I am pretty slow as it takes a while to get my thoughts onto the keyboard, plus I write on Tuesday Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
But I will probably start getting feedback once I have done a few more chapters.
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Writing-GAF: Writing, Publishing, Selling |OT|
- Thread starter AngmarsKing701
- Start date
I am pretty slow as it takes a while to get my thoughts onto the keyboard, plus I write on Tuesday Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
But I will probably start getting feedback once I have done a few more chapters.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Kind of, yeah. It's about anthropomorphic toys ala Toy Story, only all of them act like Buzz Lightyear.
The main character is a pawn from the chess board game, and he steels a military weapon that actually works (it's basically a lighter) and decides it's time for the people he hates to die.
So it's this really strange G-rated aesthetic smashed into an R-rated tale of drugs, sex, and murder.
Hello!
I've been lurking for a good deal of time, inspired and enjoying everyone's posts about writing and loving the encouragement and the excitement that this thread has. So I thought I'd finally jump in myself!
I wrote a ten-book fantasy series in high school (while everyone else doodled in class, I wrote fantasy), and while it may be god-awful now, it was super fun and it taught me a lot of things about my strengths and weaknesses in my writing style. I fell in love with screenwriting after that, and for five years wrote scripts that never quite panned out.
But then I fell back into writing prose, and now I've written four books. None have sold, but I'm very proud of them. I'm now working on something I feel is special, like I finally hit on something that really works. I seem to be stuck in a fantasy/science fiction hybrid, haha, I can never write straight one or the other. But yeah!
TL;DR version: Hello, just wanted to say hi and say that I'm dropping in and will hopefully contribute to this thread some more!
I've been lurking for a good deal of time, inspired and enjoying everyone's posts about writing and loving the encouragement and the excitement that this thread has. So I thought I'd finally jump in myself!
I wrote a ten-book fantasy series in high school (while everyone else doodled in class, I wrote fantasy), and while it may be god-awful now, it was super fun and it taught me a lot of things about my strengths and weaknesses in my writing style. I fell in love with screenwriting after that, and for five years wrote scripts that never quite panned out.
But then I fell back into writing prose, and now I've written four books. None have sold, but I'm very proud of them. I'm now working on something I feel is special, like I finally hit on something that really works. I seem to be stuck in a fantasy/science fiction hybrid, haha, I can never write straight one or the other. But yeah!
TL;DR version: Hello, just wanted to say hi and say that I'm dropping in and will hopefully contribute to this thread some more!
How's everyone's writing going?
was going along well and then BOOM
need a wedding and hit full stop.
that being said I managed to get out, and start walking around the wall with detailed outlines of what i want, but due to going to a convention this weekend I have been busy with other stuff for the last week and haven't gotten much done aside from that and working on a design for a new main character in book 3.
Plasticine
Member
Conkersbadfurday
Member
I'm sorry I laughed as hard as I did
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Okay.
How about we get back to smut then? At least that's really easy to write, right?
How about we get back to smut then? At least that's really easy to write, right?
Conkersbadfurday
Member
I dunno, this actually took me longer to write than I thought it would
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Conkersbadfurday
Member
I'm sorry
BlazingDarkness
Member
Had a bad day of my IBD today so haven't been able to write anything
I have been doodling and sketching a bit though, so I don't feel like I've been totally unproductive! Kinda glad I chose to put in illustrations into my novel now, seems to keep things varied
I have been doodling and sketching a bit though, so I don't feel like I've been totally unproductive! Kinda glad I chose to put in illustrations into my novel now, seems to keep things varied
Valdfellgar
Banned
How's everyone's writing going?
Pretty good, have to balance things between working on the review website I'm starting up with my wife and my writing time, but I finally hit 80,000 words+ on my novel. I find that as I work through my outline the book itself just gets farther and farther over the original projections I had for its length. I was aiming for something like 140k words, but I think it's going to be a solid 180K by the end now.
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Published a christian romance novella with a new name a week ago and I'm surprised at how quickly it jumped up the ranks. Unfortunately I'll probably die out of boredom if I continue writing in this subgenre
Or get called out for heresy. Valuable lesson in "never appeal to crazy people" though.
