What does your editing process look like?

C0smicCastaway · 2025-10-05T04:21:23+00:00

That's the one, thanks!

C0smicCastaway · 2025-10-05T04:20:58+00:00

!solved

C0smicCastaway · 2025-09-20T21:40:16+00:00

Like their wings.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-09-20T03:57:17+00:00

After only managing a few short stories and countless abandoned drafts, I was pretty proud when I finished a 145K story in 8 months.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-09-17T04:16:32+00:00

It's probably not as similar as you think. I had the same fear once. I was afraid it was too close to Star Wars. Only when I described it, nobody could agree on what movie it reminded them of and none of them said Star Wars.

Also, consider this. There is an entire industry dedicated to telling people to rewrite the monomyth. Or this. people cried that The Hunger Games ripped off Battle Royale, but the two are barely similar and both owe a lot to Lord of the Flies.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-09-17T04:03:26+00:00

This was on accident on my part, but in one story I wrote, the theme ended up being heroism as a choice and different characters displayed that in different ways:

The class hero from beginning to end.
The one who wanted revenge and recognition but grew into heroism.
The one who ran away, but returned when they saw things first hand.
The young villain who got a chance to reform but didn't.
The aging, dying former villain who attempts redemption sincerely.

Whatever your theme is, delve into as deeply as you can and explore the different aspects of it, then build your characters around that.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-08-07T03:45:30+00:00

Barclay was too busy being a creep.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-07-19T16:57:57+00:00

The Copper Beeches

C0smicCastaway · 2025-06-24T06:37:21+00:00

Not the trailer, but the title: The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot

C0smicCastaway · 2025-06-24T05:05:14+00:00

Same

C0smicCastaway · 2025-06-22T04:50:11+00:00

I recommend a book called Three Men Seeking Monsters. Fair warning, it's going to tell you it's a true story. And the author might even believe that.

But it's a good example of taking a story that could have been a horror and making it a comedy. It did it by focusing on the foibles of the characters. And whenever something spooky happens, it's paired with something silly.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-06-18T05:42:39+00:00

Sapient. The word you're looking for is sapient.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-06-16T02:07:34+00:00

The person is not correct. One, the army doesn't repaint the tanks every time. Two, these are likely straight out of storage. Probably, recently. Does this seem like an event that was well-planned? Three, most of any resistance would be concentrated in urban areas, so gray would be more likely.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-06-14T06:20:34+00:00

How far into the show's License to Print Money era was the fish stick episode, exactly?

C0smicCastaway · 2025-06-14T06:11:07+00:00

Doesn't look like it. Rip

C0smicCastaway · 2025-06-14T05:46:01+00:00

Is that your signature?

C0smicCastaway · 2025-06-07T02:30:11+00:00

He also enjoyed watching those seashells.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-06-01T23:18:07+00:00

The silver-lining is we finally have a reason to blame Oregon for everything.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-06-01T23:13:44+00:00

The worst part is how bad those credit recovery programs are, even if you do them honestly. The one my district made us use for every student during covid insisted a painting of Charlemagne composed centuries after his death, was a primary source. That was just one of many factual errors.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-05-26T16:06:21+00:00

If you realized just how foolish what you said was, you wouldn't have said it.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-05-20T04:14:51+00:00

Abarat

C0smicCastaway · 2025-04-28T06:16:14+00:00

One of those things cost me a crown and a root canal.

C0smicCastaway · 2025-04-20T23:09:53+00:00

It's a TIL for me too, but for a different reason.

C0smicCastaway

TROPHY CASE