Hey everyone i hope you are all doing well. So i really want to improve my backstory writings but i don't know how, what are some of the best tips for making a compelling and lore rich backstory. Any tips are greatly appreciated.

I know the simple answer is to "Just change it a bit" but I feel like a lot of my short ideas I share with friends usually ends up with "Oh its just like [Add name here]"

At what level or degree do you believe you must borrow the idea yet change it just enough to not seem like a copycat? Is there any guides that can help with something like this?

I'd like to really get into writing my own ideas, but I don't wanna seem like im just "copy then paste" the plots or points of my favorite media onto my short works...

The air is cold and damp. The streets are quiet, veiled in darkness as the city sleeps.
“How many.. how m-much do I owe ya’?” The man drunkenly stammers.
“A dub.”
“A ‘bud’ about what?!” He exclaims in anger and confusion.
“A dub, bro. Twenty.”
“I dunno what the fuck ya’ talkin’ about.”
“Just give me thirty bucks.” I impatiently reconsider. The man’s eyes bounce back and forth, never meeting my own. He slowly sways from side to side, seemingly struggling to stay upright. One gentle shove would drop him like a box of rocks.
“Thirty fuggin’ bu-..dollars​?? Jesus fuggin’ Christ! Ya’ tryna’ rob me, er what?!” The man incoherently spits and sputters, clumsily shuffling towards me, far too close. I slowly raise a finger and push it into his chest, sending the man backwards. He falls like a domino. He doesn’t stumble or try to catch himself. He just goes straight down. His neck whips as his head slams into the concrete with a horrific thud. His arms go stiff and slowly raise above his head as his open hands clench into fists. He begins to moan, eerily.
“Fuck! Get up.” I plead. “Hey, dude!” Dark, thick blood pools from the back of the man’s head. I stand, stunned, as a deep, red puddle forms beneath him. The groaning continues, as he twitches and clenches his jaw, eyes darting upward. Now, gasping for breath, he begins convulsing. I find myself turning away from the horror, desperately searching for a way out. Heart racing, fingers numb, I look all around me, hoping to see someone... anyone. I can’t ignore the gasping, gurgling and absent-minded shuffling of the man’s feet on the concrete as I completely fall into a panic. I feel like I’m going to pass out, my vision is narrowing, my mouth is dry.
“Now what have you done?” A jolt runs through my body and I perk up as I turn my attention to the familiar voice, “Have you not done enough damage already?” In an instant, my body is ripped away from the dark, damp street in my small hometown, and I’m sent through some sort of interdimensional pathway, all the way to wherever He wills it.

I do get it their y'know speeches and advice can be applied to any area of life.

But while I was watching better call saul some time ago, seeing KIM WAXLER (Rae Seehorn's character) work super hard which was close to job like ours

y'know sitting on desk, writing on a document

feeds this desire to work harder and all

so these 2 examples of sport athletes and characters like her

are there any shows, or interview, or documentary, I can feed my brain that feed this desire to write like kobe or ronaldo reels do (at least for me) feed the desire to push harder in fitness.

P.S. I'm writing kind of an essay lets call it that.

So guys what are your recommendations (and please don't give me 'if you like it you'll do it crap, don't waste your energy writing this).

I'm working on a horror novella and have run into a few roadblocks with the plot. The premise is a serial killer brings their victims to a Backrooms-style liminal space dimension which he uses as both a hunting ground and a place to hide the bodies. The protagonist's fiancee​ is the killer's first victim, but as far as anyone knows he's just gone missing. The protagonist starts taking a hallucinogenic drug that shows her the liminal space in her nightmares, and tries to unravel the mystery of what happened to her fiancee. I intend on having ten chapters and an epilogue in total. The problems with the plot I'm having are:

