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@freedomwriter76
I’m glad it helped! YES it’s super good! The themes are beautiful and the art is just ✨✨✨
@freedomwriter76
Whoo, my kind of topic 😀
I’ll second @loopylin ! The studio Ghibli movies are BEAUTIFUL and I love their writing so much! They just feel so warm and soft. I’ve watched Ocean Waves, Whisper of the Heart, Arietty, and When Marnie Was Here, and I loved all of them! Arietty might have been my favorite!
In a similar vein, I also really loved Flavors of Youth. It’s an anime movie, made up of three short films. They’re all kind of slow, slice of life stories, and the storylines are beautiful and so is the art! It’s so soft and atmospheric! All three of them are completely clean with nothing weird in them. The first story centers around food, the second around clothes, and the third around home. It’s very much a comfort movie!
Another series I really loved was Violet Evergarden! The art style is BEAUTIFUL and the storyline is very emotional. It’s a bit slow-paced, but worth the time! It doesn’t have any weird content, though it does have some war violence and is occasionally emotionally heavy, plus maybe one joking innuendo, iirc. I’ve just watched the first series of it, there are like two movies as well, but I haven’t watched those yet!
I’ve extensively info dumped to you about Haikyuu before, so I’ll spare you that this time XD Anyway, yes, that one’s completely clean, I think the only thing that could count as content is some mild language. It’s just so good, I love it a lot!
Lol thanks for some reasons I felt like I has too get it right the first time
Honestly, it always feels that way, but it’s genuinely not true. If your first draft ISN’T terrible you have more of a problem XD Plus, terrible is kinda a vague word. It’s like with drawing! You don’t look at your first sketch and say ‘oh my drawing is terrible’, no, you go over it and refine it. And you may know from experience that if you try to draw the final product straight from a blank page without any sketching, it’ll end up sloppy and not as good as it could be. So, thinking of it as a first sketch might help 🙂
My mom read save the cat for her story and said it was really good! I’ll have to check that out!
Yes! I love that book, it’s helped me SO much!! I do recommend looking into it!
Oh sorry that’s just me being self-conscious about the fact I love writing that kind of stuff 😂
As you should honestly XD Those are the fun, juicy, emotional parts of the story. My favorite scenes are the ones where someone is sobbing, and I will admit that readily XD
Oh dear, I totally don’t know how to properly use the qouteing tool
Oh gosh, I know that feeling XD
I usually copy the part I want to quote, paste it into the box where you’re typing, select it, and click the ‘blockquote’ icon, third from the left. You should see it move more toward the middle! I hope that helps!
Oh and a great resource that may help you is ShaelinWrites on Youtube! She’s very knowledgeable and her advice is both simple enough to make sense to a beginner and complex enough that you can keep learning things from it!
Okay, so first thing. Almost every single one of the problems you’re experiencing are a side effect of having a project that’s bigger than your current skillset, and that’s a GOOD thing! It means you’re going to grow a ton through figuring it out!
I experienced these exact issues the first time I drafted a story, and honestly the second time too.
Do remember, you don’t have to nail it on the first go. Things like these usually need to be fixed in revisions, and no matter how you’ll do it, you’ll find things to fix later XD So don’t try to make it perfect, and try to find a way to get the information down in a way your future self can filter through it and fix it.
Okay for more specific answers!
It sounds like you don’t currently have an outline or a very solid plot, so you’re a bit lost with how to get from one plot point to another (which… wayy too relatable, I remember how that was for my first story)
I don’t know if you’re a plotter or a pantser, but I recommend at least giving plotting a try! If it doesn’t work for you, feel free to discard it, but it’s worth a shot!
So, I recommend looking up some things about story structure. This is what really pulled my stories together and helped me get from one point to another. My favorite structure is 15 beats, aka Save the Cat. I think it could help you to read up on it a little and try arranging your plot points into it! That’ll give you some clues of what plot points you need.
It’ll also show you how to structure your characters’ arcs and tie them to the plot.
As for the exposition issues, my personal preference for how to explain them is through narration. Not in huge chunks, but you can just drop in little bits here and there if your MC knows about it. Just give the information as your reader needs it. Don’t see it as all one massive thing, you can just drop a sentence here and there and the reader will get it.
