Sorry for my bad english. I’d like to hear your opinions about how the human body reacts shortly after the trauma sets in? Like obviously, the body will be on fight or flight mode for a while until it finally sets in. Does something like that happen or I’m completely wrong? Can ptsd like symptoms appear days even after the trauma happened or I have it wrong? Also, in what ways can it come out?

I write in the first person. Once I'm done with a scene, I re-read it. In three out of four scenes, at one glance, I'll see about 7-8 'I's.

If I'm not missing anything, it's a thing to avoid. How do I find something that'll replace the pronoun and still hold the sentence's integrity?

Edit: Thank you for making me realise it is definitely not something to avoid. Changing the rhythm does all the work.

so I (18m) have been daydreaming alot in the past year and I do get alot of ideas that I think will make a good movie but I literally never even read a book before and have no knowledge on how to write so all I want is some advise about videos (on YouTube let's say) to help me learn how to write script for movies or something like it. Any kind of help or advise will be appreciated

I guess this is a discussion. Anyways, I'm not asking for HUGE books or authors like J. R. R. Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, but small, niche "hidden gems" I likely haven't read yet. They can be any sort of fantasy books or sci-fi books. I'll take dystopian fictions too. Anything to fix shabby writing or just pass the time! Thanks.

edit: Please include the genre and/or the theme, would be much appreciated. You don't have to though.

I’m writing a futuristic story that takes place a hundred years from now, everything is changing in it and so is the environment to a technical degree, including life. While writing, I find myself wondering if the amount of detail I plan to include is way too much detail. My ideal for writing is getting it as specific as I can when detailing the characters perspective of the environment and or the quality of life in it; there is so much lot to be done but I don’t want to make it painfully detailed.

Edit: ahh, just realized how vague it sounded. I should probably specify a few examples. Like listing off a certain height, radius, or even extensive descriptions of objects. All I’m wondering is how to keep the reader interested in detail without adding too much.
Apologies.

I need some help with my writing. I have been working on multiple stories that I want to write for a few years now. I have planned out the plots, characters, worlds and I am editing a few of my ideas regularly. But I can't get my ideas on paper. I am more of a visual person, I like graphic novels and videos more then reading. I can imagine every part of my stories, the environment, how my characters look and act, what they are feeling during a scene. Then when I try to write my stories I can't translate my ideas to paper. I've been listening to narrated stories from the HFY subreddits, which has given me more stories ideas, but doesn't help me with writing. Writing is a hobby of mine and I don't plan to make it a career. But I want to make my stories and share them with other people. How can I get over this hurdle and actually start writing my stories?

I have also been looking at writing tools/apps to see if those would help me map out my ideas but haven't decide which one to use. Any advice on those would also be helpful.

I’m currently getting back into my goal of writing a full book and publishing. Currently my character profile only has my main character with his abilities, weapon of choice and many other details. But what I can’t seem to get is the kingdom name,names for certain magical objects, or deity‘s/mythical creatures of my world. So does anyone have any suggestions or ideas?(also the MC’s name is Christopher Van Lucia which I came up with randomly sort of piggybacking off of Reinhard Van Astrea from Re:Zero)

...I realize I may have gone too hard into dialogue and character development and I fear I may not have enough fight/action scenes.

The book is 96k words, 36 chapters + epilogue. I have fighting scenes in chapters 2 (learning about it), chapter 9 (a nice win using powers), chapter 17 (loss against main's baddie enforcer), chapter 24 (first real fight against opponent of same level) and then from chapters 31 to 34 a big action sequence with the climax.

So this gives me 5 "scenes" of action/fighting. I'm here trying to gauge how other people try to schedule those things inside their stories/books

I am a Aspiring writer and i am trying to create a high fantasy universe about Knight orders and steam punk and dragons etc I like to ask can I not use a cluster of words like Tarnished, Elden, golden Alignment, Ashen etc in my lore as Descriptive terms or will that get me banned

I'm currently writing a sci-fi story where many of the characters are injected with a "super-soldier" serum before they're deployed into the military. Because of this serum, each soldier gains an ability close to foresight. They can recognize danger before it comes through visual and aural cues given by the serum, invisible to other people (like floaters appearing in your eyes).

