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Writing-GAF: Writing, Publishing, Selling |OT|

F

Freeza Under The Shower

Member
That is indeed good info. Took a quick peek at that script too. Why did you use CAPS and not bold for the 'important' marker? I'm asking because Landis's Bright script uses bold and is more readable for it, in my opinion.
Is the caps in your script an industry thing or just the format for that particular organization?

(also, you made up those titles + logline, right? )

edit: oh, and in case you didn't discover it yet: we also have a Screenwriting OT, which might be useful for you in particular.

grudy said:
Thanks for sharing this! It's my first time hearing about ghost writers; I mean I knew sort of knew this kind of thing is probably happening in the back of my mind but it's very interesting to hear a first hand story. Is this type of work legal though? Like if some ghost writer decided to spill the beans (if they can prove it), does the "author" face any consequences legally?
Click to expand...

mini-rant time (sorry):
what do you think Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is? Textbroker (and translation site Gengo) and other 'SEO' companies are literally all ghostwriting companies where you write at embarrassing low fees for someone else to put their name on. Worse, it's extremely poor writing in terms of having to repeat keywords X amount of times (usually ten) within the same 'article' and yet have it be mildly entertaining to read.
I took one look at an example and literally went blank at seeing how a professional had somehow, I assume through veritable dark magic, made that work. I should point out that was in my native language, so I'm not tone deaf in that one like I am in English.
The worst part is of course that they pretend to have professional standards, whereas the fee definitely isn't on that level. If you're going to do SEO, make sure to do for a company that will actually produce a referral for it that you can show on a resume.
 
V

Valdfellgar

Banned
Freeza Under The Shower said:
That is indeed good info. Took a quick peek at that script too. Why did you use CAPS and not bold for the 'important' marker? I'm asking because Landis's Bright script uses bold and is more readable for it, in my opinion.
Is the caps in your script an industry thing or just the format for that particular organization?

(also, you made up those titles + logline, right? )

edit: oh, and in case you didn't discover it yet: we also have a Screenwriting OT, which might be useful for you in particular.



mini-rant time (sorry):
what do you think Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is? Textbroker (and translation site Gengo) and other 'SEO' companies are literally all ghostwriting companies where you write at embarrassing low fees for someone else to put their name on. Worse, it's extremely poor writing in terms of having to repeat keywords X amount of times (usually ten) within the same 'article' and yet have it be mildly entertaining to read.
I took one look at an example and literally went blank at seeing how a professional had somehow, I assume through veritable dark magic, made that work. I should point out that was in my native language, so I'm not tone deaf in that one like I am in English.
The worst part is of course that they pretend to have professional standards, whereas the fee definitely isn't on that level. If you're going to do SEO, make sure to do for a company that will actually produce a referral for it that you can show on a resume.
Click to expand...

CAPS is what I was taught at Vancouver Film School and, at least back in 2010, was the industry standard and I'm willing to bet still is. Landis is an established screenwriter and once you've gotten some work and a name for yourself you're able to pretty much do what you want. Heck he could probably write a script all in crayon and producers would still look at it. Until then it's sort of expected that newbies follow guidelines to the letter. Although guidelines aren't entirely universal and details like CAPS for important or bold, could be 'regional' or whatever, depending on who you talk to.

I assume you mean the title of the script and the logline for it? Yes I came up with those.

Thanks for the link! I'm actually in a bit of a personal crisis about pursuing screenwriting. When I first decided I'd pursue writing it was because I wanted to one day write for the anime medium. But, of course, America doesn't really have that as an option. So I kinda settled on Screenwriting, hoping one day I could make enough of a name for myself to maybe transition industries or something. I know, lofty goals and dreams and all that.

But over the last six years I've had very little success. I've had a couple contest placements, one win, and a few near offers as companies looked into my work, but ultimately passed. That's all expected, and I'll keep my scripts listed on Inktip.com just in case, but the trouble is Hollywood is less and less interested in original material. So even if I 'got in' I'd probably be relegated to writing remakes and sequels to existing properties and, if lucky, maybe at the end I could have my own work made. Honestly? Outside of a few properties like Doctor Who or Deadpool, that sounds like hell to me.

But after my Ghostwriting experience I found that writing a novel wasn't as horrifically difficult as I feared. That's not to say I think it's easy, or mean to talk myself up, but the Ghostwriting taught me that I have the drive and ability to actually write like that. So I'm considering, I haven't settled yet, but I'm considering just switching over, for several reasons.

