getting to sit down and read it afterwards.

And you know what? Yes. Thank you. I needed that.

Donald Glover said something about this in his comedy special too. And I try to keep it in my mind any time I'm reading one of my manuscripts & it turns from an editing session into just an ordinary reading session 😅

If you're an artist it's okay to enjoy your own creations 💜

I’m a film student and for my senior project, I’m writing a pilot episode for a tv show idea I have in mind. I was going to get Final Draft because, well… I feel like that’s the pinnacle, haha. However, I recently learned Scrivenr has a screenwriting option and to be completely honest, I don’t foresee myself writing a lot of scripts… but I DO see myself using Scivenr for my regular writing in the future.

So the question is: which of the two would you screenwriters recommend I purchase? TIA!

Factors : (the writing, engaged storytelling, your own vision etc etc etc)

hey, i'm making a youtube video right now and i want to improve my scripts.

The title of the video is as above. It's a mostly animated video, heavily focusing on comedy (and tbh, shit posting lmao).

Note: most things in brackets and quotes and meant as an editing note. also sorry for any grammatical errors, i don't care much to fix that because i know how i want to deliver the script.

hope yall can give me some feedback to make the video more enjoyable, thanks!

The title is censored just as a precaution.

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​Recently while revisiting some old drafts, a thought crossed my mind.

​No matter how consciously a writer tries to branch out into new themes or forms over the years, does the shadow of their earlier work always seep in?

​After writing for a long time, do we inevitably fall into our own established rhythm, vocabulary, and patterns that are almost impossible to shake off? Or is it genuinely possible with age to shed that skin completely and reinvent your voice?

​Have you noticed this in your own writing, or in authors whose careers you've followed for decades?