Share: I did my first in-person reading exchange (an irl R4R basically) with a friend earlier today, and I think it went pretty well! There turned out to be a few misunderstandings at first that I forgot to clear up before we met to read each other’s stuff, but it still went fine regardless. I read two of his short stories while he read the first eight chapters of Blood Will Tell.
It was rather lopsided since my eight chapters were a bit longer than his two short stories combined that, and I’m a fast reader, whereas he’s much slower due to his being legally blind—he has to use a specialized reading software that reads PDFs and Word documents aloud to him.
He liked it so far! He said that the scene and action descriptions were well done. And, not unexpectedly, he asked me if my protagonist was a vampire
And unexpectedly, he asked me if the shower scenes were meant to have a more porn-ish tone because he assumed that all Wattpad writers aim for a smutty feel to appeal to the audience there no sir, the characters are just taking a shower. Nothing more
I’ve sent him a PDF of the next eight chapters—IX through XVI—to his email. Oh, and he’s going to send me the Google Docs link to more of his short stories. We’re both looking forward to the next reading exchange!
My other writing friend has yet to respond when I reached out to him about doing the same thing. Oh well. I guess I’ll ask him about it on Monday.
@alcoholandcaffeine correct me if I’m wrong, but you can speak at least a little German, right? Because something related came up during the reading exchange yesterday. The guy grew up in Germany and when he read that one of the beasts is called a kleinhund, he went, “You do know that means ‘little dog’ in German right?” And it brought me back to the comment you left calling it a puppy
So I got lost writing an AU for my MCs that will in no way, shape, or form, have anything to do with the novels I’m currently working on. Help!
I’m having fun. Figured maybe I can use it for a future story idea with different characters. If you care about the premise, I’ll add it in a collapsed section below.
Summary
The premise is there’s a resort island where rich people go on summer vacation and it’s meant to be the sort of place where they can be anonymous. The rule is no one can reveal their true identities unless they want to. Maybe they wear bracelets to hint, “If you recognize me, don’t go announcing it all over.” And it’s a mixture of just regular rich peeps and crime family peeps. The heiress to a crime family goes for the first time, intending to enjoy herself before her father intends to set her up in an arranged marriage before she starts university. So that by the time she graduates, she has a husband set up for her. Obviously she hates this idea.
Of course, she meets someone. They become friends. Eventually it becomes more. Towards the end of the vacation, the male interest breaks the rule. He wants to know her real identity. She says she can’t share it due to the arranged marriage thing. They end up having a one-night stand, but he’s not ready to let go. Basically says to play along with her dad for now, and to meet back at the resort at a certain date/time. He’s already gotten the gist that she has to be from a crime family too so he’s not worried about “his pedigree” when it comes to her father.
The two heirs part ways. There’s a posh party where CEOs, mob bosses, politicians etc. go to network and bring their children, basically to barter them into arranged marriages or form “friendships.” She’s mid-conversation with the heir to a fighting ring family when a familiar voice distracts them both. It’s the cousin of the guy she fell for. Funny banter, comedy, etc. She realizes he’s there, and once the two find each other, there’s disbelief, hesitance, then relief.
They have to pretend like this is their first time meeting though. More banter because I love banter. I’ve been writing their banter and where it goes from there. Oh, and she basically ditched his rival without a second thought as soon as she realized he was there. They both run enemy families in the town where she’s starting college in a week. What can possibly go wrong, right?
First draft of the novel I’m working on is loosely around 70k. When it’s done, it’ll probably be closer to 100 before I trim all the fat (and cry in a corner somewhere.)
AU is 6k so far. Wondering if it’s worth writing a short story. Same characters. Something with less stakes, less tragedy. Less crime solving and surviving, more summer fun and mystery.
I think it’s helping me find what makes my characters feel like my characters. Who they are even if the story has changed. Buuuut… maybe I should go back to my novel before I get too distracted?
I’m going to write some short stories based on pictures that I found off Pinterest.
The gripe is that I have too many pictures. I have so many options.
It’s so hard having a few days off to get into a good place physically and mentally and being able to enjoy my hobbies, and write and feel like myself again. Then almost immediately reverting to/if not worse depression and anxiety and hopelessness three days back to work. Where I’m so constantly exhausted, I can’t even find time outside of work to do anything other than sleep and doom scroll and they’re announcing adding a bunch of forced overtime that I always feel sick from exhaustion after and talk of potentially refusing us taking off the week for the holidays if there aren’t enough people willingly working it. And just ugh I’d kill to write or play minecraft or read or something it’s been three shifts and I haven’t been able to find energy . So frustrated.
Sending hugs. One day at a time. Give yourself permission to rest even if it’s just a few minutes. A good drink. A song you like. I hope things improve for you. Burn out sucks.
I’m running into an issue where I can come up with a lot of big moments and twists, but struggle with connecting them to everything else. Outlining is forgiving.
I’m having a change of plans, too. It’s just too freaking hard to outline! Or even get approximate dates for the timeline close to realistic. I think I’m going to pants it and then try to clean up the timeline afterwards. I did that with the first book and it was such a pain, but at least I finished the draft. Trying to do it the right way is keeping me from making any progress at all. (♯^.^ღ)
I think this is the key right here. I have the same issue.
There are all these “systems” and videos about how to write a novel and I’ve tried to force myself into using them because that was the “right” way to do it. Literally I didn’t understand it till this year (2025 lol) that wasn’t going to work for me. Not that there was nothing useful in any of these systems/advice videos, but I needed to work with what would keep me going rather than slow me down. Take what’s helpful, leave the rest. So now I mostly ignore all these, “How to write a novel” things because Stephen King wrote his first novel messily in a trailer. He even threw it out thinking it was crap, and it was his wife who pulled the first few pages out of the trash, and was like, “No, wait. I think you have something here.”
Hope that helps! I’m kind of winging it too, and as a disclaimer, I’m yet to be a published author haha but I’ve at least completed an original first draft. For someone with ADHD, that’s huge. For me anyway.
I’m working on 2 goals right now. A million words this year. 50k this week for an event I’m running (a 7 day long drafting challenge on Discord). I am up a bit behind on the million but I hit my daily target to get back on track. I am 2k away from my daily target for the 50k.
that, and I’m a fast reader, whereas he’s much slower due to his being legally blind—he has to use a specialized reading software that reads PDFs and Word documents aloud to him.
no sir, the characters are just taking a shower. Nothing more 
and kleinhund does mean ‘little dog’ 
Burn out sucks.