aspiring authors discussion

haha I have noo idea what to name this.
Any ideas?

Eh, this'll be fine for now until one of us is overcome with a blast of creatively lol

Ok, so what's your book about? Here's the premise for mine, though it's totally subject to change.

Alright, so we have Capella, a fiery female pirate in this steampunk/floating island world. (her ship is pulled by metal dragons, it's lowkey epic) She hears of this mission given by some high-up person to forge this really awesome sword and she decides to take on the challenge to build her reputation and stuff. On her way, she is joined by Felicity (an Icarus retelling), a merchant's daughter searching for freedom from her curse, who's a half-mechanical angle, Zenith, a male siren-like creature who's cursed to be wanted by all but loved by none. Felicity and Zenith need the sword to kill the Fates to break their curses and write their own destinies.
Cobalt, an upstart pirate lord who built his fleet from nothing, (and Capella's old employer, she stole her ship from him) is also going for the forge (where they make the sword is this epic forge mountain thing) but his ship crashes early and he's picked up by Capella and her crew because, as much as they don't really like him, they can't just let him die. He has the map to the forge, after all.
Soon, Cobalt and Capella realize they have more at stake than just fame. The Fates have cursed them too, and this could be a matter of freedom or confinement to destiny for the rest of their lives.
Also politics and getting this prince guy on the throne and fixing the environmental crap that’s happening.

ok first of all that sounds freakin amazing. I'd read that so fast oml

And same, there are a lot more details I need to work on still but I've planned the first half of the book quite a bit.
I'll try giving a synopsis of mine sorry in advance if it makes no sense xD

So basically it'll follow Amari. She lives in one of the many countries that were made by the past 'wise ones' (I'm still trying to find a proper name for them). The wise ones all lived by a single 'human trait' e.g creativity and they all lived together to keep society peaceful. What happened to them is not known but the point is when they died each made a country and left their offsprings to carry on their ways. Fast forward Amari's time, each child of every country has to pledge themselves to their kingdom. This magic allows the descendent of the wise ones ( the children) to basically hold that trait above others. Every child has to pledge themselves to hold this trait. Amaris from Kujitolea which was made by the altruistic wise one. So it'll start with the magic that allowed everyone to pledge slowly go away. Amari's dad plans a coup against the Kujitolea king and everything goes to shit lol. oh and there's Alekos, he and Amari go to restore the magic and save their country from being a mess. Kicker is Alekos is the kings son so they hate each other. They meet some pirates on the way too!

It's still a work in progress 😅

Aliyah wrote: "So basically it'll follow Amari. She lives in one of the many countries that were made by the past 'wise ones' (I'm still trying to find a proper name for them). The wise ones all lived by a single..."

I like it a lot and would totally read this! A few questions I had:
-who is Amari's dad? I mean, I'm all for coups against governments (if they are corrupt), but is he like a dude with a lot of influence or something?
-Princes that the mc hates at first are my very favorite so I am all here for Alekos. (not a question, oh well)
-What will restoring magic do? Why hasn't this been done earlier? How did Amari get the idea to do it?

yayy, I totally suck at explaining so I get the questions :P

So when I said king I didn't actually mean king. Kujitolea, since its the country made by the wise one of selflessness, doesn't have a sole leader. it's more of court. and the 'king' is just the leader of said court. Amari's dad is apart of the court but wants to be in charge for his own selfish desires which only begins because the magic fell.
And the magic has been around since the wise one's deaths. its what keeps the wise one's trait still prevalent in the citizens. Because the magic is ya know beginning to rapidly vanish, everyone is starting to become 'normal people' with a normal blend of traits. This is why Amari's father, now for the first time feeling a sense of desire wants to become king.
Restoring the magic would ensure the wise one's traits keep their hold on everyone.
I know you might. be thinking, 'why the hell would they want that?' but it's all they've ever known and the wise one's magic being lost to the world is causing havoc so they think it'll be best to restore it.
And Amari got the idea from a mysterious old lady lol. The lady basically tells her somethings up and when the times right to head east to Maarifa, the country made by the knowledgeable wise one and seek out a specific person. There she learns about the magic and to restore it.

