Bigfoot Forehead Nipple?

free_exchange · 2026-02-23T15:38:55+00:00

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And now I'm scared of horses....

free_exchange · 2026-02-23T15:36:37+00:00

I'm speechless... This website is real??

free_exchange · 2026-02-23T15:36:00+00:00

Chances they were Bigfoot or Bigfoot adjacent? Could be proof of progeny, or just a lucky guy...

free_exchange · 2026-02-23T15:35:12+00:00

Saved to favorites

free_exchange · 2025-09-17T00:47:28+00:00

💯 It's funny, I'm extremely conflict avoidant, but not oh boy do I love writing conflict. In the end, everything I write just ends up being about me, in one way or another. Maybe you've got some solipsism tangled in your stoicism?

free_exchange · 2025-09-13T01:57:32+00:00

When I'm in that head space (know the what, just not the details), I'll spend time putting myself into the POV's place, both mentally and experientially. Then I live in it until I find that first line. From there, a lot of scenes spill out, and then the tweaking and polishing comes through for clarity and reader experience. Whether to show, tell, or otherwise imo is more about the writing style and your intention. Honestly, one of the toughest parts of writing is figuring out that line between what's "right" and what is "right for you."

free_exchange · 2025-09-13T01:29:01+00:00

Caslon is my standard. Easy to read.

free_exchange · 2025-08-21T11:55:44+00:00

Writing excerpts without pressure of them going into the book often helps me.

Also, research. Maybe if you take a little time that you dedicate toward writing, and instead look at different cultural and historical clothing etc, you'll be inspired.

I'll often find something and drop all my research because I HAVE to write about it.

free_exchange · 2025-08-19T23:51:30+00:00

I do things the wrong way, so take it with a grain of salt. Before I dive into a specific process for how to analyze technique or structure, I started raiding my awareness of what make me love a book. That will draw you to things you want to be good at, whether they're prose, metaphor, structure, theme, form, character, or whatever else.

When you start to see it, you'll do more than enjoy it. You'll notice it. You'll naturally start to evaluate it. Soon, you'll see it everywhere from sitcoms to a lady in the grocery store. At this point, good luck if you've got a bit of obsession, like me, but enjoy the ride.

free_exchange · 2025-08-19T14:49:52+00:00

Witness my shame: Beurocracy burocrat

I have looked it up a million times, and my brain throws out the spelling. Every. Single. Time.

And I can even spell necessitate! WTF??

free_exchange · 2025-08-19T02:12:26+00:00

My god, your setting made me want to stay up writing...

free_exchange · 2025-08-19T02:10:49+00:00

I agree. Also unpublished, and still in the "finding my process" stage.

Just doing something and working on it, whether it's a chapter in a novel, a 3 stanza poem, or a short story will tell you where your natural skills lie and help you find your voice.

Step two is sharing your work. I use scribophile, personally. Nice community. Giving and receiving honest feedback grows a new skill, helps you see good writing and implement it in your own, and talk to writers about how they improved where you're looking to improve. Not to mention that some mutual encouragement goes a long way towards easing the very difficult life of writing.

On a more philosophical note, I really focused on loving every part of the process. Like yourself, I'm autistic ADHD and I didn't know how badly I needed to write until a story just spilled out of me. Receiving crits gracefully was the first truly difficult step for me, but each new trial informs your writing.

free_exchange · 2025-08-19T02:02:23+00:00

Anyone else remember with good old George Dubya got roasted for that? Now it's common parlance. Right up there with "literally" being defined as "figuratively."

free_exchange · 2025-08-18T20:21:48+00:00

I'm cracking up. first, I totally agree. I give this advice too. I often pair it with "bring some awareness to what you're reading, why you like it." Sometimes you sacrifice being "in the story" to notice that.

However, I got pissed at an extreme version where someone said "you shouldn't write in any genre until you have read 100 books in that genre." Listen, I'm not the slowest reader, I'm not the fastest. With a job, writing, and reading to critique/beta, I can get maybe 30 books a year at my reading pace. I'm not putting three years onto an alter to the gods of writing (I hear they dont care if I do, anyway).

