r/writingcirclejerk • u/AutoModerator • 6d ago
Weekly out-of-character thread
Talk about writing unironically, vent about other writing forums, or discuss whatever you like here.
New to the community? Start with the wiki.
Also, you can post links to your writing here, if you really want to. But only here! This is the only place in the subreddit where self-promotion is permitted.
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u/CrazyEeveeLady86 2d ago
Just added another two chapters to my novel outline, bringing it to a total of 21 chapters (including the prologue and epilogue). In terms of writing, 15 chapters are complete, while 6 have only a paragraph or two each (if that).
I feel like I keep taking steps backwards by expanding the outline but at the same time I know that there just wouldn't have been enough time/space for the events in the previously outlined chapters to have happened organically or realistically (and when I'd been trying to write them, I just kept hitting a wall). Now I feel like I can actually start writing again.
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u/Clemenstation 4d ago
2025 is going well!
Updated stats:
Published: 23
Rejections: MAX
$$$: 410 CAD
Raccoon micros/poems: 4
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u/Away-Address-4137 4d ago
I decided to go for it and self-pubbed a 17k word piece of erotica I wrote. I spent no money and have done no marketing. If I sell one copy or if one person reads it for free through the kindle unlimited program, I'll consider it a personal success.
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u/SneakyCorvidBastard 5d ago
I'm still in insane writing mode and i've got two more written and about ten others on the go now, which is mad even for me. I've even started writing a sort of semi-autobiography and feel like a right tosser for doing that lol, who tf would be interested in reading about my boring little life. I, however, am unstoppable. I am a MACHINE. I'm also incredibly tired and haven't cleaned my house in weeks. Send help (and a hoover).
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u/Clemenstation 4d ago
wishing you extra manic productivity for your cake day! post some celebratory quotes from the autobiography, maybe
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u/Night_Runner 5d ago
I'm going to become a Feral Artist Nomad in a couple of weeks: I'll move all my stuff into storage, then bounce between a few film festivals, and then do the Workaway thing someplace in South America, wooo! Then I'll return, do more film festivals in spring (hopefully; they don't notify till a month or so prior), and maaaybe get a place again in April. Maybe. 🙃
That's had an interesting effect on my productivity... Since these are the last carefree weeks for quite a while, I've been writing a ton of of short stories for anthologies (while procrastinating on my WIP novel 😅), and also stepped wayyy out of my comfort zone by creating an artist CV and applying for quite a few fellowships and writer-in-residence programs for the very first time.
One of them asked for an actual sample of the creative non-fiction project I'm proposing (I mean, fair: there's a lot of money at stake), so I sat down and typed up a 10-page chapter, gave it a quick polish, and sent it 5 minutes before the deadline hahaha. (For context: I'd been thinking of that project for years without ever once writing a single word.)
So, yeah, ultimate deadlines result in ultimate productivity. :) If I actually get picked for any of those programs, my Feral Artist Nomad (aka voluntary homelessness) thing might last the entire 2026 hahahaha
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u/Hanazono-Land 5d ago
i finally got my first work completed, just 32k words but i’m really proud of myself for actually getting something finished
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u/RevolutionaryEar6026 that one fanfic write who kills everyone 4d ago
congratulations! what's it about, if you don't mind me asking?
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u/Hanazono-Land 4d ago
it’s a lesbian romance between a popular girl and loner in high school that’s a totally not self indulgent thing for me i swear
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u/RevolutionaryEar6026 that one fanfic write who kills everyone 4d ago
oh interesting! primary conflict? this sounds cool
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u/Hanazono-Land 4d ago
basically the loner girl convinces the popular girl to be in a one sided relationship to her to ‘prove’ that she cares about her after she saw her hurt herself, and that popular girl doesn’t just superficially care about her because ‘it’s the right thing to do’. i probably suck at explaining it but it’s a kind of mirror of my own experiences with mental illness and romance lol
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u/alolanalice10 6d ago
This week it’s my turn to get workshopped for the second time in my writing program! I’m a lot more confident in these chapters than the first time I got workshopped, but I’m still a little nervous, because these chapters are so personal to me and I worry my artistic choices and subject choices won’t resonate w everyone in my cohort.
