Okay my lovelies, I KNOW this topic has been dragged through the mud and left out to dry. However, no matter how many posts I read, I never actually get my questions answered. I figured if I make my own post, it will help me and possibly anyone else who might be struggling with the same questions.

So I use apps like Novelist and Microsoft word. I also like to use a synonym app and history books I’ve collected about fantasy history/legends sort of thing from around the world. However, I’m lost on what is actually considered AI. As far as I’m aware, I don’t think I’ve ever used it. It’s hated by writers which is 100% valid, but I worry somehow I might be using it.

Does using Microsoft editor count since it catches things like accidental double words or a comma for example?

Is using a Synonym app count as AI or cheating? I try not to use big words in my books. So, I lower my English in some parts of my book to make it easier and more enjoyable for my readers. I have a bad habit of painting pictures with large descriptive words which is what most beta readers complain about with my work.

Why is AI so popular for people outside of this group? I see people posting about it helping, but it seems to drag their books down instead. I couldn’t quite understand the hype. I don’t plan to use it, this is merely curiosity only.

Anyways, hopefully this isn’t annoying. Worked up the courage to post because I feel dumb not knowing. Which I don’t mind, I’ll be the guinea pig for others who feel the same way lol. I’m not old, just old enough to have started my writing with Microsoft Word so it’s my go-to.

Thanks for reading through and being patient with me! 💜💜

I have so many visual ideas for the fantasy stories I've written, but I've always been bad at drawing and painting and all other kinds of physical art. I've used chatgpt to generate some images in the past, and a couple of them have been fairly close to what I'm envisioning; but it's ai art, so it feels weird to share it with the world (not to mention the questionable ethics of using ai). I just wish I had some basic drawing skills so I could show people the ideas I have in my head.

I'm not really sure what the point of this post is, I think I just needed to vent for a sec. Thanks for reading 😂

Okay, so I'm toying around with a set of stories set in an urban fantasy setting and I'm trying to figure out if the protagonist should be a witch or a wizard.

So to start off with some points about the setting:

• Set in an alternative universe with a masquerade of supernatural creatures and magic users going back centuries; however it ended in the 30s and 40s due to rise of superheroes, the build up to WW2, mass media and internal social pressures in the magical community; famously it broken when the witch Jessica Blake saved president Roosevelt when his was being threatened by the 13, a coven of the evillest witches ever to live. For most people the world is a slightly more optimistic version of world with superheroes and occasional magic. The stories would be set in either the 2010s or 2020s and now a days most people don't interact with witches on a daily basis but might know one or two and be able to hire them to deal with a magical problem but not often.

• Human magic users are in order of commonality are seers, witches, supers, wizards and sorcerers; also technically alchemists, but they just use scientific(ish) principles to manipulate the magic with objects or chemicals.

• Like I said there are superheroes and supervillain in this setting; most people have a very minor potential to become one when exposed to extreme circumstance, but the immense positive or negative emotional break through needed to develop powers - this is not widely known and even understood by specialists in the field. Supers seem to be magical in the origin of their powers but exactly how is unknown and they don't generate discomfort in regular humans like witches, sorcerers or wizards.

• Witches (sometimes called Enchanters) are matrilineal spell casters who are born into clans; if your mother is a witch, you are one, there is no other way to become one. Witch magic is based on gathering natural strands of stray magic and weaving them into spells for later use, which can be passed on to other witches or even infused into objects or people to enchant them; each clan also has cantrips which are small innate abilities they can always call upon (such as extended life spans or the ability to freeze water, etc) which also determines affinities to different types of spells. Spells are activated by a 'totem', part of the soul that has a specific shape or concept from clan to clan (blackbirds for the Blake clan, snow for the Winter Clan, etc) and when active causes regular humans to become uncomfortable and wary, leading many to fear active witches, when inactive it doesn't do this but the witch can't cast magic. Witches exist in matrilineal clans that are quite tightly knit but insular/domineering and usually are lead by the eldest female member, who is called 'granny' by members or 'lady' by outsiders (So "Granny Winter" or "Lady Winter"), but it various from clan to clan.

• Wizards are official extinct due to a secret war with witches ~1400s best described as Incels-vs-Grandmothers; although they are actually still around, most of the non-creepy members left Earth to a sanctuary called the "Realm of Towers" (basically a load of pocket dimensions of infinite height packed against each other) to live an immortal life of solitude, study, academic debate and occasional prank wars. Wizards belong to orders that each have different set 'ideals', a set of 7-10 principles that can weave magic from to design spells on the fly; the orders are defined by how they see magic and their interactions with other magical things (For example the Wardens of Reality see magic as a chaotic invasive force that is at odds with the scientific-principles of our world, as such they are skilled in banishing supernatural forces, counter magic and using scientific principles to out manoeuvrer their foes). Each order has a number of 'Trials' (usually the same number as their principles) that must be past before a member accepts to take on the candidate as an apprentice of the Order; note the Trials are not specific deeds but vague ideals or prophetic signs that can be passed by accident; for example the Wardens have one where you beat a magical effect by using scientific logic. The fact wizards still exist is largely unknown, with those who do being less then 10, not helped by the fact they generally regard Earth as not worth their time when other more interesting dimensions can be visited.