(I know this from experience, unfortunately)
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Slowly but surely skew it away from Christian and into Satanism. See what happens.Published a christian romance novella with a new name a week ago and I'm surprised at how quickly it jumped up the ranks. Unfortunately I'll probably die out of boredom if I continue writing in this subgenre
Ha, imagine the outrage if they ever find out that the author behind their sweet, wholesome romance books is a Muslim black man from Asia who's pubbed erotica that would make Chuck Tingle blush.
Great idea
It's too bad I love money too much to fuck around with Amazon. I've got a few thousand dollar earphones on order and this is pretty much paying for them Christian romance fans are super vocal too, I saw a truckload of 1 star reviews condemning the author for having too much.....kissing.
BlazingDarkness
Member
Haha wow, you're playing with fire there man
Conkersbadfurday
Member
They deserve to be trolled without mercy.Ha, imagine the outrage if they ever find out that the author behind their sweet, wholesome romance books is a Muslim black man from Asia who's pubbed erotica that would make Chuck Tingle blush.
Great idea
Christian romance fans are super vocal too, I saw a truckload of 1 star reviews condemning the author for having too much.....kissing.
Dolla Dolla
Member
Published a christian romance novella with a new name a week ago and I'm surprised at how quickly it jumped up the ranks. Unfortunately I'll probably die out of boredom if I continue writing in this subgenre
Do you mind sharing some of your marketing techniques? Very appreciative of the knowledge you've already imparted.
Sure, give me a day or two to write my process. There's a lot to cover!
Conkersbadfurday
Member
I don't normally share first drafts of anything, but I decided to throw up a paragraph of my new book on FB because I'm having a blast and this book is really, really stupid. Figured some people would get a laugh.
Then you get the people who don't know dickall about writing coming in with their "edits" that just...ugh. It went from this funny nonsensical scene--because that's what the book is--to this dry, "I want to be a literature writer!" piece of drivel with lots of extra adverbials.
"But don't you see, it paints a better picture and is more concise! It's what publishers want."
A cruel reminder of why I don't share first drafts.
Then you get the people who don't know dickall about writing coming in with their "edits" that just...ugh. It went from this funny nonsensical scene--because that's what the book is--to this dry, "I want to be a literature writer!" piece of drivel with lots of extra adverbials.
"But don't you see, it paints a better picture and is more concise! It's what publishers want."
A cruel reminder of why I don't share first drafts.
Valdfellgar
Banned
Sweet, looking forward to this. Thanks in advance!!
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Editing my third draft of my first novel now, concurrently with writing its sequel, which is six chapters in. Dreading any sort of effort into possibly getting it published.How's everyone's writing going?
Sometimes I think it's trash. Sometime I think it's ok. Re-reading your own work is bizarre.
I have a formula where every single chapter is almost exactly ten pages. I thought that would be a nice pace for YA readers, and I did it with the idea of telling a story episodically, almost like a TV show - a certain amount of intrigue, drama, action or any combination of those has to be presented in that limited number of pages the same way an episode of a television series is presented in 20 minute segments. Is that weird?
Tell me your secrets. This was the style I wanted to go in at first.
TheGreatDirector
Banned
Finished the 7th Chapter.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12058731/7/A-Peanuts-Tale
I feel like I've just done a lot of setup but hopefully I'll manage to get things rolling by next chapter.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12058731/7/A-Peanuts-Tale
I feel like I've just done a lot of setup but hopefully I'll manage to get things rolling by next chapter.
H.Protagonist
[-_-]/
How's everyone's writing going?
Have a deadline for chapter 3 of book 2 due in a week for the October issue, and Halloween season gives me the perfect chance for a bit of fun/promotion for the series. I'm pumped.
Ha! Love it.
BlazingDarkness
Member
That doesn't sound weird at all, and it sounds like a nice structured way to write.
I've just finished chapter 2 of my children's fantasy and so far both chapters come out around 15 pages (including illustrations), so I'll probably stick to around this number to be consistent.
