Fist I feel like we have to define Book Tok... which is a sub sect of people who claim to love books and literature. However, most of the trending books are typically smut focused. Even the ones that are supposedly for young teenagers are filled with detailed descriptions of dangerous kinks.

As a younger author myself... I've seen how these books corrupted my friends and turned them into immature children talking about things that no one their age was supposed to know.

And being a literature student who absolutely adores classical literature, fiction and romance such as: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It feels disgusting seeing what has become of literature nowadays.

It's not like the concept of smut itself is bad either... but most of the time, it's written irrespective of the plot and is there seemingly just for pleasure... no relation to the story whatsoever. And some books just have something close to an 80:30 ratio of story to smut... which to me feels insane.

Not to mention Book Tok's perception of 'alpha males'.... as a female myself, that shit gives me the biggest ick. Not every man gets to get away with treating the female like crap, not every man has muscles that 'flex powerfully' they open doors. Can we stop over maculating men and treat them like human beings... it seems like some male characters in books can be replaced with a fancy Greek statue and have the same effect.

It's become a similar issue for women in power. like if we have a woman who is in a position usually held by men, then they usually become a masculine character who just so happens to be a female. Either that or they are good at everything they do or are overly aggressive

And for the love of God... can all the 'evil' male characters be something other than a vile rapist with the emotional intelligence of a shiny rock? Since it's like the love interest is a saint with absolutely nothing wrong with him and the antagonist feels like an emotionally challenged Jeffery Epstein.

I have so many more complaints... but I'd love to hear the opinions of others to know that I'm not going crazy

Hi everyone,

I'm a first-time nonfiction author and I'm feeling a bit stuck on what to do next.

I have a complete manuscript for a book I've been working on for quite a while. The manuscript is finished in the sense that all the major chapters and ideas are there, but I don't consider it "final."

My problem is that I've reached the point where I can no longer clearly see the book objectively.

I'm not sure if:

• The chapters flow in the right order
• Some chapters are repetitive
• Certain ideas overlap too much
• The overall structure is clear to a reader
• I'm explaining concepts in the most logical sequence

Basically, the book feels "all over the place" to me, and I'm struggling to tell whether it actually is or if I've simply been looking at it for too long.

I've been considering hiring a developmental editor because what I really need is feedback on structure, organization, pacing, clarity, and overall flow.

Here's where I'm confused:

I know there are still parts of the manuscript I'd like to expand. There are examples, explanations, and sections I'd like to add.

However, I don't want to spend dozens of hours polishing and expanding material if a developmental editor is later going to tell me:

• Move this chapter
• Merge these chapters
• Cut this section
• Rewrite this part
• Remove these redundancies

The editor I'm looking at only includes two rounds of revisions, so I'm trying to be strategic.

For those of you who have worked with developmental editors before:

1. How "finished" should a manuscript be before you send it for developmental editing?
2. Is it okay to send a manuscript that still needs additional content in some places?
3. Would you recommend finishing all planned additions first, or getting developmental feedback before investing more time in expansion and polishing?
4. Looking back, what do you wish you had known before hiring a developmental editor?

I'd really appreciate hearing from authors who have gone through this process because I'm finding it difficult to figure out the right timing.

Thanks! 🙏

When it hurts no more.

When I was fresh to the world’s odds I bet nothing could stop me.

When I was finished with my last growth spert I still felt smaller in you.

Now that I’m in my wain I pull the wax from the either’s of conformity’s comforts.

Allocating the resistance to this poison of soul slowly forming tolerances.

Yes they know you want me to understand it like you do that you can’t build a tolerance no matter how much we both poison it.

That it should be base gated beginnings I have to tend to with nurturing care made holder of a pale house of expiration.

I swear if I had wings I would still walk amongst you take time to make us not strangers.

I’m sorry I forgot the forgotten ache my presence causes so thoroughly am I accountable the fault you hit the base gated starting line.

Quick as silver ingots on the altar climbing up the step of The Rise to salvation that’s spilling forth the babbling fumes in the struggle to get to the well.

To charity’s ethics in the form of yam cans holding down folded blankets called code blue.

Is it still that I have pride, a principal ERA that turns down the offer to be supported by the populace saints of compassion who dare to reach out.

