Boarders Writing a Novel Thread 4

[Myrddin]

I heard years ago that some authors had a rejection slip contest judged by weight. ;)

Chalk up your letter to your first initiation, and keep sending that story out.

Good luck!

[Ealdorman Halasahr]

Thank you for your support, Myrddin!

And good luck with your own writing (something which is as true for all you writers out there).

[Myrddin]

Hey, we're al in this game together. The more of us who break into the business the better. :)

Found the source to go with "the story I heard":

"Along the way (Kevin J Anderson) also collected over 750 rejection slips, and a trophy as "The Writer with No Future" because he could produce more rejection slips by weight than any other writer at an entire conference. When asked for advice about how to be a successful writer, he answers quickly: PERSISTENCE!"

[Ebenstone]

Myr, let me know when you need me!

Another nibble on "Winter," making it 10 out of the resubmission flurry of the last 3 months. Not too shabby!

Making SLOW progress on "Sisters" and had some very interesting plot bunnies bouncing around the last few weeks.

[Myrddin]

Myr, let me know when you need me!

heh I'm on chapter... (checks mad spreadsheet) 34 of 53. :) So far, I've only cut 7,200 words in this pass though the manuscript is currently 22,000 shorter than the first draft!! (even after adding some 9,000 new words in the second draft). It's looking like it might hit the 175,000 range by the time I'm done.

If you're chomping at the bit and need some diversion, I can send the first two parts. At the rate I'm working, I'll be done with the last two parts by next week.

[SerNotAppearingOnThisBoard]

Had to take a lot of time off to do grad school apps and prepare for a move, so it took me about two weeks to rewrite two chapters. Each take is getting progressively shorter by fits and starts, and I'm trying to line up more test readers than the one I have.

Still trying to come up with a title for the thing, which is currently being referred to as "A Black Tragicomedy Of Fatal Errors In One, Two, Or Three Parts," which, while an apt description of the style, is throughly unacceptable as a title.

I am now struggling to explain a quantum-mechanics based magic system in a fantasy environment without getting too infodumpy.

[Zoë Sumra]

Shorter chapters are good, as are shorter titles. :D Regarding the quantum mechanical magic system, could you just have magicians using it front and centre for a large chunk of book and then start dribbling in the explanation?

I'm plugging along nicely. Out of my twenty-three chapters and five short framing interludes, all the interludes and ten of the chapters have a large red DONE next to them on the second draft chapter list, and most of the rest only have one or two things to tackle. I've got one chapter with a list of problems twenty lines long, all the more annoying because these aren't problems with the chapter per se but with its new purpose in the book - it's always been a main-plot chapter and I need to add a major subplot event to it, and I'm not quite sure how.

Add to this a list of things that are still wrong with the whole book as a piece, mainly about me failing to add tiny setting details at the right times, and persistent worries about possibly having to junk one of the best chapters in the whole thing because it relates more to what is now book 2 of my split-in-half original than it does to book 1 (there's no place for it in book 2 - it's a pre-event setup), and concerns about how on earth I'm going to introduce the main subplot without this chapter... and that'll be me done. Ish. For now.

[Myrddin]

I'm plugging along nicely. Out of my twenty-three chapters and five short framing interludes, all the interludes and ten of the chapters have a large red DONE next to them on the second draft chapter list...

Fantastic, Elosia!

As for the problematic chapter, have you thought about just scrapping what you have and create a new chapter based on its new story needs? Sometimes trying to retro fit an existing chapter is more trouble than its worth.

[Zoë Sumra]

As for the problematic chapter, have you thought about just scrapping what you have and create a new chapter based on its new story needs? Sometimes trying to retro fit an existing chapter is more trouble than its worth.

Am considering doing so - at a minimum, I'm likely to scrap/rewrite the second half of the chapter while keeping the first half. I'm still weighing up whether protagonist + hapless friend should encounter the subplot event while running away from something they're already running away from, i.e. keeping the chapter premise the same and allowing the characters' actions up to that point to stand; or whether I should, essentially, think of a completely different premise for the chapter that would allow the subplot event to be more thoroughly embedded into it - the problem there is that if protagonist + friend had noticed this subplot event was about to happen, they sure as hell wouldn't have stayed around long enough to watch...

I'll probably work out a solution at 2am or something. Notebook next to bed = extremely useful.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Is there still a writer's forum? I remember the old board used to have a link to it. I'd like to get feedback on my prologue. Would we be better off with a thread here for people to post sample stuff and get feedback on it? Maybe a separate subforum?

[SerNotAppearingOnThisBoard]

Shorter chapters are good, as are shorter titles. :D Regarding the quantum mechanical magic system, could you just have magicians using it front and centre for a large chunk of book and then start dribbling in the explanation?

Whee! Finished that chapter. Might be the clumsiest I've written so far, and it reads like a philosophy lecture, but I got the metaphysics laid out and it's shorter than its previous incarnation by about 300 words. I can come back to it later. There's three successive chapters that need to be cleaned up while still communicating the important information. It had to be at least pseudo-communicated up front because once the Big Bad succeeds in bringing a dead god back to life (the metaphysics are a bit complicated), things change and "magic" no longer works the way it did.

I'm also working on a short story, a flash fiction piece, and a lighter, fluffier novel about a guy who gets attacked by ghosts who come through his bookcase. Started that yesterday, and I already have about 5000 words on it. :)

[kuenjato]

Is there still a writer's forum? I remember the old board used to have a link to it. I'd like to get feedback on my prologue. Would we be better off with a thread here for people to post sample stuff and get feedback on it? Maybe a separate subforum?

I'm curious about this, as well. I joined way back in the beginning of 2008 but haven't been there in ages, don't remember the URL or my password for that matter. I looked about and don't see a link on the main forum index... ?

It would be nice to see some of the work we read about second-hand/summarized on these threads...

[Zoë Sumra]

The writing board is here.

[Derfel Cadarn]

The writing board is here.

That forum looks like it's been dead for a while. I've sent a PM to Ran asking for a subforum for the Literature section where we can post stuff. *fingers crossed*

[Derfel Cadarn]

duplicate post

[Zoë Sumra]

That forum looks like it's been dead for a while. I've sent a PM to Ran asking for a subforum for the Literature section where we can post stuff. *fingers crossed*

The writing section of the writers' board is locked, members only. If we had a subforum here, it would have to be locked in order for those of us who are aiming for publication to use it (for our publication-intended works). Time, and Ran, will tell us whether that is possible.

[Starkess]

Gah, falling behind again. But I'll make it up, definitely going to write TONIGHT.

Also got a couple short story ideas that I'm going to start on, which is weird for me. I never want to write short stories, but these just kind of popped in. Both terribly depressing, but hey, yay for writing!

[Alaerien]

I'd be up for trying to revive the writers' group or making a new one. I'm knocking out chapters on both of my projects (urban fantasy rewrite, epic fantasy rewrite) at a fair old pace right now, and my critique partner is taking a beating :P - it would be nice to have other critiquers.

[Zoë Sumra]

Probably more sensible to make a concerted effort to revive the forum we already have instead of going to the effort of establishing another one.

Fifteen chapters "done" in second draft; eight to go. *beetles back to pretending to work while tweaking book*

[Myrddin]

Probably more sensible to make a concerted effort to revive the forum we already have instead of going to the effort of establishing another one.

This.

I'm not active there, because I'm very active in a crit group I've been in for almost 5 years.

To get the BWB group going only needs 2 or 3 determined people. Once it gets going, it'll be easier to continue, since then less active people can flow in and out to fill out the lows of others.