I'm really enjoying the creative process involved in making this novel, I've no idea about the difficulties of publishing and advertising and whatnot, but at least creatively I'm really flourishing from this - even if no one wants to read it haha
Dolla Dolla
Member
What's your elevator spiel?
NipplesAndToes23
Member
How's everyone's writing going?
I'm still in a rut. I've taken more time out to dedicate time to write and I've been successful for only one day, but others haven't written shit. Today, I spent three hours trying to think of what it was that other day that fixed my issue with my story so I can finish it, but I couldn't even focus on trying to do that. My mind kept on wandering off and it frustrated me. This book should've been finished already.
Ugh... I feel like I'm never going to finish any story. I keep trying so hard to stick to just one story but my mind wanders and I keep having so many ideas but never can stay focus to a single story.
The one I have the most progress in (and even wrote some today) is at 10k words. I do enjoy writing it but then...
The one I have the most progress in (and even wrote some today) is at 10k words. I do enjoy writing it but then...
BlazingDarkness
Member
Actually I don't have one yet, as the plot is still relatively early it's pretty hard for me to boil the whole thing down to a sentence or two. Think Harry Potter meets Narnia and you're somewhere close, young girl jumps between worlds, originally a farmhand, becomes a knight. I've a pretty loose way of developing the plot in my mind, so I'm not even sure where it will go myself outside of a few significant points
Ugh... I feel like I'm never going to finish any story. I keep trying so hard to stick to just one story but my mind wanders and I keep having so many ideas but never can stay focus to a single story.
The one I have the most progress in (and even wrote some today) is at 10k words. I do enjoy writing it but then...
What genre do you write? Could you not amalgamate some of your ideas into the same plot?
NintendosBooger
Member
How's everyone's writing going?
Almost done with my third edit.
Writing a sci-fi opera heavy with Russian lore, resource scarcity being the theme.
Biggest hurdle I've had to overcome in this editing process has been to convert everything into the active voice and to follow the "show, don't tell" rule. I've also had to eliminate 90% of the characters' inner monologue. Plot holes of all sorts plagued my story, as well, but "On Writing" warned me about that.
BlazingDarkness
Member
Almost done with my third edit.
Writing a sci-fi opera heavy with Russian lore, resource scarcity being the theme.
Biggest hurdle I've had to overcome in this editing process has been to convert everything into the active voice and to follow the "show, don't tell" rule. I've also had to eliminate 90% of the characters' inner monologue. Plot holes of all sorts plagued my story, as well, but "On Writing" warned me about that.
Resource scarcity? That sounds like a really interesting theme, don't think I've come across that before.
What would you say is the best way to plug those plot holes? Just getting lots of people to read it and ask questions you mightn't of thought of?
Mainly Fantasy and Sci-Fi and their plots aren't really merge-able. Cause they all fill story ideas that I've wanted to write.
But I think the biggest issues I have is two things.
1. Getting Inspiration for new stories very often.
2. Getting too stuck in the overall story of the... story.
That second one may sound weird but I love to imagine scenes in my head of future parts of a story. To get to the parts I really want to write... But then I lose myself trying to get to those parts and lose interest. Like ADHD of writing. Maybe.
BlazingDarkness
Member
Have you considered doing a collection of shorts?
That way you can pretty much just write those particular scenes that jump out at you, with a little bit of added embellishment. Maybe if you could link all of those disparate shorts with a unifying theme/tone it would work very well as a short story collection.
Funny thing, your not the first to suggest that. My mother actually did the same.
I've tried to do some short stories but then I get attatched to the setting or character and want to write a lot more.
Maybe I should write short stories within the setting of my current longest story. Then maybe I can reel myself back since I already have a long form story and so these short ones don't need to be...
AngmarsKing701
Member
For those of you playing the full "I want an agent & publisher" game, here's an article listing 15 Agents Seeking Adult Fantasy Novels NOW. Article was just published today.
Good luck!
Good luck!
