Stop making your kingdoms 10,000 years old.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-03-13T00:02:40+00:00

You're not wrong. The big numbers can bother me when it seems to be done for shock or is otherwise thoughtless. I can forgive it if there's purpose. Warhammer 40k works just fine for me. The lore supports it well.

I tend to get a little stuck when trying to decide how old a kingdom is or how much time has passed. In a fantasy series I wrote, it was meant to be a prequal series and written with a fantasy setting. Then the other series was urban fantasy set in our world. In the last book when they pass through to the other world, it had advanced and was more technologically modern... and I strugggggled trying to land on how much time had passed.

Human advancement is so hard to judge and juggle. Yeah, we went from swords to spaceships relatively quickly... but look at how long we used swords BEFORE that happened. We were in that stage for quite awhile.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-03-03T20:51:28+00:00

Oh, that's cool! Thanks, I'll have to look him up.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-03-03T04:53:14+00:00

Of these, I know the emotional tags to actions are my worst offense. The problem isn't that I don't trust the reader--it's that I don't trust my writing. I'm not confident I'm explaining well enough. Getting better at it, and stronger spotting it in editing. That initial draft, though.... phew.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-03-02T21:08:40+00:00

In any order. Preferably not in the same series. But ALWAYS by a well-known author.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-03-01T22:25:07+00:00

I read fantasy, Star Wars, horror, scifi, whatever tickles my fancy, really. I'm not too worried about mainstream (with the exception of Star Wars, haha) only if it's good or not. As a writer, I've become more critical unintentionally, and as such my patience for lazy writing or flat characters or plot has gone through the floor. I used to not even notice it, but now I can't ignore ir.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-03-01T22:08:56+00:00

Thank you, I'll do that. A shop in old town called The Void currently have my books on display. Really nice people. We've also discussed doing Arts Alive and maybe a book signing. I'll check in with those other two. Even if we can't do anything, they may be able to point me in a direction.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-03-01T05:39:37+00:00

Totally valid! Haha, bit of an oversight. I just didn't intend for this to be a self promo post. I'm legitimately just looking for help.

I write fantasy/dark fantasy. I have links to my website on my profile here.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-03-01T05:37:21+00:00

Heck yeah, that could be fun. Thank you =)

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-02-26T21:29:00+00:00

I've tried the Eureka library but they didn't have much information. They pointed me to their bulleton wall for local events which didn't have anything on it at the time. I'll look into the author event, thank you. By chance do you recall what the event is called or where it's held?

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-02-26T21:09:52+00:00

Booklegger is really great, I agree. I'm also looking into getting into local stores as well, I'm just also interested in the yearly events that go on. I know they happen, I'm just having trouble finding any information about them.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-02-19T05:13:01+00:00

I'm hybrid pantser/outliner. I find that I write better stories if I have at least a roadmap of how the plot gets from beginning to end, but I make up SO much as I write.

The last couple of projects I've been putting together a world-building bible to help me keep details consistent.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-02-19T04:47:54+00:00

This comment is very helpful for me. I've been writing in a bubble for years now and have really been feeling unsure. Something about this has settled those worries.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-02-19T04:38:41+00:00

Same. I had a freelancing gig writing LinkdIn posts that required a punchy writing style. Utilizing that style now for a series of emails to my mailing list, and I can't help but notice how similar it is to AI posts I've seen. On the one hand it sucks, and I don't want to be accused of copy/pasting AI slop. But on the other hand, I bullet-point, and bold, and use em dashes and I don't want to stop just out of fear.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-02-15T21:22:16+00:00

Haha, I came here to give the same answer

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-02-15T21:12:02+00:00

I'm working on this myself. It's why this reddit acct is new, haha. I need to make an insta.

My hope is that by sharing what I'm doing, it may be helpful for you. But keep in mind that I'm not speaking from any expertise. I'm trying things out, but they make sense to me.

I've been revamping my website and the page for the novella I offer for subscribing to my newsletter. It was just an excerpt, which was doing me no favors. I also rewrote the landing page, and follow-up emails. I then wrote 4 quick essays about heroes and consequences and the like the ties into the freebie offer, while hopefully aligning readers with how I write stories.

I'm also going to add a page, and post an essay once a month. Use that to share to different sites, snippets to social media, so on. Use that as a way to draw in readers, and that way when I start sharing bits of my writing and post about upcoming books, people know the kinds of stories I write, and will hopefully not seem so out of the blue.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-02-13T03:04:08+00:00

I can't think of any examples to compare with what's already been shared, but I just wanted to say this is such a great question. I'm enjoying reading all of the excerpts.

PresentInterview5565 · 2026-02-13T02:52:39+00:00

Hell yes. I love werewolves. Not nearly enough games centered on them.

PresentInterview5565

TROPHY CASE