Top products from r/WritersGroup

-

Overall, the writing is awkward and confusing. I think you start to find your rhythm near the end when the werewolves are running in the woods, but even then it's confusing.

-

The main issue here is you need more practice writing. Just the plain mechanics of writing, writing, writing. If there's a simple prescription, it's this: start writing 5000 words per week, and keep up this pace for 6 months. You'll see a significant, notable improvement in your writing. This 5K words/wk can be crap, written straight to one big crap file: journal stuff, stream-of-consciousness, dreams, revenge fantasies, anything.

Everyone's writing is crap to start with. Dickens was crap to start with. The difference between a crap writer and one who's less so is practice.

A lot of it has to do with awkward phrases. You literally have to write all the awkward phrases before you can learn to avoid them.

By just writing & writing, pounding it out, you slowly train your mind to think in pleasant sounding phrases. That is a facility for writing, and it comes through experience. Once you get to that point, you can write down whatever you're thinking, and it comes out sounding pretty okay.

I recommend you have a look at James Scott Bell's Plot and Structure. If you've never taken a class in fiction writing, you've probably been trying to figure out everything all on your own. Bell is lighthearted and easygoing, and he's taught me a lot.

As far as the structure of a story, it has elements that have to work together in a certain way. It's like if you're building a car, you need to start off with a chassis and wheels, then add an engine, a passenger compartment and an exterior. A story needs a plot, but it also has to have active hooks, narrative tension, proper pacing, etc. You need to understand the structure of a novel before you can make one.

-

▬▬▬

-

As far as something of substance to offer critically, I think you need more reactions in your dialogue. Most people think the rhythm of dialogues goes:

A speaks.
B speaks.
A speaks.
B speaks.

But the actual rhythm of dialogue is closer to:

A speaks.
B responds. B speaks.
A responds. A speaks.
B responds.

Responses can be nonverbal, verbal or even virtual; the room suddenly grew cold. They are just as important as what's being said.

Right now, you're utilizing your dialogue primarily to convey verbal information. But that's a ripoff, because dialogue also conveys character. It allows you to showcase the personalities of your characters and develop them.

Every dialogue is a competition for limited resources, things like talking time, power, material goods & services, etc. It competition even between good friends or family members. Good dialogue should always have something at stake.

-

▬▬▬

-


I've been a professional writer for 25 years. I know how to write a story, but I only know one way. There are other ways to write a story. So everything I say should be regarded as suggestion rather than canon.



























Best of fortune. 🚀🐲

The best way to improve your writing is to read. Honestly. It sounds simple but it's true. If you read and read and read you get better. You see what you like, what you don't. What works for you and what doesn't. Really though, more reading=better writing. Also, write all the time. Constantly write. Even if you this it's shit, just write. Not everything you write has to be good.
Also, these two books have helped immensely and I've read them over and over again. They're good for understanding how "writing" works.

Borges, On Writing

Eudora Welty, On Writing

Three things:

1. Writing Excuses: 15 min podcast featuring Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Taylor, and Marry Robenette Kowal. They give amazing advice and have awesome guest stars (Pat Rothfus, Brandon Mull, John Scalzi, Dave Wolverton/Farland, off the top of my head)
   
   
2. On Writing: A memoir by Stephen King: First half is his life story (SUPER FASCINATING!) second half some the best writing advice there is.
   
   
3. How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card: Some of the advice is outdated, but most of it is still good.
   
   of course this is assuming from your use of the word creatively you are looking to do genre fiction. There is two pieces advice that all three sources will repeat endlessly
   
   
4. Read a lot
   
   
5. Write a lot
   
   Edit: Also see if your favorite author keeps a blog, as they will usually give writing advice in those as well. I know Card, Rothfus, Sanderson, and Wells all do.

That's pretty good. I like Write Your Novel from the Middle by James Scott Bell. It's short, $4; you can download it onto your phone and read it in an afternoon. There's a certain point in the middle of a book where the hero takes a good, hard look at himself, then decides what he needs to do. Figure out that point, and the rest of the book falls in place.

I also like How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James Frey.

Start with the characters and their background first. A story isn’t about the plot, it’s about your characters: how they react to external events, and how those events change them internally. A good book has strong characters you can relate to, so if you start with the plot, you’re more likely to create something with little substance.

I’m in the planning phase for my first book, and I’ve found Lisa Cron’s Story Genius to be incredibly helpful. She recommends to first define your “what if” and the point you want your story to make, then create the characters that help you tell that story, and then you can focus on the plot. Since you’ve already defined your main character and their backstory, you’ll breeze through those parts!

In my case, I started with a rough idea of where I want my story to go, but it will become clearer to me once I finish developing the characters.

Hope that helps!