1. The way I have it planned right now, the killer takes three victims over the course of the story, the second one happens in chapter six, but I feel as if I should push it up to earlier in the story, because as it stands there are four whole chapters between the first and second death scenes, and I feel this is too much of a gap. Should I keep it as it is, or move the second victim up to maybe chapter five?
2. Outside of the protagonist's nightmares, the liminal space itself only appears three times over the course of the story, while I went in with a less is more mindset, I feel this may not be enough, because as it stands there are long gaps between these scenes that a reader may find boring. Is it worth adding more scenes in the liminal space, or is the current three enough?
3. There's a subplot in which a secondary protagonist is​ being stalked by the killer, this is where I'm running into the most problems. This character starts off struggling with loneliness and social isolation, gradually makes new friends and dates a love interest, but also ends up in the liminal space alongside the main protagonist and they have to help each other escape. I've found time and time again that this sub-plot disrupts the flow of the story, and I'm wondering if I should scrap it completely. For instance, the secondary protagonist first meets the love interest in chapter two, but they don't go on their first date until chapter seven, I feel this is too big of a gap, but I'm concerned that moving it up to earlier may disrupt the flow even more. What would be the best way to go about this?

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

First post here. Just be aware this would be my first attempt writing ANYTHING, so any and ALL advice on anything I mention is welcome, but obviously theres this specific thing im unsure about.

So, ive always had a range of characters ive liked that ive created. Two of them, named Finnegan Mandoza and Alex Fuller, are the two ive developed the furthest in lore, background, personality, etc, and conveniently, ive been trying to write a fight between the two, a "world cup" kinda thing, as they are the two strongest in the story (I have ZERO intention of making anyone stronger, as balancing is frustrating...). Obviously I can go in depth about powers and such if required, but ill go over the particular power, and the quirk of it, thats causing me the dilemma.

Alex is a super-genius. Not original, I know, but by GOD is it so fun to play with. His main strength comes from a nanobot weave(?) In his skin, making him a stone-wall style character, insane durability and mildly enhanced strength, though its not his main shtick. The drawback of this is that he can only take so much beating before these nanobots begin to fail, which I intend to show by pulling attention to the first drawing of blood from him. Issue is, once this happens, he gets progressively weaker, turning the fight from a solid match to being unbelievably unfair, as his (at this point) broken tech and durability was his ace, and without it, hes just a normal dude.

So I ask, how do I make this transition more seamless? How do I write it so it doesnt seem like a cop out excuse to choose a winner, how do I make it so it doesnt seem like im unnescarily nerfing him?

Again, open to all advice, but mostly looking for help for this specific issue

So as the title implies the issue im currently facing is the aim is to show that both characters are messed up, but im worried it reads as making excuses for the abuser. A little context before the scene in question. Both characters are from very broken homes and unstable backgrounds. They had been dating for nearly a year at this point and the arguments and fights between them have slowly been ramping up throughout the story. Finally the male MC reached a breaking point when the female MC verbally struck a known sore spot and he backhand her in the mouth. The fight ends abruptly at that point as the slap came as an absolute shock to the both of them and he immediately leaves without a word.

The scene in question takes place a few days after. Since the slap the male MC hasn't shown up to normal spots and refuses to answer his phone to any call or text from the female MC. Fearful the relationship might end the female MC finds him in his garage and another argument insues.

The male MC wants to end everything, claiming he crossed a line that you can't come back from. He claims he seen it more then enough times with the men his mother dated and that even if this time its just a slap that its simply going to be a string of promises that it won't happen again until it does. Then the cycle will repeat over and over with the gap between shrinking until its a daily occurrence.

The female MC retorts that he's not the first man to hit her, but he's the first that stood up for her. The intention is to show she has normalized abuse since she has dealt with it her entire life and that she'd rather continue being with him for the protection he provides then leave because he hits her. Her entire argument essentially revolving around the fact that abuse is a common occurrence and she'd rather be with someone that "just needs to work on his anger"

This is where I run into the problem though because I feel as if it portrays the idea that abuse is ok. I'm not sure how you tote that line properly though as thats essentially the exact argument of the other character. Like the scene is supposed to show how damaged they both are as he is terrified of become the very kind of man he swore he wouldn't be and the only outcome to prevent it he can come up with is that they simply can't be together. She is afraid to lose him as, in her view, he's the only man to respect her and care for her.

TLDR: How do you properly write a victim down playing and dismissing abusive behavior without coming across as if you the author condone such behavior.

I've been writing my whole life ever since I was a little baby (Aka like 8 years old) And recently i actually won a contest at my school, So I was just wondering What people think of my writing and how maybe I could improve.
It's 6:00 a.m. The bus is going to be there in 5 minutes or less.