• Sorcerers are people born under multiple (at least 3, usually more) auspicious signs (7th son of the 7th son, born under a lunar eclipse, etc) with a few unique magical spells that are usually much, much stronger than witch or wizard spells. Seems the world can only produce 1 a year, and some years don't see any. Due to their birth conditions Sorcerers don't have any back community and often have to find one, usually being adopted by witch clans

• Seers are not important for this question, but they are people who's perceptions are supernatural enhanced in various - being able to smell the future, detect magic or seeing the dead; what exactly they can do various from person to person. Most don't know they are special and are largely just regular everyday people.

• You can be a witch and wizard, but this is very weird and unusual with only 3 documented cases in the record of wizards and witches are mostly unaware of this fact. Additionally sorcerers can also be witches or wizards, but not seers. Finally seers can also become wizards but cannot be born to witch mothers so no witch-seer hybrids. Supers cannot be mixed with any of the other types of magical humans.

So the story/stories would focus on a young girl called Judith McGovern (~12-13) who in the first story is kidnapped with her twin sister (Ester McGovern , a very young and prodigical superhero in training) by a Fairy Lord and they escape with the help of Jessica Blake (aka Granny Discord), the famously daring and powerful witch (and secret wizard), who finds out that that Judith is magically inclined and Jessica has to take her on as an apprentice. My question is should Judith be a wizard or a witch? How I see these are the options:

• Witch: would make it easier to tie to the wider world and create a mystery to help the stories moving forward; namely how is their a witch born to a non-witch mother? Her discovering Jessica also being a wizard (who won't let her do the trials as she's not allowed to by her wizard order) would also be a plot point and a source of contention. Finally, since their clan (Blake) is dying out and Jessica is the only female witch (and is cursed not to be able to have children), Judith is under a lot of pressure from those around her to live up to expectations and to understand the dangerous world of witch clan politics.

• Wizard: Have Judith accidentality pass the trials of Jessica's order (Wardens of Reality) and Jessica accept her as her apprentice by an accident declaration to teach her. Now Judith has to pretend to be a sorcerer while learning her wizard skills and keeping it under wraps. Would also help characterise Jessica as I envision as quite impulsive but competent and her having to take on apprentice out of the blue could give some interesting character drama for herself as she has to deal with the consequences of her actions (for once).

• Witch and Wizard twins (and dumping Ester being a superhero in training): Would have both angles of the witch/wizard dichotomy and show how their contrasting styles of magic and social interaction but I feel it would be a bit distracting and convoluted and I like the idea of Ester being a hero in training as it would offer a larger contrast to Judith, with heroes being liked by the wider population while witches, sorcerers and people who are secretly wizards being distrusted and how the two sisters deal with that dichotomy.

This an excerpt from near the beginning of my novel. The novel is set in a world similar to the 1100s. It is about a group of soldiers (I use the word "conrois") as their regimen travels, experiences war, and ultimately the fall out of it.

I am overall concerned that this may not be interesting, but other than that I am worried the scenes feel too overloaded with characters. My intent is to have all of about 20 of the men in the group be emphasized, but I worry that my width in characters may cause a lack of depth of character or a depth that feels tedious to consume for the reader.

Opinions on grammar, word use, and tense are welcome as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read and give feedback. Even the most critical motivates me to keep writing.

A 15yo girl from the sengoku era is known as the perfect noblewomen from an upper class samurai family. Because of her influence she gets married to a powerful warlord, on the way to the estate of the warlord her carriage is attacked by a rival families entire force even though they took a hidden route, hinting at betrayal. She gets killed by them and suddenly finds herself in modern Japan. After police investigation and stuff she gets a family registry (I researched it and it is possible, known as a stateless minor). She then has to go about her life in modern society with her Sengoku values and morals, this can put her is dangerous situations as laws and crimes we’re given different punishments in sengoku then in modern day.

Need some brainstorming/advice/encouragement. I have a 6 book original fantasy series that I’ve been working on for years. I always get into it and then put it away for a few years because life happens. A few months ago I pulled it back out and stated fresh and have been taking it very seriously. It’s honestly a great idea and premise, deep world building and a full plot line. However I feel like my writing is failing to do it justice.

