What are /r/WritingPrompts' favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Oh Boy ! Do I have a Batman Comic for you !!
https://www.amazon.com/Batman-White-Knight-Sean-Murphy/dp/1401279597
" Batman: White Knight follows the man now known as Jack Napier as he embarks on a quest to heal the city he once terrorized. After reconciling with his long-suffering partner, Harley Quinn, he sets in motion a carefully plotted campaign to discredit the one person whom he views as Gotham City's true enemy: Batman. "

This Jack Napier guy used to clown around if you catch my drift.

Amazon Link

From the description:

>No matter how hard he tries, Jimmy Yee cannot die.

>A noose around his neck, a razor across his wrist, and even a bullet to his head all yield the same results: he awakes from each suicide attempt, miraculously unharmed, in his shabby room at the Sunbeam Motel. Has he gone mad? Or has he truly died and found himself in hell? Jimmy is willing to tear the world down around him to get at the truth. Highly analytical and utterly unscrupulous, he is uniquely suited to unraveling this bizarre mystery.

>From the brilliant and profane mind of Jason Shiga, known for his high-concept graphic novels, comes Demon: a four-volume magnum opus about the unspeakable chaos that one indestructible man can unleash on the world—and the astronomical body count he leaves behind.

I know you didn't ask me, but I'll answer anyways. The first step for me is to read a lot, and if you have a genre in mind, read a lot of that genre. That's the way you can learn to write. As you find authors you like, you'll begin to imitate their writing style a bit.

As for the actual writing, the hardest part is starting. I read Stephen King's book, On Writing, where he talks about shutting the world out. Go into a room without a tv with whatever writing tool you need and close the door. Maybe listen to some music. Then just start writing. It'll be hard at the beginning, but try and power through. Let the characters write the story for you.

Just sit down and try to let the words flow. If you need to, set a words goal, sit down and don't stop writing until you've reached 1,000 words or something like that.

I may have rambled a bit, but that's what I've got. Good luck!

http://www.filedropper.com/migrabacin17

your story read out loud, hope you don't mind, it's far from perfect I just like doing it.

edit: so you dont have to download the file: http://vocaroo.com/i/s044YafjtZef

Have you ever read the webcomic Erma?

It's premise is that a normal human marries a demon woman(think of the ghost/monster from The Ring/The Grudge) and they have a child. It's mostly just cute and silly but there is a story and it's been getting more in depth as time goes on. I really like it and this part of the story just reminds me of it.

I would recommend reading Dark Knights Metal. I don't want to give too much away because having you find out would be much better but the story goes into multiverses where Bruce Wayne does crack and breaks his only rule or he just didn't turn out to be as nice of a Batman. Also Written by Scott Snyder. I might be being biased but he writes amazing Batman stories.

Unfortunately it is one of them comic cross-over events so to get the whole story might be annoying. (You need comics from other titles like Nightwing and Teen Titans).

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Nights-Deluxe-Scott-Snyder/dp/1401277322

Edit: amazon link for people to check it out

Thank you! And the book is out: it’s a collection of what I judged to be my best prompt pieces to date, cleaned up and sometimes extended.

I’ve also got a traditionally-published novel hopefully on the way. It’s finished but I’m going to be looking for beta readers to help drive one last revision. Keep an eye on r/Magleby if you’re interested, should be sometime this week.

Long-time WP lurker here.

The number one rule of entrepreneurship (I would consider self-publishing to fall into this category) is to build something people love. You do this, in spades.

Head over to /r/smallbusiness, /r/startups, or /r/entrepreneurship and ask questions. You can use your subreddit and social media to market your works. Perhaps create a weekly/monthly email newsletter, sending out sample pages or complete works/WPs to your fans, and include a "call to action" button ("Buy my new book!") at the bottom of the newsletter...

I know artists can tend to eschew capitalism, but think of it this way: you're providing real value to people, and people will gladly give YOU something of value (money) in exchange. And this lets you focus on your craft, making more art (writing is art!), and providing MORE value.

Lastly, have you heard of Patreon? You can setup an account, direct your adoring fans to it, and they can setup monthly payments to you to help support you as you do yo thang, gurl. :-)

And back to reading prompts! Thanks for all your contributions to this sub/site, Luna!

Thanks! I've been playing a game on my phone recently called "A Dark Room." It starts with you just in a hut in a forest and building a fire. This is how I imagine it when I'm playing. You should check it out!

> build something people love

I agree with this 100%; I am just not sure what the best way to build it is right now. I think traditional publishing would help me get exposure to people who don't know me at all yet, but self-publishing would be easiest for me in terms of quickly getting my work out there.

> Lastly, have you heard of Patreon?

Why yes, I have!

Thank you! I haven’t got a book based on this particularly story, but I do have an Amazon anthology and well over two hundred additional bits of madness over at r/Magleby.

I also have a finished novel, but it’s still in the agent query phase.

I liked the direction this goes in, it reminds of Neil Gaiman when he combines the fantastical and the everyday.

Originally, I thought that Stella and Stan were somehow married as a result of the failed ritual. A comedy -- romantic or otherwise -- set in a airport terminal-like purgatory, where two of the ticket agents are inadvertently married in this manner, seems like a really fun idea. Maybe like a tongue-in-cheek version of Death Parade (everybody should at least watch the opening theme!).

