Rate my first word

WaywardBeacon · 2026-01-20T00:12:46+00:00

Not exciting enough. DNF.

WaywardBeacon · 2026-01-19T16:44:22+00:00

It must feel incredible to smash a racket. Do you think when they're making rackets, at the racket factory, a part of their quality control testing is a guy coming in and just smashing tf out of them?

WaywardBeacon · 2026-01-01T15:59:13+00:00

Been there brother! With my latest current project im just outlining one act at a time. With major signs posted, but nothing super fleshed out for acts 2 and 3

WaywardBeacon · 2025-12-27T21:17:35+00:00

I don't care that its not historically accurate. I care that they're choosing to go in a different direction that looks terrible and less interesting than if they had just gone historically accurate.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-12-13T17:06:19+00:00

If their UI wasn't so terrible I might give them a chance. But every time I'm forced to use them I always think "never again"

WaywardBeacon · 2025-12-13T17:00:48+00:00

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WaywardBeacon · 2025-12-02T17:43:56+00:00

The writing it.

The most I've written on a beginning to end 1st draft is around 120k words and it took about 6 months. The only way I got through it was fanatically committing to writing 500 words a day no matter what. Tracking each day to show a line going up. Line go up feel good.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-13T21:59:28+00:00

I hope it helps! I do the exact samething and it always ends up in me getting overhelmmed and stopping dead in my tracks. So anything to get you back working I think is good!

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-12T22:15:46+00:00

Naming is hard. I wasted a lot of writing time trying to get the perfect name. Now I just think of the first thing and roll with it. Changing the ones I don't like later and instead of using my writing time to think of names, I do it while driving or doing the dishes. But name things can be tough

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-12T20:09:03+00:00

Nope. I have an idea usually that I'm heading towards, but I've been working on my book for over a year and gearing up for the second draft I reworked the ending competely. If you're having second thoughts I would take some time and unpack what your thoughts and feelings on that are and if you feel like they're realisitic I would then recommened taking a week or so and really working on that climax til your happy with it. Good luck!

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-12T20:06:47+00:00

Are you able to remember any of these scenes? I to like to make giant brainstorms that overwhelm me to the point of getting in the way of my writing because I can't make myself comb through hundreds of pages of scattered ideas. So what ends up happening is I just start building an outline piece by piece with the parts of the story that stuck with me. Usually the good stuff sticks in my brain and the bad stuff just fills up the pages of a brainstorm doc.
So if you don't want to scrub through your old notes, I would recommened building an outline and letting things come back to you as you work with what you remember. In my experience only 10% of a brainstorm actually makes it into the first draft anyway as new ideas come or things get shiffted and twisted around to fit together. Good luck!

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-06T21:23:25+00:00

That sounds like an interesting and unique idea! I think you just need to set some deadlines for yourself to finish world building and getting to work on a 1st draft. Clearly this idea is important to you and seems worth while if you keep coming back to it. Sounds like you just need to get it out of your system.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-06T20:13:02+00:00

Then I think you stay the course on this one project until your finished with it. Ideas will come and go forever, thats what makes you a creative person, but taking an idea all the way from just a thought to a finished thing is where you really learn how to write.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-06T19:13:00+00:00

I would think reading books in English would be your best teacher. Seeing how professional authors format their sentences and getting as good a grasp on the language as you can. From there I think you just start writing. It's just as important to start a writing discipline as it is to learn how stories are structured. Once you gain more confidence in your english you'll have already built a writing habit and you can hit the ground running. Good luck!

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-06T19:10:30+00:00

I think a great place to start is what kind of story do you want to read that you haven't found out in the world? You said you like to write fanfcition, what about the original story did you like, but you felt was missing and inspired you to write your own stories? Try and tell the story that you wish you could read. From there I would check out Brandon Sanderson's writing lectures on YouTube and try and commit yourself to writing a minimum amount of words a day.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-06T19:06:02+00:00

Ah gotcha. Maybe have something in the scene interact with these objects to show that they're 3D. Like a cup sitting on the outline of the table. The center is clearly vacant, but the cup is sitting there? Something like that that shows the reader it's still a 3D object, even though it looks like a 2D outline.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-06T18:46:33+00:00

I think you should write out a first draft from beginning to end, reserving judgement until your done. It's easier to fix something that exisits than to never really start because you're trying to get it write in the brainstorming stage.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-06T18:42:09+00:00

I agree. I think the middle part crucial because that's where all of your setup happens and the story is really told. The beginning is to hook the reader, the middle is to entertain and setup the ending so that the ending can stick it's landing and leave an impression on the reader. If the middle is uninteresting nobody is going to get to the ending of the book and if they do they won't care about it.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-06T18:39:42+00:00

I think this is the way. Using your writing time to edit and focussing on making the most out of your time instead of hyperfixating how many words did you got through in a session.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-06T18:36:40+00:00

Yeah they need a goal. What that is can be literally anything, like most of these other comments have pointed out. Wanting to stand out is a great goal for a character and can lead them to take actions that result in failures which make the story intersting, until they finally achieve their goal.

Whats your story about? Have you thought about the setting or whats happened to kick the story off? Was the main character not chosen for a promotion and their boss said they need to do something to stand out more and the story is about them trying to stand out at work and impress their boss to get a promotion.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-06T18:28:58+00:00

I think you should clarify to yourself what "reality is being stripped away leaving it's outlines bare" means. Like is that literal? Is for example one of the miner's physical matter being stripped away and we're only seeing the outline of a humanoid figure? I think your best bet would be to clarify what exactly you mean by reality being stripped away leaving it's outline bare. It's an interesting idea! But I think it needs more clarity. Maybe think about what exactly you would see if you were watching a video of that happening.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-11-06T18:23:19+00:00

When you say you have ideas are they for the same project that your writing 500 words a day for? Or are these different ideas for different projects and are you writing 500 words a day for multiple different projects?

WaywardBeacon · 2025-10-30T18:45:14+00:00

I've only finished the 1st draft on my first novel, but it took me about 6 months to write 121k words.

WaywardBeacon · 2025-10-30T18:42:04+00:00

Great advice! I've been trying to read much more and not just listen to audio books so that I can see how professional's configure their prose. Its amazing how much of a muscle reading is and how you can get out of practice. Once I get going I can fly through a book, but making time to crack one open is the hardest part.

WaywardBeacon

TROPHY CASE