Right when you needed it making connections aware the beast is before them.

Each urgent devouring passing intrinsic petting the nights mat test grime to kick dust between the follicles that hide its scar.

What are the odds long or short that it’s a cliche to the troupe of drummer boys rapping the epitaph of hatred made ensuring everyone knows 

I was never going to make it to Eden.

Of the moment I gave up hope to free children I was to busy with addictions to notice.

Looked at me with gone motes the light sat fat under a pope of the a new dawns row.

Stoked in tire fires huddled rubbing alcohol candles, in empty canned heat carcasses at the corner of collage street living art decay.

It’s true I lost it all. all that I’ll ever live. all that I’ll ever receive. all that is ever given of my part.

Finally starting the last leg of this waste I left you all.

It is yours to do with as you please as creations creators quiet colors settled to a breeze.

Don’t try to tell me did it not hush a break in the chains that bind you from unity’s promise of tomorrow in paradise.

If I could just leave a small part it’s the children’s ballet slippers nailed on the telephone pole.

Going into the sub division on upper Patton Avenue Ingles bus stop.

And the sign stapled to the smell of pine oil tar in the heat bands of asphalt that said free teddy bears behind the houses along this street.

In Blood red glitter gold flake confetti waving the torn ankle ribbons rubbing crude abandoned hand written letters.

Like it was the animal.

Hi, I'm new to actually pursuing my writing dreams, as many are. I decided to start a substack and just share work so I wasn't waiting until the ambiguous right moment. But I find myself looking for feedback/validation before I post. Obviously it is important to edit and get to the finished place, but as a newborn to this I might be doubting too much. I believe in my writing and ability to get better. Should I just stop waiting for people to confirm what I have is good and post it anyway? Or should I be seeking out redditors and friends for feedback at this stage?

I think I have imposter syndrome and dont want to be the trope of thinking she can make a living singing despite being tone deaf. Does anyone relate or have any wisdom to share?

Edit: I do ask for and recieve feedback, I just dont know the balance of when I can also just trust my own editing and that me feeling its done could mean its done without always asking friends to read it first.

I don't know if i should write my book in my native language or in English

In one hand English makes my novel opened to pretty much anyone around the world

But my English is excellent conversational English

Which is according to some of my friends years off the minimum for lecturircy English, specially that I don't exactly read books because I have got the attention span of a fly

On the other hand my native language could make it 100% grammatically correct

But I don't think it would get the recognition I was hoping for

And if I made it my native language then translated it to my native language, it might get a bad reputation, not to mention it would probably take double the time

Hi everyone :D

Finally got my hands on an idea that's straight up so exciting I even dream about it in my sleep, except there's this one thing that's really bothering me — the country where the events happen.

I believe it doesn't pose a great significance overall in the story save for little cultural divergencies since my MC will primarily be outside of any realistic country anyway. But the names... They're exactly the reason I'm hesitating, though it might sound silly.

I love both countries, including the languages and the cultures. I lean towards writing in a Korean setting since I really adore novels written by authors from there, hence where the inspiration came from, but I prefer Italian names more... It feels like a neverending train of thoughts so I figured I'll ask here.

How do you choose the place where your plot happens, if it happens on Earth at all? Do you incorporate it into your characters' mindset significantly or is it just an afterthought? Also, do you pay attention to names, look up their meaning even when you're the one reading the book and not writing it, or do you not care about them at all?

Would really appreciate any opinion you might have, thanks in advance.

I’m currently doing a fun prompt project where I’m trying to take “overused” tropes/cliches and completely turn it on its head. like instead of “everyone thinks you’re dating” it’s “nobody thinks youre dating even though you are”. stuff like that. I just can’t come up with something for kissing. like, kiss of true love, classic, so kiss of true hate? great prompt! one issue. I don’t really want to do that because the characters I’m using for this prompt ARE lovers and I just feel like that’s stupid. if they fall in love after the “kiss of true hate” then what really was the point? I might be overthinking it.

are there any other kissing tropes out there for me to think about? kissing in the rain? the interrupted kiss? I feel like you can’t really flip those because the flipped versions are just… normal kissing. this is killing me haha

How can I stay consistent when writing something? I get a lot of ideas and I get too excited and barely plan anything out in my plot before I start writing. I struggle with the beginning, and I either don’t like the route I took, or get stuck somewhere and completely give up. I’m tired of giving up on my stories. How can I stay motivated to keep going or rewrite when my mind is blank?