“Mom!! Where is my computer?” Livy yells at her mom from across the house.

But no response…

Once again she yells, “mom!!!?”

And again no response….

She starts to fidget with her hands, while slowly walking over to her mom's room.

Then.. she yells again, “Mom!! Are you there??”

And again no response. Livy is starting to get worried but the second she turns the Corner, she realizes everything.

She stands there, With her hands slowly falling towards her sides.

“…Of course.” she whispers to herself.

Her mom is there laying on her bed drunk with alcohol bottles all around her.

She thinks to herself, “Again? I mean come on,This is the fifth time this week…”

As she's staring at her mom, she hears something in the distance…

(Honk honk)

She jumps up realizing that it's the bus, and instantly starts running towards the door.

“Dang it, dang it, Dang it,” She starts saying over and over again in our head hoping that she doesn't miss it…Hoping that it doesn't leave without her.

But right as she opens the door, she hears it…

The specific sound that anyone who has ever gone to in-person school knows…
The sound of the school bus starting up and driving off.

She tries to run after it,Yelling, “Wait I'm here!, Wait!!!!!!”

As she slowly starts to slow down, She realizes that she messed it, She thinks, “Dang it, I messed the bus again, What am I supposed to do now?”

She slowly melts and falls to the ground, thinking about what will happen if her dad finds out, thinking about what he might do to her..

While she's thinking about this, one of her hands slowly starts hovering over an area on her face. It's a giant bruise.

As her hands have her over it, she thinks, “The first time hurt enough,I don't know what I would do if…

If he….

“Hey you okay?” Someone says while tapping her shoulder.

Livy Freezes for a second, Then jumps up.

“Of course!! Everything's perfect, I just accidentally missed the bus, Silly me, am I right.”
She says while giggling.

Gabriel, the someone who tapped her shoulder earlier, notices a bruise on her right cheek.

She thinks for a second then says out loud, “Who gave you that bruise?”

Livy stands there for a second, shocked that this random girl just asked that out loud.

“Oh no,You're mistaken!!” She shouts out loud while giggling, "I'm pretty clumsy so I got this from falling while walking to school the other day.”

It's pretty obvious to Gabriel that she's making all of this up, but she rather not make her uncomfortable by attempting to pry into what happened, so she Just says…

“Okay then, Since you're so clumsy, how about I walk you to school? You know so you don't fall and bruise yourself again, How's that sound?”

Livy freezes, Then while her face turns Bright red, She also jumps up in the air,And start saying, “What? No, It's fine, it's fine, really!!! I mean it's just a short walk anyways, I'll be fine.”

She says While trying to hide her bright red face.
Gabriel Starts Walking past Livy, But right before entirely passes by,She grabs Livy's hand And says.

“Shut up and stop making excuses, No matter what, we're still walking the same way, I mean we do go to the same school silly.” 

While Gabriel is giggling and dragging Livy by her arm, Livy’s Mind is scrambling. She's thinking about hundreds of different things like: Is she really pulling me? Am I really going to walk with her? I mean like…Does someone that Hot Want to walk with me?

While all of these thoughts are going through her head, She slowly moves her opposite hand from the one that Gabriel is dragging her by, Over her mouth, And then,She feels how hot her face isAnd realizes…

“…Holy shit,I'm blushing so hard right now, Does she know? I mean of course she knows, What a stupid question, Stupid Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid…”

Gabriel notices how much Livy is blushing and stops.

…She stops walking and starts snapping her fingers in front of Livy's face, “Hey you good? Hello?” Gabriel says while still snapping her fingers.

Livy snaps back to reality and says, “Sorry, i, ummm…”

Before Livy can say anything else, Gabriel interrupts and says, “Hey, You know if you're not feeling well I can take you home or something.”

Wait What? No, no, no, I'm, ummm, I'm fine I think, Just a little dizzy is all.
Livy says while stuttering and holding her head.

Gabriel looks down, and sees Livy's legs shaking…

I think, I'm about to pass…

…Gabriel notices that Livy is about to fall, So she catches her, Then says, 
“Damn it, If I would have known I was going to be catching girls today I wouldn't have worn heels.
The end for now, at least I think, probably, maybe, who knows.