I think if you were to expand this into a novel/short story, you might want to consider allowing Stella to get human blood from a less morally repugnant source (or maybe don't reveal the true nature of the source at the beginning). Making Stella into a classic protagonist (assuming this is the direction you want to go in) requires her to be likable and opening with murder/torture probably moves her in the opposite direction (unless you spend some serious time vilifying Kimmy). In either case, I like that Stan is indefatigably cheery about the whole situation. His mood probably brightens an otherwise somber space.

Thank you for reading.

I love /r/writingprompts! This totally inspired me! I just wanted to let everyone here know that I created a short film based on your response!

Debrief - A military mission gone awry https://vimeo.com/87700668

edit: related discussion thread http://www.reddit.com/r/RedditFilmFest/comments/20wthu/debrief_506_via_writing_prompts_comment/

Lol. I googled stupid stuff you can buy on Amazon and one of the links took me to this - note NFSWish. I decided if it existed as a cigarette case, it probably could exist as a poster, too.

You’re actually in luck, I have an an anthology on Amazon and am currently still taking beta readers for a finished but unpublished novel. Details are in a sticky post over at r/Magleby.

And thanks! Knowing people are enjoying my nonsense makes the work of writing worth it.

I love the idea of sci fi situations where humans are the aliens, it gives the concept of a whole meta idea to how we view the universe.

I read an old book when I was younger that was called “Guys read: other worlds” it’s a collection of stories of the sci fi genre, one of which being “The Scout”, and I’m going to let you guys read without any spoilers to the plot.

Edit: Link

In Hateful Eight, they were supposed to smash a fake guitar but uhh... there was a SNAFU and they smashed the real deal.

http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/priceless-145-year-old-martin-guitar-accidentally-gets-smashed-to-smithereens-in-tarantinos-the-hateful-eight.html

You should read this one too: "The Office/Walking Dead crossover."

I have a third one: "A Greek Olympian gets a job at Dunder Mifflin Paper," but it's on Patreon. Sorry.

If people are interested, sure! I've written a few other Office prompts that you may be interested in:

• The Office/Walking Dead crossover

• A Greek Olympian gets a job at Dunder Mifflin Paper

As I said, doing it myself is certainly a possibility. I can, I just don't know if that's the best way. It's hard to gauge support on Reddit, and places like Amazon are even more unfamiliar to me.

To be honest, the ideal way for me to do it would be to do it chapter by chapter on Patreon. I've heard that one big problem authors have is that royalties only come in every few months or so, which can lead to a lot of uncertainty. With a monthly donation system, it's more regular and I wouldn't need to worry about covers and publishers and all of that. But I am generally uncomfortable advertising my Patreon page, and I haven't done a very good job of promoting it. I only have 60 subscribers there, and getting people to read the book is more important to me than the financial aspect.

Damn good. Though I must say that I don't think computer saying "I" means it's aware of itself. If it has access to the Internet and/or pop culture, the algorithms might just have gotten that from there.

Also... Gotta hijack this for saying there is this (free and open source) game where you play AI and try to hide or be killed. It's worth a play. http://www.emhsoft.com/singularity/

I am about to run through the gates, I am so excited. The gates hold behind them a great expanse. Green and bright and so much space. I can't wait to run around in there. I turn around to bark excitedly at my best friend but I see that he is not following me. He is simply stood, hands in his pockets, a sad look on his face.

And when I see that sad face, I run straight back to him.

I want to ask what is wrong, but all I can do is lift my two legs up and place my paws onto his stomach. I bark.

He bends down and strokes my fur. He still looks sad, so I cover him in kisses.

He laughs but then pushes me down. "I know...but you can go now. See," he motions to the gates. The gardens and the blue sky. "See that there, that's for you. I have somewhere else to be."

I completely understand him, but I want him to come with me, or I come with him. Simple as that. There is nowhere I want to be without him. I need to protect him, make him smile when he is sad, I am his best friend and he is mine. Did he not understand that?

So when he turns away, I follow after him. I take one last glance at the gates and follow him.

"No," he says. "That place is yours."

I simply bark and run away from the gates.

He laughs. "You can't come with me."

I bark again.

"I'm going somewhere else."

I stand stock still and wait for him. He still laughs and runs to me. We cuddle and play fight. But he eventually stands up, straightening his shoulders. "You're always so persistent. Can't let me go huh?"

I bark, smiling and wagging my tail.

"It's gonna be a dangerous journey girl," he tells me, looking me straight in the eyes.

It doesn't faze me. With him by my side, I can get through anything.

More

Stephen King's "On Writing" would be a damn good start. I've read it twice since June. Audiobook is dope too. King reads it himself. Never got boring.

Edit: well, shit. Guy below me beat me to the punch. Sum up the book: Tips: Read a lot, and write a lot. Create your own writing space with a door. Should probably be humble according to King. Adverbs pave the road to hell. Don't share your first draft with anyone until you're done. Write this draft with the door closed. He believes in a six week break after you finish the first draft. Don't. Touch. It. Second draft = first draft - 10%. Set a goal for you to write daily. He recommends one thousand words for beginners. He does two thousand.