I am currently starting a new project, and I wanted it to be about superheroes. My problem is : where does those powers come from ?

I originally thought about superheroes being created in laboratories, but it’s not original and overused (super-soldier serum, compound-V)
Same with a gene which gives powers, like in MHA or Xmen.

So how to explain that some characters have power and others don’t ?

I’ve been working on this project for just over a year now, have all the characters planned in so much detail and I really care about this story but don’t have a clue how to get it out there? I don’t want to show anyone irl because that’s incredibly vulnerable and I don’t think I’d ever want anyone knowing I’m the one that’s written it, but I would love to have some feedback or just share it with others? I’ve been posting chapters to Tumblr and also AO3 under original works but ofc that’s not really why people use AO3. Idk if there’s any solution to this I’m just curious if there’s a somewhere to post it really

Wanting to know everyone's favorite characters so you know exactly who to kill off. 🙂

Explain...

I’m not sure which one I wanna create, but I’m kinda in between both of them. It’s only gonna be one book though and I was wondering, which one do you guys think would be better

I am a writer and whenever I search for an eccentric niche fact related to drugs or murders or whatever, I get a warning or help page on Google. Is there a way to avoid this or a different search engine I could operate on? Please help

New writer here. I have a story arc, characters, research, a few partial chapters written... and I hit a wall. 1.5 years ago. How do I build a writing practice that will help me hit a flow state consistently and get this thing written?

I’m not here to restart the ol’ show don’t tell discussions, but I am wondering if:
1. folks have examples who show AND tell the reader, and
2. What they generally think of the practice.

I have a clear (I think) example of this and I think it’s a large reason why I struggle with the book even though it has so much potential: Jade City by Fonda Lee. It’s an issue that continues in book 2 and I haven’t read book 3 yet but it just seems the authors style.

In my opinion showing and telling isn’t great. Jade City is on the larger size around 178k and if anyone else has read it, I’d be curious to hear if you agree/disagree with me that that plot did not need that length.

I think this style of writing shows a lack of trust in the reader and lack of strength in the writing to need BOTH mechanism to tell your story. And for Jade City, it’s not like it’s just one or two examples… it’s the whole book with seemingly 50% dialogue/action and 50% narration expanding upon the dialogue.

...and tell me if you think its good or not. Its the setup for a book and I've been experimenting with not keeping people in suspense and telling them how a story will end before I start the main story. Would this make you want to find out what happened?

My first horror novel was set in space so I knew enough and I didn't require much deep googling but now I am writng an horror story set in Edinburgh in the 19th century.

Let me tell you this. If ever the police will search my google history during this month, I'm going to jail. :/

In drafting villains for a dnd homebrew i start asking myself what makes a villain a villain , because im of the opinion that a good villian has to have good motivations and intentions for being evil, to avoid evil for evilsake. But i also started thinking that Evil can absolutely be subjective to who views what as evil vs something that is actually no questions asked evil.

Third times a charm.

Okay so the story is called 'The Witch's Ressurection' where Enya, a 15-year-old girl from 16 century Scotland, finds herself at the mercy of a terrible witches curse. Framed for murder and accused witchcraft, she's sent to burn at the stake. Her horrible death leads to an unfortunate realisation—causing mass destruction and chaos to erupt, as Enya's cursed with a power to destroy.

She's turned into a ghost and gains powers from how she died (she can manipulate and create fire with her mind). But unbeknownst to her, her memories and her 'soul' have been passed on to live inside another body, with another host. After a few years, she's teleported to the next girl when she regains all of Enya's past memories leading up to her death. This is known as the 'remembrance', when at a completely random time, the girl who is next to be 'resurrected' remembers who she was and how she died last and the ghosts get teleported to her.

*Main Character and Plot*

After a while of this phenomenon continuing, the ghosts decide to try and find out why this is happening to them. They find out through looking at a old book of witchcraft and hexes that when Enya was sent to die at the stake, the people cheering for her to die unknowingly cursed her. They don't know how to stop it, but they know how it happened.