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
only one actually defined what 'adult fantasy novel' means though. :\
*reads*
hmmmmm....
maybe my story has more of a market than I thought lol. (I actually have problems telling people what my story is about because "the quest" has very little to do with what is going on most of the time, much like how the quest to become king of the pirates in one piece rarely has anything to do with the story going on)
to bad it isn't in any shape to be sending to people right now.
I wonder if my story would be considered Adult fantasy.... as it is now I imagine it would be at the very least the upper limit of young adult as some of the scenes get decently graphic with violence (never sex, I want the relationships to remain mostly pure, the only planned insertion of any hard object between a couple is when someone will insert a dagger into someone else's heart to kill them >.>)
H.Protagonist
[-_-]/
Heads up, all. My publisher has opened prose submissions again for their monthly mag. If they like your pitch and run with it, it's paid work. In advance(!). Go for it!
Sparkler Monthly
Sparkler Monthly
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Hmm. I recognize at least two of those agents as people who have already rejected my epic fantasy novel.
Since I've never been able to find out the answer. What determines if your story is YA?
Cause the main story I've been trying to write has the main characters in their mid to late 20's (although with a large cast of an older characters as well), and while there is some relationship stuff in there, it takes a back seat to most other stuff. It also isn't a coming-of-age story either.
The one character I have that could have a psuedo coming-of-age arc can't really... Spoilers:
Working on my map: http://i.picpar.com/AqZb.png
I think that also may help me become more dedicated to the one story.
Cause the main story I've been trying to write has the main characters in their mid to late 20's (although with a large cast of an older characters as well), and while there is some relationship stuff in there, it takes a back seat to most other stuff. It also isn't a coming-of-age story either.
The one character I have that could have a psuedo coming-of-age arc can't really... Spoilers:
Some mystical stuff get's him frozen in the very start of the story. So he's out of the picture for a long time.
Working on my map: http://i.picpar.com/AqZb.png
I think that also may help me become more dedicated to the one story.
NintendosBooger
Member
Fresh eyes, in my opinion. Either yours after a prolonged absence from the story, chapter, or scene; or those of another reader. For me, motives that had seemed logical in the beginning (first draft) ended up making very little sense after reviewing the entire story for the second draft. I believed I could have everything make sense from the jump, that the story was tight with all possible angles covered, but I remember Stephen King mentioning how every first draft contained plot holes you could drive a truck through, so I went through my first round of edits and realized (much to my surprise/horror) that he was absolutely right. In fact, I've noticed some on my third edit. Despite the attention to detail and the effort I applied to it, I would have been embarrassed to share that first draft with anyone. Luckily, I'm almost at the end of the road with my pulp story, and I'll finally be able to subject it to peer review.
AngmarsKing701
Member
The main character being a teen is usually the one of the, if not the only, criteria for YA.
Dolla Dolla
Member
YA for book marketing purposes is really teenager years, 13-18. Anything above is considered Adult fiction.
Oh okay. Cool.
So I think I will do a short anthology set in this universe. Really flesh it out. Got to get myself invested.
Hahaha, you reckon it does? It's been a whole year of tossing different ideas around onto what can and cannot be but I suppose that's the beauty of creating. I plan to update it more as the weeks go by, what have you been working on?
Again, collaborative ideas are welcome GAF www.v22marz.com
I have such a hard time starting anything. Barring poetry, I get great ideas and trip and fall on my face at the 'introducing character/setting/plot' phase. I know we're just supposed to write through and fix it later but damn, some of the shit that dribbles onto to the page sours me on the whole thing. I've written some excellent (at least I think, compared) scenes for my latest try, but...
I think the answer is force myself to write in a non linear fashion. Like, write through good parts and then, when I know the characters better, add the intro. Could work in some tasty subtle foreshadowing that way too.
If only much stupid brain would cooperate.
I think the answer is force myself to write in a non linear fashion. Like, write through good parts and then, when I know the characters better, add the intro. Could work in some tasty subtle foreshadowing that way too.
If only much stupid brain would cooperate.
So kind of a interesting question. How often do you guys share story information and such over the internet? I will admit, I can be stingy, as even if my idea isn't exactly original, I always fear of someone stealing my work. Which is weird since my work isn't something that would win awards or anything.