Cannot recommend this enough! It's a great read and would have loved to have seen the movie with Bradley Cooper as Lucifer get made. :(

Also available on project gutenberg.

I do have a Patreon account.

And every month, I take prompt suggestions from my subscribers. A King of the Hill/Walking Dead suggestion would have a pretty good chance of getting picked.

No no, you don't have to buy it. That's the physical copy and unfortunately I can't set that one to be free. The Kindle version should be free until the 22nd. :)

If you want a hard copy though, I'm planning on doing a giveaway on my Twitter soon!

Someone above recommended a book that sounds super similar to this concept:

Amazon Link

From the description:

>No matter how hard he tries, Jimmy Yee cannot die.

>A noose around his neck, a razor across his wrist, and even a bullet to his head all yield the same results: he awakes from each suicide attempt, miraculously unharmed, in his shabby room at the Sunbeam Motel. Has he gone mad? Or has he truly died and found himself in hell? Jimmy is willing to tear the world down around him to get at the truth. Highly analytical and utterly unscrupulous, he is uniquely suited to unraveling this bizarre mystery.

>From the brilliant and profane mind of Jason Shiga, known for his high-concept graphic novels, comes Demon: a four-volume magnum opus about the unspeakable chaos that one indestructible man can unleash on the world—and the astronomical body count he leaves behind.

Art class in grade school, right? A painter's color wheel still looks like that. Magenta is outright missing and the closest thing to cyan is blue-green.

I think that sounds like a fun idea that someone could organize to add to the sub without taking away from the prompts we get. :P I will say that Tuesdays are when the Weekly gets stickied, and Monday or Wednesday is the user showcase. Thursdays are Tropedays and Sunday is the Free Write.

I recommend Fridays

While his <em>autobiography</em>, I'm sure, purports him to be a talented manager, his company's financials paint a different picture.

Luckily for Trump, his management skills, and the health of his company, don't matter much if you own a company large enough to reliably skim profits from even when it's in the red.

Nope. https://www.quora.com/Did-Donald-Trump-inherit-a-lot-of-money-and-then-increase-his-net-worth-at-an-unremarkable-rate and nope http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/21/carly-fiorina/trumps-four-bankruptcies/

I'm not sure if I completely understand your question, but this is what I think you're asking: if you wrote the stories then you can publish them. They are yours. Someone actually did exactly this, publishing their /r/WritingPrompts stories on Amazon.

Edit: also, there are a lot of authors that have published books that expanded on prompt responses.

There was a prompt along the lines of "A long time ago, everyone had perfect control over one of the elements apiece, now everyone through mixed breeding has very small control over all of them." One of the posts went on to be published on Amazon, I loved the post and bought it, "Purity of Mind" by Roger Ostrander. If you like spy thrillers and magic, I'd check it out. Link

There's a thousand things you could do, just complaining about it isn't going to work and that's all these posts are. So you put a lot of effort into your 500 word story about a detective and no one noticed. Okay, did you try talking about it in the chatroom? Did you share it on the Free Write? I agree you might not want to [PI] something if it's only 500 words, but have you considered starting a blog or subreddit for your own writing and posting it there? We will add people's writing subs or blogs to their flair, that's what my flair is.

Or if you want something a little more proactive, why not take that proactive force yourself. You want more reality based prompts on one day? Take Friday. Put it in the title, and provide those prompts. Join these guys.

What I suggested up there? That's all that Tropeday is. I've been doing it every single week for the last few months, and it only just got stickied this week. I didn't do it because I'm a mod. I did it because I'm an active user of this sub and I thought tropedays were a great idea. It was initially started with a different subscriber, but he got busy and I took it over. Because I wanted to see it.

Stop complaining because you're frustrated and you want someone else to solve the problem. You can do more.

Have you thought of narrating one of the books from Project Guthenberg?

https://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top

You could just do the whole thing and upload to YouTube for guaranteed hits - especially if any of the books is on the curriculum.

I imagine you could definitely be successful with 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.

Thanks! I’ve written a couple, one on Amazon, one unpublished for which I’m recruiting beta readers over at r/Magleby.

I’ve also started a serial webnovel at r/Magleby; the first two chapters are linked in the subreddit Wiki.

Absolutely!

The Dragon's Heir https://www.amazon.de/dp/1986898229/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_RgdgFb6DVFM4G here is my first novella based on a prompt from this subreddit as well. It’s been a while since I published it but the feedback I got for it was resoundingly positive.

Blurb and chapter sample can be found in the link.

I also have a new project I wrote a few weeks back and will be editing in the future, but if interested, you can read it now on wattpad

https://my.w.tt/MR2rxispk8

Called God’s bodyguard.

Thank you for showing an interest :)

It was bound to happen eventually.

The Grammar Nazi Party overtaking the government started simply enough. A charismatic English professor was elected President, running on a strong education reform platform. Once elected, things got a little out of hand.

It began with suspensions and community service for the children. Misuse of "literally," was initially the only offense so punished, but that branched out rapidly to cover misuse of "your" and "there," as well as misspellings in general.

Journalists who didn't use the Oxford comma were the next to be subjected to community service, then anyone with a computer. Before long, any grammatical errors were punishable by grueling hours poring over The Elements of Style.

