SpaceChampion Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 The Wheel of Page Loading turns, and bytes come and go, leaving discussion that fade to incivility. Incivility fade to sourness, and sourness is long forgotten with the thread topic that gave it birth comes again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selysin Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 Yay, a new and more peaceful thread (I hope). My unofficial NaNo did clear the 50k mark and is now known as The Book of Abandoned Plot Lines. So far every attempt to satisfy my main character and neatly conclude his part of the story has failed and I fear I will be forced to kill him to bring the story to an end. I'm just trying to stop him meeting and sleeping with the other MC at this stage because they're the same person (time travel ftw). Yeah... I don't know what they/he is thinking either but once I get the story finished I'll have to edit it with a hacksaw. While I work out how to bring that to a close I'm working on A Cat Named Dragon which appears to be much more cheerful and less incestuous (is that even the right word?). I believe the plot has something to do with demons, magic and familiars. Also a cat who may or may not actually be a dragon and a soulhound. In other news I got my first three rejection letters! Only 97 more to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyoshi Posted December 5, 2015 Share Posted December 5, 2015 *so I can find this with a star*Let's be nice, please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuenjato Posted December 5, 2015 Share Posted December 5, 2015 Ooo, now I want to check out the old thread. I haven't written much in the past six months. Part of this was dealing with tendonitis in my wrists/forearms; after seeing professional help and learning some strengthening techniques, I can now work at a computer for longer than 15 minutes without deep, stabbing pains. So, naturally, it's back to business. I'm about halfway through the third book of a trilogy -- estimated length 200-220k -- but instead of diving back in, I've spent the past couple weeks editing the first book, written back in 2011 and last red-penned two years ago (currently 169k). With some distance, it's much, much easier to see flab that can be trimmed/darlings that can be killed. From the paper draft, I estimate I can hone it down some 3-5,000 words and lose nothing in the process (indeed, gain quite a bit in terms of pacing).One other technique I'm using is the twice-over edit. I read/edit first, then read again, making sure the edits are appropriate. This allows me to catch stuff that I normally wouldn't with a once-through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnar of Skagos Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 My schedule has been so sporadic this past year, I'm afraid I haven't been nearly as productive as I'd hoped. One of my NOT New Years Resolutions is going to be to write for two hours every day, no matter what. I'm graduating college in the Spring, and I've managed to squirrel away a bit of money, so I think I'm going to take a few months off and hit the road, and try to get a start on my novel along the way.In the meantime I've found that doing short stories is a great way to keep the creative juices flowing.I've tried doing some short stories, but I scarcely read any (beside some Lovecraft) so I have no idea what the format is like, or exactly how to write one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnar of Skagos Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 Try reading GRRM's cross-genre anthologies. They provide a really diverse group of voices amd styles. Dangerous Women was my favorite, but Rogues also has some really good stuff, especially the stories by Joe Abercrombie and Gillian Flynn. If you like Horror then Stephen King also writes some fantastic short fiction. I recommend the collection Nightshift to everyone, but you might also like Everything's Eventual and The Bazaar of Bad Dreams if you're interested in the process of writing a short story, because he goes into how he got the ideas for each story and how he went about writing them.Awesome, I will give those a look. It'd be nice to do some short fiction. After working on the same novel for the past 3 years, it will be nice to actually finish something haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 My schedule has been so sporadic this past year, I'm afraid I haven't been nearly as productive as I'd hoped. One of my NOT New Years Resolutions is going to be to write for two hours every day, no matter what. I'm graduating college in the Spring, and I've managed to squirrel away a bit of money, so I think I'm going to take a few months off and hit the road, and try to get a start on my novel along the way.In the meantime I've found that doing short stories is a great way to keep the creative juices flowing.have you considered setting word count/page count targets, rather than times? To me at least, it makes more sense to say "I will have X written today" than saying you will write for X hours. With the latter, you could spend the whole time just poised with your pen over the paper/fingers over the keyboard. Whereas the former you actually get something down, even if you think it terrible. But that's where editing comes in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starkess Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 On a different writing board, someone was asking about everyone's writing history. Typing up my reply forced me to think about HOW LONG I have been doing this with NOTHING to show for it. So then I went and had a good cry and thought about how delusional I am for thinking I can do this. Not like I'm going to stop, but damn, I'm an idiot. have you considered setting word count/page count targets, rather than times? To me at least, it makes more sense to say "I will have X written today" than saying you will write for X hours. With the latter, you could spend the whole time just poised with your pen over the paper/fingers over the keyboard. Whereas the former you actually get something down, even if you think it terrible. But that's where editing comes in.I find it to the be opposite. If I tell myself "I am going to sit down and write for X minutes" (usually 45, and I'll set a timer), I get more done. Because it's less pressure on me. I say "Nora, it doesn't matter how much, just put your butt in chair and work on it for that time period." But then once I get started, I get into the groove and end up being very productive. Whereas when I set myself wordcount goals, I have a harder time actually sitting down and doing it because it feels intimidating (and I end up checking every paragraph what my wordcount is to see if I can stop).I would definitely recommend people try both to see which works for them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebenstone Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 On a different writing board, someone was asking about everyone's writing history. Typing up my reply forced me to think about HOW LONG I have been doing this with NOTHING to show for it. So then I went and had a good cry and thought about how delusional I am for thinking I can do this. Not like I'm going to stop, but damn, I'm an idiot. Nora, relax. It took three years to land an agent (on the last query I was intending to send on that project) and it's been almost 4 years since, waiting, rewriting, submitting, waiting and finally saying, "Okay, let's try this." And that even takes time. Time. That's something the "we want it now" generation forgets (At 42 I am on the periphery of that...) that things take time and the publishing industry moves glacially and, as my agent says, SFF editors take even longer than that! You've got chops, it'll come. Just keep writing, mostly because imagine life without your writing...that's even more depressing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrackerNeil Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 On a different writing board, someone was asking about everyone's writing history. Typing up my reply forced me to think about HOW LONG I have been doing this with NOTHING to show for it. So then I went and had a good cry and thought about how delusional I am for thinking I can do this. Not like I'm going to stop, but damn, I'm an idiot. Hey, I went through the whole query letter thing, got an agent, worked like a dog, presented manuscripts to editors, and it still came to nothing. The publishing industry is strange and capricious, and I don't think that a failure to succeed there should be taken by anyone as failure in general. You have to do your art. If part of that is self-publishing, then you have to do that, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 I got about 35 agent rejections (and one small press rejection) before being picked up by Inspired Quill. That was over a nearly three year timeframe (December 2012 - November 2015).Writing Query letters is just nasty. I re-wrote the thing so many times. There's also the uncertainty about whether you're being rejected on the basis of your letter, or on the basis of the first few chapters (in hindsight, being rejected by that NZ small press was awesome, since it was clear that the issue was the manuscript itself).The only advice I can give is keep tinkering and keep trying (and sorry if that sounds like a cop-out). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starkess Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Thanks guys. It's just so frustrating because it's kind of impossible to know if I'm not making headway because I haven't had that "right desk at the right time" moment or if I'm just not good enough. And I could spend the next twenty years trying to figure it out! But yeah, not writing would be even worse. I know it's all very slow, but the first rejection in my binder dates back to 2004, so at some point I wonder if I can't really rely on that excuse anymore.Good to have others who understand the struggle! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnar of Skagos Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 I really can't wait until Winter break so I can get some time off to actually write. Been so caught up with my work that I haven't really been able to sit down and focus lately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrackerNeil Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Also, put not your faith in the publishing companies of this world. Even though they set themselves up as the ultimate authority on what is good literature, the fact is they'll publish anything they think will make a buck. That's how Twilight and Theresa Guidice's book got into print. A rejection from a publisher does not necessarily mean anything more than a judgement that your work is not sufficiently salable. That's all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aniel Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 I just realized there's a typo in the title. "Writng". Apparently, boarders writing a novel can't spell "writing"... (I actually almost wrote "wirting" just now...)I long for the day publishers reject me. At least then I will have, at some point, thought that what I'm currently writing is finally done, and be happy with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrackerNeil Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 I long for the day publishers reject me. I used to wish the same, and that wish was granted. And granted. And granted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aniel Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 I used to wish the same, and that wish was granted. And granted. And granted. Well I've never finished a story so... They haven't exactly been given a chance yet I'm sure it will be horrible and I'll hate the world and everything in it once I get rejected enough, but at least I'd have finished something. I might try writing some other stuff like someone suggested earlier, to "get my creative juices flowing", but I really don't know what... I've got an idea for soemthing independent of my current story, and then I have some historical stuff in the same universe to write so... Yeah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Writhen Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Well I've never finished a story so... They haven't exactly been given a chance yet I'm sure it will be horrible and I'll hate the world and everything in it once I get rejected enough, but at least I'd have finished something. I might try writing some other stuff like someone suggested earlier, to "get my creative juices flowing", but I really don't know what... I've got an idea for soemthing independent of my current story, and then I have some historical stuff in the same universe to write so... Yeah.Hmm. Good luck. I am also just starting out, and looking forward to my rejections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnar of Skagos Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Been getting a lot of good ideas lately. Better milk this for as long as I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyoshi Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 NORA,Do you by any chance write short stories and poems as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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