Hey yall! So basically what the title said. I’m a first time writer and I can’t tell if I’m on the right track to write and interesting story or not. Additionally I’m not sure if my writing is clear or just a bunch of jumble. I’ve attached the first 20ish pages of the prologue. If anyone would be willing to give it a quick overview and offer some feedback that would be greatly appreciated!!!

I've been considering, the making of a story. Please note i'm trying to get you to see my vision. so my typing might be a bit everywhere😆I want my story to be about escaping a serial killer with suspense, psychological thriller. I want an inspiring ending of getting away and telling their story. Got a few killers who could inspire my killer character. One that isn't talked about much is the rodney alcala (dating game killer) case. Definitely a psychological trip.😄 please let me know yalls thoughts 🥰

i wasnt sure what subreddit to do with this but i guess this is the one.

im aiming between 2700 to 3100 words and im currently in the 1200s. i have trouble whether or not my informational paragraphs on my character are too long or too short, and im not sure if im getting in the action way too quickly, or its just the short sentences i have within the sequence to attempt a intense atmosphere. ive read it over multiple times but i feel like peer input is what is needed the most.

i sit really uncomfortably with the fact that the conflict happens a half a page after the character focused page. when i read it aloud it sounds fine but i think about how others would read it. im a bit of a novice and ive been experimenting with pacing frequently, and i decided to apply my knowledge into this project.

summary: the pacing personally feels weird and i feel like im getting into the action packed stuff too fast.

this is how its going so far. (sorry for the grammar error lines, can't seem to get rid of them without changing the supposed lines.)

DISCLAIMER!! PLEASE READ!!
mentions of adolf hitler are commonly present in this story

So I'm writing a fanfic and I've written some pretty decent banter between friends during a school break ending with some slight trolling regarding homework. I'm really ptoud of it since it's like my best dialogue ever and I suck at dialogue, but now I need to fast forward to Ryu leaving the school alone and I have no idea how to start the scene (since I don't have the balls to rewrite the thing I already have done). Could I get sny ideas/recommendations/pointers of how to start the new scene?

Old scene ending for reference:

“Don’t worry, I’ll be free to play tomorrow and besides, even if you’ll lose, there’s always another Clash next week! Now let’s get going, the lunch break will be over soon. What’s the next class anyways?”

“Next is math,” Fumi smiled diabolically, “I hope you’ve done the proofs we’ve had due today…”

“Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shiiiiit…” Ryu had to use all the strength he had to stop himself from jumping from the nearest window, “Heeeyyyyyy Fumiii…”

“Yeaaah?”

“Could you per chance mayhaps let me copy your proofs for math…?”

“I dunno,” Fumi asked innocently, “what’s in it for me if I do?”

“Literally anything, please, I beg of you Fumi, you’re like my only hope right now, I don’t wanna get kicked out of here like this…”

“I’m not really sure to be honest,” Fumi cut a little deeper knowing full well they didn’t have a single assignment due today, “you ok if I’ll just think about it for a few minutes or so?”

Does anyone else have the problem of not being able to write a story from start to finish. What I mean is I can’t start at the beginning because for me the story starts in the middle. So, I can start a story in the middle, because it comes up in my head. But if I try to start from the beginning I draw a blank, so I figured that I would just write until I have enough then put it in the right order later. It’s like a weird puzzle that starts in the middle and fans out. Does anyone else do this? And if so, has it ever worked out? And no I haven’t finished a story.