1. I'm married now and my Wife and I are building up an anime review website. That eats up a large portion of my day. I basically have one hour to write now and my goal is 1,000 words a day in my novel. It's too much pressure to balance the novel and new scripts.

2. Thanks to the boom of Light Novel anime adaptations in Japan, I have a new avenue for my pipe dream. If I can get some kind of success eventually out here, maybe my novels can be localized in Japan and my stories can get anime adaptations that way? A man can dream right?

3. It also allows the story to breath. After writing scripts for the past six years, something like 16 in total, telling a story outside of a strict time limit is a breath of fresh air. Adapting this script of mine, Death Eternal, has allowed so much to more happen and so much more realism, as the story was having trouble fitting within two hours. Writing in the novel format is quickly becoming my preferred avenue. (Sorry for the rant ><)

And yeah, the SEO stuff you're talking about was on Elance.com too. I never did it, but it's basically the super dark side of Ghostwriting. Pay is crap as you mentioned and the work is grueling. Often the subjects can be niche, require research, detail, and that specific word count and SEO word inclusion. I looked over a few jobs, but they all seemed like hell for what they were offering in pay. As I recall some even wanted people to do it for free at first.
 
S

sirap

Member
1. Go here: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers...-text/154606011/ref=zg_bs_nav_kstore_1_kstore

2. Pick a genre, then pick a sub-genre. Keep drilling until you reach the leaf level.

3. Check the #1 book in that category and make sure it's an indie-published book. To do that, scroll down to the product details and find Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

4. Check the current sales rank of that book. If it's below 500, good. If it's below 100, great. Under 25? Fucking fantastic. That means it's selling an average of 2000 copies a day. Priced at $2.99, that's more than $4k earned a day.

5. Open up a spreadsheet and write down the book's current ranking, title, length and sales rank.

6. Go to the #20 book in that category and repeat the process. Aim for something under 5000. Keep track of it in your spreadsheet.

7. Jump to book #100 and do the same thing. If it's under 30,000, give yourself a pat on the back. Congratulations, you've just found a profitable market!

8. Repeat these steps for books #30, #40, #50, #60, #70, #80, and #90. You can do it in even smaller increments if you want a better understanding of that market. Once you have the data, plot a line graph in excel. Set Y to Sales Rank and X to Book Rank. The straighter the line is, the better. This should tell you if there's any fuckery going on like big name authors dominating the charts through following or massive ad budgets. That's usually the case when you see a big gap between the top twenty books and the rest of the pack.

Okay, so you've found a "profitable market". Yay! What the fuck does that even mean?

It means if you studied the books in this sub-sub-genre and wrote one that satisfies reader expectations, that book will easily earn you 3-4 figures within the first month. That's with minimal promotion and advertising. You don't have to spend $500 a day on Facebook ads (which is what I have to do for Romance) or sacrifice your limbs to the Bookbub gods. Any $10 fiver promotion will do.

This is a market starved for books. Give those readers a steady stream of content and they'll crown you king.
 
C

Conkersbadfurday

Member
Word document open. Writing music importing to computer. Permission to write a shitty first draft...drafted.

That bubbly nervous feeling is bubbling and making me nervous.

I guess it's time to give book #3 a stab!
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Goddamnit. The feel when you think you had an idea but forgot to write it down and forgot the idea!
It was a good one!

Damn it.

...

This does give me an idea for a scene... i'll write this down...
 
D

Delio

Member
sirap said:
1. Go here: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers...-text/154606011/ref=zg_bs_nav_kstore_1_kstore

2. Pick a genre, then pick a sub-genre. Keep drilling until you reach the leaf level.

3. Check the #1 book in that category and make sure it's an indie-published book. To do that, scroll down to the product details and find Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

4. Check the current sales rank of that book. If it's below 500, good. If it's below 100, great. Under 25? Fucking fantastic. That means it's selling an average of 2000 copies a day. Priced at $2.99, that's more than $4k earned a day.

5. Open up a spreadsheet and write down the book's current ranking, title, length and sales rank.

6. Go to the #20 book in that category and repeat the process. Aim for something under 5000. Keep track of it in your spreadsheet.

7. Jump to book #100 and do the same thing. If it's under 30,000, give yourself a pat on the back. Congratulations, you've just found a profitable market!

