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Oct 25, 2017
6,375
What's everyone New Years resolutions writing wise?

For me, I really wanna finish a draft of this horror novel, get beta readers, and actually begin the process of sending this out to agents. Also maybe self publish a short story collection. I want to be ambitious this year.
 

Timu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,537
What's everyone New Years resolutions writing wise?

For me, I really wanna finish a draft of this horror novel, get beta readers, and actually begin the process of sending this out to agents. Also maybe self publish a short story collection. I want to be ambitious this year.
Finally writing a horror novel about dinosaurs!
 

riverfr0zen

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,164
Manhattan, New York
Gonna try to finish what might be a novella and see if any journals/zines will publish it (I've never actively sought to get published, so it will be a new bunch of things to discover/learn).

EDIT: Oh, I have also been working on a poetry visualization project I'm pretty excited about, and I hope to share when it is ready.
 
Oct 26, 2017
1,220
What's everyone New Years resolutions writing wise?

For me, I really wanna finish a draft of this horror novel, get beta readers, and actually begin the process of sending this out to agents. Also maybe self publish a short story collection. I want to be ambitious this year.
Finish this 268 page comic!

I'm at page 139 right now!

I would like to finish it by end of May because that's when the Ignatz comic awards ballot is open but either way, I have plenty of comic to be judged upon

After that, I want to do a small personal zine before I tackle my next long form comic (already know what it is)

Planning on submitting my comic to at least 2 hopeful publishers
 

MilkBeard

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,778
What's everyone New Years resolutions writing wise?

For me, I really wanna finish a draft of this horror novel, get beta readers, and actually begin the process of sending this out to agents. Also maybe self publish a short story collection. I want to be ambitious this year.
Nice goals, and I think they are doable.

I took a little break after NaNo to focus on some other important things.

But I plan to focus on finishing this novel (one chapter left, give or take). Then enter draft improvement mode, adding any parts the novel is missing, rewriting sections, cutting excess, and then focusing on finetuning the prose. Hopefully by mid-2024 I'll have a workable manuscript that is ready to advance (feedback, perhaps even sending to agents).

Also, I want to finish a particular short story and get it polished enough to submit to a literary mag.
 
Oct 29, 2017
5,285
Minnesota
What's everyone New Years resolutions writing wise?

For me, I really wanna finish a draft of this horror novel, get beta readers, and actually begin the process of sending this out to agents. Also maybe self publish a short story collection. I want to be ambitious this year.
Want to finally shop around the Dead Cats book. See how things feel in the spring. I'd like to start novel #6 at some point, but finding the energy has been difficult.
 

s3v3n.s3v3n

Member
Dec 27, 2023
5
Hi, I want to join the Creative Writing, I am new to this site and still trying to figure out how everything works.
 

Grudy

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,643
Hi, I want to join the Creative Writing, I am new to this site and still trying to figure out how everything works.
good news, you found it :P

There's usually this thread for general writing and progress updates and questions from members and we have separate threads for a monthly creative writing short story challenge (CWC), you can find the latest one here. We try to encourage people to participate! The only hard rule is the word count (usually ~5k) and to maintain a supportive vibe. It's a good way to get feedback on your writing too. The December challenge is just wrapping up so a new thread will be created soon with a new theme for January.

There used to be poetry threads but RIP.

A bunch of us are active on discord too. There's a link somewhere in the OP.
 

DragonKeeper

Member
Nov 14, 2017
1,586
I've set up a schedule for writing and art and my resolution is to follow it and hopefully finish at least book one of my little project before fall...and find somebody actually willing to read it. Seriously, who do I have to bribe to get feedback? I understand Star Wars + fanfic sends people running for the hills but I'm getting desperate.
 

Grudy

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,643
I've set up a schedule for writing and art and my resolution is to follow it and hopefully finish at least book one of my little project before fall...and find somebody actually willing to read it. Seriously, who do I have to bribe to get feedback? I understand Star Wars + fanfic sends people running for the hills but I'm getting desperate.
Other people who write star wars fanfic is a good start. Otherwise, exchange.

I guess fanfic is trickier because you need the other person to have some basic understanding of what the fanfic covers?
 

DragonKeeper

Member
Nov 14, 2017
1,586
Other people who write star wars fanfic is a good start. Otherwise, exchange.

I guess fanfic is trickier because you need the other person to have some basic understanding of what the fanfic covers?
One of my writing goals is to meet two criteria. 1) write each chapter of book one so they work as "lost episodes" of The Clone Wars animated series and criteria 2) is to write so you don't need to know a damn thing about Star Wars (including The Clone Wars) to understand and enjoy the story. I myself am not a Star Wars fan. So it's Star Wars fanfic aiming to be (space adventure) science fiction without the baggage. Or at least too much baggage. Thus my need for feedback since this is a tough goal to hit in a vacuum.
 

zulux21

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,342
What's everyone New Years resolutions writing wise?

