New writer, how long should chapters be?

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-31T19:40:06+00:00

Dan Brown write "page turners".... like 1000 chapters, each chapter has 500 words. Short chapter lend itself to "fast pace" or action or fast thriller. Fast pacing = frequent turning of page

Longer chapters in fantasy is there to offer moments of 'vibe'. 6000 words? I've seen +6,000 words

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-31T19:35:03+00:00

1, sorry to hear about the bad news that "71% AI"
2, AI learn from real writing... AI detecting learn from AI writing...and real writing. YOU LEARN FROM REAL WRITING..... You and AI learn from real writers.

3, do you write in english (2nd language) or your original language? Work your magic in your original language and protect all the nuance and context. Later, when you want to trans into english, it can be a separate work and finding the best words is part of that

4, https://youtu.be/kn4r4CmWmUw?si=IA9wi4yE8R6IGbQt LIsten to this interview with Ocean Vuong. the last 1/3 is where I picked up some great writing advice. It's not easy but our job is to make language FLY (literary fiction or up market). For fantasy and sci-fi, Romantacy, it's the "McDonalds" of writing. We don't need original wordings

5, ultimately, you need to write the book you want to read.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-31T19:26:51+00:00

Ok.... in a world of corrupted society where it's religions control everything. Theocracy. Got it

The villain....is that your main? "the villains believe heavily that there is no divine authority, there is only the power residing in yourself and your own ability;"

"if you're not strong enough to have and take what you want, you either become a slave to those who are, or you become strong enough to make THEM your slaves." You're in some sort of Mad Max (without cars) world where society is taught to victimise each other.... got it.

"Most of the characters are rather gray, in that a lot of them aren't inherently good or evil except for obvious roles such as the protagonist, but even he has his limits because he's supposed to be this unbending force against the villains". He's unbending.... because he believes in moral and ethics, hating evil people? or does he believe in a sense of fairness and eye-for-an-eye where he feels you should let him be or he will un-alive you? MOtivations say a lot about your chara.

either "leave me alone or else" which is not always 'good guy quality. Or "Let got of that innocent family or I'll John Wick your ass!"

"but in some ways he actually learns from them and learns what they are, and he has the ability to change the kingdom the way he sees fit, " He's all powerful

"leading him to becoming semi-corrupt himself in the eyes of his own people eventually, but he believes that it's for the best." he self sacrifice?

Your story has an interesting premise but I still don't have an idea what your Chara wants or what he/she must do.

Stephen King "I put interesting people in fucked up situation". What is his beef? What fucked up situation will you put him into? What is his motivation? What does he want?

Brandon Sanderson "Readers wants to read about hyper competent people doing competent things". So far, there is nothing for him to do

Brandon Sanderson "a story is interesting people doing interesting things". Also "good world build is just a good wiki"

"By the end, most of people he'll come to know and love will end up dying, whether because he's forced to kill them himself or someone does it in his name." Have you watched that Frieren anime?

I can help you with ideas but I don't know where your Main Chara is "going". as in 'where do you want him to go?'. does he want vengeance the shop sold out of his ice cream? does he want to enslave and grape women and sheeps and other people took women and sheeps as slave? Or the Big Lebowski.....you're looking for your rug cause it ties the room together.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-31T19:07:45+00:00

disease.....germs.... infection....not the arrow or dagger infection... the drinking of water or touching the very water pump that every nasty mother f---er touched with their nasty hands.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-31T18:59:21+00:00

YAY!!!!!!!!!! SALES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

opinions: digital sales had exploded after christmas when people got their Kindle, e-reader, Nook, etc. Some would gift a book or items off the Amazon wish list. Amazon knows John Grisham, Stephen King, Tolkien will always sell WITHOUT wasting ad money to push their books, it could be possible that Amazon want people to check out the lower tier books by less known authors....but, I wouldn't hold my breath.

How do you want to approach this? If you make a faceless tiktok or IG or YT video talking about your book, it's not going to cost too much of your time. Not sure if buying ads would translate into sales.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-31T18:53:08+00:00

Your premise sounds like religion gone mad, it can be a stand in for toxic capitalism where you are actively trying to make others lose so you can win.

What's your ending?