8. Repeat these steps for books #30, #40, #50, #60, #70, #80, and #90. You can do it in even smaller increments if you want a better understanding of that market. Once you have the data, plot a line graph in excel. Set Y to Sales Rank and X to Book Rank. The straighter the line is, the better. This should tell you if there's any fuckery going on like big name authors dominating the charts through following or massive ad budgets. That's usually the case when you see a big gap between the top twenty books and the rest of the pack.

Okay, so you've found a "profitable market". Yay! What the fuck does that even mean?

It means if you studied the books in this sub-sub-genre and wrote one that satisfies reader expectations, that book will easily earn you 3-4 figures within the first month. That's with minimal promotion and advertising. You don't have to spend $500 a day on Facebook ads (which is what I have to do for Romance) or sacrifice your limbs to the Bookbub gods. Any $10 fiver promotion will do.

This is a market starved for books. Give those readers a steady stream of content and they'll crown you king.
Click to expand...

Should I be going for total ranking? Aka Amazon Best Sellers rank or just the rank it is under that sub sub genre?
 
D

Delio

Member
Freeza Under The Shower said:
BTW: what the hell is 'leaf level' ? And some of these bestsellers in the science fiction section: oh god they're so terrible. Thank god Hugh Howey's Wool is hanging in there, along with Weir's The Martian, but aargh @ the rest. Post-apocalyptic in particular: pffff.
Click to expand...

I went to the sub sub genre of LGBT Science fiction and most of them are kinda whatever. Some sound interesting tho.
 
S

sirap

Member
Freeza Under The Shower said:
BTW: what the hell is 'leaf level' ? And some of these bestsellers in the science fiction section: oh god they're so terrible. Thank god Hugh Howey's Wool is hanging in there, along with Weir's The Martian, but aargh @ the rest. Post-apocalyptic in particular: pffff.
Click to expand...

Lowest level of an index.

Delio said:
Should I be going for total ranking? Aka Amazon Best Sellers rank or just the rank it is under that sub sub genre?
Click to expand...

Sales rank = total ranking in the Kindle store

#1, #20, #100 etc is the book's rank in that specific genre

EDIT:

HgIWzo6.jpg
Click to expand...
 
D

Delio

Member
sirap said:
Lowest level of an index.



Sales rank = total ranking in the Kindle store

#1, #20, #100 etc is the book's rank in that specific genre

EDIT:
Click to expand...

Thank you for clearing it up for me. Looks like Gay Sci fi isnt as profitable as Gay romance in general. Interesting.
 
T

TheGreatDirector

Banned
TheGreatDirector said:
So...to practice my writing skills I've decided to write a Peanuts fanfiction story...

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12058731/1/A-Peanuts-Tale

It's not the greatest thing in the world, I admit, but the characters in the Peanuts world are extremely interesting and easy to write for. I'm making sure I reach 2,000 words a chapter and 1 chapter a week at minimum.
Click to expand...

Finished another chapter.

https://fanfiction.net/s/12058731/6/

I'm slowly getting into the groove of things with my preferred style of writing. I might start lengthening some of the more important chapters in the future.
 
N

Nudull

Banned
Finally got around to importing my netbook documents and writing notes onto Evernote. ^_^

Now to settle on my writing plans for the rest of the year. :p
 
N

NintendosBooger

Member
Hello, Writing GAF,

Just had my artist complete my book cover for my upcoming sci-fi space opera. I'd like some critiques. If anyone cares to see it, tell me and I can PM it to you.

Thanks.
 
F

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
Started trying my hand at writing short stories. I'm putting together a site to post them and it will have some graphics and stuff.

Decided to do it because it's kind of complicated when people want to read my writing and the only things I currently have to present are either a novel with 100k words I'm trying to publish or some shitty gay smut fics (I don't really present those).
 
S

Soulfire

Member
I haven't written anything since the beginning of May and I'm having a hard time getting back into the groove of things. I was writing 2500-3000 words a day Monday thru Friday, then ended up getting pregnant and just looking at a computer screen made me sick. Finally past that stage and it's like pulling teeth just to get ten words down.
Sales have understandably dropped since I haven't released anything since April, though this month will be the first month that I don't break $300 so that's pretty nice. I'm honestly just worried about regaining my momentum only to lose it all over again when the baby is born. I really don't want to start all over finding readers and building a pen name up, but the idea of doing that is also kind of appealing.
My goal for this week is to write 1k a day and begin slowly working my way back up, but even though I've got the book outlined, I get not even a handful of words down and just want to stop and do something else, re-watch Stargate Atlantis or play No Man's Sky or pretty much anything else.
Wondering if I should just focus on getting my word count back up on whatever I feel like writing or focus on what I need to write. When I treated writing like a job I actually finished stuff, but right now I'm not sure if that should be my goal.
 