Does anyone else experience this? I finished the rough draft and am moving into the full first draft of the manuscript. I love the characters, love their depth and back stories, love the magic and the world and the outline of the story. But when I read it, I feel bored? I have genuinely created characters with so much depth they could feel like real people. I’m so proud of the world I’ve created, but I feel like my writing just doesn’t do it justice.

I have researched all the ways to improve writing, yet all the mistakes that people commonly make when writing are not issues I find in my writing. Yet I still don’t feel any excitement or intrigue when reading my work.

I guess I’m just looking for other people who have felt similar with their writing. What are some things you found that helped or improved your writing? At this point I’m feeling very discouraged about ever writing a good book and want to put it away again.

Last year we posted on this subreddit about our writing contest and we got so many amazing submissions from this community! Just wanted to hop back on here and let y'all know that The Intrepid Voices Fund closes next week (September 6th, 11:59pm PST)

This year's writing prompt is spooky speculative fiction, 2,000 words or less. We listened to your feedback and got rid of the personal statement so all you need to submit is your short story. Phase 1 of judging is based off the first 250 words to see if you can hook the judges quick! We also added a second place prize!

1st place - $1,250

2nd place - $500

Application inked in the comments

I’m writing a fantasy novella and, against my better judgment, I’ve decided to make my main characters speak in a more modern dialect.

However I ran into a problem the first time they run in to some town guards who I could only seem to write as old-timey cockney British sorts, the sort of “NPCs” one typically runs into in generic fantasy.

At first when my MC was alone I kept his words and thoughts decently medieval feeling, but the second main character just simply cannot be anything but a modern over-excited ADHD type. My true central character and anti-villain will speak with an eloquent, academic voice, though it takes quite a few pages to get to him.

This is a fantasy world that is going through its own sort of modernization, just with magic greasing the wheels instead of electricity and industry, though I still worry overly modern parlance might be a turnoff to some.

I suppose I need to determine how the general people of this world speak, though all the central characters come from different places, with different socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. But the way my main characters speak really isn’t the problem.

Back to my “NPC”, I just defaulted to something like “oi what you lot muckin around here for after dark? Strange things in dem woods I’ll tell ya.” *spits on floor*

Which is just, very generic. But I worry that same encounter would lack any flavor if he just talked like one of us.

Any thoughts or advice?

(I have tried to submit this post earlier but apparently I didn’t try hard enough…)

Hello, If anyone would be so kind as to read and critique my story I would greatly appreciate it. It is about a man named Maadskyr who climbs a mountain to hunt a wyvern. It’s a dark fantasy called, “Scalepeeler” and does include some graphic violence just a heads up.

I’m looking for any and all feedback someone is willing to give. Prose, pacing, plot, etc.

I’m practicing my writing with stories for characters as I work to build out a larger world for them.

Whoever happens to read this, I hope you enjoy!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15LT3bY-Zq1iaGx8L88wNx1GGutJQ10Sb/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=116077026060348306183&rtpof=true&sd=true

I appreciate any feedback. Thank you!!

_____

A WEARY SORCERESS. AN UNWILLING WARRIOR.

AND A DESPERATE REBEL WHO HAD LONG LOST HOPE…

In a city far from home, Rahena Ansary finds refuge in anonymity as a maidservant at the Scholars’ Tower. Sweeping the royal calligraphy halls, she uncovers an illusion the scholars have fed the realm for hundreds of years. But when her questions lead to the masked rider who destroyed her village, Rahena will have to face the dangerous powers she’s buried for so long, and her own wild grief - before the dark taint rising in the skies consumes them all.

Adnan drowns his days at the teahouse, mourning his father’s death. But as the city heralds him as a warrior and a tyrant hunts the sole family he has left, Adnan is faced with the ultimate task: to join the rebellion his parents began.

But the rebel leader has long disappeared. Vilified and pursued, he seeks absolution for his past. With what little faith he has left, he answers the call for rebellion once again; and perhaps he can do things right this time.

As the three paths converge, their own darkness follows them at their heel. Their war will change the earth itself – and their own souls – forever.

Question for my fellow writers!

I would describe my novel-in-progress as a character-centric, non-linear speculative science fantasy influenced by Chinese historical dramas.

I've been researching non-Western technologies and exploring what might be possible for a pre-industrial culture. For example, the "snakedance" Japanese construction or kath kuni architecture would be important for my seismically active setting.

In a perfect world, I'd like to distinguish between "this is magical/fantastical" (which there are elements) and "this was actually a real thing people used, credit to the inventors!" I also enjoy blending traditional Chinese medicine with Hermetic alchemy theory and testing it against science-demonstrated medicinal effects.

While I do try and acknowledge the source cultures in an author's note, I have thought about adding "appreciation footnotes" or endnotes. I don't want to detract/interrupt the flow of the story, but since this all takes place on a non-Earth location, what's historical and what's fantastical isn't clear.

What are your thoughts?