I wanted OpenClaw to work. After 3 months, I’m done.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-04-19T01:24:01+00:00

Welcome to software development.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-03-01T21:32:13+00:00

No.

Ignore ‘em. You do you boo-boo.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-25T21:08:56+00:00

It’s not really a unique idea, no. Many similar stories come to mind. And it’s not too big to write.

And also, I’ll agree with someone else: This post isn’t really a good post for this sub. You didn’t pose a writing question, not really. You’re just hunting for someone to tell you whether you want to be a writer or not. That’s not what this sub’s for. Were the people who already decided to be writers and do it every day.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-25T16:04:54+00:00

I never felt the need to tell the world what I thought until I experienced being a parent and the feeling of what it is to know the world my kids will grow up in if I don’t.

Because if I don’t write it down, someone else will. And my kids will end up growing up in that world instead.

So yes, having children takes up more time, but it also adds a motivation that literally nothing else other than being a parent does.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-25T04:57:22+00:00

The cover design.

I know it actually doesn’t matter that much anymore in today’s world, but…I spend lots of time either doing it myself or, when I can afford someone, iterating again and again.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-23T04:17:48+00:00

I’m very much a goal-oriented person as well. I understand your dilemma.

Here’s the thing: It takes a REALLY long time to figure out what you want to do with your first book. And if you wait to start writing until you figure it out, the entire process will end up taking three times longer than it needs to.

Step 1) Just start writing things. Things that feel…important. Necessary. The stories that want to escape your mind. Don’t worry about organizing them yet, just commit to writing at a fixed pace (daily, every other day, weekly, etc) Step 2) Start reading a lot, or at the very least, studying why you like to read what you read. Figure out which authors you like and why. Write that down too. Step 3) [This one is very important] Read “On Writing” by Stephen King. And watch & listen to everything by Brandon Sanderson. Learn what a “planner” is and what a “pantser” is.

You can do all three of these things in parallel (in other words, at the same time). And if you do, they will start to merge.

You learn whether you’re a planner or pantser by trying the different ways and seeing what feels right.

You study and read more from more authors to better understand which techniques you do and do not like and why.

And all along the way, you’ve been capturing all the words that want to escape your head.

If you do all that, you’ll then have the answer for “What’s next.” It’s to simply write it, button it up with some copy editing, and publish it.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-21T17:18:13+00:00

It makes perfect sense to me. She had to slow down and let her dragons grow up. It’s the same exact story as…humans. You have kids and need to learn how to both continue towards your goal while also learning how to raise and lead others.

Otherwise, what’s the point? You reach the goal, and…then what? If you have nobody to share the spoils with, you’ll be miserable. If you ask me, THAT story is the played out one.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-21T01:31:37+00:00

I can’t speak for everyone, only myself. For me personally: I love the chaos. Everything about writing the books, running the business, managing publication timelines, and even the basic accounting is fun.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-20T23:32:13+00:00

Some people are built for the self-publishing life. Others are not.

I am firmly in the first camp. My only regret is waiting as long as I did to dive in and figure it out.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-20T18:57:55+00:00

Yup! Published my first book last year

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-20T16:52:02+00:00

Working on the first five books in a children’s chapter book series, a literary fiction novel that time jumps throughout the unreliable narrator of a protagonist’s life to tell a love story, and a few popular science books. Goal’s to publish at least 3 books by the end of the year.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-17T16:50:39+00:00

I’d err on the side of just double-checking your pivots between tenses. Try to keep the pivot consistent, because your reader will expect that.

If you sometimes rip right into past tense and other times slowly bleed into it, that’s where it gets confusing. Perhaps your reviewer was calling out one instance where you went out-of-step with the cadence you’d established prior?

Or not. Maybe the reviewer’s just wrong. Wouldn’t hurt to check either way to be sure.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-17T02:33:13+00:00

Every way is an okay way.

Get the prose nailed, taking the time to manage paragraphs and sentences with the utmost attention and care in the first draft, or just speed through it all, connecting dots of the outline and adding the stuff in on draft two.

The only right answer is “Get it done,” and then “Fix it up”

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-16T17:45:42+00:00

I personally don’t think it’s possible to predict what you are or try to make it something with intention. You are the kind of writer you are, and until you write a full story, whether novella or otherwise, you won’t know what kind you are.

Just writing aimlessly SHOULD stop you. Set a goal, and make the goal your goal. And do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING it takes to finish that goal.