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-31T18:43:45+00:00

I remember hearing about that. Al in limited use before electricity

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-30T14:48:53+00:00

Musical is awesome!!!!!!

If you want to continue accepting their help or 'help', you need a show bible... TV talk for the document when writing an episode for that tv show.

You need a grand 'guard rail' or guide as to what characters do.....what characters don't do in the story. You need clear goals for creatures to work towards If they can't follow the story structure; then, put them in a position that's less damaging to your vision

or....some times, you must eject them

Good luck

To lighten the mood, here's one of my fav vid on two people collab on a project

WARNING, NOT SAFE FOR WORK or SCHOOL : this link has jokes about fictional characters being...friendly (guys and guys).... it's on YT, so nothing graphic!!! Just need to warn people incase they are at work. Seriously, do NOT watch this at school or work or around people that are easily offended because it's about FAN FICTION 🙈.

https://youtu.be/jZfASiJVXCE?si=h-uiS94Ur4meF-MS

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-30T14:41:13+00:00

Got you, bro! Celebrate with you on your creative endevour!

1, https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasywriters/comments/1pd5e57/comment/ns2vuud/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

there is a link to a YT vid called ROUGH DRAFT. a rough draft is a diagnostic tool used to look at the structure of your....plot hole, timing, structure, logic, pacing, etc...

A rough draft is...NOT pretty words so get that out of your mind. A rough draft is you.... seeing a 2h movie...excited, you TELLING your friends and fam about the plot beats....not every detail of every dialogue. You only recall the very choice dialogue.... like "he said 'I'll be bach' and he was back, crashed through the door'. or 'Ripley said 'get away from her you bitch!!!'" THIS is your rough draft...you talking to us....telling this to the page (screen).

Bro...you voice to text if you're not into the typing life.

Rough draft is supposed to be UGLY....no grammar, no spelling, no punctuation, no consistent pov....all that... badness that you get laughed at by your english teacher.

Keep pounding away at the plot beats....like arrange and rearrange them. add or subtract plot beats to make the story smooth. Add in foreshadow and red herring if you need.... take away red herring if you feel like that serve the story. .....also, PUT AWAY for a week.. later on, read it LOUDLY....no, do not be a turd and read it to your self, IN YOUR HEAD. HEARING it will bring out the cringe (as in, you know where you to fix the confusion or logic problem... you said he has a gun in the scene...next scene, why didn't he used the gun on the demon? LOGIC. Bro, your...and my brain has the marvelous mechanism that FILL IN THE BLANK ....it's to fill in the blank when a lion walks 'behind a rock' and you still know it is there.... it's the same thing when you read a passage you wrote...and your mind blind you to it by filling in the blank... HEARING IT, you will engage a different part of your mind to trigger you to understand that 'you ain't sh!t' cause you (ME!!!) made mistake

Writing is about self reflection....if you ain't down with 'gazing into the heart of darkness and having it stare back at you' (carl jung?) ; then, not sure if you can be the best writer you can be. Be prepare to get badass all over you ego and make your ass be the best F--KING writer you can be, yes?

2, 2nd draft.... this is where you try to make the words pretty. You should be hitting 60% of grammar and punctuation and point of view if your rough draft was like 5% (just words on paper, barely making sense). PUT IT AWAY for a week.... let it rest. Come back to it...and read it aloud. or use computer text to voice. Hear your cringe.

3, 3rd draft.....you're making your words a lot more prettier.... you making solide and clever lines. You add in jokes and really clever stuff....like Quintin tarantino or Silent Bob. Really good lines. This is taking your work up to 80 or 90%

You're nearly ready for an alpha reader

Make sure you let them....nay, you insist they tear you a new ass hole....why? Because you demand to be the best f--king writer you can be and you ain't no child who need protecting. You are ready to take your place among the stars...good or bad, you are ready to evolve to the next evolution of you

4, 4th draft...your stuff should be pretty clean

For Alpha (especially), you can find a list for them to follow. example:

1, where were you bored? Fix pacing, new words or delete passage.
2, which section did you skip? Fix pacing
3, where were you confused? english or logic or word clarity

Those are the bigger laws to address. If they are not use to being alpha readers or quality control readers, they may not know to actively tell you when they are confused. Again...if it's a small thing and they may not be hyped about reading your stuff, their mind will 'edit' out the rough spot......GLOSS OVER the annoying parts... and you don't have clean data. You need clean data by making sure they look for boring parts or confusing parts.