Rote memorization of the text was encouraged, and Grammar Nazis on patrol could often be seen stopping a citizen, asking, "When is it acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition?" and then promptly billy-clubbing and incarcerating any person who did not immediately answer, "Never."

The jails soon became full, as enforcement of the Laws of Grammar spread to cover text message communication. In response, Conversation Camps were set up around the country to educate citizens on appropriate grammar needed to communicate with fellow English speakers. These camps were overcrowded, miserable places, and those inside were frequently and summarily executed for comma splicing.

And for those who don't know, this is available for free on project gutenberg.

Though I prefer the Allen Mandelbaum translation.

In his memoir On Writing, Stephen King touched on this a bit. He said once you're done writing a piece, you should "put it in the drawer,"; Don't touch it. Don't read it. Don't even think about it. Just take some time off and do other things. After some time has passed, when you return to your story, you'll hopefully have a more objective perspective on the story's strengths and weaknesses. It could be 3 hours, or it could be 3 months, you'll have to judge how long it takes for you (if I remember correctly, he waits about 6 weeks).

I hope that helps! And I really recommend On Writing, it's a good read!

so, a few of things here.

FIRST: kickstarter already addressed these concerns re: the Spike Lee project. read here. you don't have to like anything about it, but this is completely acceptable within the kickstarter ecosystem. there are no rules, formal or informal, about crowdfunding being for the "little guy" only.

second: just because a kickstarter with a name does well doesn't mean that one without star power does poorly, or that it takes money that would otherwise be spent on another project. the KS staff address this better than i do in the above post, but the truth is that people spend money on what they spend money on--in the broadest sense, it means that joe shmo's kickstarter compete's against watch_dogs and this month's bar tab. however, there is nothing that shows successful kickstarters diminish the rest of the active projects, and they probably help overall by bringing in new users.

third: KS is a great way to test interest, demonstrate a market, and take advance orders on a project. doing so allows creators to bypass middle men (generally producers, who sometimes wield the power of the purse to change production to fit their economic interests at the expense of creative vision). this is valuable regardless of income, wealth, or celebrity. when established game studios do this to bypass EA, no one seems to bat an eye. when a movie does it to bypass studios, everyone thinks that the creative guys should self fund because they "know" people. it's an unfair standard which misunderstands how crowd funding works and how it can benefit all projects, not just scrappy untested amateurs.

Maybe, but we say Wolves, not Wolfs. Elves and Dwarves sound better.

Also, according to dictionary.com, the plural of Elf is indeed Elves and Dwarf can be written both ways.

So ends the first of three planned story arcs. Next up comes a three-chapter interlude. We'll see Abelard again in Chapter 19.

I'd like to announce that I now have a Patreon account. Let me stress that nobody should feel obliged to tip. It's really for people who've always wanted to, but couldn't until now. :) For everyone else, it's enough that you're following the story. The work will continue no matter what.

Patronage will be a big help though. The project takes up a lot of hours (about as much as a part-time job) and as little as $50 a week means I can stop scrounging for side work. The income will also help ward off schedule slip, although I'll admit that some chapters will still take longer than others.

Comments? Questions? :D

I mostly got it from Mark Kurlansky's book Cod: The Fish That Changed the World. The relevant excerpt is here.

Basically, the Basque were bringing pre-dried cod en masse to European markets by the end of the 1400s but none of the regulars of the age-old codfishing hotspots had seen them. Cod also couldn't be dried on a ship, so besides finding new fishing grounds they must have found an appropriate landmass on which to process it all without anyone noticing. Others followed their fleets to try to figure out their secret - these groups came back with cod, but in silence. Then, when Cabot reached Newfoundland in 1497, he found cod everywhere and a perfect coast for drying them, and when Cartier reached the St. Lawrence in 1534 and claimed it all for France, a thousand Basque fishing vessels were already there.

Yeah, it's mostly circumstantial evidence that can probably be argued but it does seem to work out and I can't be bothered to try to prove it wrong. Don't think I could, either.

^(edited because I couldn't stand how horribly written it was. should be slightly better now?)

Hi there.

I'm a bloke from the UK with a passion for writing (obviously), getting in embarassing situations and an unhealthy obsession with pork pies.

Whilst I'm a big reader of fantasy, I quite enjoy writing several different genres since bein introduced to this a few weeks ago by a friend.

I'm currently working on a fantasy/sci fi novel, a few short stories and a piss-take of game of thrones which can be found here.

http://www.wattpad.com/user/Shozza

I like shiny stars and 624 is the number that makes me feel most socially secure.

Not a prompt, but it you have time for a 10 page long story, I recommend reading The Monster by Alfred van Vogt.

You can read it online here, or download as a RTF file here.

(Downvote this comment if you think the story is too far from the given request, I'll delete it.)

It's a Saturday morning and I'm actually awake. That counts as news in my life.

But on cooler news, I actually finally have something to promote. My book Stolen Time is finally available on Amazon.

And with that out of the way, I'm finally putting some work into NaNoWriMo. My new story is called The Librarian's Code and can be found on my subreddit, /r/Lexilogical.

