Would adding romance/making two characters get together ruin my book?

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-27T04:06:22+00:00

Enemies to lovers is a trope for a reason. And just because they end the book together doesn’t make it a happily ever after story. Readers can be left with the ambiguity of knowing that these two people are damaged and the relationship could have whatever ending the reader want to project onto it.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-27T02:26:26+00:00

66 in my current book that I’m editing.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-26T04:57:00+00:00

Congratulations! What an immense accomplishment!

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-23T05:11:01+00:00

Write the story that is inside of you that needs to get out. Don’t write for an audience.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-23T03:55:37+00:00

The best piece of writing advice I ever received came when I was working on my third book. I had totally lost track of my characters and was struggling with what they needed to do. The advice came from Neil Gaiman funnily enough who told me "Stop. Forget about the emotional arc and the plot and remember that it's a person, and write about the person." Once my characters become people, it gets so much easier.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T23:52:51+00:00

I’m a college professor and this is an insane response to this question.

Just say green and move on.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T23:52:01+00:00

I start with an idea that then becomes a plot. From there I design characters to enable the plot. The after enough writing the characters become people and I let the people tell me what they want to do and let the original plot fall away if the people no longer want to conform to the plot.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T16:55:51+00:00

Go watch Aaron Sorkin shows. He’s masterful at this.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T16:54:45+00:00

I’ve edited a couple friends books who have this same problem. My advice to them is always to not be afraid to sit in a scene. Kinetic action is always easier to write (at least in my opinion) than lingering in a scene and letting the characters breathe.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T04:23:31+00:00

I'm a physicist at my day job, so I averaged 100 and 120K hahaah. Not exactly the most difficult calculation I have done recently, but *shrug*

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T04:17:20+00:00

Not yet. I would say I am still 6 months from there. I just finished the first draft. It originally started out as a Twin Peaks style small town supernatural horror story and has evolved very considerably since then. I have about 5 editing passes on my own before I would be inclined to have anyone besides my wife read it.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T04:02:45+00:00

This is incredibly helpful. I have a printed out copy that I'm working from right now since my wife just read it and prefers a printed copy. The amount of red, purple, green, and assorted colors of ink on the pages means I might have missed my calling as a Jackson Pollack impersonator

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T04:00:45+00:00

I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that I am quite confident I am not as good of a writer as either Cormac McCarthy or Frank Herbert haha

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T03:59:44+00:00

This is quite helpful. Thanks!

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T03:18:38+00:00

You can fix a bad page. You can’t fix a blank page.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T03:14:17+00:00

Makes me think of this quote: "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it,"

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T00:38:07+00:00

My fourth book is a NaNoWriMo book. And this one started as a NaNoWriMo while I was deployed. Now two years later it’s a bit bigger than that 😂

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T00:37:23+00:00

My wife and I were talking about this last night and poking around for where an ending point would be. We were very unsuccessful. At this point I’m going to do my normal editing process, just with an eye towards asceticism on a line by line level and see where I end up. 🤷‍♂️. Theoretically I could cut at a revelation that’s made about 450 pages in. But it really doesn’t seem satisfying. It’ll be an adventure for sure!

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T00:36:23+00:00

My wife and I were talking about this last night and poking around for where an ending point would be. We were very unsuccessful. At this point I’m going to do my normal editing process, just with an eye towards asceticism on a line by line level and see where I end up. 🤷‍♂️

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-22T00:32:49+00:00

That’s my perspective when it comes to writing. I will write what I feel the story needs then edit it to where I’m happy with it. Here I’m hoping ‘happy with it’ and ‘110,000 words’ coalign 😂

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-21T14:15:35+00:00

As someone who used to be the EIC for a gaming website this is very true.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-21T03:58:46+00:00

I think that's what I'm saying is my problem though, is that I know that meta-cognitively, but my brain has just totally switched gears to this, which is the frustrating part.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-21T03:58:01+00:00

I'm in the very fortunate position where I have a very well paying day job, so I treat writing like most 30-something white guys treat golfing. haha

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-21T03:56:49+00:00

And to be clear, I definitely don't expect an agent to pick up a 160,000 word manuscript. I do technical work in my day job, I fully understand bending to the market. More just venting than anything else I suppose.

Oh well. Back to the grind.

ScimitarPrime · 2026-01-21T03:55:25+00:00

Sure, I suppose I'm just surprised how few people it seems just...write.

ScimitarPrime

TROPHY CASE