Serious Trying to write a book, needed some tips

[HanakoIkezawa]

I'm asking for tips because I feel really need to optimize my writing and storytelling. I'm very confident with my writing skills when it comes to academic papers, but I can't seem to figure out what makes a (1st person) story catchy to a reader other than myself. A few doubts that I have are: (a) When is a paragraph too long? (b) Is "show not tell" a golden rule to be followed at all times or can it be broken periodically? (c) When do I know a conversation between characters is too formal to the point of unrealism? and (d) How do I know what's supposed to work as a hook for the reader to desire to keep moving forward through the pages?

 

[Morphine]

After writing each page read it by yourself with a fresh mind, your mind will automatically judge what you need to change.

 

[Icarus]

After writing each page read it by yourself with a fresh mind, your mind will automatically judge what you need to change.

High IQ

Also read it again while drunk or stoned asf

 

[Neucher The Kanga]

what are you writing about

 

[Emba]

That's right

 

[Grodd]

Just ask Chatgpt

 

[HanakoIkezawa]

what are you writing about

Trying to write a fiction novel, a romance (genre) /drama. I base much of what I and some people I know/knew were going through. In summary, it's about a young man that loses a friend to depression and spirals himself into one. He proceeds to try to help others after that loss.

I wanted to raise a few questions to the protagonist, and in turn, the reader:

(A) Does he help others because he wants to avoid what happened to his friend happen to others(selflessness), or is it because this is his way of copping with his own depression(selfishness)? If one or both hypothesis were true, would it matter, in the end, if other people were getting help because of it?

(B) When helping people and learning about them, at which point do we draw the line as a problem being internal or external? When are we and/or society culpable for the problems that affect us?

Thought about starting with a group of friends, but where to begin has been complicated. I wrote a chapter with the protagonist, his friend (and a few other friends/acquaintances) as teenagers and thought about complementing it with another one or two chapters with them growing up together. It would give backstory to them and give enough for the reader to actually care about them when, in the following chapter, the friend passes away and the story spiral from there. With the death being "the hook" that makes people turn pages and see what happens next, I was wondering how long I could keep the reader interested in continue reading before that hook shows up.

The solution I thought was to just make an introduction chapter with something to reel people in right off the bat. But what to actually put there is bugging me. Foreshadowing? The death chapter itself? I don't know.

Things have been slow tho. Life has been busy. And also, when reading & writing is all you do for a living, sometimes you get home and just want to do some other stuff (took up tabletop 40K, building my first army). But I try to sit down and at least write a paragraph on my most motivated days.

 

[HanakoIkezawa]

Just ask Chatgpt

I don't like ChatGPT. I tried a bit of 3 & 4 for elaborating paragraphs in bulk and speed up a bit the writing process but I makes stuff sound too much robotic. It's scared of making anything sound edgier than PG-13.

If you ever have the time, ask for it to write about a story where a character doing something illegal. It will write the ending paragraph on how crime doesn't compensate and the person changed their ways/got arrested. It's like it's afraid to step out of an invisible line and you need a lot of prompts to make it get out of it. At this point, you can just write it yourself and it will be miles better.

I heard Sudowrite has some cool features, but it's all paid. Claude is working better for me to extend paragraphs. But then again: A.I. is a tool, it can be handled well or poorly. If you rely on it too much, you'll just end up with pages and pages of unrealistic slop. And like hell do I want a story that matters to me be written that way by a machine being tempered with like HR is right there with it pulling strings.

 

[HanakoIkezawa]

After writing each page read it by yourself with a fresh mind, your mind will automatically judge what you need to change.

Works ok, but outside analysis/view is always better. From my area irl: you can review your article as much as you want, there is always a peer that notices something that you didn't and offers criticism/insight you yourself would never have made.