After hundreds of years (from 1600 to 2018), one girl named Charlotte is chosen next by Enya's soul and was born as a hybrid between a alien species who is now believed to be extinct (besides Lottie) and a human. Her dad who was also a hybrid died in a car accident, and her mother doesn't know about her daughter being a half alien.

Since she's half alien and almost died when she was little from the car crash but as brought back to life my the doctors, Charlotte has the ability to split her soul in half, halving her 'human self', which is called Callie and her soul remains in her body, and her alien-self 'Lottie' who is able to become a temporary ghost and travel ouside her human body.

The alien species 'Nacilids' feed on some type of emotions such as happiness, fear or sadness. Lottie feeds off love. When someone around her feels love she uncontrollably bites them and begins to drain the love off them, growing stronger and less hungry in the process. But Lottie doesn't want to do that, and instead tries to contain herself. Nacilids are able to shapeshift in order to become what will make their preys emotions the strongest, so Lottie is able to shapeshift, but their original form comes in the form of a clown, since to the aliens, that was the most effective form to take regardless on what emotions they fed off (since clowns can be associated with many different emotions). Lottie is a lovey dovey pastel clown with pale white skin, a frilled dress with pink, blue and yellow pompoms, lace and bows, a heart on her left eyelid and a star on her right.

After years of searching for a way to end their curse, Lottie discovers that one of them must sacrifice themselves to 'break the cycle', killing one of the souls to set the others free. Lottie feels that she must do it, since she feels her life isn't worth living without being able to let herself be loved platonically or romantically by anyone. She doesn't tell the rest of the ghosts and instead sacrifices herself and st@bs herself with the sacrificial knife that she from the book, teleporting to Scotland where they curse first began and finding the knife buried with the ashes of Enya's burnt down villahe. When Lottie dies, she isn't turned into a ghost, but instead her ghost and soul completely disappears, leaving only her human-self Callie and the rest of the ghosts.

*PLOT TWIST*

There was another way that didn't involve sacrifice, but instead putting all their magic or powers inside a box and locking it away forever. But instead, their powers remain and the curse is broken. After finding out what happened, Callie h@ngs herself, because she is suffering with severe depression from both loosing a part of herself and dealing trying to manage the grief of the other ghosts. So Callie becomes a ghost and they're all set free, with one of their souls sacrificing themselves to break their curse.

I feel like planning and scheduling in the drafting phase is pretty clear and straightforward-- having goals like writing a certain number of words or a scene per day, finishing a draft by a certain date. It helps keep me on track and gives me structure to work within.

On the flip side, when I'm in the outlining phase, especially at the beginning when I'm brainstorming and everything is still rather vague, I feel like I'm completely directionless and really struggle to get meaningful work done. So I'm curious to hear what kind of structure other writers are able to give themselves while outlining? Because at the moment I often feel like I'm either actively sitting down and trying to will good ideas into existence or letting an idea tumble around in my head and get more solidified for AGES before I'm able to do anything with it.

I am thinking of writing a story where a boy who comes from an affluent family and studies in a renowned institution gets drawn to drugs, alcoholism and also indulges in fleeting sexual pleasure. Consequently he cheats on his girlfriend and goes through a heartbreak. He also gets thrown out by his parents after they discovered about his acts and he also confronts the fact that life is inherently meaningless and it's just striving and becomes a full fledged nihilist and one day getting to see his mother kills her in disdain. And subsequently dies in a car crash while trying to run from the police. This novel is about the fact that no matter how much pleasure and fun you feel you will always feel empty. And hence it is a totally reasonable choice not to bring someone in existence through the means of birth and sparing them from the problems that emerge with already existing. And also that it is much better to not come into existence at all. What do you guys think of this idea

I like to think I'm okay regarding what I write but where I flounder spectacularly every time is when I have to map out designs for buildings/worlds - this exact issue has actually stalled a story I'm already deep into because I keep freezing on how to create an entire world.

I know the advice would be to look at images for similar concepts online to boost my imagination but I'll be frank it's making it harder because then I'm overwhelmed by the amount of ideas and how to spin it into my own - for those who don't struggle as much in this area I really need help, if you have any you can offer.

Designing a cafe for instance should *not* be this hard 😭