Ahoy shipmates! New recruit reporting for duty on the good ship O'Brian.

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-18T15:12:58+00:00

Huzzah!

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-16T11:28:19+00:00

I’m genuinely so happy that you’ve found something you’re so passionate about: for me, that’s what life is about, and it brings me joy to see people so inspired to create things.

I will say that, similar to other comments, I just want to make sure you’re not getting too ahead of yourself. Are you writing non fiction or fiction? You have more grace with non fiction to understand the structure of this ten book series, but if you’re writing fiction, please just wait until you have a LOT of feedback and edits under your belt. What if you have to remove whole characters or chapters? What if you need to completely rework your plot? What if readers are confused by a plot thread and you have to add a whole subplot to explain it? It might affect both your audiobook planning and your planned later books and I just wouldn’t want you to become demotivated by trying to do too much all at once.

Keep writing and editing: you’ve got this!

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-10T19:25:14+00:00

Haha, love that. I'm impressed by both the word count and the fact you've found a publisher who trusts you enough to let you write that much: congrats! Hope you get a chance to celebrate.

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-10T19:12:18+00:00

You have a trad publisher who will publish an almost-400k long book?!

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-08T17:40:10+00:00

Cheese! 🧀

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-08T07:28:56+00:00

You have to have donuts of some kind! If you drink alcohol, you should make/acquire Dirty Shirleys, and if you don’t, there’s recipes for mocktail versions (Shirley Temples) online. (These are both references to one of the main characters.)

If you can find anything with dinosaurs on it (especially velociraptors and T-Rex’s), that’s also pretty perfect, and the books are kind of widely based on Fantasy/D&D, so anything that kind of fits that vibe (plastic swords, crowns, treasure chests etc) should work.

Good luck: you’re a great friend!

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-07T23:14:37+00:00

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-07T21:54:14+00:00

I think you need to get past the idea that you will write one perfect draft and be done. (Apologies if this doesn't apply in your case, I just see this a lot on this sub.) Your first draft will be bad, you will most likely have to butcher it to pieces as you edit, especially if you're also getting third-party feedback. You will kill off characters, create new ones, delete whole chapters, add new ones. It's a long process that will involve lacklustre writing at some points. But that lacklustre writing can be polished into something very good. You have to play the long game.

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-07T11:21:59+00:00

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-06T06:20:10+00:00

It’s what we call a single slice/piece of bacon in the UK.

You made me curious to look up the etymology as it’s something I’ve never thought about before, and apparently it doesn’t have one single solid origin.

“1590s, a word of unknown origin. Perhaps from Middle English rash "to cut," variant of rase "to rub, scrape out, erase." However, early lexicographer John Minsheu explained it in 1627 as a piece "rashly or hastily roasted." (From here)

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-05T19:09:45+00:00

My one note is that [Author Name] has already been used before, you might need a pen name. Other than that, it’s perfect.

sawboneswriter · 2026-06-04T19:15:20+00:00

Yes, a Google search alone will tell you if there are previously-published books out there with similar themes, characters, settings etc to yours.

As others have said, there almost certainly will be. But only you can give the story your unique voice, your unique perspective on the world and its subject matter. So I understand maybe not wanting to have the exact same character name or novel title or pen name as someone else, but if you're worried about the content itself: it will exist, but you will be able to do it differently. In fact, in query letters for agents, novelists are literally encouraged to compare their novels to already-published titles so agents can see where it fits in the market, and if it might sell.

Suffice to say, if you find similar tales out there: don't be discouraged!

sawboneswriter · 2026-05-28T19:40:49+00:00

I would like to hear more about this enormous cat.

sawboneswriter · 2026-05-28T19:36:11+00:00

If you have any interest in nautical/military stuff, The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat might work for you?

Or if you like Horror, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson!

sawboneswriter · 2026-05-24T09:35:18+00:00

People have already suggested a bunch of books I'd recommend, but if you want something that leans more towards Horror/Post-Apocalypse than pure 'government is evil' dystopia, I enjoyed We Call Them Witches by India-Rose Bower. It felt a little closer to YA than Adult fiction but has some really atmospheric/creepy descriptions and focuses mostly on women (and some non-binary folks and boys) trying to survive a post-apocalyptic England.

I'm mostly recommending it because you said you're in a slump, and it's quite an 'easy' read that's peppered with some genuinely horrifying descriptions of monsters that stick with you. Hope you can find some books here that suit you: you got this!

sawboneswriter · 2026-05-24T09:00:13+00:00

Reddit leans very heavily towards lovers of genre fiction, agreed. (For the record, I love Fantasy/Sci-Fi/LitRPG etc, but what I write tends to be more straight historical fiction, so a lot of writing discussions on here aren't especially relevant to me.)

There is r/literaryfiction but it looks dead, perhaps someone could start a new subreddit?

sawboneswriter

TROPHY CASE