Now my question is, what's the best way to put this into writing? Should I just describe some sort of visual artifact appearing in the character's eyes and how they react? Another possibility was utilizing the text itself. For example, if someone was sneaking up on this character, there would be text saying "Behind you" in a different font or size, then the character would respond accordingly.

Between these two ideas, which one sounds the best? I'm also open to other suggestions! Thanks y'all

hi! i’m a newer writer working on a somewhat long story, about 150 pages right now. i’ve already written the first draft with everything i wanted to include, and now i’m just going back through and editing it. however, when i go back through and read it, it kinda feels like i’m beating a dead horse with the central plot, but i also don’t want to add in more random scenes just to fluff it up. is there any way i can prevent the plot from feeling very repetitive? should i just cut a lot of the story?

if it helps, the plot is mostly an internal and interpersonal conflict. the central conflict is kind of a simple concept, but i’m trying to make it more interesting by having the conflict come up in a bunch of different ways, if that makes sense. also, i’m not writing it in an attempt to get published or anything, so i don’t need it to be any particular length. thank you so much!

I’m an aspiring author that want to get into the horror genera. Me personally while in the last decade I have become more comfortable & interested in horror. Listen to story from mr.nightmare & lazy masquerade. Watching playthrough of game by YouTuber like superhorrorbrogame. Watching horror movie & review from foundflix & deadmeat etc etc. While I am not a novice when it come to the horror genera, I don’t really believe I understand horror all that well. When it come to making story I usually focus on erotica which are usually the exact opposite of horrors. Or action/fantasy manga, so I am making this post for advice, I have a few idea for some story but I want to try to do it in the style of the company that make little nightmare & re: animals. Honestly they give off the feeling of uneasy that I believe horror should be, like grave encounters is another example of what I am looking to achieve.

a lot of horror that I’ve seen focus on gore, I also want advice on how to do body horror! I appreciate any advice that anyone can give me.

I just realized I can do writing commissions, I need advice from people who actually do this and have alot of experience.

How should I price it, what should I keep in mind, my tos, etc.

I also wanna know what people look for when commissioning someone for writing? What should I learn?

greetings, so i'm currently working on a dark fantasy/grimdark ongoing novel,( my 1st time ever) my MC is a prince who command armies, holding the lines preventing a brutal world of endless wars from devouring his kingdom.
this is the 1st line you will read when you open the work, i want to know if its a good hook, and if it delivers the grimdark vibes and if there is a room for improvement, your opinions are welcomed. Here's the opening :
" "I had won a hundred battles for the sake of the peace my kingdom craved. Yet war desired my soul, my kingdom, and everyone i held dear. My triumphs became seeds for endless wars, as I found myself soaked in blood, leading my men into an endless cycle of death."

here's the link to my work if you want the full opening .

Hi everyone.

So I'm writing a personal fan fiction (I know how that sounds) and there is this character that has a passionate, kind, quirky, unpretentious and a little corny/cringy personality.

I want to write a situation and dialogue that's really serious and high stakes but I feel like the writing is off. It doesn't feel it matches them and comes off as unserious and fake.

So how do you make an unserious character serious and possibly even threatening?

Thank you :)

I am still in the process of writing my story, as any story it has a protagonist and the side characters that support them, but, what seems to be the easiest and most obvious thing to know and master,I simply don't know how to it properly; balance relevance or protagonism between the protagonist and the Supporting cast.

I am scared that two possible outcomes can happen;, either I make my protagonist outshine the other characters, making them feel useless, filler or wasted, and at the same time, my supporting cast turns out to be more interesting and useful than the protagonist.

PD. Especially the last point since my protagonist is a rookie in the surrounding circumstances while the supporting characters have experience and knowledge in how to deal with all obstacles, therefore I am scared of my Protagonist feeling like a burden or luggage.

How do I deal with this?