This is the hard one. There needs to be a firm foundation of my mc’s, Tauren and Lesli’s relationship. They obviously care about each other immensely, but because they became friends as children, (or in my book, scenes that will end up as backstory) I’m having a hard time finding a meaningful way to show that. I can’t jump right in with Tauren comforting Lesli after her parents break up, It’ll seem cheesy if you don’t already love the characters.
Okay, I don’t altogether agree that it’ll be cheesy, but I think I see what you mean.
So, something that might help. Think about why they’re friends. What does each one have that helps and complements the other? What do they have in common? Show them bonding over that. Where do they differ? Show how it fits together.
It doesn’t have to be a huge, emotional scene. Again, it’s in the little things.
That’s kinda alot of beginning information, besides the introduction of Lesli’s family and herself. I remember with reading book one of the wingfeather saga, it took so long to get to the real plot I stopped reading (I came back to it awhile later), because it simply took so long to “get into it”. I don’t want that to happen with my story, but a lot of this information is necessary.
As aformentioned, it helps not to give it all at once. I also read the first book of Wingfeather, and iirc, the main issue was that the story took ages to start. You can fix that by having a solid catalyst in the first 20% of the book!
Her parents broke up because of her dads effort to re-unite the west and east bunkers, and he was rejected for it. It just doesn’t feel like it fits in a lot. I wanted to use this to show how reliable a friend Tauren is, but it’s not as meaningful as it should be because I don’t have any scenes planned for them before that happens (other than some backstory). Like, the buildup and establishment of their relationship isn’t there… and I have no clue how to do that properly.
If you don’t feel like it fits, you can take focus off it! Keep it in the story, but instead of making it any big plot point, it’s just kinda a thing that happens. That takes a lot of the pressure off.
Okay, I hope you can find some useful things in that tangle of information XD I remember how it was for me just starting out, and I think the one important thing to remember is that you don’t have to get it right in the first go. If your first draft is unreadable, jumbled junk, you’ve already done WAY more than most people will accomplished in a lifetime! You can fix it later, it just needs to exist!
Anyway, it sounds super fun and I hope you have an awesome time with it!
Thanks for replying!
If you’re plateauing then just keep rolling with it you’ll most likely iron out repetitions in editing most likely. I think that in most cases authors just find something that works and therefore fall into the trap? of unconsciously (or maybe consciously) creating and following a formula for creating works.
That’s a good point, I’ve noticed the same thing in my own writing!
Another thing I have felt authors do is when you first read their series then you are actually scared that the central characters might get seriously hurt or die or win/stop winning
Oh yeah, a lack of stakes is absolutely a thing! I’ve noticed that too with a lot of long-running series.
So in conclusion, writing something with a totally different voice and focus might get you back into the learning phase again.
That’s a pretty brilliant suggestion! It made me realize I might be experiencing this now because I’ve been writing from one POV for months XD I recently had just an inbetween chapter with a different POV and it was so fun and interesting again!
I’m going to try writing some shorter fiction just to get back into a learning space I think!
But before that, FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED. AND REVEL (NOISILY, IF NEEDED) IN THE GLORY OF YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENT.
LOLLL YESSS the best part of writing must be celebrated!!!
I used to love this book series “The city of ember”, but only the first book of the series really feels, alive. That being said, it really inspired me. I think that was less the author plateauing, and more of maybe… wanting to make more money and feeling obligated to tack on an ending and more plot… instead of leaving on open ending.
Oh yes I’ve seen that too, SO often! Sometimes I’m torn between wanting more of the characters and wanting the story to remain good quality XD
Something I found funny about that book though is at the end of the whole thing when the two main characters get married, they say something like, “her red hair” and I was like Whaaaaat? it was red? 😂🤣I probably just missed it earlier.
Lolll it’s the WORST when that happens!!
I like to try to emulate styles I’ve read in others books, but maybe that a beginer-trying-to-figure-out-how-to-write-thing.
And that’s an awesome technique! I’ve done things like that too, and it’s great practice!
I was going to suggest trying to write in a new-too-you style, but obviously your not going to do that in the middle of a book. But maybe a good side project 🙂
That’s actually a good idea! I’m going to see if I can start working on maybe some smaller projects like flash fiction or short stories, just for a change XD
You should try praying about it! I used to be really good at descriptive stuff but could never come up with a plot, prayed that I wanted to be able to write, and lol, one day the idea for my current WIP just came too me! Good luck of your books! (I’m sure they’ll be great) 😊
That’s always the best advice there is 😀
AAAHHHFGGG I’m really sorry I haven’t responded in so long, this reply was sitting open and written in a tab on my laptop for a week and a half, I’m just now hitting send.
