Thanks for sharing! I've heard a few songs from this band and really liked them, but I hadn't heard this song! (And the lego version is amazing 😂)

Hi @BKHunter! I'm new to beta reading and I know this response is super late, but if you're still looking for readers, I'd be happy to look at your work and give advice as best as I can!

Hi Catherine! I know this is super late, but if you're still looking for beta readers, I'd love to read your manuscript. Sounds really interesting! I've never been a beta reader before, but I'm willing to give advice to the best of my ability!

I agree that this isn't really how relationships work in real life - although, while maybe not quite as dramatic as portrayed in a John Green novel, teenagers often do feel a need to place people into boxes, to love or hate them without nuance. Slowly, we learn that this isn't really possible, but when trying to figure out our relationships with other people - especially if we have romantic attachment to them - we can quickly over-analyze and our feelings can swing pretty dramatically. At least, that's been my experience, as someone who recently exited that age group...

There's some great info here already that I'd love to add to! When I was about twelve, an unfortunate accident, involving a glass jar and my own clumsiness, resulted in sixteen stitches in my wrist. As someone who has a weak stomach, low pain tolerance, and was (is) a little melodramatic, this was a BIG DEAL for me. So if any of your stitched-up characters are little weaklings like me, maybe I can help! I remember the wound itself wasn't painful at all - the glass was so sharp and cut so cleanly that I didn't feel it. I didn't even know I was injured until I looked down and got a nice view of the inside of my arm. That was when I freaked out, and I covered the wound and didn't look at it again until it was neatly stitched up. The needle to freeze my arm was the only painful part, but I remember the doctor and nurses hyping up the pain to be worse than it actually was - although it was still bad. If you've ever had a tooth filling or any kind of local anesthetic, you know that sharp, shooting pain that spreads through you and then just disappears. The stitches themselves felt like tugging. You know when you wake up in the middle of the night and your arm is completely numb because you've been laying on it, and it just feels like there's a block of wood attached to your body? Now imagine something grabbing at a piece of skin and tugging at it. You don't feel it, but you do, you know? The biggest worry after I got my stitches was that the wound would get infected, so I kept it wrapped up and washed it with disinfectant every day. I think it was a couple of weeks before I got the stitches removed. At that point, the wound had mostly healed but certain areas started to bleed again, so they glued plastic strips across to hold it in place for a few more days.

Welcome, Laurel! Good luck with your world and characters (and, eventually, with your story as well)!

Thanks so much for sharing! I'm not at the publishing stage yet, but when I get there, like Carolina said, it might be easy to get taken in by one of these things. Especially when you're new to the process. I guess it's good to remember that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

I completely agree, Claire! Growing up, I especially enjoyed "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron," because it introduced me to my lifelong love of horses!

Hi everyone! I'm Juba. I'm a student, but behind closed doors, I'm a writer. I've always loved writing, and for a long time ideas flowed faster than I could get them onto the page. Sadly, with a busy student life and many distractions (*cough* YouTube and Netflix *cough*), I've lost a lot of my inspirational drive. However, though I've acknowledged that it's going to be hard work, I've decided that writing is something I will always love and want to do. I've been checking out a lot of other writers' platforms on the Internet and thought I should join a few online writing communities. As a Christian, this seemed like a safe and caring space to branch out as a writer, and after lurking for a few weeks I thought I'd start joining in! I'm looking to learn more about the writing process, find other writers to connect with, and learn how to be a good critique partner (as well as hopefully receiving some critiques from others, once I'm brave enough to send out my work). As far as what I write, I have a few short stories in progress, as well as some novel ideas in the early stages - one that's more 'general' fiction, one in the Fantasy genre, and a YA novel I've been working on for about a decade. I'll read pretty much any genre, but I especially want to become more knowledgeable about the ones that I'm writing in. (I just love stories in general, so settling on one genre seems claustrophobic to me!) My interests outside of reading/writing include horses, tea, and movies - especially PIXAR movies. Yes, I know that they're kids' films, but I think that there's so much to learn from them as adults, and as storytellers.