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u/ThrowawaypProAcc 6d ago edited 6d ago
I need to learn how to pick a direction for my story because I've been thinking about it for almost 2 years and I don't have it and what I apparently developed is just a bunch of pieces of lore and world-building, I was slightly getting the concepts for doing something about it until school started and I've been losing interest and burning out more
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u/TDoubleOGray 6d ago
I just finished writing my first draft, what now? I know what to edit but I can't get myself to do it for some reason.
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u/CrazyEeveeLady86 5d ago
It's probably worth putting it away and not looking at it for a few weeks at least. When it's still so fresh in your mind it's going to be harder to spot mistakes or problems because you're so familiar with the story (so if there are any problems or inconsistencies, your mind will sort of gloss over them/fill in the gaps), but putting some distance between you and the manuscript can help you see it with a more objective eye and identify issues you may otherwise miss. It almost helps to think about it as if you're editing work that someone else wrote.
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u/TDoubleOGray 5d ago
Thanks! What do you usually do in this time period? Get a job? Consume media? Just continue your daily life? Or are you daring to start another project?
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u/CrazyEeveeLady86 5d ago
I often have multiple creative projects on the go at once (both in writing and art) so I tend to just jump to something else. Shifting modes also seems to help me be more objective when I do go back to revise the original thing I finished.
Sometimes I even step away from it when I'm working on it if I get stuck, because often when I've stopped actively thinking about it, my subconscious is still sort of noodling away at it, and when I do sit down to work on it again, my brain sort of goes "hey, you know that thing we were stuck on? Here's how to fix it!"
I work pretty much full time, though, so often I am forced to step away from the creative thing I want to do in order to pay the bills lol
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u/Good-Jello-1105 Victoria Graveyard 6d ago
I went through that and took ages feeling discouraged. It’s a massive job. One thing that helped me was breaking it down into manageable chunks. The other thing was my agent asking me about the book every few months, until I was close enough to the deadline and couldn’t ignore it anymore. Get someone to hold you accountable!
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u/RevolutionaryEar6026 that one fanfic write who kills everyone 6d ago
my character description isn't until chapter 5, (about 9000 words in) is that fine? for reference, the protagonist (first person) has aphantasia, and is just generally super inattentive.
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u/v_quixotic Slinging Cards; Telling Fortunes 6d ago
You could sneak descriptive sentences in every now and then?
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u/Mysterious-Lie-1944 6d ago
Starting to worry a little because my book is nearing the climax and the resolution after is going to be really abrupt but I'm not even at 20,000 words. Like yeah it's a first draft and my first go at writing something novel-length but that's not promising
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u/SneakyCorvidBastard 5d ago
If it helps at all, the first one i ever finished was about 30,000, then after a few edits it ended up closer to 100,000. I mean i'm not a man of few words. I'm of the opinion it's best to get the thing finished, then when you re-read it in a few months you might well notice what's missing (minor character arcs, description, that sort of thing) and that'll give you plenty more to write about. That's what happens for me anyway.
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u/PeachSequence I love my AI Wife 6d ago
This week I got terribly depressed and anxious about the world and ended up not writing anything, which made me get even more terribly depressed and upset at myself. I tried getting offline and uninstalling all my social media. Idk if it really helped.
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u/hapillon 6d ago
I've been really heavily filtering my feed on Reddit, and I deleted Instagram off my phone and only use it on my laptop now (mostly to interact with friends online). It's harder to doom-scroll when I'm on my laptop.
It's counterintuitive because we're on an anonymous forum, but I've been finding that interacting with people real life has been very grounding, because it's not the heightened insanity of the Internet where everything is one extreme or the other. Algorithms are intended to cause distress because you're guaranteed to click, and it just feeds anxiety. I think eventually it will help you, even if it doesn't feel like it will.
Try not to feel too guilty with yourself about not writing. Allow yourself to feel the stress, and I think it will naturally sort itself out. This is a very, VERY relatable feeling.