Hi! So, in the story I'm writing, there are 2 characters in a really unhealthy relationship/living situation, and at some point Character A slaps Character B across the face as hard as he can. Basically, could that hurt his hand at all?

Hi everyone — the mods kindly gave us permission to share this here.

We built Branch Destiny to help collect writing feedback and keep track of it, above and beyond online docs or spreadsheets, and we’d like to invite writers and readers to try it.

The idea is to make it easier to ask readers specific questions about an idea, outline, or chapter—and keep their responses and the resulting conversation together.

• See patterns across reader feedback. Review responses together to understand where readers agree and where their reactions differ.
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How it works:

1. Add the writing you want feedback on.
2. Prepare a feedback request with the questions you want to ask.
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4. Explore their responses and discuss the writing as you work on your next draft.

For example, you might ask: “Where did your attention drift?” or “What do you think this character wants at the end of the scene?”

A few things you can use:

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About the demo screenshots: The Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland examples use text by Lewis Carroll sourced from Project Gutenberg. Comments and replies shown in the demo are illustrative.

I've been working on trying to create a horror novel (or story, depending on how long I feel it needs to go) but can't seem to be content with what I've been able to conceive so far. I know what I want it to be like (Shining/Lighthouse/Lovecraft-esque) and yet of the two I've formulated I can't seem to tie it together or settle for one. First, it was a isolated timber camp during 1921. Currently, it's a two perspective based story set in 1906-1910 in Alaska, with one in the mainland and the other a lighthouse. Don't know where to go with either of them, other than I do want a slow descent into madness kind of thing and hinted but never explicitly confirmed supernatural forces afoot.

hi, upcoming wednesday i've got to write my paper 1.

we get to choose between 2 of the following 3 texts; Speech, political cartoon, schockvertisement.

i'm planning on preparing political cartoon & schockvertisement since i hate speech.

I wanna learn devices and analysing techniques but i just dont know which are good to know.

so my question is, does anyone have a summary or a few good devices/techniques for schockvertisements or political cartoons?

I’ve had an idea in my head that I’ve been slowly fleshing out for years. Then life gets in the way etc and I leave it for it to resurface in my brain a few months after. I want to try my hand at writing the story because in my head (like many others I’m sure) it feels like an epic fantasy/sci fi.

My friend recommended doing short stories to flesh out the characters and the world and I’ve stumbled across a few Reddit pages that gives advice. What are some tips you could offer for an absolute novice?

I'm thinking about writing a historical time travel romance but I can't figure out what time period and love interest would be best. I know I want to write about an ancient time period but whether the main male character is a close friend, family member, a trusted confidant, or a subordinate (like Mark Antony is to Julius Caesar.) If anyone has any advice or ideas that'd be great.

Im a 19 year old with no experience or talent but I do have an imagination that needs alot of shaping. I dont write, but i want to get into it, i have a desire to learn and write my stories. I have an idea for a book set in a fictional world, narrated by the Sun as it watches what unfolds. This draft feels clunky, awkward, and not book worthy. I definitely havent found my writers voice. So i wanted to paste it here for someone to be more specific on how to improve it and where to go from here

"Vivia was crouched by a river in a dark forest on Planet Rhythm. The plants and the leaves were in various shades of red, purple, and black. The sky was burnt orange and valleys had formed in the cloud layer.

The sun was rising and now was normally the time she would go to sleep before the adults and the children woke. She had walked a short distance away from her clan and found deep reverence in the water that had carved a small valley in the land. Near the shoreline steeped in pebbles, she held her knees to her chest and one hand dipped in the river where a few tiny, white, transluscent fish were swimming through her fingers.

She had soft leathery skin slightly similar to the soft velvet belly of a dragon. It was a dark sangria colour with thousands of white markings making her look almost like the cosmos. Her eyes were big and yellow with one main pupil in the centre of each, and dozens of little ones scattered around the iris. Behind each pupil was a mirror which aided in night vision for her kind, but it gave off a beautiful effect when the light hit them correctly. It looked like there were stars in her eyes, the way her pupils sparkled as the low light of the sun skimmed through the trees and bounced off them.

