toddhunter
Member
I've finished up what could be the first novel but I'm not sure what to make of it just yet. I think I'll need to keep writing and see where it goes.
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Writing-GAF: Writing, Publishing, Selling |OT|
- Thread starter AngmarsKing701
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AngmarsKing701
Member
Bravo! Love the cover too. It's very classy. I also really like the premise. Seems like it might be something quite cool to read to your kids. A bit in there for your boys?Keep us posted on how it goes. Your task for this week for that book is to post it on/sign it up on at least 1 advertising site like Awesomegang, or Pretty-Hot, etc. Every week you'll have to do another, FYI.
On to book #2!
Thanks! I went through A LOT of Canva pictures before I came across that one. If you're reading it to kids, you might want to pre-read. There's some violence and unpleasant scenes in there. It's coming of age, but it's coming of age in a crumbling post-Roman world. Shit does hit the fan.
And thanks for the reminder on advertising. I just signed up for an Awesomegang free ad.
Oh, and I'm 2100 words into book 2, Knight Ardent.
Onward and upward. I'll ride this wave as long as it's going well.
music is easy to listen to while doing other things and movies and games stimulate more senses than books do thus people tend to prefer them over books.
i know personally my ratio of games and tv shows compared to books I read is way skewed towards games and tv shows.
Though I know I am an odd case where I enjoy writing, but I am not a huge fan of reading.
Sounds interesting, purchased. Congrats on finishing, you're really inspiring me to keep plugging away.
The last couple of days I've been tired and finished the day a few hundred short of 1k, but every little bit helps and I did give birth less than two weeks ago. I'm at the point where I'm pretty sure everything I've written is absolute crap and I'm wondering why I ever thought I could write a cozy mystery. I keep telling myself that this is just a way for me to get back into the routine of writing and that it's a nice way for me to try something new with a different pen name so no pressure.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Thanks! I'm glad I'm inspiring you, but you writing after giving birth two weeks ago should be inspiring everyone in this thread!
Wrote 1300 words today. I figured out who I want to be the killer, which is amusing since I'm 25k in and you'd think I'd already know that. It's going to be interesting reading back on this. Now I'm going to try and get a mailing list set up, I'm using mailchimp since it's what I'm most familiar with.
tiggerkiddo
Member
Gonna try my hand at short stories for a bit. Might be a decent way of improving my writing rather than just writing long novels.
FlowersisBritish
fleurs n'est pas britannique
Might wanna check out The Creative Writing Challenges if you're interested in short story writing. No pressure to join if you don't want, I just find them a good way to make sure I'm writing consistently. And if you're ever at a loss of something to write, you can check out the previous challenges and use one of the old prompts. Also, if you're confused about what's going on in this challenge, don't worry so is everyone else.
Contemporary M/M is worth getting into if you can nail the tropes (Rockstar/Bodyguard, May-December, bestfriend's brother etc.)
Not sure if it has anything to do current uncertainty that's going on in America, but i'm seeing big spikes in this genre. Gay romance has always had a low profitability ceiling compared to straight or bi, but it seems like that's changing.
Personal opinion obviously, but I think if you want to get better at writing novels, you need to write more novels, and vice versa. They're two different skill sets.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Contemporary M/M is worth getting into if you can nail the tropes (Rockstar/Bodyguard, May-December, bestfriend's brother etc.)
Not sure if it has anything to do current uncertainty that's going on in America, but i'm seeing big spikes in this genre. Gay romance has always had a low profitability ceiling compared to straight or bi, but it seems like that's changing.
That's really nice to know considering I storyplan a lot of Gay romance.
so maybe you shift a bit for the market you are going for?
I mean it's not that hard to shift a yuri school romance to college instead, especially since in america it's more likely for students to have crazy after school clubs in college than most high schools. (at least for me all my high school clubs were like math and choir... in college we had anime club, and fencing and broomball and cooking ect
)I mean if you really want some high school stuff you could even do a flashback when the character was 18 and a senior in highschool
though at the end of the day... I would just recommend writing and finishing something... and not screwing up your teeth... as it is super distracting to plotting when you have constant pain in your mouth
i am gonna still have to do my best to finish my challenge sunday night.... I really thought I was going to run a lot longer than the 1.8k words for that but I think I might be able to get it done without any editing the first time for that goal to complete the little story I am doing lol. (aka I am at 900 words and a little over halfway done with what I want to say in it)
tiggerkiddo
Member
Tough to say, I like writing a decent length story but I don't like feeling trapped to it for too long and like the freedom to write other stuff at times.