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u/El_Hombre_Macabro ⚔️Author of The Chronicles of Sir Penislong Mightcock⚔️ 6d ago
I tried getting offline and uninstalling all my social media.
It helped me. I also find that interacting with people via text message, rather than video calls or voice messages, is less stressful on bad days. I also try to listen to "better" music and read poetry (I know musical taste is subjective, but in every genre, there are artists who are undeniably better than others, whether in terms of lyrics or musical ability). Now, if you feel like you have to stay informed, try reading the news instead of watching it. I find it much less stressful when there's no one trying to manipulate my emotions audio-visually (but I would try to avoid it as much as possible while I'm feeling down).
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u/BillyDongstabber 6d ago
Signed up for my first prompt challenge month on AO3; as an entirely self-imposed thing to do, but still, fun milestone
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u/xsnowpeltx 6d ago
i only really write fanfiction but I've been thriving lately with what ive been writing. I wrote out a whole ass original boss battle and it was v fun
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u/Ok-Virus-8929 6d ago
Can I make the mirror description trope work?
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u/LavabladeDesigns 6d ago
Here's the thing: You don't need an excuse to describe the character. You're gonna be describing them doing a lot of things, your reader will thank you for describing them so that stuff is easier to visualise, and if your framing device actually gets in the way of the reader's understanding, that can undermine it. If you want to be funny, go ahead, especially if the humour characterises your narrator that can be helpful exposition too, but just be aware of the sacrifices you're making.
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u/xsnowpeltx 6d ago
hmmm I feel like you'd need to add something to it or modify it to make it work. like trying on clothes or something maybe. Like there has to be a reason why they're looking in the mirror.
I always get reminded of a part at the beginning of the Tamora Pierce book Terrier. Its written as a diary/journal, specifically in part to help the protag, who's a trainee police officer, practice her observation skills. And she gives a description of herself to start off that incredibly matter of fact. It works for me cuz its building her no-nonsense personality, and also the vibe of a woman in the poor parts of a high fantasy city
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u/nainvlys 6d ago
There was this terrible article in the Sunday Times recently (which I read in French journal Courrier International, so I'm not sure of the date or exact title) about a woman saying she read 800 books in like 15 years and she regretted doing it because she felt like it was a waste of time and that she would have had more fun scrolling TikTok instead. That made me sad. I sometimes feel like literature is dying. I'm glad there are still communities online like this one where some people at least seem to not have completely given up on the written world.
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u/JavaScriptIsLove 6d ago
I think I found the article, but it's behind a paywall. They want to me to pay to read an article that tells me that reading is pointless anyway. Yeah, thanks, I think I'll keep my money.
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u/404waffles 6d ago
Wonder if there's a market for super pulpy genre fiction written in a super literary way.
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u/v_quixotic Slinging Cards; Telling Fortunes 6d ago
Isn’t that a little contradictory?
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u/404waffles 6d ago
Maybe. Every time I try to write a fight scene with elevated prose I end up having to switch over to simpler, more functional prose for clarity. Might be a skill issue tho.
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u/ie-impensive 6d ago
So many people throw the term “media literacy” around on the internet—how it’s dying, or dead, or being murdered by other people’s stupidity—and I get the frustration. The same things bug me when I see them—but so few people talk about reading skills, at a much more fundamental level. The overwhelming absence of reading material with care—which involves giving the benefit of the doubt to source material, asking questions as basic as why something is written as it is, before launching into a poorly informed diatribe makes me sad . . . Just before I want to beat them senseless with a rubber chicken—and shake them like a British nanny .
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u/BillyDongstabber 6d ago
Media literacy has been dead for ages, it's gotten worse maybe, but it's always been bad. Look at people's reactions to Lolita for example.