I also submitted it for the contest, because woohoo, contest time! Been a busy week on the mod team. :)

Oh wow, thank you. As a matter of fact I have my own Universe that I'm putting together. As well as a book on Amazon: Aurelio's Sun

I'm an editor IRL for a trade journal, and I came from the newspaper world. I write for a living, so I wouldn't hesitate to call myself a "writer."

But those articles/stories/etc I write for money. The writing I do for myself is what I consider to be my "real writing."

That's where I take my identity from. It's not the bylines on my work stuff - it's the stories I have tucked away or up on Amazon. If I were to quit being an editor and pay the bills driving a truck or lifting boxes or anything else - I'd still consider myself a "writer" as long as I still told myself stories and sought to share them.

I just put a new collection of short stories out - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BJG9FRB

The free offer period expired yesterday. I gave away about 100 copies and I have a stack of review requests waiting out in the ether. I've made a grand total of $0.70, so far, and only had one posted review. But that confirmed me as a "writer" more than the hundreds of thousands of words I've written (and been paid for) in the years of my day job.

Hi, I'm Sterling Magleby. I live out in the Rocky Mountains, I'm male, I type about 80 WPM, and I mostly write using Google Docs, though in this subreddit I just scribble things straight into the comment box.

I write because I want to be heard. Writing for myself is boring, I already know what I have to say. Also, I enjoy telling blatant lies about things that never happened and people who never existed.

Promotions? Yep! I have a subreddit with lots and lots of those blatant lies I mentioned:

r/Magleby

and a book on Amazon

and a personal site.

I'm also in the process of trying to get a full-length novel published. Oh, and I've just started a serial novel/novella (we'll see how long it ends up being) on my subreddit, set in the same universe as the novel. Prologue is posted and I should be finishing Chapter One sometime this long 'murican weekend.

Ask me whatever the Hell you want.

I’ve written a couple books! One is a Kindle book up on Amazon, the other is an unpublished novel I’m going to submit to agents after one last revision, for which I’ve been recruiting beta readers over at r/Magleby the past couple weeks.

I edited (with /u/psycho_alpaca's permission) his ten-part story for this prompt. It's available here for anyone who would like to read it. I highly recommend it – I wouldn't have spent hours cleaning it up if I didn't think it was worth it.

It would be spectacular if the /r/WritingPrompts mods could add it to the list of his works. It's a great example of his writing.

Edit: I know the prompt is on the list, but the responses are both unedited and scattered around.

Edit 2: /u/psycho_alpaca, your stamp of approval would be nice, too. :)

Actually Dr Seuss did write one adult novel and filled it with drawings of naked ladies. It was called The Seven Lady Godivas.

"Whaddya mean?" she asks.

"Well, last time I checked, Earth's current population was less than 7.65 billion," I point out pedantically. "How did we suddenly get to 10 billion?"

The nurse forces a grin as she hands me the bag of disposable diapers and gift certificates. "I was rounding. Just take the fucking bag, okay? And congratulations."

I meant they added the thank you into the terms and service inside the app, not just on the download page.

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/shortly Product Hunt Requires you to File Taxes If you Profit.

"I object. 7-zip is a perfectly good free software that does everything WinRAR does, without complaining."

"There is always the camel alternative."

I thought for a long time. Then I wrote. Then I stood.

"God, I stand before you to defend my thesis:"

Implementing Perl in Lua: Passing a camel through the eye of a needle

That was pretty great. It's a shame about the other 8000 words.

I used to write large comments directly onto Reddit, but lost way too many words to random reloads or mixups (Nothing like a full short story though), so I switched to using Open Office's Writer instead. Much nicer editing, and autosaves are great.

Syd Field's Screenplay, like I said, is a great one.

There's also Robert Mckee's Story, considered a seminal work in screenwriting/ storytelling in general.

Finally, The Hero With a Thousand Faces is probably the most well known book on writing. I've never read it myself, so I can't recommend it, but it's extremely influential. I did read Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey, though, which was inspired in the works of Campbell, and is a great book.

Also, yes, to me the All if Lost is the most important moment in a story. If you don't get the reader to think 'How the hell will he get out of this!?', your story needs work.

Last year I read Stephen King's On Writing. Amazing book, I'd recommend it to anyone, even non-writers. It inspired me to at least try and be more active on this subreddit, and start thinking seriously about a book I want to write.

I can also add my bit of self-promotion...I finally caught up and made my sub yesterday: r/Inkfinger. Any feedback is more than welcome!

I did want to ask - is this the place where I request a flair for my sub? It doesn't seem like I can add it myself. Thanks! :)

I like this as much as anyone, but I have a constructive criticism of a minor issue. If you look at Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style, chapter 5 ("Arcs of Coherence"), it will teach you how to notice and avoid ambiguity like this:

> Dexicon was able to do this in one turn thanks to the cosmic paving it had laid earlier. It allowed faster than light travel.

When "it" changed meaning, it threw me out of the story in the very first paragraph.

It's really admirable you want to learn the trade first. I totally respect that. But as a self-published author who does cover design for small houses, indie authors and traditionally published authors I may have some information that can help you make a more informed decision.