For me, I really wanna finish a draft of this horror novel, get beta readers, and actually begin the process of sending this out to agents. Also maybe self publish a short story collection. I want to be ambitious this year.
Maybe write a few words that I don't hate.
Maybe write a few other words that someone else likes.

You know... the dream :P
 

s3v3n.s3v3n

Member
Dec 27, 2023
5
good news, you found it :P

There's usually this thread for general writing and progress updates and questions from members and we have separate threads for a monthly creative writing short story challenge (CWC), you can find the latest one here. We try to encourage people to participate! The only hard rule is the word count (usually ~5k) and to maintain a supportive vibe. It's a good way to get feedback on your writing too. The December challenge is just wrapping up so a new thread will be created soon with a new theme for January.

There used to be poetry threads but RIP.

A bunch of us are active on discord too. There's a link somewhere in the OP.
TYSM!!!!
 
Oct 29, 2017
5,285
Minnesota
I've set up a schedule for writing and art and my resolution is to follow it and hopefully finish at least book one of my little project before fall...and find somebody actually willing to read it. Seriously, who do I have to bribe to get feedback? I understand Star Wars + fanfic sends people running for the hills but I'm getting desperate.
I'll at least give the first chapter a read for you, when you are ready. If I can read my friend's star wars smut and give feedback, I can read yours :P

Please limit the Sebulba x Watto sex scene to like, two pages tho. And don't make me rewrite it for you because you did a bad job. I can only describe so many Toidarian dicks in one lifetime
 

DragonKeeper

Member
Nov 14, 2017
1,586
I'll at least give the first chapter a read for you, when you are ready. If I can read my friend's star wars smut and give feedback, I can read yours :P

Please limit the Sebulba x Watto sex scene to like, two pages tho. And don't make me rewrite it for you because you did a bad job. I can only describe so many Toidarian dicks in one lifetime
Heh, good news, there are no sex scenes in my story...or is that a bad thing?
 

BlackJace

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
5,450
What's everyone New Years resolutions writing wise?

For me, I really wanna finish a draft of this horror novel, get beta readers, and actually begin the process of sending this out to agents. Also maybe self publish a short story collection. I want to be ambitious this year.
Finish this novel I'm about 60% done with. Now that I'm done with school, there's no excuse!
 

Hattoto

Member
Jun 26, 2020
752
Good luck to those reaching their writing goals for 2024!

I'm around 260 pages into my novel. Another 250 pages to go.
 

Run Goku

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,141
Somehow I didn't realize this thread existed! What a nice find.

I published one novel in 2021 (nautical horror) and have been trying to get a few reviews ever since. I'd post the details here, but I thought I should check about self-promotion first. Is that generally allowed within the community thread?

Also, do we have a definitive list of Era authors with published books? I see two in the OP, but that can't be everyone! I would love to start reading through what the community has produced and helping out with reviews.
 
OP
OP
weemadarthur

weemadarthur

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,588
Somehow I didn't realize this thread existed! What a nice find.

I published one novel in 2021 (nautical horror) and have been trying to get a few reviews ever since. I'd post the details here, but I thought I should check about self-promotion first. Is that generally allowed within the community thread?

Also, do we have a definitive list of Era authors with published books? I see two in the OP, but that can't be everyone! I would love to start reading through what the community has produced and helping out with reviews.
This thread's threadmarks are the place to find each author's Mod Staff Approved self promo post from this thread. If you make one, please maintain your post when you publish new works. I'll threadmark it when I see it but if you want reassurance you can at me.
 

Run Goku

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,141
This thread's threadmarks are the place to find each author's Mod Staff Approved self promo post from this thread. If you make one, please maintain your post when you publish new works. I'll threadmark it when I see it but if you want reassurance you can at me.

Thanks! I'll put together a post in the next couple of days.
 

InfinityDOK

Member
Dec 3, 2018
2,590
So finished the 2nd draft of my novel. On to my third draft, after that I will probably share with others for feedback. Anyone know how to find Beta Readers, not ready quite yet, but want to know where to look.
 
Oct 25, 2017
6,375
Did a really half assed end to my nano novel and honestly I keep going back and forth about whether or not I'll come back to this, but the last stretch really falls apart in the end. I'm trying not to be too harsh on myself, afterall I did finish my first novel over the course of three different long writing periods but still its been a long while since I've kinda given up on a book.

I dunno, I'm just feeling down on myself a bit writing wise I think.
 

Timu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,537
Yep, looks like I'm going with my action horror dinosaur novel for this year which would be interesting as it'll be the 1st time I would ever do a horror novel and a full one with dinosaurs as well. It seems like it's a mix of JP3 and TLW:JP though with a ton of differences and it'll focus a lot on the characters and balance it out with lots of dinosaur action.