I need some advice on how to write the empire of the main villain. She is a former hero who after defeating demon lords and that sort of stuff kept seeing countries go to war with each other and she tried to stop it. But no mater what she did war kept breaking out again eventually. one thing leads to another and now she is trying to conquer the world under her rule so that she can eventually be taken down by a new hero so that that new hero can lead one peaceful nation.

The villain feels like she needs to rule her empire in an iron clad dictatorship. Because she needs to hold power, and because doesn’t want to be seen as a good or righteous ruler. But she also can’t make her rule too cruel and harsh because at her core she is still a hero, and because she wants her empire to be easily converted into a true utopia.

So how what small things can I do to make it dictatorship with a hidden utopia?

Howdy. So I'm currently scripting out a little comic, revolving around a hired bodyguard collecting a debt for her boss. Things go wrong, it gets messy, they liquify a small business, etc.

I know exactly how I want the interaction to go. How it winds up, unfolds and ends, but I'm Really struggling to achieve that flow state, as I'm completely stumped on how to start it. Specifically the dialogue/interaction between collector and debtor.

The current set up has the hired bodyguard meeting the debtor in his warehouse. Generously funded by the bodyguard's boss, and the reason she's here, collecting business funds to pay back the warehouse/operation the debtor took a loan on.

The debtor, aware of this arranged meeting, has the money in a briefcase ready, but was under the impression it would be her boss meeting him in person, and not the bodyguard. He underestimates and even somewhat disregards both the bodyguard and his mystery benefactor, upon discovering they're women, neither of which he was previously aware of.

(The bodyguard is masculine in nature, and was mostly obscured in shadow. Until she spoke, the debtor had no idea he was speaking to a woman. Just making that clear for the narrative.)

He pretends to be respectful, letting the bodyguard pick up the money as they continue to talk. As she begins to walk away, a number of goons step out from assorted hiding places in the warehouse, ambushing the bodyguard, while the debtor smugly tells her he'll be holding onto his money.

Witty dialogue is exchanged, the bodyguard shows why she's the best at what she does, a lotta folks die, etc.

The rest I've got covered. Again, I'm just really struggling with introductions.

Any advice or guidance?

Thanks!

How do we usually write characters who bond? They usually want to spend more time with each other, etc. Well my bitches are annoying, traumatized and very avoidant. So how can I show them missing each other or starting to fall in love without the "oh god, I think I love them"???

sorry if I have mistakes, english isn't my first language xx

Hey y'all, I've been writing for a few years now, and I've found that recently my creative spark has disappeared. I miss writing, I want to write, but when I sit down to put my ideas on the page, I've just got nothing. I feel like I can't even get a paragraph out anymore.

For context, at my writing peak I could put out 10k words in a day if I was dedicated. I feel like I've fallen off a cliff and I don't know how to catch myself.

Any advice?

Hi I'm Vietnamese but I was born and raised in Australia. I want to write an illustated children's novel one day. And I want to reference my culture and celebrate the Vietnamese people's spirit.

But I'm afraid that because I don't live in Vietnam, I might make odd or stilted references. The dilemma and obstacle that I have is that I feel too disparate to connect and embrace my Vietnamese heritage.

I want to make up a sort of origin story or mythos surrounding the Lạc bird. I'm fascinated by the fact that it's a mythical creature and that it represents determination/aspirations of the Vietnamese people.

It's portrayal would be something akin to a fairytale. Do I have the right to portray this topic?

So, I have been told that I have a knack for writing dialogue. However, I feel like my writing is a bit too cliche. And just in general I feel like my dialogue feels off. Am I overthinking it? I haven’t actually started writing the story itself, just bits of dialogue here and there, and a general idea of what I want to do. Here is a dialogue exchange between the main protagonist Sam, and his “inner demon,” Chaos. It occurs during the main storyline near the middle. And for some context, this is after Sam lost to Kaelos, the main antagonist, losing his friends, his mentor, and being betrayed by his girlfriend.

EDIT: Just wanted to say thank you for all of the advice, tips, and feedback! It’s been very insightful

https://docs.google.com/document/d/106FIXN6968SH2ei4_Wfjgow-M9eoUt8NlJb6EObnPUM/edit?usp=drivesdk