But let me explain what I mean by trait .
So in Kujitolea, for example because it was made by the altruistic wise one the citizens once pledged because extremely selfless and put the needs of everyone around them above themselves.

And yess some enemies to lovers *chefs kiss*
Does yours have romance?

Aliyah wrote: "yayy, I totally suck at explaining so I get the questions :P

So when I said king I didn't actually mean king. Kujitolea, since its the country made by the wise one of selflessness, doesn't have a ..."

Ooh ok I really love the idea of the magic wearing off to reveal someone's true character. That's top-notch stuff right there. What are the other traits/countries? Just curious.
And enemies to lovers is my favorite so just... *chefs kiss back at you* yes.

I've got romance! Zenith has been in love with Felicity forever but he's physically incapable of being romantically loved by anyone, so she's blissfully unaware of his angst and pining.
Cobalt and Capella start out really hating each other with a passion- she stole a ship from his and made him look bad (and he already has a tenuous hold on his pirates) and he is always looking to beat her to stuff. She's mad because she thinks he betrayed him a long time ago, but he actually didn't know about the thing that happened, but she also hates him because she thinks he's stuck-up and awful, and he always tries to beat her to jobs.
They start to understand each other better though and eventually develop a mutual respect which turns into more angst and pining, but neither of them want to destroy the friendship they built? They also both have some pretty severe mental walls and are both really scared to love, so there's that.

oh so there's the countries made by the wise ones of creativity, knowledge and desire that are important for the first book! I forgot to mention this earlier but there's a whole dilemma of each character learning who they truly are and coming to love themselves (and each other) for who they actually are while they're also on the way to restore magic and evidently change themselves to who they use to be.

Cobalt and Capella scenes sound like theyre going to be so interesting to read! Ahh poor Zenith 🥺
I have some questions too:
Will it all take place on one island?
Do we get to know more about Capella's background/past?
Also about the prince, are people trying to stop him from being on the throne?

Nope, we're pirates, so the majority of the story is set traveling through the sky in the ship. Obviously I laugh every single time I type ship "You’re on this ship," "We're in this ship together," "My ships's about to sink!" because dUh, but yes, it takes place in the ship.
We do get to know more about Capella's past! Haven't worked it out 100% but I certainly have some ideas.
Yes, the prince isn't the first in line, plus he's not supposed to actually get the throne because Fate has it that he stays a prince forever. He's the one that sent everyone on the journey to forge the sword and kill fate so he can take the throne. He's an interesting character because he's very ambitious, border-line power-hungry, but he'd be a good leader.

Do you have any other (mainish) characters other then the mc and love interest? Can I hear about them? (characters are my favorite)

Alex wrote: "Nope, we're pirates, so the majority of the story is set traveling through the sky in the ship. Obviously I laugh every single time I type ship "You’re on this ship," "We're in this ship together,"..."

Omg the prince sounds like a morally grey character- I love it

Oh so these pirates Amari and Alekos meet on their way to Maarifa are important characters too. The captain, Nanami and one of her crew members which I do not have a name for yet. After losing their whole team they join up with Amari and become a sort of ragtag squad.
(Btw Im very specific with names, all of them so far either have a meaning or just relate to the character some way that's why he doesn't have a name yet!)
And I dont actually want Amari x Alekos to be endgame, its predictable but we'll see.
On that note I suck at writing romance haha. Any tips?

Nanami was raised by fishermen and she wanted more for herself so she found some people from different countries to make her crewmates. That's sort of her backstory but of course like all characters, there's more to her :)
I love characters too! Tell me more about Zenith!! And the rest too haha but I've got a place in my heart for Zenith already

Ooh, I love pirates! And ragtag squads.
I would start with a Amari x Alekos relationship, and then maybe as their personalities change and grow throughout the story they're just not right for each other? It's an interesting thing to see how as they change, the relationships they need change. It also provides a good contrast from beginning to end? It should be believable in the beginning, but sometimes things just don't work out, especially as your characters grow up.

