I'm currently writing a Warriors AU, or an Alternate Universe, and I'm curious how you guys don't lose motivation when writing. I've tried to write Warriors AU's multiple times, but I always lose motivation, and just stop writing it. So how, or what, do you guys do to not lose motivation? Some tips would be really handy, as I really like this premise and really don't want to abandon it.

I have started journaling pretty recently and I want to write about more things/topics in my journal.

I have 3 entries so far from the past two week. In them I wrote about my college life, plans for Halloween, my goals before the year ends, what I did today, things that I found meaningful, and an idea for a game.

I have tried writing about my feelings but just couldn't do it. I want more topics/ideas that I can write about. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I've been having this vision in my mind for quite a while. I struggled, and it took me hours to pen this down. I do read books quite a bit, yet descriptive writing is not my strongest forte. I take mental notes whilst reading whenever I stumble upon anything I deem beautiful or interesting or makes me go, "I didn't know this could be described this way!" But when I actually open my laptop, feeling ready to write every vision I have, I just sit vacantly, staring at the blank page for hours. Eventually, I give up and call it a day. I have always wanted to write, ever since I started reading books. But I always said to myself, "I'll definitely write someday," and I never did. Today, I pushed myself to write whatever came to my mind. And here it is:

Content warnings: Body image issues, self-loathing, social media comparison, blood.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-zneOw-Yr0Uyqko9sZo6aehBtpwEgaEOTRaXLgJBzVM/edit?usp=sharing

It has no structure, because I don't happen to know one. I did not have any standards to meet either; I just typed out the image I had (of course I did some tweaks here and there).

Please help a girl out here.

I've been brainstorming a story for about 2 years and a half, I even put out the first official chapter, to deviantart, but the more ideas I get, the more indecisive I get, I think I'm satisfied with the first idea, only to them think if this idea is better or "maybe this one is cooler", or "is this too much like "blank"". what could I do to find that sweet spot where you can write without second guessing the story?

Hello everyone. I'm a new-ish writer, currently working on the first book in a Light Novel series. It's about 85-90% done. I plan on writing everything regardless, but I'm unsure where to go from here. I struggle a lot with self-deprecation, which is preventing me from doing a lot of things.

No matter how I look at it, I can't get the thought out of my mind that by writing is trash, my story is terrible, and nobody would ever want to read it. 
But, here's the thing.
I’ve had friends read my story; they love it.
I read it aloud to my Grade 9 class I work with; they thought it was amazing.
I had English Teachers read over it; they said it's very good. 
But regardless, I still can't get past those thoughts.

Part of me wants to post it on RR or AO3, and send it out into the world, but everytime I think about that, I get a knot in my stomach and this feeling of dread.

Has anyone else experienced this, and how did you overcome it? I keep getting told “just post it!” but I really wish it were that easy.

So, I've had this idea for a sort of magic system for a long time. I've written it down before, but I can't say I found away to make it immediately click with people.

What I have is kind of a compression of the atomic, molecular, cellular level. There are these plasma energy particles that contain a type of genetic DNA to be the building blocks of everything. They create matter that starts to interact with each other in more and more complex ways until various complex objects are created. Which then perpetuate increasing intricate natural cycles to facilitate a sort of life. The life keeps being fueled by the matter until their body becomes stronger and more complex. New life is created by matter breaking apart into energy to fuel other life. Until you get a diverse ecosystem, all made like combining and tearing apart play dough. There is also no construct of sex because it's all done asexually.​

I'm not sure how it came to me, but it's been quite a bit​ to work with. It helps that I have a writing class to fleshy it out, but I kind of want to see others input their ideas on how it can be applied to a story. How can it affect a narrative, characters, or even the very idea of personhood. I kind of just want to know if I'm even making sense here.

So I recently published my debut novel, which is a standalone story. I've been working on a sequel for it because I love my characters and there's still a lot of worldbuilding to explore and have fun with, but I'm struggling with the actual plot of it.

For the first book, I pantsed probably 90% of it. It just flowed out of me, like the story was forcing me to tell it. But now with the sequel, I feel like it's the opposite -- that I'm trying to force a story that doesn't need/want to be told. And I feel like whatever I come up with won't compare with the debut.

I'm not sure if I'm just overthinking things, or if my pantser-brain can't plot things properly, or if I'm approaching things from the wrong angle. Or maybe a sequel truly doesn't need to exist.

Has anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you navigate it? Should I just wait to see if inspiration strikes, or should I write any old thing and edit the hell outta it (like I did with the debut)?

Hi, everyone!

I'm a relatively new writer. I have done plenty of shorter stories, but I'm trying my hand at something a bit more expansive for the first time.

I have a (loose) plan for broad strokes in the story: where the main characters start, how they meet with other characters, some pieces of conflict here and there, how i want the main conflict with the primary antagonist to end, etc.

I've also defined theming and overarching messages that I'd like to write into my story that I think suit the world and characters, and this will serve as the fuel for my emotional conflicts. I figure others will develop naturally as I write the story itself.

My issue is that I cannot for the life of me figure out how to string some of these things together!