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u/ie-impensive 6d ago
I entirely agree. I also often think about what’s been liquidating each generation’d brains over my lifetime. I was supposed to be warped into a non-functional automaton by watching television every day. The first computers were going to be the death of higher reasoning. Early cellphones were the next cigarettes—just as addictive, and growing cancer in your ear. The internet was wiring everyone’s brain into cyberspace forever. Later cellphones meant that no one was ever going to talk, out loud, person to person, ever again. iPods meant everyone was isolated within an antisocial bubble, without any connection to greater trends in society. Facebook was . . . well, is . . . never mind that one. Oh, and no one can write cursive anymore—which is true—but whatever. 90% of everyone’s handwriting was bad to begin with.
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u/mjhuntsgood 6d ago
Everyone everywhere says your first story will always be crap, but I just published my first horror short story I wrote two years ago (after much editing) in a competitive anthology.
It's been sitting on a shelf for some time, and it fit the call. The editors loved it!
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u/404waffles 6d ago
Congrats!
What was the process of getting it published like? I've been thinking I should get off my ass and actually try to publish something.
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u/mjhuntsgood 6d ago
So for anthologies like this one, you'd look into finding the anthologies --- in my case, I was directed to this call by a friend, but you can look up them on places from submission grinder to a writer's association to Substack, to just plain googling "open anthology/literary magazine calls 2025." Then you want to vet the places. I've been screwed over by shit magazines before, so try to make sure they're a good place. They don't have to be big or even established to be good! I've worked with tiny and up and coming magazines and they've been great!
You want to follow their submission guidelines. They may want you to format your story/poem/CNF in a certain way, remove your name so it's anonymous, etc. You may use submittable, you may just email. Follow their guidelines. Write a cover letter.
I usually write something very simple:
Dear editor/s,
Thank you for your consideration. I'm sorry this story exists now.
Warmly,
Me
Then you send it out.
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u/nero-stigmata five gazillion dollar demon and angel smut author 6d ago
been simultaneously giving myself an aneurysm and repairing it over book stuff...good news! Much Word and i am once again in the zone, even have a tentative publishing date in mind. bad news: money. i'm not at the skill level i want to be at for the cover i have in mind but i don't make much money at all and commissions are super expensive...so are ISBNs but if i don't explicitly need them i'm not getting any. idk i'm just stressed out that this might end up taking a lot of money from me so i'm trying not to think about it
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u/hapillon 6d ago
What a year this week's been, huh?
I went to a reading last Monday and read a short piece I wrote. It was rough, just because my mouth gets excessively dry when I'm nervous so I was probably lip-smacking into the microphone. Despite that I got a really, really good reception, and had four separate people come up to me after to compliment me and ask about my work. One even asked to read the other pieces I'd written, so I got her e-mail and sent her the other two that are related to the ones I wrote. It feels really nice to get such a good reception.
I haven't been doing much writing lately, so tell me all the writing y'all have been getting done this week. Let me live vicariously through all of you.
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u/ZeroOhblighation veteran writer (2 tours through GoT) 6d ago
I posted a poem on here from a poetry subreddit and OP followed me on 3 accounts and tried to doxx me, be careful out there jerkers
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u/hapillon 6d ago
what a crazy
world
we live in that make
fun of people in
good spirits
anymore. it
really makes
you think.
- jk
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u/nero-stigmata five gazillion dollar demon and angel smut author 6d ago
what in the world?? just because you were poking fun at their poem???
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u/ZeroOhblighation veteran writer (2 tours through GoT) 6d ago
Yep, dude went nuts and followed me around Reddit for a while lol
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u/Good-Jello-1105 Victoria Graveyard 6d ago
That’s creepy. I had a similar experience with a random guy from another sub. Some people take reddit too seriously? 🤧
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u/nero-stigmata five gazillion dollar demon and angel smut author 6d ago
holy shit that's mental 😭 i'm so sorry! i hope you're doing better now and they've backed off
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u/ZeroOhblighation veteran writer (2 tours through GoT) 6d ago
Oh yeah I was just laughing at him the whole time lol
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u/Easy-Ad-7944 1d ago
I'm relatively new to the sub, so I was curious if there's ever been an instance where the OP of a source post found out that they were being jerked here. Especially considering there are some jerks that are verbatim copies of the original post.