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I pride myself on being a good judge of quality, and nothing I had written passed the test.

Yeah, welcome to the club 😅

For me, it's like I feel, I know so much about writing after the twenty years of doing it, so I'm pretty confident when editing the stories of others (criticizing others is easier 😅), yet I can see, that my own stories are still mediocre at best.

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Even mediocre writing will be improved with furious editing.

Another author's (now my editor and a good friend of mine) writing impressed me when I first read his story. It was one of the few that stood out in the German online community, I used to read stories and post my own. However, when he sent me another story, this time unedited, I was baffled. This story had nothing in common with the quality piece he posted. Nonetheless, he had edited the published story to get to this result. That baffled me the other way round, so to speak. And that's how we ended up editing each other's stories and enjoying it ever since.

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What gives you inspiration to write?

Yesterday, in an interview, I listened to, someone—I guess, it was Damon Lindelof (Creator of Lost)—called it "the story ether", and I kinda like it: I usually don't know where a story comes from; I only know, when it fits. That's more or less, what I talked about in my blog post (section "Plato’s doctrine of forms of literature").

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What do you do when you hit a wall and don't know how to continue?

You can't force it—can you?

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What do you do when your dialogs are shit one day, and you start slapping yourself (happened today)?

Stop slapping? I mean, after extensive slapping, holding a pen gets harder and harder 😉 Well, I'd ask myself what I need the dialog for: Can it be replaced by action (show, don't tell)? Can I let them speak more figuratively? Can I cut the scene (maybe, the dialog fits better in another scene?)? Do I need to break the dialog into multiple by intermitting action?

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I took a writing project of mine, kept the title, kept the outline, and got to work.  […] And if you want to read that story—the first story I've ever posted anywhere—you should totally do so!

By the way: Great chapter length. Someone once referred to that below one of my stories as "snacks", because this is a good one third shorter than most stories here on GA, but that's how I write, too, and prefer to read. So, maybe, I really check it out 🤔 Now, I'm curious: In what way does it differ from other werewolf stories?

Thank you so much for your detailed response, @Zuri — feels like I didn't just publish it into an echo chamber

I grew up in Germany, too! But the German language never really did it for me. I don't have an editor or beta reader right now. It would be presumptuous of me to ask for something so valuable of someone else without having any klout here. Also, I would need to be perfectly aligned with them. Instead, I heavily, and I mean heavily self-edit. I am happy with the quality right now.

2 hours ago, Zuri said:

I only know, when it fits.

Yeah, I get that. It would be nice to have a story partner to just bounce ideas off of. I think something like that—which I'm lacking—would be really beneficial. I'm going to read your blog post right away!

2 hours ago, Zuri said:

Can it be replaced by action (show, don't tell)? Can I let them speak more figuratively? Can I cut the scene (maybe, the dialog fits better in another scene?)? Do I need to break the dialog into multiple by intermitting action?

If you read my story, I think you can tell that I did all the above in chapters 4–8. Just whenever it felt right. I still think it could use more "show, don't tell" about the place itself. To really put readers there, but I already have so many words on the page.

2 hours ago, Zuri said:

So, maybe, I really check it out 🤔 Now, I'm curious: In what way does it differ from other werewolf stories?

That would be great My story is about relationships between people, and about a very broken pack that is not featured for a long time—and definitely not in chapters 1–8, with 3 being an exception because of a flashback. I don't like to focus on pack dynamics and words like alpha, beta, and omega too much. Werewolves are magic, and a magical world functions for me when it stays mystical. Rigid rules don't work. (My magic system has its rules, but I'm not shouting them in your face.)

Nevertheless, the world I imagine is vast, and goes way beyond just wolves. If you like Egyptian mythological themes, I tried that as well.

Thanks for engaging, it means a lot!

4 hours ago, Zuri said:

That's more or less, what I talked about in my blog post (section "Plato’s doctrine of forms of literature").

I also had a conversation if you can and should tell a story that has already been told. While I would have intuitively said "No" back then, I feel slightly different today. A friend of mine wrote a story based on the general idea of "The Prince and the Pauper". Shouldn't he have written it? Was it boring because we've already seen it so many times? On the contrary. People tell stories for millennia. There are even cultures that told the same story without knowing, the other culture had a similar story. So the real challenge is, to tell it from a fresh perspective.

Additionally, we have to make a distinction between theme, plot and storylines. Yes, the plot had the same foundation, but that's that. The story is so much more than its basis. And that's why it works. Quite good actually (definitely a reading recommendation 😉 way better than my own).

1 hour ago, drown said:

feels like I didn't just publish it into an echo chamber

Yeah, that's usually my problem 😅 That's the cause of my month-long lack of motivation to write currently.

1 hour ago, drown said:

I grew up in Germany, too! But the German language never really did it for me.

Being written in a language that is based to one third on German (well, actually Anglo-Saxon if we want to be nitpicky) ^^

1 hour ago, drown said:

It would be nice to have a story partner to just bounce ideas off of. […] I would need to be perfectly aligned with them. Instead, I heavily, and I mean heavily self-edit.

I can't bring up the motivation to read something I already know inside out. And then, there's also organizational blindness.

But yeah, my editor is sometimes not available, and I'd have a hard time finding somebody else for this. Actually, that's why I don't have an English-speaking editor. But with us, it just clicked. We work so perfectly together—I don't deserve this 😅

1 hour ago, drown said:

If you like Egyptian mythological themes, I tried that as well.

If it's better incorporated than what they did in Lost ^^

2 minutes ago, Zuri said:

If it's better incorporated than what they did in Lost ^^

Lost was just lost. They went episode by episode making shit up. And just forgot whole plot lines altogether. This show infuriated me so much, it's impossible for me to ever watch it again

I actually quite liked the basic concept of the show, I just disagree with J. J. Abrams, that the "mystery box" (making stuff up and hoping, it falls into place, when you need it to), is a successful concept. I'm even willing to look past some inconsistencies, but what finally threw me off was the time travelling. Actually, after the first half of the third season, they lost me. (If you like more of my thoughts, yesterday I had a discussion about this on Mastodon). I'd watch it again if they kept the beginning, but made four good seasons out of it and think stuff through beforehand.