I have a fantastic realism young adult novella that is already published that I have always wanted to see as a graphic novel/comic. To be honest, it hits pretty much all of the things you listed. It involves an alternate dimension that an illustrator could have an absolute field day with. My publisher and I have discussed it before. Someone did a book trailer for me years ago, which is in the link, and might give you an idea of where it could be expanded (trailer isn’t that great though). Here is the amazon link to the description:
In the Storm

Sure. But writing is a craft, just like any other craft. Most of it is just learning a complicated set of mechanics. What one person can do, another can do. What makes the difference is drive more than genius.

Read a good, fun book on writing that will get you pumped. Maybe How to Write a Damn good Novel by James Frey, or Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell. Or better yet, if you can, take a class in fiction writing, or join a real world fiction writing group in your town.

Your spelling and usage need a lot of improvement. One error is mildly distracting; a lot of them becomes a serious turn-off.

Read more (different kinds of things) and practice writing more. Do simple writing exercises, and get a few writing books. One of my favorites for practice and developing creative instinct is What If? by Painter and Bernays.

You do have some memorable metaphors and lines here; your poet is showing. Study and practice! Good luck!

You should invest in a copy of the Writer's Market (though it's probably late enough in the year to look for the 2019 edition so you can stay up to date on competitions. Don't feel like you have to buy it every year, though. Having 1 version of it is enough, but if it's your first time buying it, might as well be as current as possible.)

It's a massive collection of magazines, agents, publishing companies, and competitions, as well as information about each. They have smaller versions that are more specific to poetry, novels & short stories, and probably also non-fiction. You can easily find them on amazon.

Earlier this year I published a volume of short stories, all sci-fi / fantasy, of various lengths. I think The Metamorphoses or Last Contact would be perfect for a comic. If you take a look and want a copy, send me a message and I'll send you one for free.

Predatory Behavior: and Other Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/1790407931/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ske5Cb3HWHXJF

The novel Wolf Hall is an excellent example of this.

The Sparrow. I loathed this book. Jesuits in space. However, I think it would be funny for those who got it.

Post-apocalypse is not my thing - so that may color my judgement. I felt a general lack of interest in the characters. There did not seem to be enough of a hook - some reason why I should care/sympathize with these characters. If one does not start with action, then I would like to see some emotional turmoil in it's place. What does this character think, what bothers him, how does he feel? If there is not immediate physical danger, nor emotional pain - to me it just seems like a slow start to the story.

It is generally well written - enough that I would have given it more time to develop if there had been more of it here, but what there was, though not so slow as to put me off, was certainly not enough to get me excited either.

I have some questions regarding the setting. It seems inconsistent to me that there would be a rapid decrease in the population, without a significant destruction of the infrastructure, yet leading to food shortages and lack of government structure at the same time. I would have expected government power to increase, when there is crisis in the society and no great disruption of communication or transport. If this were a biological disaster the phones and cars should have still been working, government should have become more powerful and intrusive, rather than becoming weaker and almost non-existent.

It seemed incongruous to me that there should be electric power and transport and a rapid decrease in the population and yet there are food shortages and government disruption at the same time.

It was also very surprising to me that there would be an extreme shortage of females yet no rise in homosexuality. Historically, in societies that practice female infanticide, also in environments where there are no females, like modern prisons, homosexuality tends to become much more common and open.

You might have sped up the introduction portion of this story with less about the back-story. Not that you do not need to know it (lest you get into huge trouble with your story later) but the reader does not need to know all of that right away. That having been said, there were some parts of the back story that bothered me. If females are a rare and valuable commodity, why did not the neighbors band together to protect this local female? Why did the slavers not just take her if they were able to? Why the delay if they had overwhelming force? Why no resistance if they did not have overwhelming force? Considering that homosexuality should have been common with females being scarce, why was there no issue of the slavers taking the boy as well? The weak, children, boys, would be the most likely to be victimized into replacing females as sexual objects. How then was this boy able to look for his sister with impunity?

Also as we were hearing things from Jack's POV why did we hear from him so much about what the leaders attitude toward members of the group were. I would have preferred to hear Jack's attitude toward them. Jack was a killer, I would have expected a bit more anger/fear in his attitude toward members of his group, and everyone else as well. It might have made for more compelling reading if there was the constant fear/threat of victimization looming over Jack's thoughts.

Also, how is it they have trade - credits, tokens, whatever, if they have no government? What is backing them? You can not eat them - they have no intrinsic value, why are they being accepted as a medium of exchange?

As for the other main character - there was nothing there I could hook on to. Nothing that might help me relate to them. I would have liked some insight into what that character wanted. A bit less of back story, and a bit more about the characters immediate concerns, might have helped me be more interested in them. It is in what motivates them that I may find something to sympathize with.

Generally good, overall, have no problem with the level of writing skill, only with the pace/focus of the story, and what seemed to me to be inconsistencies in the setting.

You might want to read something like Some Will Not Die by Algis Budrys. In his post apocalypse story, many die due to biological agents, enough to cause disruption of the government and civil services like power etc, but those who do survive, band together, effectively becoming local tribes and making war on neighboring tribes for scarce resources. A bit different from your setting, but close enough that reading it might help to focus some of your thoughts regarding your own setting.

Good luck.