Nanami is my favorite so far.

Here's the personality overview for my characters:
Capella is strong and bold. She's fiery and passionate, earning her nickname- the Phoenix. She's determined to do everything herself and works really hard to earn respect. She has a sharp tongue, holds grudges too much, and can seem impulsive at times, but she's always there for her crew and she's really good at keeping her head in a crisis. No-nonsense, confronting a problem head-on, strong female character who likes dresses and looking good and stuff like that. While she appears super strong and awesome, she had to grow up really early and pushes herself too hard a lot of the time. She has a really hard time admitting she needs help or messed up, and to her, leaning on others is a weakness. She supports everyone, but she thinks she shouldn’t need support.

Archer Cobalt (goes by his surname 90% of the time) grew up in a factory- awful living conditions, child labor, he has breathing problems because of it- and lacks social skills. He's a great leader, a good strategist, and is very analytical. He's taken the idea of being this heartless bad*ss and run with it, and he builds up his walls to maintain that reputation. In his experience, pushing others away is the only way to maintain control over himself and keep himself safe. He's a revolutionary and a dreamer though and would break the rules just because they're in place. He'd prefer to be numb and emotionless then get hurt.

Felicity craves freedom above all else. She's a wild soul and is quick to smile and lighten the mood. Under her naive mask, she's actually quite intelligent and is very good at reading other people. She's seen a lot and is someone who's chosen to be kind, and that's her true strength. She's been to the darkest pits of hell and still chooses to see the good in people. It makes her gullible and naive, and she knows this but refuses to change it. The definition of peaceful but dangerous, not harmless.

Zenith is a siren (of the male variety and also lives in the sky) and he's intelligent and witty but carries a profound sadness. He's very self-aware and well-adjusted and is a total peacemaker. While Felicity is kind, she also has her values and can be very stubborn. Zenith is more go-with-the-flow. He pretends to be arrogant and full of himself, but that quickly falls away. It's just a defense mechanism against new people, really. He is literally incapable of being romantically loved by anyone until his curse is lifted. He's an Icarus retelling- lost his literal wings to arrogance.

yeah I just realised we both have pirates in our wip!! I love that haha

All of your characters are so well defined, have you started the writing process?
Also, I'm interested to see how they all get along. All of them seem at least a tad bit strong-willed, they must bump heads a lot xD
Which calls for some very fun banter

Oh and thanks for the advice! I feel like the hardest part would be breaking it off without it seeming rushed? I don't know I'll have to see as I write

90% of my story is just "I'll see as I write". I find that whenever I plan something out, my characters just kind of grab the story and run off in a different direction.

Yes, they are just a bunch of stubborn idiots with no social skills except for Felicity. Banter is my absolute favorite! Banter and character development. Plot, on the other hand...

I haven't really started writing, but whenever I'm planning I'll have scenes or dialogue in my head so I have about 5k words of writing scribbled down. How about you? Where are you in the writing process? And do you plan a lot of just kind of jump in with a vague outline?

I get that, plot is a harder topic. Too little and its a boring book and too much becomes overwhelming.

Oh that's great I'm on a similar boat. Haven't started writing the actual thing but I have some dialogue that I already wrote out in vague detail. But for the outline, I've outlined all the main plots I want to happen in the first half of the book and dot points for the rest. I want to start writing soon but I'm lowkey scared I'm doing something wrong or I didn't plan enough. What about you?

I've already written a story (50k words, a hot mess but it's finished) and I just need to jump in once I know the general story. A lot of times, I actually end up writing scenes that I didn't know I needed but I did. Some planning is good, but I don't want to risk over-planning and getting bored.

Oo you’ve already written a book?? That’s so good!! So is your current wip new?

