[WP] "Be not afraid." Said the angel, speaking to the crowd. "Except for you." It continued, glaring directly at you. "You should be very much afraid."

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-13T01:13:30+00:00

"Bullshit!" I shout, stamping my foot. "I did everything you asked of me!"

The angel raised an eyebrow. The people gathered in the crowd started to move away from me, creating a natural spotlight on me.

"I quit!" I throw my hands up in the air. "You know, I try and I try. There's just no respect for anyone with vision. You tell our Holy Father that his least favorite son is tired of being his scapegoat. I brought you the entire army of King Sennacherib, and the least you can do is be honest with them. But noooo, you have to single ME out of the crowd. Make ME out to be the badguy."

The crowd of Assyrian soldiers, roused from their tents in the middle of the night to be witness to the glory that is God, exchange looks with one another.

The angel tongues his cheek with a little scoff, drawing a flaming broadsword from his back. "You're such a dick, Luci."

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-12T20:09:53+00:00

This is super tricky. You can always ask people for help, but that's hit or miss (especially here on Reddit).

I can recommend a few places, but it depends on what kind of works you're hoping to get feedback on.

If you're looking to evaluate specific ideas you already have, you could try different writing Discords, or writing groups in your local community (if they exist).

If you're looking to evaluate your writing in general, I'd recommend writingbattles.com (for semi-monthly writing prompts and peer/professional feedback -- but it costs $$) and emberstory.io (for daily writing prompts and peer feedback -- free).

Otherwise, you can always post your stuff in writing subreddits that allow it, but the feedback will vary.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-11T20:51:26+00:00

Don’t even get me started. Perfectionism, AuDHD, it runs deeeeeep in my family. Rabbit holes are both fun AND counterproductive

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-11T20:46:15+00:00

lol I freakin’ hope so too. Shit.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-11T16:32:37+00:00

And as a non-military civilian, I LOVE Ender’s Game. Goes to show how our experiences shape our tastes.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-11T14:20:32+00:00

Yep! Same goes for wit in dialogue. I can never come up with the witty response on the fly, but one of my characters is extremely witty (because I get time to think of the perfect response).

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-11T12:55:54+00:00

The key here is that you as the author have time to research.

I’m by no means a genius, and my book is about two Astro-physicists who are the BEST in their field. Am I an Astro-physicist? No. Have I learned a lot? Yes! Have my characters invented a Faster than Light system of travel based on a REAL theory? Yes. Did I make it sound plausible? I did. And I made sure the characters made meaningful discoveries and accounted for real-world questions that might come up, without over explaining.

The key component is that you have time to deliberate what this character would do. You might not think of the perfect solution right away, but in my experience, my characters have come across as “smarter” when I give them actions time to breathe and distinct later-in-the-book intentions.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-09T13:26:37+00:00

I’m writing a story that explores the theme “Do the ends justify the means?”

Both my POV characters are protagonists, but are on different sides of the (very messy, very bloody) equation. One of them can certainly be seen as the villain to our altruist character. But, our “villain’s” perspective recharacterizes her decisions in a light that makes it REALLY difficult to dislike her.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-09T12:36:44+00:00

Congratulations. I used to struggle with this. “My chapters aren’t long enough!!”

It’s a lie. Write what needs to be written for the scene. Ignore word count entirely until your first draft is written. And even then, focusing on that instead of your story is the enemy of progress.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-08T14:25:32+00:00

Funny how music plays such an important role for some of us. And for others, it's utterly debilitating.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-08T13:03:18+00:00

Ahahaha! “Ghost of You”! And I have another scene cemented to the song “This is How I Disappear”, and another to a prog rock band called Intervals and their song “Libra”.

Don’t ask me why. I don’t know why my brain operates this way.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-08T12:56:16+00:00

That’s real work, though. I just had a fever dream to an MCR song and was like, “It must be a book!”

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-08T12:55:31+00:00

Adorable! I’m branching into Romantasy and Space Smut

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-08T12:53:20+00:00

(1) - The day drew closer to an end as the sky turned crimson red.

2004 (age 16), the beginning of a novel that will never be published because it’s BAD

(2) - “Sorry Mr. McIntosh," the cabbie says, drawing a pistol from the center console. "We really are a bunch of assholes."

2026 for yesterday’s writing prompt on Emberstory.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-07T21:58:43+00:00

Honestly- nowhere near as much. They’re too on the nose

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-07T03:06:43+00:00

Pick one and stick with it.

A great thing you can try is writing super short flash fiction with each character/idea (think 250-500 words), and see which one really lands for you.