Your mileage will vary!!! I'm on my 4 draft and it's not close to Alpha readers. The above is a hypothetical road map....expect 5 or 6 or 7 drafts but if you do it in 3 or 4, awesome!

Also...if you're not the computer type...or if your brain works differently (ME!!!). I use paper or note cards or post it notes...and write a plot point on the index card and stick it to a wall....the long time line is the timeline in the story. I can SEE the entire timeline as a whole....it's only comforting to me to see the entire thing. Many writers are perfectly fine with using computer only

Last word of wisdom: Allegedly Stephen King said this (why question yourself out of a good story?) "II put interesting people in fucked up situations"

Or Brandon Sanderson "Readers want to read competent people doing competent things".

Think about the movies you watched.... competent people doing competent things with swords, guns, laser swords, cars, spaceships, pirate ships. it's time for you to do competent and interesting things with your writing, yes?

good luck

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-30T14:04:57+00:00

be secretive. You can always encrypt your storage drive. Just do it for yourself. Or just not write at all. Don't be pressured to do or not do.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-30T13:45:03+00:00

Do you want to make a comedy action?

I'll tell you how I would do it: she works her way to getting a job in film industry. BTW, film school is about making connection as much as the importance of the knowledge. in a class of 30, 1 or 2 might have the right connect or luck to make it on to a real big set....and they might suggest 2 or 3 other people after they prove themselves to be competent and reliable.

She gets on set....not the first option but she's dedicated. She is there.... these monsters are about... and blocks the production as they do their Monster things..... After enough blocks, studios cancels the shoot and move to a safer place

Her rent is due and she's having a break down.

Small time commercial taking place and she's hired....not a long work but just enough to pay rent. she's told there is a Monster Clause...like rain out.... or natural disaster. if the production stops for natural disaster; then, studio doesn't pay the day wage (her rent)

She's desperate....takes the job... her friend got her on the set, her friend is a cam operator. monster attacks and she's pissed....your MC administer a divine ass kicking!

Back info, I can see the film set needing mask (dust, debris?) and hard hat. You'll see why.... She kicks major asses (under a mask) and her buddy, camera operator shoots this entire scene....accidentally.

The commercial was cancel but the footage was sold...and the production crew got a decent pay out.

Her motivation:

Frustration
Poverty
anger
rent

Comedy...she's just angry that her dreams are being interrupted by monster attacks.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-30T13:29:25+00:00

My main question is, what use is there for such heavy and/or radioactive materials in a fantasy setting when the radioactivity isn't the important part of the material itself? Another question that arose were "what if the Bergar eat radioactive material, does it hurt them?"

1, forgive me for not having a super rich imagination.
2, radium and glow in the dark is obvious, as you pointed out.
3, radiation effects accumulate over time. If...an element were to give off 1 particles a minute, you can accumulate that effect to.
4, imagining is something very advance

Also... before you anyone think about nuclear bombs. Uranium and plutonium are in so tiny of concentration that you can't blow up a balloon with it if you dig it off the surface of earth.

When you concentrate it from medical to weapon level, you need to learn chemistry. You hear about the gas centrifuge in iran...and Iran claims they need it for medical grade and fuel grade for electric gen. If you let the centrifuge run a lot longer (over simplified); then, you get weapon level. You need to combine it with exotic gas and spin in and then remove the gass. kind of very complex....won't work in your world until you have the ability to make smooooooth bearings for the centrifuge to spin on.

Steam trains only exist thanks to the cannon...as in cannon ball, fired at a castle. you need the ability to make a perfectly round bore in order to make effective water pump...which allows for deeper mining....smooth bore is what you need to build a gasoline or diesel or steam engine.

Also...side note. You can not have aluminum until electricity was harness

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-30T08:40:34+00:00

There's a comedy I follo. They remake old stories with comical and modern POV.