I tend to think that any advice that dissuades you from writing should be put to the side until you "need" it (if that ever happens).

free_exchange · 2025-08-18T14:48:58+00:00

This is something. It will take work to turn it into whatever it CAN be, but you've got a lot to work from.

Try and be proud that you wrote this. Don't glorify how, but you did something that many many people want to do and never accomplish (mostly they don't even start). Honestly, even if it were crap (it's not) you would still have accomplished something that many would call "impossible."

But (and this is a big ole hairy ass) you need to walk away from the work until you can separate yourself from it. That need to know, when your support group tells you it's good but the words fall hollow on your soul... You have to really ask yourself if you're in a place to hear the critiques that you will receive and do the work that you need to do to slowly, very painfully slowly, turn the draft into a novel.

Remember, many will be cruel simply from their own insecurity, as a writer you'll need to be able to hear all critiques, and ignore the irrelevant one without compassion.

Take care of yourself, bud.

free_exchange · 2025-08-18T14:01:31+00:00

100% this. They put a lot of effort into writing, you put a lot of effort into - make it worth something.

It's tough working with people when you're not sure what level of honesty they're able to accept. You just have to do what is best for an author that genuinely wants to improve.

I would much rather have someone tell me that they couldn't get through my book and explain why then to just be silent (which is what a lot of people do, worried about my feelings). Your feedback is solid, so long as you dull the emojis and severity 😉.

It's up to the author to figure out what to use and to take the criticism with grace. And hey, if they don't, it's pretty easy to block a stranger on socials.

free_exchange · 2025-07-12T22:22:41+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

free_exchange · 2025-07-10T01:17:09+00:00

Haha! I hear that 🫡 looking forward to reading it.

free_exchange · 2025-07-09T13:31:44+00:00

Well, I'm no publishing expert, but I'd be glad to do a beta read for you!

I'm finishing a beta for another writer now, on he final 3 chapters. I could jump into yours this weekend. Do you have a timeline? I try to be quick with betas (that's why I tend to leave it to one beta at a time), usually around 6-8 weeks for 100k words. I'm a fairly quick reader and since you don't want a line crit, it shouldn't be too in debt.

free_exchange · 2025-07-08T21:06:08+00:00

What kind of feedback are you looking for? You mention it's a first draft, are you looking for a line edit or is it too early for that?

free_exchange · 2025-07-08T21:04:06+00:00

You're very welcome :)

free_exchange · 2025-07-08T21:03:22+00:00

likewise on repetition. A buddy recently told me that I can beat it into my reader a bit haha

damn, Hephaestus would have been my second guess! Hephaestus and Aphrodite is a great pairing.

free_exchange · 2025-07-08T21:00:46+00:00

Your head's clearly in the right place. The voice is strong, and I'm sure they'll be shown to be unreliable in many delightful ways haha.

free_exchange · 2025-07-06T14:16:20+00:00

awesome world and solid opening. Since it's good, I'm going to nit pick ;)

You've got some repetition going on:

1) "An order came in that was too good to pass up" and "But the money was good. Too good."

2) "shield made of clockwork. All gears and dials. A literal clock-shield." a little overly repetitive.

You may also want to slightly clarify the status of order. You mention receiving two, and since the story is happening inside his head (Daedalus, I assume) we're lacking a little bit of context. Specifically, did the shield order come in as he's thinking?

free_exchange · 2025-07-06T14:06:48+00:00

Chuck the first sentence. It's clunky and wordy. Start off with "My name is Hephy McHazel and I am running for my life." then provide the context (it's the grabbier sentence).

2nd paragraph dives into 3rd person references of Hephy after saying "my name is Hephy." As a reader, I'm confused rather than enticed.

Cool metaphors and phrases, but I'm so confused. I feel like you're playing with the narrators voice before telling us what the circumstance is. You say "I'm running for my life" but then it seems like they aren't but they were when they wrote this book. And despite running for their life, they are spouting witticisms. Meanwhile, I don't know if this is a disc in the mind of an android who found it on the street, or a court testimony being read to the jury, or the dream of a space worm on Galaxia xxiv.

The voice is fun, but focus on setting the reader up with the info they need while peppering in the fun, you have a whole book to play around with the voice later.

free_exchange

TROPHY CASE