I've contemplated writing for years, never knowing how to begin. Then, in a fit of I don't even know what, I turned a freeform roleplaying campaign I DM'd into a book, which took me a year because I decided that I need to write it in two languages at once, yeah, and construct an in-universe one, because, I guess, "if you wish to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe". And followed up with a handful of short stories, because I got extra ideas in the meantime, which I also had to turn into words.

At last, once I ran out of things I wanted to say to the world, I've sunk a couple of weeks into TVTropes, trying to analyze what was that. Like, 300+ pages of random largely inconsequential tension without no antagonist, arguably no single plot-turning point happening on-screen, and, with a bit of a mental gymnastics, conflict-free altogether? What even is that, how is that called? Such analysis was, uh, interesting, I've learned that new under the sun, or, say, tha

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/52969384

I’m working on a short story set in the late '60s, but I’m trying to avoid explicitly stating the time period. Since it’s all in my head as I write, when I go back and read it, I think, “Yeah, that’s exactly what I want.”

Buuuut I’m starting to second guess myself. The time period isn’t crucial to the story, but I hate aspects of modern society—like phones, TikTok, and all the crap—so wanted to set the story in a time before all that.

Do you think I’m successfully conveying that vibe without explicitly saying it’s the late '60s? Or do you have any suggestions on how to better hint at the era?

Excerpt:

The bus ride felt like shedding an old skin. I sat by the window, watching the cityscape blur into flat plains and then roll into hills dusted with early snow. Across the aisle, a group of young people sprawled in their seats, their patchwork clothes and tangled hair telling me all I needed to know about them. None of them could h

Programs/Apps

• 🆓 Hemmingway App
• 🆓 Consistency Checker
• 🆓 Draft
• 🆓 After The Deadline: No longer maintained, but can be self hosted
• Grammarly: Free limited version
• WritingProAid: Free limited version
• AutoCrit: Free limited version
• Smart Edit
• Perfect It
• Master Writer
• Word Rake

Editors and Beta-Readers:

• 🆓The Ultimate Guide to Working with Beta Readers
• 🆓Working with a Freelance Book Editor
• 🆓[How to Find an Editor as a Self-published

Apps and Programs

• 🆓Fantasia Archive: While this free program is designed for DND, it can be helpful for brainstorming worlds and characters, as well as how they all connect together.
• Fantasy Calendar
• Bubisco
• Campfire
• World Anvil
• Inkarnate
• Legend Keeper
• One Stop for Writers
• Legend Keeper
• Kanka
• World Scribe

World Maps:

How-To’s:

• A Fantasy World Map Guide: Tools and Best Practices

Apps/Programs:

• Nortantis
• [RPG Map Editor](https://deepnight.net/tools

I am a bit of a cataloger when it comes to writing resources, so here are some of them. I haven't tried all of these myself, so please let me know if I get anything wrong. If people find this helpful, I have world building and editing related ones I can share too.

• 🆓yWriter: It is not the most sleek looking program, but it works.
• 🆓Google Docs
• 🆓Slugline
• 🆓Highland
• 🆓 Wavemaker
• 🆓 Joplin: The cloud hosting does cost money. Open source alternative to Evernote.
• 🆓 Only Office: This one is good for people who want a private cloud-hosted alternative to Google Docs. It is open-source.
• 🆓 Obsidian: I have started using this for world building, but many authors use it for writing. Within it, you can crea

We recently created a very tiny book on philosophy, possibly the absolute smallest of its kind. It's around a 5 minute read.
Please don't mind the informal language, as the book was written like that to save space and for ease of reading.
It's written in markdown, so you may want to convert it to html, but you can also open it on a text editor, although it won't look as flashy.
Feedback would really be appreciated.

My daughter has asked me to write a book targeting her age range, 7-10 years old. I've read a few chapter books with her and have an idea of the language level, but I'm finding it very challenging to keep an engaging story going with the constraints. Anyone know of any tips or guides out there worth looking at for helping set language goals in an early readers setting?

I'm currently trying to outline a Space Opera novel. This will be my 5th book; my other 4 were learning experiences, so I'll likely start over with a new pen name.

I'm a reddit refugee, as I'm sure many will be in the coming days. A technical writer by trade and a smut writer historically, I'm currently working on an epic sci-fantasy romance series. I would love to nurture an active writing community in this new space!

A few introductory thoughts:

• As this instance is both English & French speaking, I'd rather not limit the community to English only. However, I don't speak French. If any French speaking writing enthusiasts are interested in helping moderate, I'd love to add you! (Presuming I can figure out how!)
• Please comment with any suggestions for community engagement! I'm already hoping to list a daily or weekly writing prompt.
• I didn't select NSFW for this community, but I write NSFW content, so I am certainly not against it.

Thanks for reading, I hope to write to you soon!

*Before technical writing, I worked for PR & Exec CS. Please excuse my enthusiasm, it was beaten into my personality much against my will!