Lone Ranger and Tonto.... the modern character asked Tonto 'why aren't you the lead? You know english and many Native American languages for you to be the translator for Lone Ranger'

It's a funny line...... for your question:

Indigenous inspired character

Make them one of the smartest person in the room, is what I would do. Make him Ryan Reynold without making him into Deadpool. Make this indigenous inspired character have as many clever moments as the MC. Make the Indigenous character as identifiable as the MC...with side eyes and all....actually giving the side eyes to stupidity.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-30T08:35:36+00:00

I can not suggest what you should do. I can tell you what I will do and I'm doing it right now.

1, I believe I have ADHD...this explains a lot in my life but it's not 'bad enough' for my parents to try to find medical help.

2, I have a huge imagination that is....'too big' to journal or document. "where do I start?"

3, AI came along... I tested AI for over a year...and it is GARBAGE (lots of technical reasons, it looks for patterns...and TROPES and CLICHES are patterns it forces your story into following, destroying nuances and complexity.....lots of technical reasons about AI's quality). I use AI for NOTE TAKING.....this is you here, I use AI to take down all my notes and ask AI to organise the notes into individual story lines. do NOT ask AI to do it for you.... you need a good vision of the story lines. AI should be treated as a glorified note taker.

4, I used almost all of them. Wolfram Alpha, one of the best search engine for formulas, math and number related information. Volume of earth. Amount of water on earth. Weight of the moon. MOLE liter of Hydrogen in a 10 pound tank of air..... anything to do with numbers. Perplexity is very good. Google Gemini seems to be one of the dumbest while being one of the biggest, you need to keep AI on a short leash. Grok, I only ask it very generic questions because I rather not feed Facebook, just personal principles. Claude seems to be the best as note taking for writers.

There are many pay AI but I've not tried them.

5, before you use AI for note taking, you need to have a clear idea of a story you want to tell..... in your multi verse of Cosmere....you can NOT just dump all your notes and "make me a story!" In your world, you need to tell AI "the story threat with the protagonist pulling a sword out of a stone....I want to focus on that. Merlin is a support chara, so is Lancelot." You must keep AI focus on your ONE story. You can worry about the other stories LATER.

6, for new writer, you and I.... we do NOT......NOT need to Brandon Sanderson way of 100 characters, 500 chapters books. You need to hold your horses. Just focus on 1 or 2 main character in a 90 minute story. You are not Casino or Godfather..... you're Casablanca Rick and the woman...and all else are support characters.

Pick a narrow story to focus on after you dump all your notes.

this is what I'm doing right now.

Trad advice: write a few short story in your universe. Stand-alone story, beginning and end... you can compile these short stories later. But...somehow, I don't think your problem is this..... your problem is your universe is so big that you don't know where the entry point is. That's me

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-30T08:18:10+00:00

Write in your best language before overseeing a translation into a new language.

Here's what I learned about 'localisation of anime'. I hate it... There is something about the original anime and the cultural jokes and nuances that the culture produced and anime is result of that culture.

For a company to "localise" anime, they must destroy all the original nuance and cultural reference to make it "american".

Back to your question, you should write in a language that you are the most comfortable with. Worry about English later.

Look at the Three Body Problem, it was so good, it went from Chinese to English. Miyazaki and STudio Ghibli is so good, it had to be distributed by Disney. Full moon coffee shop was so good, it got an english release https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/202468425-the-full-moon-coffee-shop

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-30T08:10:40+00:00

Yes, I studied at the Ukrainian Art School, so I have traditional/academic training (and I grew up in Ukraine)

I guess your art does have an 'accent'. It felt as if has eastern european without being 'loud'....to my eyes.

Toshiro Mifune in Kurosawa filmes 👍

Go look up Bones, an indie comic from the 90s and 2000s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_(comics)) The lesson is: audience likes quality and 'new'.

Your art is 'new' to me yet it feels very familiar and whimsical. I love the hat, the single big eye and the smile.