S

sirap

Member
Soulfire said:
Wondering if I should just focus on getting my word count back up on whatever I feel like writing or focus on what I need to write. When I treated writing like a job I actually finished stuff, but right now I'm not sure if that should be my goal.
Click to expand...

My advice would be to stop focusing on specific numbers and just write. Force yourself to write everyday. Use pomodoros or productivity blockers if you have to. Even if you only write 500 words a day, that's still 15,000 words a month.

That said, if there's something else you'd like to write, go ahead and do it. Get it out of your system and move on. However, if you still find yourself procrastinating, I would go to my first advice.

Writing is very much like weight training. The more you do it, the easier it gets. Stop and you'll start to atrophy.
 
C

Conkersbadfurday

Member
Got another agent bite. Looking at 1/25 for my odds so far, which is way better than with my first book by a whole 100%

So that's exciting.

Can never tell if I should just reply to the email or send a brand new email with a brand new title and then reference the old email. Uh...whatchay'all think?

Edit: Also, the book I'm working on is delightfully fucking stupid. It might also be awful, but I'm having fun and hammered out four pages in like an hour and ten minutes. Quota for the night = done
 
Z

zulux21

Member
Cyan said:
Ha! Sounds like you'd fit in fine to be honest. If your only reason to not participate is worry that your stories might not be up to par... well that's why we're all participating! Trying to get better. :)
Click to expand...

I'll see. I am failing at writing my story right now anyways. Plus given the length of your challenges, if I had an idea I could likely get it done in one night, and then edit it the next night.

in other thoughts
weddings are such a pain to plan.
hmmm that statement could be misleading.
weddings even in stories are a pain to plan lol.

Most people I talk to think I have pretty good ideas, and in general really like what I tell them about stories I write.

but given I hate the english language in general (sadly I don't speak any others fluently), don't really read (I've actually read 13 light novels this year. in the 5 or so years before that, not counting manga, I don't think I read 13 books total >.<), and don't really care about proper writing at this time... (I will worry about that later, or hire a good editor, that will hate me for hiring them to work on it, if I ever think about publishing)
my writing tends to be a tad... rough lol.

that being said I do tend to have developed ideas, and I feel that at the very least my forum posts tend to be decently written so I doubt my writing would be the worst anyone had ever read.

edit:
I think rewriting greg laswell comes and goes into an 1800s song (that was inspired by that song... yay sorta time travel) would be easier than trying to describe such a song at a wedding set in 1800s tech @_@

I might have to just go "figure out how to explain a song similar to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0LNhIaGAUw" and just move on and worry about it later.

though I am doing the research and it should be possible to get something close to that song with the tech as piano, acoustic guitar, drums, xylophone, and cello were all in existence by then and I imagine using those you could make a decent copy of that song.
 
C

Conkersbadfurday

Member
Agenting is legit fucked up. Get a rejection letter for my partial--sad day--but am told the writing is good and to send other stuff if I have it. Normally a rejection is a rejection, but I figure if I'm being asked nicely...

So I thanked the agent for her time and for being a total badass as far as turnarounds go, and mentioned my first novel. She now was the first 100 pages of that.

I went from "best drink myself to death tonight because I am sad" to "best drink myself to death tonight because I am happy!"

Meanwhile, I'm like 16 pages into the new novel already :)
 
F

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
Conkersbadfurday said:
Agenting is legit fucked up. Get a rejection letter for my partial--sad day--but am told the writing is good and to send other stuff if I have it. Normally a rejection is a rejection, but I figure if I'm being asked nicely...

So I thanked the agent for her time and for being a total badass as far as turnarounds go, and mentioned my first novel. She now was the first 100 pages of that.

I went from "best drink myself to death tonight because I am sad" to "best drink myself to death tonight because I am happy!"

Meanwhile, I'm like 16 pages into the new novel already :)
Click to expand...

Woot! Woot! I'd drink to that! Especially before the depression sets in again...