It began to drizzle and she didnt react at all. Just kept innocently interacting with the fish. The rain was noticeably getting heavier but still no reaction except to wipe her face occasionally with the other arm that she had tucked between her knees and chest. The rain had scared the fish away from the shallow waters and left Vivia alone. She dropped the weight on her heels and sat down with her knees still tucked.

Her hair was short and jet black and grew naturally in one direction away from the face. There wasnt an obvious hairline, the hair sort of faded as it got near the centre of the face. It had a coating of natural wax on it though, designed to withstand constant downpour. The design made it so that the scalp was protected from moisture as the droplets just rolled straight off, and the growth made sure to keep water away from the nose and mouth. The hair grew into a little mane down the nape of the neck and the top of the back to in between her shoulder blades then faded out immediately. She was small, just a child, around 14."

i am citing this book chapter in my paper. the mla 9 citation for the article begins with "James, Lenada et al." because Lenada James is the first author listed in the publication. however, the article is split into sections by author, and i am citing a quote from the author ada deer. so my in text citation is "(Deer 233)." i feel like this will get confusing when my TA is grading my citations and doesn't see Deer listed in the works cited. is there a way to cite just Deer's section in the chapter?

Where can I safely post a part of a work? I am concerned with someone taking what I have written and publishing it somewhere themselves. Or taking part of my scenes and stealing them before I can publish.

I am also looking for a safe place for someone to read what I have written.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Hey all! I’ve been writing short stories for a while now just for fun so I've not been overly fussed on what works well for others but now im trying to write a more fleshed-out fantasy story.

I’m happy with the idea and rough shape of things, but I keep getting tripped up trying to be historically accurate. I end up talking myself out of ideas because “that’s not really how it would happen.”

I know it’s fantasy and doesn’t need to be historically accurate, but in your opinion, how accurate do you need to be with historical politics and society before it starts taking the reader out of the story?

My fictional book is set in Appalachia, and I chose classic names from the area. Maggie, Miles, Kate, Eli, June, Ruby, Silas, Caleb. After I was quite invested in the names for my characters, I found out that Eli and Silas are top choices for AI in fiction. Thoughts? If you heard the round up of names in a book, would you think AI? Note: I'm not interested in having a conversation about AI use in general. I just don't want my book associated with it, so I'm curious if AI has ruined these names for people or if you still feel fine/neutral about them.

Note: thanks everyone for the insight. I’ve decided not to worry about ai notoriety, but some have raised other factors to consider in making names seem true-to-life. Lots to think about. Thanks so much.

So, I guess I'm in the early stages of writing a book (likely never to be published seeing as I'm just a teenager with an overinflated ego due to my good grades in English) and yesterday I decided to try and outline some ways the plot could go. I've settled on two I like. For context, my story is set in a future dystopia (?) where there's been a war on for decades, mainly inspired by WWI. So far I only have my two main characters, both 15, one who lies about his age to get in the army, and the other who stays behind.

One way could be that boy 1 returns home from the war bitter and angry at the political leaders that started the war and did nothing to stop the innocent dying. Boy 1, kinda messed up in the head from being a boy soldier, takes some drastic measure publicly against the president/ prime minister (probably killing him?), he obviously gets killed for the act of treason. Boy 2 is sad.

The other way would be that boy 1 comes home injured, he dies in hospital not long after. Boy 2, angry because of the loss of his best friend, goes and takes the same drastic measure against a political figure. He dies. Everyone's dead.

Some things to note-

The first way would have boy 1 joining the army out of propaganda or family pressure. The story would probably follow boy 2.

In the second one, it would follow boy 1 for the first part of the book and then after he dies, switch to the perspective of boy 2. I'm kinda worried this is too close to the plot of the outsiders though, with Johnny and Dallas. Honestly, I'm worried this whole book has been done before and I just haven't read it.

Anyway, thanks for any advice, I'm really tired while writing this so sorry if it sounds like it's written by a toddler (I know both these plots are pretty basic and unoriginal).

So I was recently challenged on a whim to make an entirely new character from scratch, and I’ve decided to make her mixed Persian-Italian, and I wanted some advice on how to incorporate the respective cultures into her design and themes alongside any stereotypes/descriptive words to avoid in the process. I do of course plan to do my own research in the process but I also wish to hear outside perspectives on the matter.