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Please do, @deeprun! I’ll be looking forward to seeing what they (and you) have to share.

No worries, @dakota. When I said “young” I was thinking essentially anyone under thirty, even though that may not feel very young to some of you. You’ll understand when you’re my age…

Thanks for being willing to participate, everybody!

Welcome, @ally-renee! It’s nice to have you here.

You have the same challenge when writing from a limited third person perspective, because unless you’re using more than one or two points of view, there’s bound to be important action happening where the main character is not.

First of all, you have to ask yourself, how important is this scene/event going to be to the story? If it’s not vital,…[Read more]

Welcome to Story Embers, @rose-colored-fancy!

I hope you’ll enjoy the community here, and maybe learn some useful things! That’s cool that you’ve set your fantasy series in a Middle Eastern-inspired world. You’re right, I can’t think of many books that do that (though granted I’m not a huge reader of fantasy.) Have you read Dune? That’s the most…[Read more]

I think you’ve said it very well, @seekjustice. Seems to match with the definitions of cultural appropriation I’ve found online.

According to one online dictionary, cultural appropriation is: “the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more…[Read more]

Great questions, @mayajoelle and @sam-m. For my very much in progress WIP, I think I’d have to say the main questions are:

What’s the difference between taking a stand for what’s right and needlessly endangering yourself?

When does a loved one cease to deserve your trust?

We say God is enough, but is God really enough?

And of course, What’s…[Read more]

It’s also helpful for me to have this more in-depth outline, because I’m three books into a series that’s only written chronologically in the loosest possible sense–some of the events of Book Two happen before Book One, for example. The outline means I get a quick bird’s eye view of everything and can see ahead of time when I’m going to run into…[Read more]

Those questions sound like a story I would want to read, @dakota. What’s the genre, and what’s it about?

@arindown, sometimes that’s the only way to go, outline or no outline–trust your storyteller’s instinct.

Great question, @seekjustice! This is something I’ve been thinking about myself, as I’m moving into writing the second half of a romance series–and now all the couples introduced in the first half are married, some happily, some–less so.

Positive and honorable depictions of erotic love (between married people) are sadly lacking both in books…[Read more]

@tiffanyjarviswrites, Yep. I’m halfway through a six-book series. Pretty fun, and (for me at least) one of the good things that’s come out of the Coronavirus epidemic. I’d never have had so much time to write otherwise.

StoryEmbers is a great place, particularly for writers just getting started, so expect to find your skill and confidence levels…[Read more]

@tiffanyjarviswrites, I was referring to the last one I wrote, and the one I’m starting work on. The last one was kind of an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers thing (except, due to extenuating circumstances, they ended up getting married well before they make it to the end of that progression.) It was complicated. Still is. Fortunately, their love…[Read more]

I totally understand the desire to write stories that deal with real-life problems and issues–compelling stories that make people think, rather than “fluff.” However, there is already so much sadness and darkness in the world already, I don’t want to add to it, even in a tiny way. While my stories/books may have dark and unhappy scenes, I…[Read more]

Hmmm, good question, @tiffanyjarviswrites. I think it’s probably two people getting together who don’t really know each other–or maybe don’t even like each other. At least that was my last one. In my current one, the couple is already married, but they’re realizing they didn’t know each other as well as they thought they did.

What about you?

Great questions, @arindown! You could almost build a reverse pyramid with one or two of your biggest thematic questions at the top (or bottom) widening out into more specific questions like, How is so-and-so going to deal with his grandfather’s death? Does he feel he’ll ever be able to “fit” the armor the old man left hanging on the wall? Does he…[Read more]

With an outline, I feel more confident that I know what I’m doing…but my outline isn’t just a set of bullet points, i.e., “This happens, then this, then this”– it includes why scenes occur, what themes the story is dealing with, questions that need answered along the way, etc. It does take time, as @writergirl101 mentioned, but I think in the…[Read more]

Then maybe you just need to write a series and have them feature as main characters in another book, @lonathecat. (But you could leave out the dramatic death, of course.)