Lollll that’s such a mood, I’ve done that too, so often XD
Thank you, this is very true. I didn’t really realize this, but it was pointed out to me that all the main RA girls (Alyss, Pauline, Cassandra, Maddie, Jenny) are all blonde, with roughly the same build… there was a bit lacking in RA girls for sure lol.
Oh gosh, that’s too true! They low-key feel like the same person in different fonts, and it’s such a pity because they each have genuinely interesting aspects! Like one of my favorite things was Alyss being really tall. I’ve often seen ‘tall but not as tall as the guys’ but having a female character who towers over her love interest was so nice for a change! But yes, why so many blondes? XD
Lydia from Brotherband was a slight variation on this theme. She had dark hair, but that’s… about the only difference ngl. Of course she was ‘tall and slim and outdoorsy’.
Yeah, I’m a little salty about this because all the guys were so fun, with way more variation! Ah well, it inspired me to put extra effort into it for my characters, so I guess that’s a good thing XD
Thanks! I really enjoyed Erak’s Ransom, but I was one of the crowd who was like, emotional when John Flannagan skipped Will’s years as an Apprentice to go straight to the Sorcerer of the North. I think he was trying to make up for that time jump with Erak’s Ransom, so when I was reading it, it still kinda felt like filler. But Tug. Oh. My. Holy. ApPlebUtter. That poor horse, and his relationship with Will, it was beautiful.
I still sometimes wish Erak’s Ransom had been written before Sorcerer, because we missed on some of that grown affection between Will and Tug, but they fit together well, even with the jumps.Oh you’re totally right! I would have loved it if it was more of that order, and then you could see more of the consequences of the Arrida trip! Especially with Tug and Will. Actually, same with the other books. Especially in Icebound land, Will was super traumatized, and yet it seems to vanish right away and he never thinks about it again? That’s kinda wasted potential imo.
Cool! I haven’t yet, would you recommend reading them as a part of the series?
Well, there are some fun parts! It’s a completely different cast, but there’s overlap! Like, Gilan shows up and has quite a bit of screen time! Same with Erak and Svengal, they’re pretty important characters too! A few others like Selethen show up too, it’s very fun!
Otherwise… it centers around completely different characters. The first five books are the best, after that you see the same quality decline as in RR. (I have yet to read book 9) The characters themselves are great, once you’ve gotten to know them! They start out a bit shallow, but as the books go on they definitely deepen.
The cast is super fun, their interactions and relationships are definitely the best part of the books!
I’d say they’re a great addition to RA, though the RA characters will always be special to me!
I still have a couple of issues with it, but that’s on about the same level as ‘the female characters in RA deserved better’. So, not a dealbreaker, more personal opinion! I could rant about it for a while but I guess that’s just a sign I’m attached to the series enough to have really thought it over XD
Yes, this is sad. I think he wanted to stop at the Royal Ranger, which would’ve been fine, but just kept going. And they began to feel like–especially recently–they’re made for a younger audience almost, less complications, and some more filters, unlike the sorcery or philosophy in the previous books. (but, perhaps for the drinking in book one and the brief disappointing romance in the following two books)
You’re right! In general, it feels like it’s become a little more simple with fewer complications. Also, is it just me or are the characters way overpowered? Even Maddie in the later books. It doesn’t feel like they’re challenged at all, it’s just a matter of time before they come up with the perfect solution and execute it without a hitch.
Maybe it’s just me, but I love when characters have a plan, and then there’s an unforeseen circumstance and the plan gets tossed out the window and they have to improvise.
Yeesss the SSAAASSSS I love characters like this XD especially when they’re young
Absolutely, Liorah is just 16 at the start, so she has some excuse for being a brat XD She’s the sassiest character I’ve ever written and I love her for that XD
This sounds like a really cool, I love the personality potential 🙂
Thank you! It’s a way to make it a bit easier to write. If I had an angsty character as an MC the story would have been wayyy too dark to write XD Now I just have Ophelia absently thinking about pretty shoes to lighten things up a bit XD
Ok, thanks! I recently got a laptop that’s screen can flip 360 degrees, and it has a great touch-sensitive screen, so I could try digital art sometime. I used to use Autodesk, but I lost the download file for it not long after my first sketch. (I can only assume it’s the jealous haunting ghost of my old pc. (obv He’s sensitive that I switched to a newer model); )
Oh that’s too cool! Ah yes, laptops be vengeful like that XD
@freedomwriter76
That’s super interesting! I didn’t know much about that! I’m sure it’ll turn out amazing, it sounds like you have a great plan already!
