I kept writing stiff conversations and couldn't figure out why. Then I read a post saying to read each line out loud, so I tried it on my last story and realized my characters all sound like they're giving a speech. Now I write the first draft like I'm texting a friend, then clean it up later.
I went with the medieval fantasy because I found an old map of a fake kingdom my brother and I drew when we were kids. Three chapters in and the tavern scene just feels flat. Has anyone else picked the wrong genre and had to pivot?
It clicked during a critique group at Barnes & Noble last Tuesday - my 'vengeful ex-boss' character in every single story just wanted revenge for being fired. Three people read three different projects and all asked, 'Is this the same guy?' Has anyone else realized one of their plot hooks is just a copy-paste of the same idea?
I saw someone suggest using a 3-act structure for a short story prompt about a lost dog in Chicago. Last Tuesday I sat down and mapped it out - Act 1 was the dog running off, Act 2 was searching alleys near Wrigley Field, Act 3 was finding him at a fire station. But my beta readers said it felt too rigid and fake, like I was checking boxes instead of writing naturally. Has anyone else run into prompts that sound good but kill your flow once you try them?
I finally crossed that 50,000 word mark in my NaNoWriMo project last Tuesday. Thought I'd feel this huge rush of accomplishment or relief. Instead I just stared at the word count for a minute, closed the document, and went to make a sandwich. The milestone felt hollow because half those words are probably trash I'll cut in editing. I spent three weeks writing a subplot about a stolen bicycle that has nothing to do with the main story. Now I'm sitting at 51,200 words and realizing I have no clue how to wrap up the third act. Anyone else hit a big number and just feel kind of empty about it? What did you do to shake off that slump?
I was sitting there last Saturday trying to come up with a good prompt about time travel and a vintage typewriter. This seagull swooped down and stole my notebook right off the bench. It dropped it three feet away but the pages were all wet and covered in bird droppings. I tried to salvage the idea but my brain was just stuck on the image of that dumb bird. Now I write all my prompt ideas in the notes app on my phone like a normal person. Has anyone else had a random outdoor distraction completely ruin a creative idea before?
Stopped into Spin Cycle on Main Street last Tuesday and there was this handwritten sign taped to a dryer that said 'please remove lint or the machine gets sad'... I snapped a photo and turned it into a short poem about personified appliances. Has anyone else found random signs or notices that sparked a story or poem for them?
She was helping a kid pick out a fantasy novel and dropped that line while I was shelving returns, and now I can't look at any story structure the same way, has anyone else had a total stranger reframe their whole writing process with one random comment?
Last month I got excited about a random prompt from a free online generator for a fantasy plot. Three years ago I had a similar idea sitting in my notebook from a writer's group in Austin, but I ignored it for the shiny new one. I spent two weeks on a flash fiction piece that fell totally flat because the generated prompt had no real heart or connection to my voice. Has anyone else had a bad experience ditching their own ideas for a prompt they found online?
She said real people interrupt, trail off, and use filler words, but my characters always finished clean sentences. I started writing dialogue with stutters and overlaps and suddenly my scenes felt alive. Which side do you fall on - clean dialogue or messy realism?
I was at a workshop last month and someone said that line like it was gospel. But I think telling can be just as powerful sometimes, especially when you need to move a scene fast. Has anyone else found moments where telling actually works better?
I used to spend like 2 hours fleshing out a character's entire life story before I even started chapter one, but after a few projects I realized half that info never made it into the story. Now I just sketch a rough personality and let their actions and dialogue build them out naturally as I write, which feels way more organic but also scarier cause I'm flying blind. Does this approach mess up your plot later or do you prefer the seat-of-your-pants method too?
I used to outline everything for my horror stories. Plot points, character arcs, the whole deal. Tried freewriting for a creepy short set in an abandoned motel outside Flagstaff. Got 3,000 words in two hours with way more creepy vibes. Outlining just makes me overthink. Anyone else find freewriting better for building tension?
Was writing a thriller set in a rain-soaked Seattle alley, and my protagonist's phone call got interrupted by a real-life thunderstorm that killed my wifi. Ended up typing the whole conversation into my phone notes, voice-to-text with terrible typos, and cleaned it up later. Anyone else have tech fail at the worst possible creative moment?
I walk to the bus stop at 7:30 each day past the same wooden bench near Elm Street. For maybe 6 months it had been flaking gray paint with a crack down one leg, and I never really looked at it. Then last week someone painted it a dark green, sanded down the rough spots, even replaced that cracked leg. It got me thinking about how a small, visible change can shift how you see an entire block. Has anyone else noticed a random fix-up in their routine that made you rethink your surroundings?
I was aiming for 30k by the end of the month but somehow kept writing scenes that actually connected. The number surprised me because I usually peter out around 20k on projects. Has anyone else overshot a word count goal and then worried the quality tanked?
I'm not a young guy, been writing on the side for about 6 years now. Last Tuesday I got my 50th rejection for short stories I sent out to various magazines and contests. At first I felt pretty down, but then I looked back at my first 10 rejections versus my last 10. The feedback got way more specific and encouraging as I improved. That number made me realize I'm actually getting better, even if nobody is buying yet. Anybody else keep track of their rejection count and notice a shift in the quality of feedback?
I always thought those were too restrictive until I got one about 'the waitress who always knew your order before you sat down' and it opened up this whole scene I never would have thought of on my own - has anyone else had a prompt type they swore they'd never use actually work for them?
My critique group leader told me to cut any line I was too proud of because it probably didn't serve the story. I trusted her since she had like 10 years of experience. So I went through my 15-page horror piece and removed every clever description I loved, including a whole paragraph about the old house breathing through its walls. I submitted the new version to our group and three people said it felt hollow and lifeless. One guy even asked if I let an AI rewrite it. Turns out the stuff I loved was the stuff that gave the story its voice. I ended up putting most of it back and just trimming the extra words around it. Has anyone else gotten bad writing advice from someone who sounded like they knew what they were talking about?
I always thought you had to write 'he said' or 'she whispered' BEFORE the quote every single time. Like 'He said, "I'm going to the store."' That's how I wrote my whole first novel draft (all 80k words of it). Then my writing group buddy read my first chapter and asked why I never put tags after or in the middle of dialogue. I felt so dumb. Now I'm going back and rewriting like half my scenes. Has anyone else had a basic writing rule click way later than it should have?
I was trying to write a creepy sea creature scene and stumbled on this fact. Apparently two of them pump blood to the gills and one does the rest, and their blood is BLUE. Has anyone else had a random biology fact totally derail their plot planning?
Everyone kept pitching stories where the hero discovers they're the chosen one, but nobody had a plot beyond the reveal. Has anyone else seen beginners default to that same twist without building out the rest?
A friend in my writing group said my characters sounded like they were reading from a script, not talking. She pointed out a scene where two friends were arguing and the grammar was too clean. I went back and added filler words like "um" and sentence fragments. Now my dialogue sounds way more real and my last 3 short stories got better feedback. Has anyone else gotten a critique that totally flipped your approach?
I visited a writing workshop in Denver last weekend and sat in on a session where everyone used the same prompt. Every single story sounded like the same person wrote it. The characters had no personality, just the prompt's plot shoved into their mouths. Has anyone else noticed prompts kill your character's natural voice unless you ignore the prompt halfway through?
I spent like 5 years thinking I had to outline every single chapter before I started writing anything. Then last month I tried just writing a short story without any plan and it came out way better than the novel I spent 3 months outlining in Nashville. So which is actually better for most writers? Has anyone else found their method was totally backwards?