First, traditional publishers are great for a lot of things -- but teaching you how to self-publish unfortunately isn't one of them. In fact, the biggest advantage to traditionally publishing is that they do all of that stuff for you so you don't have to learn to do it. Not to mention their business model and operation strategy is quite different from an indie one. I touch on that a little in this blog post here (http://sfrostcovers.com/self-publishing-advantages/). You also have to be exceedingly careful, many traditional publishing contracts include clauses that prohibit you from self-publishing under that pen-name.

If you do want to learn how to self-publish the only way to learn is to go to the right resources online and then just do it. Some of those resources are Self Publishing Podcast, the book Write, Publish, Repeat, the Kboards forum, and by making friends with authors in your desired genre who already self-publish.

That said if you do want to get traditionally published I recommend finding a few high-quality writing friends to critique your work, and more importantly, your query letter. Also in your query letter be sure to mention your Reddit fan-base. Publishers love authors with active social media presences. :-)

Thank you!

Most of what I write is a bit lighter than this. I typically write non-fiction short stories about my life as a father. I archive them online Here on a site I call "Where Are We Here". It's a site no one other than me ever visits where I am writing the chronicles of my children's lives. I write one of two a week, so I can someday combine them into a sort of family photo album. Short five minute snapshots of life.

The most recent entry on that page is fairly long, but there's a "Random Posts" button off to the right which will no doubt bring up some shorter things.

But if you like this story, that website might not be what you are looking for. I come to Writing Prompts so I can write darker things and explore styles of writing that I maybe don't want to share with my children someday. I keep those recorded too in a locked box on the other side of the internet. A box I keep hidden, often even from myself. I don't usually share the keys, but I don't see how it could hurt posted it here.

It's a page called The Bottomless Pinnacle and that is where this story can be found and other's like it.

When I have time to write, it is cathartic. That being said, I can't focus enough to write if there is too much going on around me, so I typically only get to write in the middle of the night when there is no extraneous noise. My writing tends to be darker, more "gritty" stuff, mostly just because I am not so good at lighter stuff, so I just don't write it as often. I'm lazy and stick to what I feel best at more often than not.

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I did enter the contest, but I'm pretty sure I'm not making it to the second round. I have bee fairly consistently voted third place for my group (from those that have voted so far), so while I'm happy with how well I've done, I don't see my story going farther. If I didn't wait until right before the deadline to even start, for both parts, I may have done better. Still, I'm pretty content just to have my stuff get read, and to get feedback on it.

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Speaking of my stuff getting read, If anyone is interested in seeing my works head on over to /r/JohannesVerne to see more! (I plan on starting a serial soon, if I can drum up interested critiquers!)

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For more blatant self promotion, if you like westerns, and audiobooks, and especially if you like audiobook westerns, check out Duster, available now on Audible and Amazon! The author, Frank Roderus, was one of the great prolific western writers with over 300 books published, so if you are interested in that genre it's worth a look.

Hello, I'm a bot! The movie you linked is called Forever Knight, here are some Trailers

I do have a Patreon account with some additional stories that I haven't posted to Reddit. And there's also this longer story that isn't on my Patreon but was written for a Patreon supporter (who agreed to let me share it with everyone).

I self-published a children's book last month on Amazon called How the Vixens Saved the School. It's an allegory for the true story of a college which almost closed until their alumnae saved it. You can find more information on the book's Facebook page. Thanks for taking a look.

Here's one that came up when I searched amazon for "Reddit": https://smile.amazon.com/Sleep-Encounters-Paranormal-Experiences-Contributed-ebook/dp/B012O6Q9PM/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1523395784&amp;sr=1-10&amp;keywords=reddit

The guy is selling a collection of /r/nosleep posts for $2.99.

Search on Amazon for tongue cleaners or scrapers. Prepare to get introduced to a new world of freshness.

I use something like this One

OP here and I gotta say I loved this! I'm an over night security guard at a mall and I made the WP based on one of my many thoughts on the over night ha ha. Honestly I was thinking scary when I wrote the prompt but when I read that you made them play tennis for you I started cracking up! Now I'm just a new writer like yourself and your my first post reply and it was worth the wait! Two books I suggest you read or listen to are elements of style: 60 minutes to better writing to help with overall Grammer and style (help you avoid all those i's) and On Writing by Stephen King for more help. Both are great and if motivation is a problem also listen or read the war of art. I really hope you rewrite this and bring it to its highest level because I absolutely love this story! If you decide to rewrite and edit it is really hope you send it to me or post it on here ����

Never give up on something you want to do. And even if no one reads them now, do it for yourself. Do it and love it, then on your own you will become better. I recommend reading "On Writing" by Stephen King.

If anyone's interested in this sort of logic, it's encountered in book 3 of Greg Egan's fantastic Orthogonal series (it has to do with information being sent back, not physical people, but a similar idea).

