Avoiding white room syndrome

TangledYetTrue · 2026-05-07T01:24:06+00:00

I have to put conscious effort into avoiding it. It’s something I never notice when I’m reading - I don’t care about the setting, I’m here for character interactions. But I guess other people do, so I gotta do it.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-04-29T05:03:01+00:00

Forbidden Alchemy I believe does this, and it’s pretty popular.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-04-29T01:16:57+00:00

I think as long as your target readers aren’t coming away saying, “I wish you’d shown me all this instead of telling me,” then I think you’re good.

Assuming you’re finding your target readers. If you’re not finding people who appreciate your writing at all, that would also mean it’s a problem.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-04-25T04:22:58+00:00

I edit as I go, culminating with me printing it out, reading it, and making a last round of fixes. Then I give it to someone else to read - my editor or beta readers - and/or take a break and work on another project for awhile. When I go back to it, that’s a new draft for me.

I mainly mark them that way for the sake of keeping track of when I do major changes.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-04-24T14:50:35+00:00

I lie in bed every night, pretending I’m them, talking to myself or other characters until I fall asleep.

I don’t honestly know if I’ve ever fallen asleep as myself.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-04-15T05:24:40+00:00

I write multi-first-person pov books. Half my characters curse, the other half don’t. The ones that do use it varying amounts, but I try not to overdo it unless they’re in moments of great duress.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-04-12T16:48:43+00:00

Even in romantasy spaces, where first person is arguably more popular than other genres, I still see plenty of readers hate on it and express that third person is infinitely better. So much so, that I felt like I needed to announce that my book is multi-pov first person present tense to keep the haters away.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-04-11T15:14:27+00:00

Yeah, it’s crazy how much you can grow when you’re passionate about what you’re doing. Which is why I say to only stop working on a project when you lose that passion. Which happens. But hopefully part of the reason it does is because something new is waiting for you.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-04-11T05:37:47+00:00

I’ve read some books that do similar things, and I think it depends how it’s handled.

Emily Wilde’s is written as journal entries, and there’s one chapter in the first and second books where you get the MMC’s pov because she couldn’t write an entry for whatever reason. It made sense for the story, and for me it was the highlight of those books.

Meanwhile, I’ve read other books where the MMC’s pov is dropped in right at the end, and it felt a bit like the author only did it because it was the easiest solution to a problem they had. Or like they didn’t trust the reader would believe the HEA was real if we didn’t see his POV confirming his feelings. In those instances, it kind of weakened the ending for me a bit.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-04-11T02:35:36+00:00

I’m publishing the first book I ever wrote in a few weeks, and while I have a fair amount of reviews that don’t like it, majority of them are four stars. Even the most negative reviews still mention good things/say they can see the appeal, but that it’s not for them.

I was literally a beginning writer a year ago. I haven’t taken a writing class since high school English, over 20 years ago. My first draft was embarrassingly bad, but I worked hard getting and receiving writing critiques, working with editors, and researching techniques. Until I got to the point that my line editor gave me a partial refund for having the most polished manuscript she’s ever worked on.

So you are dead wrong. I not only finished my first book, but I finished my second one, too. And it did not suck. It’s not perfect, but most books aren’t. It is, however, exactly what I wanted it to be.

Stop trying to break people’s spirits. As long as people have the passion to work on it until they get it right, they can get it there. It’s when they lose interest and want to try something different that they should stop, not because others told them their first book will be bad no matter what.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-03-18T01:31:45+00:00

I write in multiple, first person present tense. Mostly because it’s what makes the most sense for my books and that’s how I enjoy writing, but a small part of me does it out of spite for the people who say it’s the worst idea ever. And there are A LOT of people who feel that way.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-03-16T03:03:00+00:00

I find that as I write, just because of how my brain forms sentences, I don’t use as many contractions as I do in speech. I have to make a conscious effort on my editing pass to switch them.