Yup! (less of a book and more of a mess of words, but it works) It was my NaNoWriMo project. And this is a new project, something I'm working on instead of while editing my first book.

NaNoWriMo is such a smart idea, sadly I only learnt about it last month :( but that's good that you've already got experience!
Im still trying (and failing) to start

Starting is difficult. I recommend leaving the exposition for later and just starting when the actual story starts- the action, the fun part. It's also really helpful to set a word goal for the month/week/however long you want, that way you're forced to write words, even if they're total crap. The most important thing is getting something down on the page to edit. It's hard to just let yourself write really badly, but if you have a goal you have to reach, it helps a lot.

Oo alright that makes sense. I think i might start with 500 words a week to see how I go. How much do you write?

I do 30k a month which should pan out to about 1,000 words a day, but I typically start with 5k-ish words of scenes I already have, making my actual word count per day more like 833 or something like that.
So 5,831 per week, apparently.

But I write quickly.

Ok wait I need feedback on a riddle I wrote. A lot of the plot points are riddle-based. I wanted some feedback on a riddle I came up with because it was really difficult and I'm not sure if it's complicated enough. Writing riddles is really hard, apparently.

So the answer, before we start, is that the characters have to go to this statue of a person outside of a library (it's a famous statue in this world), peel away the gold covering on top of the base of the statue, and press the two letter i's on the library motto that's carved into the statue.

The riddle: Halls of writing, walls of lore; A piercing gaze held evermore; Peel away the soft or find the hard stone; Where the metal meets and turns to bone

I'll explain my thought process, line by line.


Lore and writing=library, tricky because it’s also hidden in a legend so it could just be talking about the legend, but ‘halls of fables’ is probably the library. Also writing is a subtle hint that we have to look at the words on the statue, not the actual eyes of the person.


Literally saying to pierce (press/stab) the two letter i's of the words below the statue (words say the motto of the library, “scientia ac labore”). Piercing gaze sounds like actual eyes though, so that’s tricky because they initially think that they should just stab the eyes. The phrase ‘held evermore’ is another nod to the fact that it’s a statue (something that doesn’t change/move) and not a real person.


Ore/or, mistranslation because it was initially told through word-of-mouth and then written down, it’s really meaning soft ore (gold on top of the statue), hard stone (base of statue). Just yet another obstacle to figure out what we're talking about.


Metal instead of bone, meaning that it’s a statue. It also talks about the base of the statue (where the person meets the metal bottom) which is where the words are.

Does any of this make sense? Perhaps not. If you understand... please tell me lol. If you don't, I'd be happy to explain or modify it! (I'm asking mostly for feedback on if the riddle makes sense and is complicated enough, not really about the riddle itself because it's kind of a crappy poem, if I'm being honest)

Alex wrote: "I do 30k a month which should pan out to about 1,000 words a day, but I typically start with 5k-ish words of scenes I already have, making my actual word count per day more like 833 or something li..."

Woah that's great! Hopefully I'll get to a similar word count soon

Your riddle makes sense (after reading the explanation)

Halls of writing, walls of lore;
- so that refers to the library
A piercing gaze held evermore
- this part, like you said before, would be the trickiest for your characters to figure out.
Peel away the soft or find the hard stone
- Is the mistranslation of 'or' important? These poor guys, your putting them through it xD
Where the metal meets and turns to bone
- This part is my favourite!
Overall it's a great riddle! It isn't overcomplicated or anything so don't worry about that. Your characters solving the riddle, mistranslation and all would be interesting to see.

Thanks. They're all very smart, very stubborn, and very annoyed at each other, so having to collaborate and do anything, especially something mind-related, is good character development.

If they don't all kill each other first.

Hey ok im just seeing this. sorry for the late reply.
They are definitely a hard-headed bunch, huh?

Oh, btw I took your advice and started writing an interesting/ action-packed scene.
Its when Alekos and Amari break out of their country and run for the hills lmao.

They are.