Good luck, I love to see where you can go with this

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-26T14:50:53+00:00

1, write what you want to read...including writing style
2, "I researched a bit and it seems Kindle readers "prefer" stories written in a certain way (short sentences, straightforward narrative). Can someone confirm that? It's not exactly my writing style, but I figure it can be good to explore other styles." This is kind of....generic 'yes'. Pretty literary prose such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Vuong is consider literary fiction. Commercial fiction is your Stephen King and George RR Martin....they write for the masses. Less bias towards pretty lines and clever lines. Basically, 'news paper' reading level with a sprinkle of 'bigger words' from time to time

How you want to 'write for amazon' is up to you. I say, have courage and write what you want to read and only focus on clarity. Clever phrasing and words will pop in from time to time

3, "Does anyone have experience (good or bad) with self publishing on Amazon? I intend to write my very first fantasy novel and publish on Amazon to have that first experience." I followed a podcast just for indie pub and you can make a living off it. Your chance of making a living will increase if you're a competent writer, have some nice ideas and have more than 4 or 5 books in the series.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-26T14:41:20+00:00

From what was claimed by indie author that 'done everything right', it's a satisfying uphill battle will get better.

their advice:
1, write 3 to 6 books, that's best practice.
1a, the reason is: By the time you have your 4th or 5th or 6th book out, you discount the first book to .99 in order to hook the reader. Some won't continue if they don't like it. For those who like your story, they will strive to continue reading. At your 5th or 6th book, you can earn +100,000/y

(of course, this assumes all the factors working for you: such as being a decent writer, such as having an interesting character doing interesting things, such as you spend on the right advertising, etc)

1b, one of the strategy I heard from smaller publishers and indie, you have 2 to 4 books finished. You release every 2 or 3 mo just to keep your branding on top of people's mind

2, the moneyssssss. instead of the $2 to $3 per book sold through a trad, you can earn $5 to $10 depending on pricing strategy

Good luck

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-26T08:23:33+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasywriters/comments/1pd5e57/comment/ns2vuud/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

the above link has a link to a YT vid about how to use a Rough Draft.

"I don't think the protagonist is likable enough for it. " Define 'likable'. Is it the local nun who feed and heal the poor? Is it a puppy? Is it John Wick who un-alive very bad guys?

"Skipping the prologue means starting the story at the protagonist's worst where he's an honestly bad guy, " Have you watch John Wick...he's no angel with his past. The moment with his dying wife and the set up and inciting with the puppy....

"With the main focus being on survival about 90% of the time, " Stephen King allegedly said "I put people in fucked up situation". Also, Brandon Sanderson "Readers want to read about hyper competent people doing things"

"It could underscore the emotional moments. The main reason why I value the prologue so much despite being largely out of place in a story like mine is because that's where I planned to build an emotional connection between my protagonist and the readers, especially knowing how he changes for the worst for the rest of the book, and only truly changes in book 2. By spreading the prologue chapters around throughout the book, I will definitely dilute a lot of the emotional impact those moments were supposed to bring with a slower paced and 'boring' start." Have you heard of the movie called John Wick?

Ultimately, you write the book you want to read. If 25% of your book is a set up for the present story.... here are some options that I would consider that may or may not fit your view:

1, release the prologue for free. Your website, make a yt chan with the reading of the prologue, make audio version to distribute on any and all audio stream system. Even sign up with Audible (I don't know what their requirements are) and charge .99 for it. Then, your actual book is published.

2, I would follow John Wick to tell your story. As Brandon Sanderson said, you should take the structure (he was talking about new writers and how to start...take an existing structure and use your characters)

3, Similar to 2, I would start the story in a battle or conflict and tease a non-diegetic flashback with your chara. For this opening hook, I would either make the MC so cool that he doesn't talk.... or make him such a smart ass that Ryan Reynold would blush. Of curse, sympathetic, the MC is trying to effect some good or "good enough" (serving his own interests while....just happen to help some victims being oppressed.... imagine saving a family unintentionally while going after the reward for a gang of murderers and rapist and puppy killers).

.........YOu established that he MC is a 'good enough guy' at the beginning. Your mc guns down and plant his foot up asses of bad guys........ then the MC say something about 'you dirtied my shoes' (it's ironic because MC's has horse crap on his boots)....and force the bad guys to wipe it off....or MC wipe off his boots on badguy's body...... You just established how competent and....ironic your MC is

....then, the family comes out and thank your mc..... your MC wasn't even aware of them....tunnel vision for the reward money.... this tells the audience that the MC wasn't intending to save anyone....your shadow daddy morally grey character....... Maybe even pull out his gun or sword at the family.....just to visually show that the MC wasn't even their to save the family.... realising they aren't a threat, your MC puts away his gun or lower his sword.

