Have you ever written a novel or short story or are you currently doing so? If so, how daunting is the task? If you've already completed one, how many words does it span, how long did it take you to complete it, and how satisfied are you with it? If you're still writing one, do you think you'll be able to finish? Also, to what genre does it belong?
I wrote a short story of around 17K words (I guess that makes it a novelette) from last December to last March, so it took me around four months in total, though there were several days where I wrote nothing and several others where I only wrote a page or less.
It was a very daunting task especially since English is my third language and haven’t read many novels in English, so I had to learn a lot of words for stuff like clothes and objects and gestures.
It’s a fantasy story so I had to do some world building before starting to write. I sent it to an editor who went over it line by line. I got some harsh but constructive criticism that made me realize the prose was weak at time and some scenes were possibly unneeded. I don’t agree with everything my editor said but his perspective was enlightening. I plan to edit it some time soon and post in the writers thread.
I’m not sure what to tackle next, I’m not looking into jumping into the whole indie author business as I don’t want to constrain myself to novels, I may try a screenplay or a manga or even a video game design document.
Not writing a short story but I am working on a screenplay. I have an idea book and a specific pen that I use. I have outlines for 6-7 different movies and a TV series. As I put ideas in my book, from single lines to whole scenes, more and more of them are starting to come together around a specific script and that's the one I'm concentrating on. It's all for the self satisfaction, I'm under no illusion that I'm the next Kubrik, but the next Uwe Boll I maybe.
I wrote a young adult centered horror flash fiction a few weeks ago for a short story forum contest if you want to check it out. I even made a book cover for it lol :
Flash fiction (basically a short story between 1,000 - 5,000 words) is a great way to start writing. I plan on developing this story into an actual novel, adding dialogue, more background on characters, expanding the plot, actual chapters, etc, etc.
Sure, I tried writing a fiction novel when I was younger, but it's hard to do something original when there are so many great authors and successful stories already out there. My influences are clearly R.L. Stine and Stephen King. It's a fun exercise at least, and it's a nice way to show people your creativity. It's also easy to self-publish your work online these days, too.
Yes. Embrace the feedback. It’s tough when you first start out but I came accept that my first drafts usually sucked and good editors are worth their weight in gold. It’s been valuable for the technical writing I do for my job too because it requires signoff by R&D, quality and clinical specialists, so I’ve learned not to take someone redlining a doc I thought was pretty good personally. It is what it is and all a part of the process, creative writing or technical writing.
I wrote a short story of around 17K words (I guess that makes it a novelette) from last December to last March, so it took me around four months in total, though there were several days where I wrote nothing and several others where I only wrote a page or less.
It was a very daunting task especially since English is my third language and haven’t read many novels in English, so I had to learn a lot of words for stuff like clothes and objects and gestures.
It’s a fantasy story so I had to do some world building before starting to write. I sent it to an editor who went over it line by line. I got some harsh but constructive criticism that made me realize the prose was weak at time and some scenes were possibly unneeded. I don’t agree with everything my editor said but his perspective was enlightening. I plan to edit it some time soon and post in the writers thread.
I’m not sure what to tackle next, I’m not looking into jumping into the whole indie author business as I don’t want to constrain myself to novels, I may try a screenplay or a manga or even a video game design document.
I wrote a young adult centered horror flash fiction a few weeks ago for a short story forum contest if you want to check it out. I even made a book cover for it lol :
Flash fiction (basically a short story between 1,000 - 5,000 words) is a great way to start writing. I plan on developing this story into an actual novel, adding dialogue, more background on characters, expanding the plot, actual chapters, etc, etc.
Sure, I tried writing a fiction novel when I was younger, but it's hard to do something original when there are so many great authors and successful stories already out there. My influences are clearly R.L. Stine and Stephen King. It's a fun exercise at least, and it's a nice way to show people your creativity. It's also easy to self-publish your work online these days, too.
Yes. Embrace the feedback. It’s tough when you first start out but I came accept that my first drafts usually sucked and good editors are worth their weight in gold. It’s been valuable for the technical writing I do for my job too because it requires signoff by R&D, quality and clinical specialists, so I’ve learned not to take someone redlining a doc I thought was pretty good personally. It is what it is and all a part of the process, creative writing or technical writing.
For creative writing I’m afraid I dunno, I did all of that in school. Professionally consultants on certain projects I’ve been on charge like $350 an hour but I don’t think that would be very applicable to a fiction editor. I’d probably start in some amateur workshops to get feedback from other aspiring writers before trying to submit to someone for professional review
Not many, maybe about 20 people read mine for the contest. On Wattpad you can see how many people read your story, and how they rated it. It's a pretty big website with tons of users, so I'm not counting on great interaction (yet). I created the cover art using Canva, free software text and overlaying free-use images with some filters, nothing too special TBH.
Have you ever written a novel or short story or are you currently doing so? If so, how daunting is the task? If you've already completed one, how many words does it span, how long did it take you to complete it, and how satisfied are you with it? If you're still writing one, do you think you'll be able to finish? Also, to what genre does it belong?
I’m currently writing a second draft to the first novel of a series of five novels and am around the 63k mark.
Genre: Bit of everything really. Lots of action.
Daunting: Not really, it’s a passion project.
How is it?: I’m obviously bias because it’s mine but the overall story I like to think is up there with the best of the best. Each novel will have a satisfying ending to what pertains within the book and the overarching story obviously spreads across all five which honestly I don’t see that much competition for. But again I could be just heavily biased since it’s mine.
Sure, I've written three. Genres are a little different, but are mostly science fiction and crime.
The ranges are between 75k to 90k.
I wouldn't say it's daunting, the writing part at least. Once the outline's ready, it's a commitment to type 1000 words per day without exception. Self-editing is the repetitive part, and that's a minimum of three full reads and revisions. It's fun, though.