It still has a working title but it looks to have the word "escape" in the title considering the plot revolves around it. But yeah I'm excited to write this in November and at least it's different from the usual comedies/dramas I been doing for the past few years.
 
Oct 25, 2017
6,375
Yep, looks like I'm going with my action horror dinosaur novel for this year which would be interesting as it'll be the 1st time I would ever do a horror novel and a full one with dinosaurs as well. It seems like it's a mix of JP3 and TLW:JP though with a ton of differences and it'll focus a lot on the characters and balance it out with lots of dinosaur action.

It still has a working title but it looks to have the word "escape" in the title considering the plot revolves around it. But yeah I'm excited to write this in November and at least it's different from the usual comedies/dramas I been doing for the past few years.

My first thought was maybe having the word Crisis in there. Lord knows there's nothing recent coming out with dinosaur AND crisis together in the title....
 

Timu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,537
My first thought was maybe having the word Crisis in there. Lord knows there's nothing recent coming out with dinosaur AND crisis together in the title....
Ha, I see what you did there! It'll have a redhead at least!

But yeah I'm really excited to write this one as I feel it'll be one of the most interesting novels I would do in terms of concept for mixing varied characters with dinosaur action and horror.
 

Run_64bit

Member
Oct 28, 2017
216
Popping in here to say that I got my first full manuscript request from an agent today. Even if it doesn't go anywhere, it's a much-needed shot in the arm for my writing motivation (and life in general, lol).

Some stats for those who might be interested:
This is the fourth book I've queried (out of five full novels that I've written). For the previous three queried books, I submitted to about 50-75 agents each time before moving on to the next one. For the first book, I got zero requests; for the second, I got one partial request; for the third, I got one partial, and now for this latest, I have one full (out of six queries so far). For those going through this process or thinking about starting, I would say to practice with a book even if you don't think it's "good enough." I've gotten MUCH smarter with my query structure/content, targeting specific agents, and understanding how to interpret any feedback I receive. All of this has taken place over about five years, so it's been a grind full of LOTS of rejections, but writing short stories and other projects has kept me sane, engaged, and working towards improving. Thanks to any here who have read some of my stories and given feedback.
 
Oct 29, 2017
5,285
Minnesota
Popping in here to say that I got my first full manuscript request from an agent today. Even if it doesn't go anywhere, it's a much-needed shot in the arm for my writing motivation (and life in general, lol).

Some stats for those who might be interested:
This is the fourth book I've queried (out of five full novels that I've written). For the previous three queried books, I submitted to about 50-75 agents each time before moving on to the next one. For the first book, I got zero requests; for the second, I got one partial request; for the third, I got one partial, and now for this latest, I have one full (out of six queries so far). For those going through this process or thinking about starting, I would say to practice with a book even if you don't think it's "good enough." I've gotten MUCH smarter with my query structure/content, targeting specific agents, and understanding how to interpret any feedback I receive. All of this has taken place over about five years, so it's been a grind full of LOTS of rejections, but writing short stories and other projects has kept me sane, engaged, and working towards improving. Thanks to any here who have read some of my stories and given feedback.
Salute to you! I'm about to start my fifth novel's worth of query letters, which will probably be between 50 and 75 before I lose hope. Shit fucking sucks. literally the worst thing you can do to yourself.
 

Run_64bit

Member
Oct 28, 2017
216
Salute to you! I'm about to start my fifth novel's worth of query letters, which will probably be between 50 and 75 before I lose hope. Shit fucking sucks. literally the worst thing you can do to yourself.

Yeah, it's gotten to the point where I dread clicking on query replies because I know what's coming. And yet…I keep sending them out…

I suppose that flutter of hope that comes when you initially hit send is enough lol.
 

Figments

Spencer’s little helper
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,292
California
would it be okay to self-promo a webnovel i'm working on? just released the opening chapter with the second one on its way real quick and wanted to know, esp since it's less of a completed work and more of something i'm releasing chapter by chapter for free
 
OP
OP
weemadarthur

weemadarthur

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,588
You can put whatever you want in your author promo post here, but if you can figure out a way to include a dynamic link to the most recent post, that might be good? Also keep it up to date.
 
Figments’ Published Works List

Figments

Spencer’s little helper
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,292
California
hey y'all, just released the first chapter of a new webnovel called The Chronicles of Ashtree Lane. it's published on Offprint as well as Scribblehub (and potentially Wattpad in the future), with up to three days delay on new chapters for non-Offprint platforms. since i, uh, built Offprint.

this is big for me, since the last time i released anything was years ago and i just ... haven't been in a real writing mood since. but inspiration struck pretty fast with this one, and i'm really glad it did.

check it out below:

rcbnTpv.png


Grace is just a normal teenage girl, except for the part where she can't die.