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

genuine question is trauma bad for my mc, I mean he is a young Vietnam vet but I know lots of recent big budget stuff hasn't handled trauma/PTSD/nervous system hypersensitively well. just curious if you find that annoying trope or not. i suffer from a mild form of nervous system hypersensitively myself and found it easy to write detailed descriptions of what that feels more or less like. Short version, is it's flashes or thoughts of bad things/bad people that make you physically tense up and often slightly jerk your head(or when alone or really bad can be more intense shaking of head), swallow several times and think of something begin to move on, and happens whenever throughout the day and is usually worst at night. now since he is decidedly a more tough guy then me and has actual trauma vs me lol i try to use it sparingly and lean into the slightly psychedelic vibes presents as it's set in the 60's but shows him slowly get out of his own head during his Bond/Indiana Jones esq mission with the beautiful tomboy secret agent that becomes his partner and since she is a profiler i do include scenes of her analyzing him and a even more tender scene inspired by asmr comfort type things, and what i often think about when trying to sleep, you know snuggling spooning touching hair stuff like that were she helps him sleep at night as he's been dealing with increasing insomnia throughout the novel.

I have a character that is really bad at keeping secrets, and ends up spilling a major secret, against the MC's wishes, which leads to every one finding out about it.

I don't want his action to make him annoying to the reader, since he still has to play a major role in the story, and is the MC's best friend.

So I decided to come here to ask what makes a character that is bad at keeping secrets annoying, and what keeps them well-loved.

Where do you place the period when ending a quote using quotation marks? (If that makes sense…)

Example:

“That’s a tree, not a “tree”.

Or is it

“That’s a tree, not a “tree.”

i'm currently writing a gothic horror novel set in a mansion in newcastle, england in the 1830s. the story centers around a female main character with her husband playing an important but supporting role.

basically, the fmc has this final confrontation with a humanoid monster. it is set in a hothouse/conservatory that is an important location to the monster in the book. in one of the earlier scenes, i established the monster using a pair of garden shears to make flower arrangements in that conservatory. i had planned to use the same shears to give my fmc a weapon to stab the monster in the final fight.

the problem is, i just wrote another fight scene between the fmc's husband and the monster's minion in which he defeated the minion by setting him on fire using a candleabra. now i feel like there are just too many convinient weapons in my book. but also, these are normal people in a very normal setting, so other than with everyday items, i don't know how to arm them to fight against supernatural forces.

advice?

I have a tendency to write essays for myself to understand topics to a greater degree. The few I've let others read, seemed to be received quite well. It's a blend of educational, musings, satire, and general opinions on which ever subject strikes my interest. Always had the intent to self publish some of my nonsense after a few more years of my main career being able to carry me. Though I'm not quite sure where to really start in terms of getting out there to even a small degree. Fear of being observed more than anything I'd wager, but any general advice would be greatly appreciated. Just haven't given it much real thought on how I'd start the journey, just had an end image in mind to a degree.

Lately anytime I want to write a copy, my brain just freezes.

Like, I would sit down with my pen, ready to write, and suddenly I won't even know where to start or how to put my thoughts together.

Mind you, I'm a beginner copywriter, and I'm still learning.

I'm trying to build a skill for myself because I don't want this year to end without me learning something valuable.

But honestly, this writing thing is not as easy as I thought.

Sometimes, I have ideas in my head, but when it's time to put them on paper, everywhere just goes blank.

For those of you who have been writing for a while, how did you train your brain to think and write better?

What do you do when you experience writer's block?

Please, I would really appreciate your advice. I'm willing to learn.

#copywritting

I usually write in first person, but on my current project I'm utilizing the 3rd person omnipresent narrator. My primary issue is that I seem to be starting every other sentence with a characters name or epithet. It's especially prevalent when I'm describing interactions between characters. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on this? Thank you for any help!

So my journey with creating black characters has been a long one and I’m still learning. I have run into a scene where asking google won’t cut it: my black oc Salem is a water based shapeshifter, she is obviously black in her skin color and hair texture, but i made her before i fully understood black hair styles.

I know that typically you want to cover your hair to keep it from getting wet to avoid damage. And as such you DEF dont wanna wring it out. She has a lock/wick situation going on with her hair and initially in this scene i was going to have her wring it out- but i paused because im white as fuck and realized that prolly is NOT a thing for most black women.