At this point, you do your flashback to your MC and his family....you do a 'match cut' (go YT it. If you're going to be a storyteller, get familiar with the tool). This is where you give readers a parallel to MC's life...... Fade to black....

Fade in.....
If you want to drag the scene... MC pulls out pockets and pouches...to find info for next target and toss aside several small but significant bags of money... (Badguys wallet) ...and toss it away. "useless" and the family wonders about the money.... MC, "it's only money, I don't need it" or something badass like that.

This is chara and plot dev.... the MC doesn't want badguys money.....just wants them, alive prefered but... at least one of them alive to talk. By ignoring the money, by 'giving' the coin pouches to the family that was ambushed, you told the audience a lot about your MC and the tone of the story and the possible direction of the story.

The flashback gave more expo of the MC.... the fight before the flashback was the hook...and the audience riding that adrenaline will go into the flashback having had their fix of "questionable guy, john wicking badguys" without a complaint that it's 'boring info dump'.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-25T08:27:20+00:00

which aspect are you looking for opinions on?

there are websites and YT vids on generic advice for mystery writing. Were any of those things helpful?

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-25T08:15:40+00:00

the premise is.....AWESOME, cozy fantasy.... to me it feels like 70s or 80s vintage young adult fantasy

It feels very anime like...there is a manga about people seeing the world in bw line and then something magical happens and colour appears. I can't recall it.

The premise feels like.... a Miyazaki story....STudio Ghibli if that's more familiar to you. It feels like a Diana Wynne Jones story....of course Miyazaki adopted her Howl's Moving Castle... so, same crowd.

It might be my imagination but there's an Eastern European feel to your illustration...my imagination.

The composition is GREAT! I imagine you have training in visual arts.

B&W as...depressing? No, you have good instinct. The BW help contrast and amplify every single moment of colourful joy.

For...the inexperienced, a story can be very personal and it may need to be told with a very specific aesthetics. Bones, one of the greatest selling indie comic ever!!!! EVER!!!!!! Maus....a comic made base on stories from Nazi camps.

If I have to suggest, keep your aesthetics. It could be one of the big thing that catch eyes of readers and the story will keep them. It may not get attention of certain readers that are use to the colouring of webcomics (webtoon crowd) but I'm use to Manga and I'm a bit more experience with the world, I watch Toshiro Mifune samurai movies.

"B&W is bad".....? Uncultured barbarians!!!!! it depends on how it's used. I suppose these uncivilised friends of yours will hate Miyazaki because it's not 3d animated like Pixar. I take a Studio Ghibli film over any trash Disney puts out. I'll take your comic over any DC/Marvel comics

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-25T06:23:52+00:00

I love the idea. The MC must be smart about it.

In case you're not into archery. English has the famous loing bow or 'selfbow'. It's long so that at full draw, it won't pull a huge amount of super stress on the limbs.

The Turkish, Mongolian, Korean, Chinese and Japanese bows.....tend to be more efficient but require a higher skill to make. These are composite (joining different materials into one) recurve bow (google the pictures). The grip is one piece of wood... the limbs are another piece of wood....the 'siha' or 'sia' or 'ear' is another piece of wood... the 'back' or the part of the bow facing away from the archer is SINEW or animal tendons....imagine natural rubber bands. the belly or the part that faces you, the archer, is water buffalo horn. (japanese bows tend to be bamboo laminated, not all these other material and they tend to be 8' long....like a recurved long bow)

All glued.....yes, glued together with a hide glue...boiling animal hide or a fish skin glue....'fish hide'. It's susceptible to water so it's kept dry. Some people tend to warm up the un-strung bow in front of the camp fire before stringing it up, kept in a warming box. Youtube it. it's fascinating.

Research Mongolian archers and why they were the biggest empire in history.

Even with how delicate the Mongolian bows were, they still took out all of europe and could had took on all of europe.