Seeking to end the curse trapping her in an endless cycle of resurrection, she heads to the town of Ashtree Lane and finds hope in Margaret "Maggie" Watson, estranged archmage of the Sisters of the Mourning Sun. Now with Maggie's help, Grace finally feels like her time among the living is getting closer to its end.

Unfortunately for her, there's just a few things she needs to take care of first.

if you're interested in reading, use these links:

Offprint: https://offprint.cafe/work/1i9JhnStKY/the-chronicles-of-ashtree-lane
Scribblehub: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/999187/the-chronicles-of-ashtree-lane/
Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/story/362728136-the-chronicles-of-ashtree-lane

i'll be updating this post with new chapter postings as well as any potential new links to the story, so please stay tuned!

[FIRST POSTED] 02/11/2024
 
Last edited:
Oct 25, 2017
6,375
Some folks in another Writing Discord I'm a part of posted this pitching fest so I thought I would share. I dont have anything edited enough to pitch, but if anyone wants thoughts on their pitches they shouldn't be afraid to share.

All about Pitchfest!

 

Twohearts

Member
Feb 8, 2024
357
Straya
We mostly write plural fanfiction around the theme of littles, because of how big a part of our life it is, but we're in the planning stages of a mystery novel idea we got when watching old star trek episodes, and I want to work on a screenplay for a romcom where one of the romantic leads has DID, to finally tell a story about someone with DID with a happy ending that doens't revolve around becoming one person
 

JaseMath

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,359
Denver, CO
Question for WriterEra.

I've recently finished my debut novel, about which I'm extremely proud (and excited!). That said, I realize querying will take time and (more likely) not amount to anything. They don't call it the rejection process for nothing, right?

Anyway... two questions. The first is around the viability of self-publishing while querying. Is this a good idea? Or should self-publishing be considered a last resort in the event that my manuscript attracts no interest? I mean no offense with this question as I truly don't know. People self-publish for many reasons, some of which that have nothing to do with the latter.

The second question has to do with ongoing motivation and imposter syndrome. Writing is a time-consuming and arduous venture, and while the work is its own reward, no one writes in a vacuum. What I mean is, we all want our work to be appreciated by others. That said—and coupled with the dozens of rejections I'm likely to get (see above)—how do you all stay motivated to continue the craft when others don't seem to be excited about your work?
 

Twohearts

Member
Feb 8, 2024
357
Straya
Question for WriterEra.

I've recently finished my debut novel, about which I'm extremely proud (and excited!). That said, I realize querying will take time and (more likely) not amount to anything. They don't call it the rejection process for nothing, right?

Anyway... two questions. The first is around the viability of self-publishing while querying. Is this a good idea? Or should self-publishing be considered a last resort in the event that my manuscript attracts no interest? I mean no offense with this question as I truly don't know. People self-publish for many reasons, some of which that have nothing to do with the former.

The second question has to do with ongoing motivation and imposter syndrome. Writing is a time-consuming and arduous venture, and while the work is its own reward, no one writes in a vacuum. What I mean is, we all want our work to be appreciated by others. That said—and coupled with the dozens of rejections I'm likely to get (see above)—how do you all stay motivated to continue the craft when others don't seem to be excited about your work?

I can't answer the fisrt, but as for the second, I show my writing to people, friends, family, people I know and like, and ask them to read bits, at the last on the times when I've gotten furhter than 1 chapter into a novel idea. Personally, I prefer uploading things online in 1 chater chunsk because sometimes people leave nice comments.
 
Oct 29, 2017
5,285
Minnesota
Question for WriterEra.

I've recently finished my debut novel, about which I'm extremely proud (and excited!). That said, I realize querying will take time and (more likely) not amount to anything. They don't call it the rejection process for nothing, right?

Anyway... two questions. The first is around the viability of self-publishing while querying. Is this a good idea? Or should self-publishing be considered a last resort in the event that my manuscript attracts no interest? I mean no offense with this question as I truly don't know. People self-publish for many reasons, some of which that have nothing to do with the latter.

The second question has to do with ongoing motivation and imposter syndrome. Writing is a time-consuming and arduous venture, and while the work is its own reward, no one writes in a vacuum. What I mean is, we all want our work to be appreciated by others. That said—and coupled with the dozens of rejections I'm likely to get (see above)—how do you all stay motivated to continue the craft when others don't seem to be excited about your work?
For the first, save self publishing as a last resort for the manuscript. Many publishing houses and agents don't want to deal in work that's already available and published. And no offense taken, as someone who has sent out four manuscripts to agent hell and had them all wind up on Amazon.

For the second ... I dunno? I just kinda keep writing because it's fun. Sometimes I take breaks, but eventually the itch comes back. Like a curse or something. Or herpes.