Writing-GAF, I need some advice:
About how long do you think it should take to write a short story from first draft to ready for publication? I'm considering entering some short story contests. One has a hard deadline at the end of the month and one is from a magazine with open submissions for stories. That one with the hard deadline is 2,000-4,000 words and the one from the magazine is 5,000+ words.
Word count is not an issue for me, but I just want to make sure that I'm giving myself enough time to get the work done properly. I know that everyone works differently. I guess what I'm asking is how much time I should allow myself for outlining, drafts, etc. and how much time you guys spend working on those same things when writing short stories.
Thanks very much in advance for any help you can give me.
About how long do you think it should take to write a short story from first draft to ready for publication? I'm considering entering some short story contests. One has a hard deadline at the end of the month and one is from a magazine with open submissions for stories. That one with the hard deadline is 2,000-4,000 words and the one from the magazine is 5,000+ words.
Word count is not an issue for me, but I just want to make sure that I'm giving myself enough time to get the work done properly. I know that everyone works differently. I guess what I'm asking is how much time I should allow myself for outlining, drafts, etc. and how much time you guys spend working on those same things when writing short stories.
Thanks very much in advance for any help you can give me.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Normally my edits are to cut all the bullshit because I over explain, but in this book I almost feel like I under explained. It's hard to tell what to do :X First two chapters I added about as much as I cut, and only now am I actually cutting stuff and not adding back. But I'm wondering if I should add more descriptions.
I don't want to fall into the Ernest Cline trap of figuring people know what shit looks like because they played with the toys and lol nostalgia, since this is not that kind of book.
I don't want to fall into the Ernest Cline trap of figuring people know what shit looks like because they played with the toys and lol nostalgia, since this is not that kind of book.
FlowersisBritish
fleurs n'est pas britannique
Having this weird problem. I got a bit of advice on this story I'm editing with the hopes of sending out hopefully this week. For a relatively short flashback scene (less than a page, but two decent paragraphs in length) to use past-perfect tense but if I do, then the only way I can think about it is then to have all the sentences use 'had' and that gets repetitive real quick. Might ignore their advice, as it is clear this is a flashback I think, but still ruminating on it.
The scene bellow incase anyone wants to see it in past-perfect and maybe give me some advice on how to handle this?
The scene bellow incase anyone wants to see it in past-perfect and maybe give me some advice on how to handle this?
i can totally get that.
for me I will just go through and completely rewrite early stuff with my updated style from time to time.
I imagine that for a lot of people that is a big waste of time though. it becomes a necessity for me from time to time as with the grand scale of my project I love setting up things early on for stuff much later, and sometimes when I get to the much later things don't quite go the way I had planned, thus the need to redo some early scenes. I could just fix the scenes in question but typically a full update just feels better to me.
edit: yay a productive night. i doubled my progress for the year by writing about 3k words (it hasn't been a good year so far) but I think I have found a groove again so that is nice. but I am sleepy so I must stop. here's hoping I can continue when I get up.
The Horror the horror
Banned
Are there any good books or references guiding new authors on the business side of things, specifically marketing a book, choosing how to sell it/where/and for how much etc. etc.
Traditional publishing or self publishing?
The Horror the horror
Banned
Chris Fox has some good books. I've only read his Write to Market one but it had a lot of good info.
https://smile.amazon.com/Chris-Fox/e/B00OXCKD2G/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
oof, that's a big subject. Not many indie-authors like to talk about marketing strategies, but it pretty much boils down to two things—self-promotion through social media and paid ads.
The first is harder than you think. You'll need to engage with readers in a friendly and authentic manner without coming across as a greasy salesman. That's hard when selling books is your ultimate goal, and everyone has their own way of approaching it.
You can join facebook groups, subreddits and goodread communities that revolve around your chosen genre. Build some relationships, engage in discussions and give some recommendations of other good books. Try to be as transparent as possible about your intentions. Once you've built a decent rep, get as many ARC readers as possible. They're going to be your main pushers when it comes to day-1 reviews on Amazon, which is important if you're a new author in need of visibility. Don't underestimate the power of social media, word-of-mouth can snowball pretty quickly with a dedicated fanbase.
Paid ads is simple, but expensive. Facebook ads, AMS, Fiverr, Bookbub etc. Competitive genres generally require a shit-ton of advertising. It's not unheard of to spend $2000-$3000 in ads to get your book ranked in contemporary romance, which is why I advocate writing in smaller, easier to break into niches.
There's probably a million other things to talk about but you'll have to do your own research. Kboards is a good resource if you can filter out the negativity, and there are some excellent subreddits for writers (r/eroticauthors is one of them). Search for my previous posts too.
Disclaimer: I don't recall what past-perfect is. But imo those hads are terrible and need to go. I think it's clear it's a flashback.