I decided to hold off on a fantasy novel I've been saying i'd write for months now and have started planning out a horror novel(mostly because I've been receiving a lot of positive feedback on one of my horror stories). Been telling myself to jump on that before the fire starts to fade, but guh, mustering up effort is hard. Especially when I keep telling myself to work on these other projects...
 
C

Conkersbadfurday

Member
Cyan said:
That's awesome! Definitely a good sign if they're asking for other stuff. :)
Click to expand...
To be honest, my ego needed the boost. It's only every day that i wonder if I'm actually good at what I do, so to be told the writing is strong makes me feel pretty good. I shall ride this high for three weeks before going back to self doubt.
 
M

Mr-Joker

Banned
My dad was saying that if I am serous about writing I should start a blog to attract an audience and practice my writing skills but I like I have already put off writing my book and just want to get into it otherwise it will just be a pipe dream.

Do I really need to start a blog to become a successful writer?
 
C

Conkersbadfurday

Member
Mr-Joker said:
My dad was saying that if I am serous about writing I should start a blog to attract an audience and practice my writing skills but I like I have already put off writing my book and just want to get into it otherwise it will just be a pipe dream.

Do I really need to start a blog to become a successful writer?
Click to expand...
Fuck no. It certainly hasn't helped me any.

That and plenty of successful writers don't have blogs or existed when blogs didn't exist.
 
F

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
Yeah, ultimately what makes a writer is writing. So work on your novel first. Worry about social media exposure when you've got something to actually expose.
 
Z

zulux21

Member
Mr-Joker said:
My dad was saying that if I am serous about writing I should start a blog to attract an audience and practice my writing skills but I like I have already put off writing my book and just want to get into it otherwise it will just be a pipe dream.

Do I really need to start a blog to become a successful writer?
Click to expand...

blogs aren't some magical thing that if you make it you will instantly amass a following.

don't get me wrong the exposure and feedback could help, but in general I feel focusing on actually writing will help more.

blogs take a lot of time and energy to just get followers let alone to come up with meaningful stuff to post.
 
U

UCBooties

Member
I got a rejection yesterday from Clarkesworld. I'm not very surprised but I'm a bit dissapointed because I think the story is legit woth publishing. Now that Tor's closed I'm just going to have to the go down the list of Fantasy and Sci-Fi markets.
 
B

BlazingDarkness

Member
Morning GAF :)
I'm largely housebound at the moment so I decided to start writing and doodling a little bit each day (I find it so relaxing) and have started writing some fantasy fiction.

It's young adult/ children's fantasy and I'd really love for some feedback. I've written a first draft of chapter one if anybody cares to read it, reply here/PM me and I'll send it right over to you. I have nobody to get feedback from (and heck it'd be just nice for someone to read something I created, even if they don't enjoy it!) so if you're even just a little bit curious or have some spare time do get back to me!
 
M

Mr-Joker

Banned
Conkersbadfurday said:
Fuck no. It certainly hasn't helped me any.

That and plenty of successful writers don't have blogs or existed when blogs didn't exist.
Click to expand...

zulux21 said:
blogs aren't some magical thing that if you make it you will instantly amass a following.

don't get me wrong the exposure and feedback could help, but in general I feel focusing on actually writing will help more.

blogs take a lot of time and energy to just get followers let alone to come up with meaningful stuff to post.
Click to expand...

I figured as much, I think that my dad might have gotten confused and didn't realised that I wasn't writing a non-fiction book.

Cyan said:
Well, what are you trying to write? If you want to write non-fiction and you can also blog about whatever topic you're interested in, you could certainly do that. If you want to write fiction, how would blogging help?
Click to expand...

Yeah I am writing a fiction, so yeah blogging wouldn't really help me, plus it would take time away from writing.

Freeza Under The Shower said:
Nah, writing walls of text on internet message boards that nobody is ever going to read or appreciate is a much better use of your time (I'll probably convert it to a blog post).
Or more to the point: something you give away for free, when you could have used it to sell your brand, that is: you. You can the best writer that ever lived, but that doesn't do much when nobody knows you exist. Having a blog or at least some type of marketing outlet for your brand is somewhat essential in this day and age. It doesn't have to a blog, since Twitter and Facebook are also available, but at some point you will require something. Unless you sell to an actual publisher, then you can just fuck around and do whatever, until the publisher demands you to do signings and readings and other really boring stuff nobody wants to do. Meanwhile, your self-published colleagues don't do any of that stuff and sell equal to yours.
Regardless of the fact that you might be a serious writer and therefore write for yourself, you will still need to sell. your. work. Good old capitalism coming to bite you in the ass, ain't it grand.