So does she just leave it wet? Is air drying ok/healthy? How much is it ok to hold your disbelief? I just am not sure how to go about describing this. Maybe Im overthinking this but oh well.

Any tips on getting over writers block?

Words used to come so easy to me but I'm really struggling at the moment. I have all these amazing ideas with no clue how to connect them or bring them to life on the page. My book feels like an abstract concept I can't grasp 🫠

This story is about a character, a faerie man, who is anxious, has very low self-esteem, is socially awkward, mostly quiet, soft-spoken, and is a huge people pleaser. I'm going to show how he was in childhood. In a nutshell, when his mom was 20 years old, she met a guy (whom she thought was human).

Warning for talking about mental health in young kids and descriptions of child abuse. Also wall of texts

She fell hard and fast for this man and began her first relationship after courting for a year. She had her first time with her 'beloved,' and she thought they would get married and live happily ever after. Not long after, she got pregnant and found out. She waited to see her so-called 'beloved,' but a month later, he sent her a note in which he said he was bored by her and their relationship. He confessed that he never loved her, saw her as a plaything, and nothing else, telling her she wasn't human either.

She never saw him again after reading that note. Her family found out, and they disowned her, leaving her on the street and homeless.

Luckily, her childhood friend and that friend's partner took her into their home. Unfortunately, her mom ended up hating motherhood and resented her son; she just couldn't love him. This led to her physically abusing her son, starting from the age of 3 to 7, by punching him anywhere on his body, slapping him (including backhanding him in the face), and kicking him anywhere. She would throw any hard, sharp, or glass objects at her son with the intention of seriously hurting him. She did this when she got mad at her son, or when he messed up in any way, or when she needed to take her anger out on someone, saying things like she hated him, wished he wasn't born, or that he ruined her life.

He ruined everything. She also only called him 'creature' or 'it'; she sometimes referred to him as 'he' to describe him. When she wasn't abusing him, she emotionally neglected him by barely interacting in any meaningful way. She avoided him like he was a plague or simply ignored him as if he weren't there. One day, when he was 7 and his mom was 27 years old, she decided to find a way to escape motherhood. His never been outside nor had he interacted with any other humans besides his mom and his non-biological aunt and uncle; the reason was because he looked more nonhuman than human.

She waited for her friend and the friend's husband to go grocery shopping. Then she took her son deep into the forest, telling him to pick her some flowers. He wanted to please his mom and looked for the prettiest one. While he was doing that, she ran away from him and never looked back.

Just as he realized what happened, lucky for him, after 2 days of being trapped in the forest, he found a trail and discovered a village. However, it was a village very superstitious against supernatural and magical creatures and everything that goes along with that. All humans of all ages were scared, hostile, or completely avoided him altogether. He lived in the village as a poor, homeless, and orphaned child for almost a year.

Now, the question is: what do you think are good and realistic ways to show how these situations affect mental health as a child?

I'm asking you to write my story; I'm purely asking for suggestions/advice.

I am working on a pinned post layout for my story's official Tumblr page. I want the presentation to mimic aesthetic commonly seen in BookTok or BookGram promotional styles, specifically, a short, dramatic hook line followed by a clean list of target tropes.

I want to share my rough draft summary here to get an outside perspective. Because I have a lot of overlapping ideas bouncing around in my mind right now, I need a fresh set of eyes to tell me which elements and character dynamics jump out the most so I can effectively narrow them down.

To be completely clear upfront, I am very familiar with standard narrative themes, plot devices, and dark romance structures. I am strictly looking for help filtering and prioritizing my ideas for this specific visual layout, rather than looking for a basic writing lesson.

For context, the core dynamic centers heavily on a Predator x Prey dynamic within a Dark Romance framework, and I want to ensure the final trope list looks polished and striking rather than cluttered.

NOW! With all that out of the way, is it alright to paste my plot outline below for trope feedback, or does sharing a synopsis count as self promotion under the rules?

Thank you!