👋 Hi, my name is Pam Bennett! I live in Michigan and I plan on writing a witchy rom com book. I want to get these 3 things from the community: 1.  Learn more about AI 2.  Learn more about writing in general 3. basically, I like to learn! but I guess I could also use encouragement For fun I like to do these 3 things: 1.  Play Ice Hockey 2.  Yoga--be active 3. Read

👋 Hey, my name is Steve! (And yes, I will be using a pen name for my writing, I'm not sure I could have a less marketable name as an author... haha) I live on Vancouver Island (west coast of Canada) and I plan on writing a dystopian sci-fi book series.. as well as many others.. I've got outlines and detailed notes in my Obsidian vault for over a dozen stories now, including a couple of children's books based on some of the funny things my daughter has said. I want to get these 3 things from the community: - Some motivation to actually finish my first book - My first draft got to nearly 40k words but my test readers said it was too slow in the beginning, now I've re-started twice.. - Tips on creating a better fine-tune model to help with prose generation in Novelcrafter; despite my best efforts the generated prose always brings elements of the training data in. - Some feedback on my story ideas, maybe. It would be great to discuss plotting etc with other writers! For fun I like to do these 3 things: - I do woodworking, furniture mostly, and Montessori toys. - Puzzles and Lego building with my daughter (4 yo) - Reading! Currently working through a couple of series by Jim Butcher, and have (finally!) just started reading Mistborn. - Bonus: I also enjoy dreaming up business ideas and mapping out the business plan, sourcing suppliers, planning marketing, etc.. but I enjoy planning much more so than *doing*... Anyway, hi!

First, let me say it is a true honor to be part of a group of awesome creators! Even though it may sound like it… I am not kissing butt here LOL it’s truly how I feel. I appreciate what it takes to be an author, and everyone here is an author to me. Rather you have written 1 word, 1 sentence or a 130K word novel, you, my new friends are an inspiration to me. I am a 52-year-old gray beard named Bobby Martinez and I am from California. I have dreamed of being a writer since my sixth-grade year of Junior High School. The dream to be an author came from a sixth-grade teacher. She told me and my parents that she had read a story I wrote in class. She explained that I wrote at a college level. That statement was the start of my writing career. At least it should have been. Truth is, I was too young to understand what it meant to follow a dream. Years would pass and I had stacks of notebooks full of gibberish but nothing resembling a chapter or even a scene for that matter. I knew nothing about structure and never thought of the "novel" idea of learning how to structure a novel. Nope, not me, that made too much sense, and I lacked the common kind of sense. Fast forward to my early 20’s when I found out I had cancer for the first time (yep, I said first time) and my wife pushed me to write my first novel, the one I talked about since she met me, while I recovered. However, as I explained I lacked common sense. LOL 15 more years went by, and I found out my cancer was back and I had a second battle to win. I now, crazy right, but being the perfectionist I am, I knew I had to beat it twice just to make sure I won! Perfectionists, right? It was during this horrible battle and recovery from what’s called a RPLND or Retro Peritoneal Lymph Node Dissection that I finally took my wife's advice and started the first draft of the first book I had ever written. I don’t recommend cancer or the RPLND but I do recommend writing the first draft of any new book. You would think I ran with it from there but instead, the whole common-sense issue reared its ugly head again. This was lucky for me though because this first ever novel was 110k words of pure ugliness. I realized it when I was trying to find an editor for less than $1,000 and was forced to read my own book in an effort to cut the fat out. Let me tell you guys, this novel was very overweight and by the time I was done cutting the fat I had no book to have edited. It sucked and I knew it!

I have had a lot of help from this community so I would like to give back. As someone with learning difficulties, I’ve often struggled to stay focused while balancing the structure of plotting and the freedom of pantsing. To help myself I have created a builds guide to help me plot each project. I only use like four of these. But here is the breakdowns. I hope this helps. I created the first nine and chat GPT added the last five. Original Builds Build 1: Flash * Structure: 1 chapter, 1 chunk, 1000 words per chunk. * Total Words: 1000. * Description: A compact, self-contained story perfect for flash fiction or a standalone scene. * Chapter Summary: * Chapter 1: The entire story unfolds in a single chapter. This should include a clear beginning, middle, and end, delivering a concise but complete narrative. Build 2: Spark * Structure: 2 chapters, 1 chunk per chapter, 1000 words per chunk. * Total Words: 2000. * Description: A short story with two distinct parts, allowing for a setup and resolution. * Chapter Summaries: * Chapter 1: Introduce the core conflict or characters, setting up the story’s premise. * Chapter 2: Resolve the conflict or deliver a twist that leaves the reader with a sense of completion. Build 3: Ember * Structure: 5 chapters, 4 chunks per chapter, 250 words per chunk. * Total Words: 5000. * Description: A short, fast-paced story divided into digestible chunks within each chapter. * Chapter Summaries: * Chapter 1: Establish the world, introduce characters, and hint at the central conflict. * Chapter 2: Develop the conflict, adding layers to the story. * Chapter 3: Build tension and take the story toward its climax. * Chapter 4: Deliver a satisfying resolution to the main conflict. Build 4: Flame * Structure: 5 chapters, 4 chunks per chapter, 500 words per chunk. * Total Words: 10,000. * Description: A novella-style story with detailed chapters that balance pacing and depth. * Chapter Summaries: * Chapter 1: Set up the story’s world, characters, and tone with detailed exposition.

I wonder if I use the name of a character from another comic or movie and just want to convey that my character loves it, is it just a matter of taste? For example, a character who likes to collect Tony Stark figures because he has the same playboy personality, or has a favorite stainless steel cup from Starbucks. I would like to know if there will be any copyright issues in this case later?