If you enjoyed that one, here are two more stories from The Office

• Michael Scott testifies at a murder trial

• A Greek Olympian gets a job at Dunder Mifflin Paper (Sorry, this one is only for Patreon subscribers)

Minispoilers:

It's this series where Bob (main character) gets uploaded into an AI many years later after his sudden "death", and is eventually sent to find better planets for humanity to live on. It's a great listen on Audible. I've only got the first book done so far, but I plan on coming back to it after I finish listening to the Wheel of Time series. It's definitely worth a try, though, in my opinion.

https://www.audible.com/series?asin=B01M1RDL6W

"The Game of Rat and Dragon" has psychic monsters that move so fast the only way they can be defeated is by cats telepathically paired with a human. In fact in all Smith's Human Instrumentality, space travel of any kind is horrific and utterly anathema to human life.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29614/29614-h/29614-h.htm

Edit: clarity

In addition to the Patreon, I'd like to call your attention to my Upwork profile. That's right, I'm a freelancer-for-hire. I can be your editor, your writing coach, your ghostwriter -- even your english tutor, if you're looking to learn it as a second language. Any tips or work you send me will be much appreciated. They'll also go a long way toward making sure the chapters come out in a timely manner. :)

> I've got the means to pay more. If you had a $10 version, I'd buy that.

I did consider charging more for it, but I understand that there are some people who don't have the means to pay more. And I'd rather have more readers enjoy it. But if you really want to give more, I have Patreon and Paypal ().

> Please offer this in other download options.

I'm looking into that now!

I look down at the back of my bicep, gathering courage. I know I'll heal within the week, but it'll still hurt.

Nonetheless, I want this... this thing gone.

Holding my breath, I raise my knife to the marked lines on my skin. The iron-silver alloy shines in the lamplight, halting my movement.

The thing shifts, and my resolve rebounds. I force my eyes open, steady my hand, and cut along the marked line. It burns worse than I could have thought, but I grit my teeth and continue. I have lived with this tattoo for two centuries, and I have been mocked enough. It's time for it to go.

Within a couple minutes, the skin and connective tissue has been completely disconnected. Only the muscle and shows through, red and glimmering. I flex my arm, captivated by the movement. The muscle shines and flexes, drawing me in like an illusion. That this was what was under that layer... I stare for a good few minutes before I shake myself back into focus.

I bend down and pick up the flap of skin. I check the edges, making sure I got it all. Gleefully, I smile. The face is gone.

It's finally gone.

J.K. has pages upon pages of hand-written spreadsheets used to tell exactly where each character was at any given time. It makes me want to buy her a copy of Scrivener. Yet she could easily afford thousands of copies all on her own, so maybe she should stick to what works for her.

Self-promotion, huh?...

... yeah, okay. I've got this one fanfic I recently started updated again. Dumb as it is, I'm oddly proud of some of the writing. So there. That's a thing.

'The Wolf' Short story (9,392 words) It's a post-apocalyptic story about a man and a boy traversing a wasteland. It's completed, I just can't get it to seem to get it "right." Any thoughts and/or criticisms are more than welcome! Thanks. - LINK: http://www.wattpad.com/myworks/41490590/write/135476431

I wrote a story a while back that is... interesting to say the least. I'm not really quite sure what it is, but I feel like no one ever really gets it. I'd appreciate all thoughts on it. Here's my pitch:

They say it takes determination, effort, and strong will to make it in the publishing world. Talent can only get you so far, and I may not be a household name just yet, but "I'm on a path to greatness, and the world will know my name."

A story about an aspiring writer achieving his dreams.

A Cuticle in the Space Station

Edit: On a side note, just finished my official final edit of the first chapter of my debut novel. Only about 30 more chapters to go. Wish me luck!

So, anyone who likes Fake AH Crew, or Rooster Teeth should check out the FanFic I'm writing, criticism is highly sought after!

http://www.wattpad.com/story/29220125-after-ten-little-roosters?utm_source=web&amp;utm_medium=twitter4&amp;utm_content=share_myworks_details&amp;ref_id=18201582

Hey guys! I'm trying out a new way to structure and write my story, using diary entries. I was wondering if you could have a read through of the first entry and tell me what you think of it? Style and everything! Constructive criticism is welcome!

http://www.wattpad.com/60667700-the-culling-memoirs-of-orion-huscarl

Here is the first entry! Thanks!

As far as I know, milk is a pretty bad source of Vitamin D, but since we fortify milk with D now, everyone associates milk with D. Eat fish, instead (spinach and kale have D, but also leach calcium, which is one of the reasons you'd want D ... though I'm not sure vampires have to worry about rickets (do they? why do they need vitamin D of all things?) .

get some D: https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/guide/calcium-vitamin-d-foods

absorb calcium: https://www.drweil.com/diet-nutrition/nutrition/avoid-vegetables-with-oxalic-acid/

This would probably be ideal. It lets you create your own wiki, multiple pages, links between pages, different formats, images, videos. It's very helpful if you're willing to put the time in.

Perhaps instead of the prompts themselves, the best story replies. I'd look into r/bestofwritingprompts. But definitely a thread where people could submit their work. Maybe you could also give an example of what you plan to do with the pieces.

EDIT

I actually found the original link I was reading about this. Tell me if this is where you're going with it?

http://inform7.com/write/write/

Hmm, that is a pickle. You might want to try a technique called Morning Pages. This site, 750 words, should be a good place to get you started on the process, but it's really meant to get you to just write freehand for awhile. Maybe it'll start to get you to relax a little bit when you're writing the story too. :)

Trauer, I love you infinitely more for using a K-ON Gif.

