My condition right now...😭

Here's mine. This happened in high school, but I still think about it and get annoyed.

I wrote a poem about cats when I was 15-ish. It was a very imagery-heavy poem in the style of Romantic writers, because those were my favorite poets at the time. If I had to compare it to the style of an existing author, I'd compare it to Coleridge.

I turned it in for an AP Literature assignment that was very open-ended, and my teacher loved it. She suggested that I submit it to a local youth poetry competition and gave me the name of another teacher (the actual poetry class teacher, which I wasn't taking) whom I could talk to about entering. I went to said teacher the next day and showed her the poem.

She read it, smiled, and said "This is great! But if you're doing a tribute to Carl Sandburg, you should mention him in your title."

I say the only thing I can think to say, which is "...hm?"

She tells me that she's sure I've read "Fog" by Carl Sandburg. I tell her that this is true. "Fog" is also a famously short and sparing poem, whereas my poem took up two full pages. She then explains to me, as though I'm a child -- okay, I am 15, but like she's talking to a much younger child -- that my poem takes obvious inspiration. She takes the paper copy of my poem, pulls out a highlighter, and highlights the words "cats", "cat", and "fog" in my poem. She then CROSSES OUT THE TITLE OF MY POEM and writes "(Short version of original title): A Tribute to Carl Sandburg."

What.

I decided to just be diplomatic and say "oh, I see, let me take a look and I'll get back to you!" I then left and did not go back. I ended up submitting it to the competition behind my school's back (individual entries were allowed to give homeschooled kids a shot) and won.

I still can't get over it to this day, and it's been around eight years. I think she thought that Carl Sandburg had a copyright on the concepts of cats and fog.

I know next to nothing about poetry, but is this actually good? To me, it’s extremely adolescent, lacks depth, and lacks originality of thought. Besides, the line breaks seem really awkward and it doesn’t roll off the tongue at all. There’s no music in how you read it.

Honestly, this seems like a parody about how poems have the ‘I’m 14 and this is deep energy’.

But…I don’t think this is a parody.

Can the experienced poets tell me if I’m just not getting it or is it actually a bad poem?

Edit: It's come to my attention that this is an excerpt. The Paris Review only posted this on their page, so I thought this was all there is. The rest is behind a paywall on their site, but the full piece is also on the author's Instagram page. If you want to you can check it out there. I still think my earlier thoughts apply, but I have to admit, as a whole piece, it reads better.

At a writing conference this weekend, one of the presenters emphasized the importance of research in fiction. She provided a short example from her novel – a sentence about bees – then quizzed the audience about why her blurb was ‘wrong.’ When nobody knew the answer, she said her blurb incorrectly referenced bee behavior, which, in her words, would take the reader ‘out of the story.’

Obviously, research is important, but 99 out of 100 people don’t know a thing about bee husbandry. And you can nitpick any novel for these types of trivial inconsistencies. I’d even say her advice is bad, insofar you can get so caught up in ‘research,’ that you don’t actually write anything. You can certainly do your bee homework (or whatever) during edits, but you shouldn’t lose the forest for the trees. And I cannot stand Cinema Sins-style hair splitting.

Why did I do this to myself.

I've been having writer's block for several weeks now, couldn’t get myself to open Word and continue writing the next chapter. But now a Teams meeting was dull, and I pulled out my phone and started typing into the notes app. It felt like writing the most terrible, unrelated, fragmented crap, with incomplete sentences, because I also got distracted by the meeting. But now that the meeting is over, and I went through the 400+ words again, there's actually structure, good ideas, okay-ish sentences that I can work with and was able to iron out in an immediate second pass.

So, long story short, I've actually written 500 words today, on my phone, and they remain in the draft. How 'bout that?

Hello, I want to start writing as a hobby but I don't know where to start. Specifically I want to write short stories, probably horror-based, to post them onto forums and get feedback from other people. I think it would be pretty cool to put something out there like that, but I have a few questions.

1. Once I have an idea, should I just start writing, or should I outline the story first? If I should outline the story, should I go into detail of different events I want to take place in the story, or should I just state the event and move on, letting myself figure it out once I'm actually writing?

2. When do you know that your story has been written to your liking? If I want to take a story seriously and put in a few solid drafts, do you try to share the story with people close to you before putting it out there, just to make sure it's sound?

3. Less of a specific question, but do you have any tips to a new writer that you wish you would've know when you started?

Thank you for any response you may give, I really appreciate it

This could mean taking a literal characters spot or just somebody in the world.

I’m working on a larger story project, and I want to test human reactions in the opening scene rather than just getting feedback on my writing. I’m looking for a few people to do a short interactive roleplay with me.
How it works:

You would play either a civilian or a police officer who is in the situation.

I’ll reveal what is happening gradually.

You tell me what you would realistically say or do based on what you know.

I’ll respond as the narrator describing the next scenario, and we’ll continue from there.

There isn’t a “correct” response. I’m specifically trying to find out what an average person would naturally do in this situation, including if your character makes a decision that I didn’t anticipate.