I've been trying and failing to brainstorm the same bullets in my outline for the past two days. I'm wondering if this is a 'kill your darlings' moment and I should just forgo the entire plot point I'm stuck on and try something else... Or if there's something people recommend to try when you're at this point?

I'm more of a "world building and characters first, then figure out how my characters fit into this world and the conflict within it" sort of story-builder. So I'm not sure if that's what's hindering me... I sometimes feel like I'm putting together a puzzle rather than painting a picture. I guess that's to say that I feel clunky and awkward the way I'm going about things.

If anyone can recommend me some good instructional or learning videos for writing a large cast of characters within a complex world that'd be great, too...

Thanks!

I'm writing a Seawalkers fanfiction, and in the Wood/Seawalkers books, one of their classes basically teaches them about civilised society to avoid the walkers that grew up mostly animalistic to do weird things in public or possibly get arrested. I'm writing a scene that takes place in one of these classes, but I don't know what topic should be adressed in this day's class. To get an idea, the scene takes place somewhere 2nd/3rd week of september, and the students have this class once a week, so they definitely didn't come that far yet.

So now I am asking you, if you were assigned to teach at a Seawalker-school at the Belgian coast, what laws of social mechanics would you teach your students? And since half the class are practically animals in human form, how would you tackle the subjects?

Edit: I'm not sure why I had to label this as sensitive content 😅

I'm never worried about changing things just because nothing can ever be original, but I was wondering if I could get a second opinion on this?

I started watching a show for the first time and the main character not only shares the same last name as my main character, but they also share the same occupation (and title), and some similar and very clearly identifying physical traits as well. If that's not enough, this show is in the same genre of literature I'm writing, the second main character has the same vices and quirks as my second main character as well, and there's a minor female character with a very specific and random cultural name in the first episode which I also happen to have a small minor female character of the same name that's mentioned at the beginning of my book. I started thinking I was tripping watching this show.

Now obviously my story's not exactly the same, but I feel like maybe the main character's name is the worst offender here. But the issue is that I really like this name, I chose it with careful purpose, and it's been the same for the last 8 years when I first came up with my story. Although, I'm worried that since this is a known show, someone might eventually think I ripped it off. Would you guys change the name or just stick with it anyway?

Like the title says, I've been wanting to write a book for some time now, but I keep coming up with new ideas. I've tried focusing on one or another, but end up getting sidetracked and finish with a bunch of unfinished projects. Any advice on settling on just one? Or if you work on multiple projects at once, how do you do it?

It has been so long since I've written an essay and I seem to have forgotten how to actually write a good one or even write one. It's frustrating. I'm in college now studying engineering and everything is mathematics, we rarely sit down to write freely. And when we do write it's all laboratory reports with given templates. I am fully aware that I've never been good at writing ever since, but at least before I actually get to write in highschool.

Yesterday we had this minor subject that required us to write essay in my own languange in 30 minutes as our midterm. I feel like I actually flunked it. Everything was all over the place. I've gotten so used in English that I actually cannot translate my thoughts to my first languange.

I feel so bad, that I'm planning on writing essays everyday now so I can train myself. Do you guys have any advice to improve my writing?

I have been wanting to write a book for a long time now, around the story of a cult leader that goes undercover to keep its members in check. There's a lot more to it than that, but, that's the general basis.

I have done a lot of research, and have a pretty good idea of many of its themes, characters, personalities, world, and events. But, when it comes to actually figuring out how I want to write the book... I feel stuck. I have sat myself down at my computer for hours on end, just staring at the screen, without distraction. But, nothing works. One moment I want to write from the perspective of the leader, the next moment I want to write from the perspective of a new member, and then suddenly I want to write from the perspective of someone born in the cult. The only theme that truly stays consistent is the fact that I want to write from the first person through a diary system. But... I can't quite figure out how, or who, or why or where to even start.

Does anyone have any exercises they could recommend? Or just general advice? Or perhaps even, could someone offer up their own process for writing??

TW: Allegory for SA; discussion of psychological abuse

Conceptus-Memoria Erado (from latin — Concept-Memory Deletion) - special operation, that delete comprehension of concepts and memories from person.

How it's works — If somebody would delete concepts and memories of positive emotions from their victim, then they're can only feel negative emotions or somebody can turn fighter defenseless by erasing their concepts and memories about tactical, weapons, battle and fighting skills, making them defenseless. It causes severe psychological torment of their victims, since they're aware that something is wrong, but cant understand it.

I took inspiration from amnestics from SCP Foundation.

I consider this a great potential for psychological horror and well allegory for sexual assault, since it is violation of person's mind. But of course I want to make research on this topic to tackle it with care and seriousness it is deserves.

Note: as you're rightfully point out that calling it "De-personalization" — real life psychological phenomenon, is offensive and tasteless, and now I'm understand it. I'm sincerely apologize for making unfortunate implications.

I've been writing some nice little stories about things that I care about and the occasional vision in my dreams but every time I get to a new chapter everything just shuts down and stops working and my brain doesn't let me continue for like 4 months. I have the ideas but I just can't be bothered. How do I be bothered enough to do it.