Ooohhh fun topic!
How fast do you go from daydreaming to writing? Do you daydream at all? Do you write a first draft real quick and edit afterward? Or are you on the slower side, editing as you go? Ooo, and do you have a writing ritual?
Well, I daydream a LONG time. Usually, I’m daydreaming about a plot while writing a different book, so I have enough time. I’ll be thinking about it, discussing it with writer friends, and scribbling down ideas for months.
By the time I’m done with that, I can usually outline it in a few days because I already have pretty much the whole plot and all the characters.
After that, I start drafting, which means first making a detailed outline of each chapter with scripted dialogue, and then drafting it. I draft fairly quickly, though it still takes me a couple of months to get through all of it.
I don’t edit at all, I just write all of it in one go without any thought as to whether it’s comprehensible. Sometimes I’ll even leave placeholders for myself like (DOES THIS MAKE SENSE) so I can find my worries in future.
After that, I let it sit for a few months while I bounce back to a different project. Then I’ll read through it, annotate, and plan the revisions. That usually takes a briefer daydreaming period, and then I start with revisions!
I don’t have much of a process for that yet, since I’m in the middle of my first time XD But so far I’m enjoying it!
@freedomwriter76
You know…I never thought of that! XD I never thought that maybe y’all don’t celebrate the Christian holidays! Thanks!
Awesome, I’m glad I could help!
And also…I just realized that Esther’s not the only messianic one. Leon is too! (the Jewish man mentioned for Freedom’s Fire) He celebrates the Christian holidays tho…for one reason being that his wife is German, not Jewish, and Esther likely will as well, since she marries an American soldier. XD
Oh that’s interesting! I want to add that switching a character from Jewish to Messianic is a MAJOR change, and will probably impact your plot in many ways. Mainly, once he’s accepted Christ, he’ll most likely be seen as a convert to Christianity, no matter what he still follows or believes. Messianics are closer to a Christian denomination than a sub-category of Judaism, though I usually describe it as a separate religion that overlaps with both.
That will probably impact the plot quite a bit, it’s even the question if he’ll be put in a concentration camp. Plus it will color every interaction, besides making a ton of research. So, just a warning, that could derail your whole plot because it’s a significant change 😀
He celebrates the Christian holidays tho…for one reason being that his wife is German, not Jewish, and Esther likely will as well, since she marries an American soldier. XD
That’s also perfectly possible!
Anyway I hope this helped some!
Ahhhh thank you!!!! Oo, so cool! *reads about Ophelia* GIRL YES. They do sound similar!!! Exactly, characters like that are so fun to write. 😀
They’re just the best, they have such an interesting internal struggle with constant insecurity but also this ambitious drive! It gives them a lot of inherent agency and conflict, besides an interesting way they interact with other characters!
*sobs* I knowwww! Aww, thank you!!! I think so! *winks*
Romances where the characters contrast yet complement each other are just SO fun to write! I generally enjoy writing romance, I have two romantic sub-plots in GB, and they’re just so so adorable I could melt into a puddle of happiness XD The characters need it after the… *ahem* somewhat traumatic events of the books. XD
Hmmm… I’d say it’s mainly centered on the romance, but there are several subplots outside of that too. (Though it’s hard to know what to categorize as the romance and what’s just the character’s personal struggles and whatever unrelated to that. XDD) There’s also a sort of suspense plot line, so that’s why I’m calling it historical romantic suspense.
Oh that’s a fun genre!! I know what you mean, romances often have personal struggles and development so interwoven in them you can’t separate the two! Honestly, I consider that an excellent thing XD
AHHHHH!!!! Two ESFPs… I love it!! And I love them already! (I wrote a short story with an ESFP main character, and it was so fun, maybe cause I’m an INFP and ESFPs are pretty different from me, lol.)