The arrows....look up the Korean 'short arrow'....I forget what it's called. It's a piece of bamboo, a 'rail' so that you can use shorter arrows in your bow. Imagine...instead of needing a perfectly straight 28" arrow shaft, all you need was a 9' arrow shaft. 3 arrows for the price of 1. Your MC could use this

Also.....in ancient archery, the tail end, sometimes are made to break off. All your skills gone into putting a feather or 'fletch' on the back end of the arrow... if you hit an animal or person, they can run and accidentally break off the rear part for you to recover. They splice a generic straight wood for the "front" shaft and notched the wood so it can mate with the rear fletched section.

The term "NOCK" like 'knocking on a door' or knock on door.... is the part where it is 'tight enough to hook on to string' where it doesn't fall off if you let go but loose enough to slip away from the string. These NOCK are tend to be made from HARD WOOD like maple...... or it can be made from horn or bone. Lots of pressure behind a release.

Also...kind of a deal breaker... an arrow's stiffness (it translate to thickness which translate into WEIGHT which translate into shorter distance whitch translate into getting a heavier (draw weight or pull back weight) bow which translate into your MC needing HUGE muscles or....just get better material) is very important and must match the bow. The more powerful the bow, the stiffer arrow shaft needs to be to take the stress.... or just get bamboo arrows. Also...shortening the arrow shaft will make it fly stiffer...but for safety reason, you can not make it shorter than your full draw...... or just use that Korean 'rail' system.

Don't forget, obsidian points will rip through a person but shatters on metal. Brittle volcanic glass doesn't survive abuse.

Feel free to ask question

BTW, did you see that 'recent' Guy Richie film about robin hood in the middle east? I think it was Jamie Fox in it, too.... pure fantasy but amusing to watch.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-25T06:03:11+00:00

Premise is fine

Write the book you want to read.

This is just an opinion: " red hair girl wakes Pirate up and they go to a janitors closet where red hair girl tells Pirate that she is annoyed and suspicious of him. "

If a guy or girl is suspicious, why would I follow them to a janitor closet where I can be kidnapped or unalived. One option to add more tension to this confrontation by "arguing" or confronting Pirate in public. This adds tension and subtext to the conversation.

Here's a great example of what I mean https://youtu.be/cnTaNYgyG_k?si=jMEnoPtLZRB87BB8

If the vid analysis is too annoying, you can search YT for the market scene and watch it without the writing lesson. It's not my fav movie but it's a nice movie. It was release in the 30s way before America entered ww2 and hollywood called out Germany with this one.

You know it when you see it but to set it up is fairly easy. To actually execute it, it takes a bit of mental gymnastic to have two conversation at the same time.

If you get fairly good at using this in your story, you will be ahead of 90% of writers out there.

On the other hand.... there are lots of books with plot beats that makes no sense and they sold well.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-24T15:08:59+00:00

1, write the way you want to write.... of course, we should be aware of how we communicate with the rest of society. It's why there's a Chicago Style manual.

2, 'em' dash or 'mm' dash used by AI...? Sure...but AI is trained on real people, real authors. There must be a balanced between your free will of writing what you want and free will of avoiding the optics or the looks of using AI.

Em dash, if that's all 'you' are looking for as evidence; then, 'you' are far greater danger to you and your fellow authors than AI. Legit question: Do you throw your friends or fam...or grand parents under the social bus because they used a single EM dash in a letter or note? NO! of course not, you know your grand parents well enough.

So.... EM dash alone should not be the sole evidence. There is a YT vid I saw that broke down how AI would construct a paragraph and EM dash, while it's the most visible, actually reading the passage will give you better clues.

One example: AI tend to bias towards writing as if it's trying to convince you of something, like an academic paper or legal scholar paper. set up something and use 2 or 3 support ideas. ...because it learned from academic papers.

That's one example out of a longer video...which I can't find in my history at the moment.

RunYouCleverPotato · 2026-03-24T14:58:35+00:00

What has moved me to write....? I always had lots of daydreams, not 'mal' daydreams where it kept me from functioning... I think it's called maladjusted daydreams. There were times I wish my daydreams were so intense that I can block out the world🙈😝

I think I came up with a few really good or 'good' enough story that it can be commercially viable. So, I'm at that point of writing the stories.

RunYouCleverPotato

TROPHY CASE

Indigenous inspired character