That's so exciting! A lot of times, starting is the hardest part, so that's awesome! So happy for you.

Ok stuff happened to change when I started writing (as it does 90% of the time) and now Zenith and the prince (he got a name! Argent!) are endgame and Felicity has turned into a badass aromantic inventor.
Zenith thinks he's going to be in love with Felicity and that getting his curse removed will solve all of his problems but it doesn't and he's not actually in love with her.

oo that sounds fun!! Wait so the whole time it was a one-sided thing? As in Zenith liked or rather thought he liked Felicity but Felicity didn't reciprocate those feelings?

It wasn't initially planned to be but I kind of love the idea of them just being friends because there's not enough of girl/boy friendships in literally all of ya.
So now, yes, it's a totally one-sided thing and half of Zenith's arc is the idea that you don't need romantic love to be happy and getting a partner isn't going to solve all of your problems.
As an aro person, I'm super excited.

I love that for them. Especially because there's not enough asesxual/aromatic rep in YA.

So I was thinking of my wip and I realised there wasn't much conflict or rather something preventing Amari from doing her goal. Initially, it was supposed to go like this
Amari & Alekos team up to restore the wise ones magic.
Nanami joins in.
During their way there they realize they don't actually want to restore the magic but rather prevent others from bringing it back.

But something feelings missing somehow??

Hmm.
Perhaps you could add someone else actively trying to prevent them from restoring magic/actively trying to bring it back?
Or you could have a member of the team who really wants to restore magic but when Amari and Alekos change their mind, the person who really wants to destroy magic turns against them and it's kind of a mess because they know all their plans?

Or, you could always up the stakes. What's going to happen to your main character personally if they don't succeed?

omg I totally forgot to update you on a character that I wanted to bring in before but didn't have a place for till now.
Bastian, he's high up on the Maarifa social hierarchy, I dont have the exacts on it but later on when Amari, Alekos, Nanami and Rei. ( FINALLY GOT A NAME FOR THEM!) go to Maarifa he helps them learn about how to restore magic then when they learn more about the wise ones they decide they shouldn't bring back their power, he basically imprisons them for changing their minds. So I guess he and the Maarifa government are preventing them from their goal

If they dont succeed in preventing magic/ stopping it from ever coming back they'd go back to how they use to be ( under the power of the wise-ones)
Now that they're slowly coming to terms with who they really are, for example, Amari realises shes a selfish ass bish and that that's okay.
They'd basically lose their individuality if that makes sense

Also, how's your word count going?

Ahhh names are very good and very hard to find- that's exciting! I like Bastian, and I think that probably solves your problem- actual people are always a lot easier to fight then just ideas and stuff.

And it's going good! I started a new word goal and I'm actually writing this story now, so first chapters a stuff are always fun! Today is day six and I am at a little over 9k so that's really exciting for me- a lot more than I usually write.

I've fleshed out Argent and Zenith a lot more and hoo boy Argent is basically my insecurities personified so that's great-
Zenith has a backstory that actually makes sense and it's kind of cool- lots of peer pressure and general angst.

Nevermind I'm at 10k now on day 6- this story is really flowing. I'm super pumped. I should probably bottle this excitement and use it when I'm suffering from writer's block and creativity block, but whatever.

yeah your right, characters are easier than plot. learnt that the hard way xD still learning too.
That's great that your making progress! I've been so busy with school and a bunch of other stuff that I genuinely have not had the time to write. But I do talk dialogue to myself during random points of the day, my mum thinks I'm weird.

Alex wrote: "Nevermind I'm at 10k now on day 6- this story is really flowing. I'm super pumped. I should probably bottle this excitement and use it when I'm suffering from writer's block and creativity block, b..."

10k in 6 days? that's freakin awesome.
Also if you find a way to bottle up your motivation, I'll take a bottle too please!

I talk sooo much dialogue to myself lol. And I bet you'll get writing soon! Good luck!

I may have to kill off Cobalt because it would make sense theme-wise