LOLLL s a m e! I’m an INFJ and they’re so vastly different from me but maybe that makes it easier to write? Idk XD I’m so glad you like them!!
How cool that Ophelia’s studying to be a ballerina! Aww, poor girl. She sounds so sweet! And Enneagram 8 characters intrigue me, so Liorah sounds just as interesting. And their names are lovely!
She IS!!! she’s one of the sweetest characters I’ve ever written, and I love her for that! The sweet, girly characters seldom get to be the MC’s, in my experience, and that’s a pity because I love them!
Liorah is rather the opposite LOLLL she’s… Ugh, how do I describe her. She’s a brat (affectionate) I feel like half my writing process is running after her, furiously taking notes to keep documenting all the dumb stuff she’s doing or internally screaming at her for it XD She has what I may describe as ‘an excess of agency’ where I have completely lost control over what she’s doing XD Honestly makes it twice as fun to write XD
And oohhh yes her Type-8-ness is extremely obvious XD
I’m so glad you like the names, Ophelia started out as a placeholder, but then I started to like it and stuck with it XD
@freedomwriter76
Why, thank you! Really!? GIRL…THAT’S AMAZING!!!!!
Heh…XD I’m not. XDXDXD I’m a Christian, but I am a mixture of Irish, Scottish, German, and Italian, and possibly a few others. XDXDXD
Oh that’s super cool! I actually don’t have any Jewish heritage, I’m just vaguely European, mainly German and Belgian I believe XD My parents were some flavor of protestant until they converted, and I’ve been Messianic my whole life!
I will be sure to reach out! I wouldn’t say I have too many specific questions, but I do have one. So…since you’re Messianic, do you still celebrate the Jewish holidays, or at least some of them? And now that you’re Messianic, do they take on a whole new meaning for you?
Okay this I can answer! Just to get a few definitions out of the way for the sake of clarity!
I’m defining Messianic as ‘believing that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone, but also believing that the Old Testament commandments haven’t been revoked and that we’re still commanded to follow them to the best of our abilities.’
So, short answer, yes and yes!
The more complex answer is that Messianics fall across a wide spectrum from ‘closer to Christian’ to ‘closer to Jewish’. The earlier definition counts for all of them, but within that, there are a LOT of differences.
However, most follow at least some of the Biblical feasts. There’s a distinction between the Biblical feasts and the Jewish feasts though.
The Biblical ones would be those commanded in the Old Testament, so Sukkot (Feast of booths), Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Pesach (Passover) Shavuot (Feast of Weeks), and so on, I might have missed a few more minot ones XD
The Jewish ones are the other ones, like Purim, Rosh Hashana, Channuka, and more of those.
Personally, we only celebrate those commanded in the bible, but I have plenty of Messianic friends who celebrate the Jewish feasts as well! Some do, some don’t, but most celebrate at least the Biblical ones. The Jewish feasts are optional, and many people do choose to celebrate them, and that’s awesome for them!
Besides that, most Messianics don’t celebrate Christmas, Easter, or other Christian holidays. Thanksgiving is more of a gray area, many do and many don’t XD
We’ve been celebrating the biblical feasts since I was little, and I have a lot of fond memories of them, probably like Christians do with Christmas and Thanksgiving and the like!
Okay, as for the second part of your question, that’s also a hard yes!
Jesus plays into the feasts in a lot of different ways, especially as he was the fulfillment of prophecy for so many of them! I think the best example I can think of would be Pesach!
After all, Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, and His death took place on Pesach. He’s our freedom from sin, just as the exodus was freedom from Egypt. Pesach commemorates His death in a similar way that Easter does for Christians, besides commemorating the exodus.
There are similar things that happen with other feasts, but I’d say this is the most obvious example.
This is one of those things that I love to share and ramble about, so feel free to ask me any questions that occur to you!
@freedomwriter76
THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!! 🥰🥰🥰
Ahh, well…Esther was my sister’s creation, but she was soooo good, I just HAD to put her in Out of Love…after I got permission from her, of course. 😉
It probably won’t be finished for a while (unless God intervenes…) but I’ll be sure to reach out to you and many others when it comes out! 😁😁😁
Oh absolutely, Esther sounds SOOO cool!! I’m Messianic and I’ve rarely if ever seen a character like that, especially in historical fiction! Idk if you’re messianic as well, but if you have any questions/research I would be happy to help! It sounds too cool, I love it!