Now the other angle is to write to market, on which Sirap is pretty much the resident expert. As seen above, his first thing is to figure out which audience to sell to, before committing to writing. Neither method is right or wrong, but the appeal of the second is the idea of security in making money. That's not actually guaranteed, but nobody cares about systematic insecurity when the system still makes money. Like capitalism! Unfortunately, most publishers and / or movie studios actually work the same way now, first wanting to know there is a market and only then actually giving out assignments. It's also a way to create guaranteed bombs because by the time you get there, the market has disappeared. Sucks to be a studio.

So instead of depending on a market before, or a market after getting really really lucky, you can also create the appetite for whatever it is you have to offer. What's the first thing a (fast-food) restaurant shows you? Food. And not food porn, but readily attainable food, right now. And / or somewhat more sexist, appealing personnel (oh yeah, this is a thing). Anything to get you into the mood to buy their shit. By the time you reach your seat or the counter, you're ready to buy whatever they're offering. That's the game, and the point: selling crap everybody else can sell too.

Assuming for a moment that you, I, and everybody else here is probably not the next Stephen King or Virginia Woolf, you better start putting your ass out there to show that you have actual work, a habit of producing work, and a predictable fanbase.
Because that's literally the first thing a publisher will check for too. Known authors get read, nobodies go on the pile.
(and yes, I am aware that's a paradox. But apparently that's how we do things now... fun! )

Also: how else would I share my crappy drawings?
Click to expand...

That was an interesting read and I learned a lot, so thanks for that. :)
 
B

BlazingDarkness

Member
Conkersbadfurday said:
My current book is straight retarded but also super fun to work on. Worried that the chapters are all skewing too short and that I'm not being quite as descriptive as I like, but eh. Editing is a thing.
Click to expand...

Haha retarded in what way? Nonsensical plot?

Mr-Joker said:
Okay I think, hopefully I get chapter 1 finished my the end of the week and then move onto chapter 2.

Still debating if I should get feedback after I have finished a chapter or when I have finished the whole book.
Click to expand...

How fast do you usually write? Chapter per week?
I'm currently doing the former (feedback per chapter, as I write them), or I will until I'm confident enough (five or so chapters in) then I'll simply finish the whole manuscript before looking for betas

Delio said:
Decent enough. Lots of planning right now for how the story will turn out.
Click to expand...
That's good to hear, do you to tend to plan in great detail before starting the bulk of the writing?
Personally I always have a few 'scenes' in my mind, quite fragmented, but important, and then fill in the gaps to connect the scenes - so I'd say 70% of my writing isn't planned, I just tend to write and things happen :)
 
T

Tosyn_88

Member
Currently working on an experimental sci-fi narrative and I'd enjoy some feedback if gaffer's are kind enough. It's on V22marz.com and also I'm actually open to collaborations too
 
D

Delio

Member
BlazingDarkness said:
That's good to hear, do you to tend to plan in great detail before starting the bulk of the writing?
Personally I always have a few 'scenes' in my mind, quite fragmented, but important, and then fill in the gaps to connect the scenes - so I'd say 70% of my writing isn't planned, I just tend to write and things happen :)
Click to expand...

I have a general idea of were things are going for the most part. Like I jot down important events then fill in the rest as I write. Then on the second draft I try to make it sound like it all works together. So yeah I pretty much do the same as you now that I read what I wrote lol.
 
F

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
BlazingDarkness said:
How's everyone's writing going? :)
Click to expand...

So I just finished up a huge draft change to the longest, most complicated, and probably best horror story i've ever written. I wanted to submit it to a specific place, but it was way over the max word limit. I brought it down to a hundred fifty words bellow the max. Then had my roommate look over it. She has a fantastic editor mind, and I hate it, but she always gives great advice to stories I think are fine. Anyway, I used the spare words to fix up the blemishes she found, and yeah it's been a long past few days. Just sent out the story.

In a lot of ways, editing it down so much has been a learning experience. Also, i learned like 5 different grammatical rules I did not know in the course of editing. Holy shit, every time I think I understand the proper comma it swerves all over my face and says 'fuck you.'
 
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I hate gaming corporations, gaming publishers, shareholders and CEOs.
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