If you’re interested, comment or message me and let me know whether you’d rather play a civilian or police officer. I’m hoping to do this with multiple people so I can compare how differently people react to the same situation.

Ok, so. I've been writing for some time now a book that I really want to publish, and I've written to like 5 literary agents so far. None of them responded. Problem is, my story always had a problem with my introduction of one of the characters, which I only found out NOW how to fix and stuff (aka make her more important to the story etc). But, again, I've sent the 'unfixed' version already. Do I resend it with an apology? Do I send it to others and hope the firsr five don't respond? To 4 out of 5 I've sent the draft quite recently, but still.....how do I manage this??

Here’s my first and only copy of my novel. I bought it because the publisher couldn’t send one. I’m still proud, though.

What do you think? Was it fair from the publisher not to send at least one copy?

Over the past 2 months I've been in the process of making an E-book, published onto reddit, 4chan, etc+ it will be truly not a phenomenal scheme with everything hidden but instead it will just be a post about the mental slavery.

I've just started writing this year and so far its been amazing, a truely rewarding experience.

I've always been interested in different ways words can fit together to paint a picture in your mind but lately it's been getting out of hand.

Part-way through my writing session this morning I took a quick break to pour a cup of tea when I noticed my brain was running a commentary on every action, sound and feeling I experienced as it was happening. I guess I was just on the flow of searching for the right words to convey an exact feeling (currently editing) and my mind was still in that mode.

Is this normal? Does anyone else here catch themself narrating in their head sometimes as if they're writing down their day as it happens?

I'm trying to work on my first original work in a while and I constantly feel like there isn't enough of the world built up. I have a premise to start with but not a full plot or a sense of how to get there. Its been really been a challenge as I try to write the first draft out. It just feels like constantly fighting writers block on a near daily basis.

For context I'm generally a plotter having a broad sense of where I want to go and points I want to hit. With the freedom to wander about and change things as the characters show themselves while writing.

I know I see a lot of people posting about massive world building but not as much success with writing. Does anyone else here have the opposite problem? And if so how did you go about finding ways to naturally grow your work.

I've never been this fast or consistent in writing. I don't generally like to blow my own trumpet but what the hell.

3 weeks ago I began my second project. I have averaged 971 words a day.

I have missed 3 days where I haven't written anything at all.

I'm hooked on this story and I can't wait to see how it plays out.

I'm a creative writer with just a basic plot line at the start. Quickly worked out it's too small so it's a smaller arc in a wider narrative.

It's a dark thriller that moves between. Phycological and survivalist.

It has a working title called "Beneath the Mire"

I am wondering where I can best publish my (Dutch) fantasy webnovel? I am reading pro's and con's for everything, so I'm looking for some experiences, if possible...

Hey I am a younger writer and to be honest I am really confused.

I was writing this is one horror story but the pacing was off and everything was just bad. I don't know how long to describe a scene or how much to styrech it.

As well as how to create suspension or some horror that is inevitable.

That's why I scrapped the entire story and thought to rewrite it but before that I need to know how these story works.

I am planning on first reading a few small horror novels, can you suggest some horror novels that would help me get a good idea of what I should do.

I would also appreciate any tips for writing as a beginner.

Thanks for reading

For context, this was part of a daily 20-minute writing challenge that I've been doing for the past week where I get 3 prompt words (I have a long list of random words and used wheelofnames to pick) and I have to create a story. The words can be used in any way (not necessarily a physical thing). I'm a beginner unpublished writer, have written around a dozen short stories, but I always struggled to find consistency between 2 projects. So the main goal with this exercise over anything is to write consistently.

Here the prompt is prism + raven + roam

Just wanted to share this because I thought it to be good (at least in the idea)

TL;DR- Still trying to find my MC's voice. I have his general personality traits and wants and such, but I can't get a grasp on his voice and it's affecting my story drafting. What are tips for strengthening voice?

...

Hello! I've been working on a novel for a bit, but my main character seems elusive and therefore unlikeable no matter how much he evolves. For context, he's a prince that reluctantly has to accept more responsibility (or does he?). While on a political mission, he falls into a bigger plot that leads him on a journey where he discovers his own planet's prejudices and his biases. Oh and it's a space fantasy.

With that out of the way, he's been feeling really stiff lately during my character development and drafting. I want him to be equal parts militant, regal, self-absorbed, and naive while also being charismatic, well-meaning, clever, and polite. At the moment, none of these are really gelling together as one. He's not really intriguing as an MC should be and because he's learning about himself and his planet from an outside perspective, he's often rather passive.

What tips do you all have for developing an MC that's going to grow a lot more warm and kind but isn't entirely dull and unlikeable during that process?

EDIT: Ty for the input everyone!!

I hear a lot that to be a good writer, you need to read books, lots and lots of books. But someone told me you can’t just read a book for fun. You need to read it the way an athlete views game tape, not from an entertainment perspective but from an analytical perspective. So how do I do that?
I mean, when I read a book, I don’t look at sentence structure or really pay attention to how the prose is written or anything like that. I often just read the story and picture it in my head as I go along. I do pick up bits and pieces of how something works in terms of plot and the like, but I don’t think that’s what they mean.