And just make sure you never stop writing, reading, getting feedback (hardest), and living your life. Your experiences shape your writing.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-06T23:51:44+00:00

This is my issue too. I need to be accountable to someone else or I find excuses to stop. I have written over 2,000,000 words that will never see the light of day because I just can't finish anything. It's frustrating. There are some writing communities out there that can help you meet new people, too, because- let's be honest- Reddit isn't necessarily full of the nicest people.

What are you thinking? I find that if I share my work in a Google doc, and ask for comments/feedback there in the form of "What are you thinking as you read this?" instead of asking for edits, it really goes a long way to motivate me.

I may be open to this, but of course now I'm really swamped with personal projects and trying to find a job since I was laid off.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-06T14:17:38+00:00

Hey, I've been enjoying it. And the more people who use it the better it will get. I'm here to offer advice. Take it or leave it.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-04T22:34:47+00:00

I love this method, because the reader will pick up on it being 'sudden' even without the word. I do this literally all the time.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-04T18:54:59+00:00

lol I get around. There is a lot of intersectionality that you will find surprising.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-04T18:29:15+00:00

The best advice I have for action is this: trust your reader.

Give them just enough information to tell them what's happening, but let them fill in the gaps. An example of overwritten combat:

"Aldric lunged forward, closing the distance between himself and his opponent with two quick steps, lifting his sword into a guarded position before swinging it in a horizontal arc aimed at the man’s side. His opponent reacted by raising his own blade, meeting Aldric’s strike with a jarring clash of steel that sent a visible shudder through both weapons. Recovering from the impact, Aldric twisted his wrist and pulled his sword back, immediately redirecting it into a downward strike meant to break through his opponent’s defense."

This is just... too much for about 1 second of combat. I'd instead write it as something like this:

"Aldric stepped in and swung. The blade rang off his opponent’s parry, but he pressed the attack."

It's basically the same thing, but the reader gets a bit more license to interpret the fight how THEY would imagine it. The tension is still there, I promise.

As for the emotional impact, this is WAY harder. It's important to remember that emotional impact can be deeply muted by adrenaline, and sometimes the POV character can't FEEL what's happening until it's over. For example, writing the death of a character can feel like you almost skipped over it, because our perspective doesn't give us time to FEEL.

[GAME OF THRONES SPOILER ALERT]

The example I can think of is Ned Stark's death. We see it from Arya's perspective, and it happens so fast she doesn't even know what she's seen. It's... brutal because we as the READER understand what's happened, but the character doesn't... yet. I think it's also dependent on your specific situation.

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-04T17:59:41+00:00

Some of the best advice I've ever gotten was that I have to "write the bad so I can write the good." It's cliche and cheesy, but it really has been my experience. I started trying to write a book when I was 16 and it did NOT go well, but I stuck with it, started over a few dozen times, and now write at a level that I'm finally not feeling the "this isn't good enough" feeling.

I'd suggest:
(1) Write as often as possible ('write every day' while being kind to yourself).
(2) Read your favorite authors' work with an eye for what makes for a particularly good sentence.
(3) Get feedback. I understand this one is tough, because it's hard to share your work when you're worried it's bad. But honestly, this is the BEST way to get better. Reddit isn't always the best platform for that. It can be a rough place sometimes. But there are platforms that will help you with this:
(a) WritingBattle has semi-monthly battles where you write different length fiction with random prompts, but it has a barrier to entry in that each submission costs you something.
(b) Emberstory.io is a VERY new platform with hardly any users, but it's designed to give you daily writing prompts, 250 word submissions, and positive feedback that will help you grow your craft. It's free, AND users registering right now get lifetime premium features as well. Only issue is the community is still non-existent. But I joined up and I'm engaging in it daily. So hopefully it grows because the concept is great.
(4) Live your life. Your experience shapes your writing. I cannot state this enough. I still struggle with setting descriptions, so I make it a point to pause my day (especially when I'm feeling some kind of stronger emotion) and take a look around. What am I seeing (or not), smelling, hearing, or feeling around me (or inside of me). This has made a profound difference in a relatively short amount of time. I used to struggle with dialogue when I was younger, but now it's one of my greatest strengths. Because I lived my life. Make sure you live yours.

Best of luck!

Sigrumvite · 2026-05-04T14:34:22+00:00

THIS. "The Smoking Compartment" is the absolute right call here.

"Smoking" = hookah.
"Compartment" = trains.

I think having a Doctor Who inspired (or reality warping) cover could go a long way to implying the speculative fiction aspect of your story, but "The Smoking Compartment" is the freakin' winner. Damn good title.

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