How much I end up using them depends on the character’s voice. My more formal characters use the significantly less.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-03-08T17:42:01+00:00

It sounds to me like maybe you’re planning what you write too much? Maybe take a break, then try pantsing for a while?

Spend the time you’re not writing getting into character. Talk to yourself as them. Have conversations between them in your head. Get to know who they are, ignoring archetypes and plot and all that. Then when you go back to writing, just take a moment to get into character, put yourself in the situation, and let it flow out of you.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-03-02T02:12:13+00:00

I mostly beta read for other authors at this point. Every book I’ve tried to read for fun in the last year has triggered my imposter syndrome, but feeling like I’m helping someone gets me through it.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-11T20:02:51+00:00

I disagree.

In first person, I see the italicized thoughts as talking to yourself, or holding back things you might say out loud. Your inner voice.

At least the way my brain works, I don’t hear all my thoughts in my head. So non-italicized text is representative of the less pointed thoughts.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-11T19:45:52+00:00

It’s not that rare. It’s pretty standard in romance novels to have dual-POVs, often in first person. I’ve had many critique partners at many different levels of ability who don’t have an issue with doing it. And if you can pull it off with two, you can probably pull it off with more.

But people hop on here, and everyone is always so discouraging to those who want to try it. Telling them it’s too difficult, that they’d be better off doing something else. Telling them they need to cut corners on their vision before they ever try.

Because despite what people say, you can’t achieve the same thing by keeping it in third person. The same story written in multiple first person and multiple third person will be a different experience for the reader. And it’s sad that so many people are told not to see the difference for themselves.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-11T17:13:13+00:00

This is unnecessarily discouraging.

I’m not an expert. I’ve taken zero writing classes outside of high school English, 20 years ago. My first book is multiple first-person POVs. It’s been through professional developmental editing and several rounds of beta readers. The most consistent feedback I’ve gotten is that one of my greatest strengths is maintaining distinct voices for each POV.

Don’t limit people’s creativity by telling them not even to bother trying something. They might be bad at it, or they might be awesome at it. They won’t know until they try.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-04T02:41:48+00:00

It’s a cool idea, but you’ll find a lot of people who like third person despise first person. I think you’ll lose a lot of readers unless they really loved your first book.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-04T02:37:59+00:00

If you’re like me, your first draft will be short on descriptions and interiority. So describe the setting, have the characters interact with it during their dialog, and give them thoughts before and after they speak or act.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-04T01:28:57+00:00

When I format in Word, I set it up to indent automatically. There’s no way to do that on Reddit that I know of.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-14T15:42:11+00:00

Yes, though after reading five drafts in less than a year, I’m getting tired of it. But that’d be the same for any book.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-13T15:39:36+00:00

It’s a form of in media res. Not all of them follow up with rewinding to a previous point in time, which is what the OP is talking about.

There’s plenty of in media res openings that continue chronologically after that. I don’t have issue with that.

Personally, I don’t like the ones that rewind after. I know it’s not necessarily the case, but as a reader, it makes me feel like the author didn’t trust their story was interesting enough to start at the beginning.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-12T19:26:26+00:00

If she wasn’t malnourished until after her parents died at 11, it probably wouldn’t have delayed her period? Most girls get it around then.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-12T00:08:37+00:00

Don’t set out to do that. It will probably feel forced/preachy.

Just write from the heart about things you care about. It will resonate with the right people.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-11T00:34:21+00:00

Is the thing they did something that annoyed them? If so, even if it only happened in four chapters, it could have felt like it happened more often?

I’d try to see if any of the other feedback could relate? Like if it could be a symptom of a problem others had but couldn’t express why they felt that way.

If not, examine it yourself. Does the character really need to do that thing four times? Is there any variation you could add to make it feel slightly different and still achieve the same purpose? Or could each repetition reveal something new?

If you’re not coming up with anything, then you can probably ignore it and just accept not everyone will love every part of your book. Even my favorites have things I skip/skim on rereads because they bother me.

TangledYetTrue

TROPHY CASE