I've been having a tough time even starting to write the novel I want to do, because every time I start, I get hung up on key worldbuilding aspects vital to the story.
These include:
I want Runic to be this universe's equivalent of Assembly/Machine Code, as it's a low-level language upon which all other matrix languages in the universe base their "compilers" on.
The difficulty comes in two parts:
1) What makes sense as a practical translation of Assembly to Runic
2) How to make this both accessible for an audience and still relay the very technical theme of the universe
Hell, I even plan on including various examples of Runic in-text so as to illustrate what the characters grapple with in their day to day and attempt to make it a natural learning experience, of a sort.
I feel like I'm making my job harder than it should be.
TL;DR: My brain works in weird ways and I might need help.
These include:
- The Runic in-universe matrix language (basically a magic programming language)
- How matrix compilers interact with the language
- Creating theories and postulates that both make sense for the mathematics in this universe, and fit into the practical design of Runic
I want Runic to be this universe's equivalent of Assembly/Machine Code, as it's a low-level language upon which all other matrix languages in the universe base their "compilers" on.
The difficulty comes in two parts:
1) What makes sense as a practical translation of Assembly to Runic
2) How to make this both accessible for an audience and still relay the very technical theme of the universe
Hell, I even plan on including various examples of Runic in-text so as to illustrate what the characters grapple with in their day to day and attempt to make it a natural learning experience, of a sort.
I feel like I'm making my job harder than it should be.
TL;DR: My brain works in weird ways and I might need help.
I think past perfect is fine, but the line below was kinda wonky:
the bolded should be changed to past perfect as well imo, so like 'she'd not been able to sleep' or something. And if readers find all the hads repetitive, you could just break up its repetition by contracting a few (as in, "he had" to "he'd").
First, advise i don't actually follow myself but is apparently pretty common and good advise, paraphrased: Write first, then think.
Worldbuilding without book is not visible. Surprisingly large amount of worldbuilding is just a matter or variables that do not necessarily change anything as things may depend on ratios.
You can fit the language into placeholder sections later. And you'll have better idea what you need and how much you need it.
Of course, worldbuilding in itself is interesting, whether or not one ever intends to publish, so don't take this as discouragement about doing any worldbuilding. (As i say, i don't follow this advise and i'm basically stuck to worldbuilding and concepting.)
Second, advise about conlangs (and programming languages are arguably included).
Atomic Rocket, while being a scifi author resource, has things that are applicable to fantasy. Namely, the page about languages. Read it, it might have some pointers, ideas, or something useful. And take a look at the other pages as well, there is advise that is valid for all genres. Loijban may be the biggest thing, as that language basically doubles as a programming language, or something like that.
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/futurelang.php
Also, TV Tropes link for examples in other fiction. Maybe the page or the examples might give you pointers, all fiction borrows from others heavily anyway.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConLang
EDIT Oh, and i think the concept of magical programming language is interesting. That said, an interesting concept will need interesting characters and interesting ways to introduce it, or it will fall flat on its face.
And since it is about magic, this Brandon Sanderson's essay on limits on magic may be interesting read. And relevant, because programming-language-magic is almost certainly heavily limited, "hard"-form of magic.
http://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/
http://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-second-law/
http://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-third-law-of-magic/
*wrote a masturbation joke scene last night that needs to be changed it was just filling the gap*
*reads it today*
damn it... it's actually not horrible lol.
anyone just make up something stupid recently and when you get back to it realize that you could make it work if you wanted to?
*reads it today*
damn it... it's actually not horrible lol.
anyone just make up something stupid recently and when you get back to it realize that you could make it work if you wanted to?
tiggerkiddo
Member
Those Sanderson laws on magic are an interesting read and now it makes me want to go back and define how magic works in my world a bit better.
I was (had been lol) recalling something I'd read, I looked it up. From Stein on Writing by Sol Stein:
Maybe past perfect is clearer and more exact, because the flashback is so short? Maybe yours are the circumstances it's suitable to use it. But I would still try to find a way around it.
FlowersisBritish
fleurs n'est pas britannique
Thanks Mu! That excerpt was the most helpful bit of advice I think I got on the subject!
I'd take that as a good sign? Or rather take what victories you can get.
I'd take that as a good sign? Or rather take what victories you can get.
Mm. This is helpful advice, thanks.
I guess my problem is, more or less, that languages such as Runic are integral to the story itself, seeing as each of the three main characters has some form of in-universe engineering background, or an interest in such fields, and thus much of the language that's established by the time the story begins changes shape over the course of the whole novel as the characters discover new principles, new theorems, new postulates.