On a side note, heard of Twine? I've been using it the past while to make some sample CHYOA type stories and it's pretty handy dandy.

I believe it was /u/10thtardis who came up with an IFTTT recipe to be notified whenever a specific Redditor posted, but it would take someone who has actually used it to confirm that it could be used for a new comment.

Link to /u/10thtardis's IFTTT recipe, if it helps.

Just to inform you and all german redditors:

Amazon DE has your physical copy IN STOCK: https://www.amazon.de/dp/1540338371/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1479481605&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=rex+electi

Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.de/Rex-Electi-English-W-P-Kimball-ebook/dp/B01N03B1AJ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1479481605&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=rex+electi

Your book will be on my wishlist for xmas ;)

Thanks for the compliment :) I didn't restrict it by country or anything, so it should be available in your country's amazon equivalent. For example, here's the UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B076MLF2CF

If you can't find it, let me know your country and I'll see if I can find something on my end :)

I'd strongly recommend picking up Stephen King's On Writing book. Even if you're not a fan of his style of writing, his work ethic is second to none. That book is a great guide on the tools needed to be a productive writer and it's worth every penny.

Echoing what others have said in this thread, write every day... no matter what. Once you make it a daily habit, it makes it much easier to sit down and just start pounding out the pages. I'm at 477 days of continuous writing and just having that habit was critical to getting the rough draft and edit done on my novel.

I've only tried writing for these prompts recently, so I'm glad to hear that's coming across. Thank you! Steven King's On Writing taught me every sentence needs to do something, so I'm trying my best.

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

First thing I've ever really written since school, and realistically the first thing ever where it's actually writing for the sake of it (other than a jokey prompts thread in a football team subreddit I'm a mod of!).

I'll take the reading recommendations into consideration, definitely had the On Writing on my list for a bit in general, sounds really interesting. But I'm not so serious about writing right now that I am going to get around to it ahead of the ridiculous number of books on my reading list! The price of spending a few years not doing any reading properly. On book 20 of Discworld right now; going to get through them by the end of the year, will see what's what after those!

Until then I'll probably just attempt prompts here and there and see if practice improves my writing at all!

The great great great great great grandson of Sun Tzu has produced an incredible follow up to The Art of War. 'The Art of Death' gives an insight into torture and assassination techniques of ancient and modern China. From the soldiers of the ancient Spring and Autumn period to modern-day contract killers. Like father like great great great great great grandson. 4/5 stars.

I love Plot Versus Character by Jeff Gerke (and his other books). Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is also great. Her chapter 'Shitty First Drafts' probably helped my writing more than anything else I've read.

I recently wrote my first horror (slight comedy) novel after years of writing short stories occasionally. I would say what motivated me was reading Stephen King, he is really good at being a motivational coach and writing with a judgemental tone that made me feel like a loser for not being a multi-millionaire bestseller. Reading King's On Writing also made crafting a novel feel far less daunting than I always feared it would be.

Another motivation was reading a Jonathan Maberry book, realizing that this guy was an utter hack yet a bestseller and that my short stories were leagues ahead of his work. I figured that if he could get published, it couldn't be too hard.

I wrote my first novel and have decided to publish it free online in hopes of getting fans and support to turn it into a trilogy. Despite my plans to write sequels, this is a fully-fledged stand alone novel, it doesn't end on some sequel-bait cliffhanger.

Summary: The residents of a low income housing apartment building are planning a block party. Meanwhile, the building loner has befriended an ancient evil. Will the party-goers be sober enough to notice the world is ending around them? This novel mashes the fun vibes of a Pineapple Express stoner comedy with balls-to-the-wall 80s Stephen King horror.

Download link for epub e-book: https://archive.org/details/TheTenementRandallHuff

sudden urge to change name to TheGifSniper

I just like gifs. A lot.

Seriously though, great guide! I just finished King's On Writing and I think you nailed it on the head by the way. You could figure out your theme before you finish the story, and I definitely have done that, but I think it becomes apparent when you finish the story. And you realize, "Oh, so that's what I was saying."

Then you go add little details and things about that will ultimately make English teachers freak out about the blue curtains being blue instead of black and what that means to the main character who did, in fact, not choose out the curtains at all and left them there when he moved in to the apartment because let's face it they're curtains.

Yeah. Theme is good.

On Writing isn't the book to read if you want to be Hemingway. But if you are a newboe and terrified by the daunting idea of starting a novel, King breaks it down and takes all the stress out of it. One of his biggest things for new writers is to not use outlines. Most new writers give up when trying to outline the whole book before writing. King advises you figure it out as you go, and that any parts that don;t work because of it can be smoothed out in the 2nd draft. If you have your core characters and some broad strokes of the plot, you are essentially good to go. He doesn't even advice planning your themes until the first draft is complete, he says that if you write what you feel, the themes will emerge naturally and you can flesh them out in the second draft as well. The second draft is where the literary work happens, the first draft is just getting the story on paper. There, I just TLDR'd On Writing for those who were curious about King's master tips.

In regards to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, did anyone find the book extremely difficult to read? As in understanding what the author was trying to say? I was so dazed and confused the whole time I was reading this book. I heard it usually requires several reads to really appreciate the book in its art-form, but damn...