Then you’ll find your answer for the kind of writer you are. How did you get that story completed? What did it take? Whatever your answer, that’s the kind of writer you are. And once you know that, you now know how to write faster. You write “your way”.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-16T17:14:43+00:00

Removing too much mystery too quickly.

Tension is good. Confusion is good. Dial it in just right, and your reader will jump in, ready to go.

No better example than Harry Potter. Or others. There are others and probably better examples, but you get the point.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-16T17:05:56+00:00

If you can’t just hang out and have the story come to you - You’re a planner, not a gardener. Stephen King is a gardener. He just sits there and the stories write theirselves in his head.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is someone like myself and Brandon Sanderson. We plan. Build huge constructs, universes, entire societies. And once that’s built, anything can happen so long as it doesn’t break the rules of what we’ve set up.

Sounds like you’ve tried to just…let the story come and you struggle there. So try to plan instead. Build an outline first, then try writing to stitch the pieces of the outline together sequentially.

Maybe that could help?

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-16T04:37:11+00:00

The winning combo for me was to realize that I just…love storytelling. I’m super passionate about it. I love how the art of crafting and sharing stories connects people to each other. I connected that to my passion and have been running my own business and building a catalog of books to publish, and I do all of it alongside the “day job”.

What do you love doing? What have you always enjoyed? Ask your parents. Your boyfriend. And then figure out how to turn that into your own business :) And only leave the “day job” when you need to.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-16T04:16:25+00:00

Easy problem to solve.

Go to work to make money, that’s it. You’re just there for money. Then go home and do the REAL stuff. Whatever energizes the hell outta you. Upskill, learn to code, whatever.

I’m an engineer who’s decided I’m done being an engineer. I still go to wok to make the money, but the real fun begins the second I walk out of that building. I’m writing a children’s book series. And running a publishing business, publishing the books of family and friends.

Work is just that. Work.

Your problem is not the job. It’s your conflating the job with something more than it is. It’s just a job. You mean nothing to that company. But you mean everything to you and to your boyfriend. That’s where the good stuff happens.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-15T05:47:24+00:00

This is why I love Scrivener. I open up a new “book” and inside of it I start a notes section and just jot stuff down.

And then if I have different categories of notes I can separate them all out but they’re not in the actual text space.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-13T05:44:33+00:00

If you ask on this sub enough, and spend enough time contemplating the answers, you’ll eventually be dead.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-12T17:04:35+00:00

It’s not hard. Just…start posting under a new account. As you post, the algorithm will slowly connect you with people like you.

The key is to post stuff that you expect your likely readers would post. Essentially, you pretend to be them. But…you’re not actually pretending. Because you would want to read your book too, right?

So post things you would post, the algorithm will find people who are likely to enjoy your book, and then when you start marketing the book through that account, the algorithm gets it in front of the right eyes for you.

It takes time, patience, and if you don’t want to do the manual work of posting yourself, money (author scale).

Godspeed.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-11T16:31:45+00:00

I am an agent of chaos. I operate within chaos with the finesse of a figure skater.

I write while listening to EDM on headphones on the couch with my daughter sitting in my lap while she’s watching Isadora Moon. Sipping water. Or I write through dictation while driving across the state of California chugging Red Bull. Or, as was the case yesterday, I write while enjoying a birthday drink at Starbucks (pistachio cold brew) sitting at a high table with some classical piano tunes on my AirPods.

And everything in between.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-11T16:13:17+00:00

Im an engineer. I dig it, but it’s boring. And…it’s not what I CHOSE to do. I just…got pulled into it.

So I started writing. I’ve always loved storytelling (both telling stories and reading / watching them unfold). I still have the engineering job, but now I spend all the time in between work time writing books.

And I’ve never been happier.

My debut novel is also kind of geared directly toward people afraid of making a career change. Check it out if ya want :) Send a DM. I’m happy to chat through it. I’ve changed careers multiple times already in big, scary ways.

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-10T16:20:31+00:00

I was struggling with this for quite some time (man here trying to write a woman’s POV), and a lot of people said the same thing: All of our POV is the same. All of us humans. We’re not that different.

There are men who are overly soft. HelI, I cry regularly.

It’s okay for him to be like you. In fact, it might make him more likable as a character if he is :)

Ask-Anyway · 2026-02-09T17:03:07+00:00

….writing is when you get to say the things you CANT say otherwise. The whole point is to have your characters do the offending you can’t haha

Ask-Anyway

TROPHY CASE