So writing now without that foundation set firmly in place seems--at least to me--counterproductive. The writer in my wants to go ahead and write the damn thing, but the computer scientist in me says that the language(s) need to be, at the very least, rudimentary before I begin.
Language syntax needs to be in place and understood by all parties, both audience and characters.
How matrix language works needs to be understandable and functional, in-universe.
Et cetera, et cetera.
I'm at a really strange crossroads, to be honest.
But I'll try working out the kinks and simply start writing, since there are large parts of the story not necessarily dependent on the reader's ability to understand the magic system.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Figured I'd post a quick writing challenge update. I'm 10.5K into novella #2.
You're doing great! I'm going to live vicariously through you lol
My son has been waking up every hour at night to be fed and I've just been too tired during the day to write. The most I'm getting done is writing in my hobonichi each day and writing blog posts about the movies I watch while breastfeeding. I'm only able to manage those because I keep them short.
I'm so close to finishing the first novella if I could sit down and crank out a couple thousand words I'd be done. It helps to be able to think coherently though. I'm hoping when he's six weeks things will get better, but we'll see.
Valdfellgar
Banned
I'm almost ready to see what Beta-Readers think of my novel
I plan on asking on facebook, but I think I read before there's a ReadingGAF and it's okay to check in with that group to see if anyone is interested?
If so, does anyone also know some other communities that might provide test readers? I'm hoping to find 5-10 people to give it a once through.
Just finishing touch ups to the final chapters.
If so, does anyone also know some other communities that might provide test readers? I'm hoping to find 5-10 people to give it a once through.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
I"ve cut almost 2k words out of the first sixty pages of my book because I am scum.
Took out an entire action sequence in chapter 9. It sucked and did nothing for the plot, but mostly it sucked and it was easier to delete it than fix it.
Took out an entire action sequence in chapter 9. It sucked and did nothing for the plot, but mostly it sucked and it was easier to delete it than fix it.
Saw this floating around on reddit.
http://describingwords.io
Insanely useful tool for my non-native english speaking bros.
http://describingwords.io
Insanely useful tool for my non-native english speaking bros.
FlowersisBritish
fleurs n'est pas britannique
So I guess good news? By bar of quality has risen and it feels good! I finished up work on a really good short story that my roommate/best friend (And also the harshest critic I know, once they made me cry ;_ said a lot of parts of it were amazing. So that feels really nice, to just feel like my general skill level has gone up. Now the trick is to more consistently hit that bar. Also planning to try and change how I create stories for a bit, so i hope that doesn't actually fuck me :<
Anyway we were talking about descriptions and they showed me this really cool thing I wanted to share. Its about Description Order and in what way words have to be for a description to make sense.
Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Color, Origin, Material, Purpose, Noun
Lovely, little, old, rectangular, green, French, silver, whittling knife
said a lot of parts of it were amazing. So that feels really nice, to just feel like my general skill level has gone up. Now the trick is to more consistently hit that bar. Also planning to try and change how I create stories for a bit, so i hope that doesn't actually fuck me :<Anyway we were talking about descriptions and they showed me this really cool thing I wanted to share. Its about Description Order and in what way words have to be for a description to make sense.
Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Color, Origin, Material, Purpose, Noun
Lovely, little, old, rectangular, green, French, silver, whittling knife
FlowersisBritish
fleurs n'est pas britannique
Obviously anything that long will suck, but try three descriptors and a noun in that order and it sounds fine.
Edit: so things like pristine, steel, parying dagger or thick, red, construction paper or long, black, French braid.
Edit: so things like pristine, steel, parying dagger or thick, red, construction paper or long, black, French braid.
NipplesAndToes23
Member
I finally managed to write a few pages yesterday after a year of not writing shit. Thank you so much to the member who told me I could try just skipping over my current place in the part. If I didn't consider that then I might still be stuck right now.
I'm about to leave the house and go write some more today. Maybe I can finally finish this book, then edit it and start looking for publishers again.
I'm about to leave the house and go write some more today. Maybe I can finally finish this book, then edit it and start looking for publishers again.
Statue of Limitation
Member
Would this be the correct place to advertise a creatvie writing blog or is that over-stepping the sites rules on self promotion? I'd welcome new readers/more feedback, would it better to just post the entry in the thread?
Vincent Alexander
Member
Wrote some more a few days ago, and ended my writing session feeling like "Damn. That is good stuff." Today, I'm writing and can't help but feel like everything I'm putting down is a huge pile of crap. Kind of funny how wildly that feeling swings from one extreme to the other.
Valdfellgar
Banned
I expressed similar feeling to a friend yesterday and he commented that most creative types he knows are exactly alike in that regard constantly jumping between the heights of a swelled ego and the precipice of utter defeat.