Recent content by Hawthorn

My current wip is loosely based on Finnish mythology. I read the Kalevala (the Finnish national epic), and researched other characters in their mythology - just through internet searches, then making that information into mind maps. Then as I've been writing my book and putting the characters...

I prefer option B. If you introduce something like sonar, think about whether this will play an important role later on (is there a time in the future where knowing she has this ability will be pivotal in the story?). If it just appears in this scene to find the knife, then is never mentioned...

Thank you all for your excellent replies. I have taken what you've said on board, and had a good head scratch. In the end, I've ended up re-working a lot of the plot (the key to it all came to me while on a long walk in the countryside - one of the activities that often brings me my best ideas)...

I'm just about to embark on the tricky middle of my wip. This is the bit where all the adventure happens and the MC goes off on her 'quest', but I've been getting stuck and struggling to move things along in a way which I find interesting. Anyway, I realised that as it stands in my outline, my...

I enjoyed The Cruel Prince, and the following books in the series. But I was already a fan of Holly Black - it was her book Tithe that first got me into faery fantasy fiction, which is what I now write. Something I liked about this series is that Jude is a bit different to the usual protagonist...

I started writing because my head is always full of stories. As a child I let other people convince me of what was appropriate to want to do with my life, and so I pushed down that part of myself (not a viable career option, apparently). But eventually I remembered who I actually was under all...

There have been some great replies here so far, but I'll add my own experience, in case it's at all helpful. I have had many attempts at starting a novel. It always follows a similar pattern: I get so far into it (never more than 10,000 words), then decide I don't like what I've written and go...

Sounds interesting! I can relate to not feeling particularly attached to a department - my degree was in Natural Sciences, and the way it was organised meant I didn't belong to any department until my final year, and had lectures etc. across multiple different departments. I also did a ton of...

This is a really interesting question and I've been thinking about it all week! My characters don't tend to carry weapons - many of them are themselves the weapons, I suppose. My story is set in a faery kingdom, so the faery characters have things like sharp teeth and claws, and use their...

Thank you so much everyone! Your replies are all so helpful! I definitely feel in the 'muddy middle'... (about 25-30,000 words in). But I have renewed faith that I can get through it :)

Welcome! I'm also writing my first full novel, 20,000 odd words so far but very slow progress. I can write several thousand words in a day, then nothing for 2 weeks... Just out of nosyness, what are you studying at college?

Hello :) First post here. I'm currently on my first proper attempt at writing a novel, and am about 20,000 words in. However I have had a bit of a crisis of faith in my story and protagonist. Whereas before they seemed real and interesting, now my character feels a bit flat and I can't seem to...

I write poetry, have done since my early teens - it's only more recently I've started writing prose. Here's my most recent poem, Selkie (it's quite long, sorry!) whisper me seaweed and gather these tides in a palm, fresh like lilies and cold as the earth remember her in the lines the moon...

Hi! I'm a poet who has recently started a rather exciting foray into novel writing. Looking forward to participating in this forum :)