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WritersEra |OT| Publish before you die, writing writer writes
- Thread starter weemadarthur
- Start date
- OT
I sometimes write in public, mostly at libraries but occasionally at cafes. No one cares, and honestly you get sucked into the writing if you're having a good session anyways.
I have entered Canada Writes a few times in creative nonfiction. Nothing. I did enter a smaller contest they ran a few years back and made a longlist, for what it's worth. They don't do those anymore.
JK Rowling did most of the first Harry Potter book in the Elephant Tearooms in Edinburgh (who have dined out on it ever since - the queue is ridiculous)
yeah... it was pointed out while I was on vacation there, but I decided not to go because it was busy. Some of my group did and they said it wasn't remotely worth the wait lol.
I don't write with other people around in general. Hell friends I have been hanging out with for 5 years only found out tonight that I write because I mentioned I could do something like data log while my wife plays destiny 2 and my wife explained to my friends I was talking about my story I was writing. I was going to just brush it off as I have a few projects that I need to keep notes about lol.
There are only two friends that have any idea what type of story I write.
An online friend I have had for like 10 years that is up late that I bounce ideas off of from time to time.
and a coworker I have know for a few years that I bounce ideas off of from time to time and that is mostly because I want to bounce ideas off someone lol.
Trying to write a story sequence and I'm not really sure how to get started. I know it's a pragmatic thing to do (since throwing a bunch of stories together and calling it a novel makes it easier to sell), but I'm so used to just treating each story like it's own, unique and precious thing. Trying not to open too many threads, if I can help it. Makes finding the next thread really tricky.
yeah it's not to bad once you get into the groove. though today was one of the hardest days for me.
I've been doing stuff nonstop since weds with no real break... gotten about 15 hours of sleep total since then.
I am finally near my breaking point... as it's just hard to focus in general. And of course everything I write feels like it's bad right now, which makes me feel like everything I have done in general is a waste of time and is terrible.
Tuesday I will finally have a chance to rest a bit, but i work tomorrow, have social obligations and then need to read CWC as well as do my usual writing.
ideally if I go to be early tonight I will rest up enough that I don't feel broken anymore lol. I still have to finish spending time with friends, make dinner, data log a chapter, and plot out stuff in my story before I can go to bed tonight... so yeah lol.
plus side I am nearing 40k words for the month.
Yeah I usually have to set aside an hour and a half or so to get it all done but it feels good putting the number of words written into my word log every day. Thanks~
Damn, I'm sorry to hear that :( I hope things get better for you soon.
eh it will be fine. as far as i know next weekend is mostly open lol.
just been a while since I felt this drained :P
They often sell milk, juice, sodas, bottled water at cafes. You'll have options, more likely than not.
Also, try a herbal tea :)
Yeah, I don't like the taste of it plus I prefer my drinks to be cold. My mother on the other hand loves her chai.
man it's hard coming up with legitimate feeling reasons for killing off a main character.
*sits going through the ideas
saving another character
forced choice situation where to save one the other has to die
sacrifice in general*
*sigh* this is what I get for really wanting this story arc to have some serious mental impact on my other characters :/
*sits going through the ideas
saving another character
forced choice situation where to save one the other has to die
sacrifice in general*
*sigh* this is what I get for really wanting this story arc to have some serious mental impact on my other characters :/
oh I know, I have already done so, but in this particular case given the themes behind what is going on I wanted to kill off someone.
Oh man, you can write with themes? You've got more of a hang of this stuff than I do.
I find themes just sort of... come up. But yeah, I wish I could actually write to theme like some people.
Writing to theme's a mixed blessing - if you're not careful it overwhelms the actual narrative and you've got a polemic instead of a story.
I could see that. Some of my thoughts have definitely been more worried about the theme than the narrative. Luckily I think I have had enough sense to throw those ones out lol.
I've written an odd chapter or two to a theme before, but it's not usually the way I work.
This is definitely more my speed as well. I'll just write the story as it wants to be written, and if themes crop up... someone else will tell me. I usually can't see it unless it's pointed out.
Alright, I'm starting to get the hang of a consistent novel pace. Now that I have three chapters done and making my way to the parts I actually want to write about, I'm feeling a bit more confident in my ability to get this done. God, I still prefer short stories though. A short story I can be done within a day. A day! How can you people stand to work on projects for months!
I'm on the final final stretch. I wonder if I can finish this steaming pile before next week lol
New month, new contest by request.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...7MN6BfjyAw4ouC02ClpRI8GyY/edit#gid=1380516186
This time around I am dropping the goal to 10k words (and removing participation rewards)
speaking of which no one knew there were participation rewards, but hey those who participated in the thing will have a chance at picking a reward on the page of rewards.
The order will be in order of who had the most words.
Conker = 3 games, One for getting the challenge of 25k plus words, one for participation, and one for having an entry every day.
Xagarath = 2 games, one for participation, and one for having an entry every day (He doesn't have one for the 31st but there are a few hours and I figure he will)
the rest in order get one game
MaximumSpider
Flowers
DTL
weemadarthur
mu cephei
Zacmortar
and even though you didn't write any words by the chart I will still count you as participating
so
UCBooties
Xaszatm
Delio
though I know for a fact UC wrote in march so yeah....
anyways prizes will take a bit to sort out but I will work on getting those out.
feel free to join for april, the only active conditions to get a game will be beating the goal of 10k words, and beating me (another estimated 40k word month for me) but I will likely have some hidden rewards as well.
I hope people participate and that it helps people to write.
reminder, contest is pretty simple. Just try to get 10k words in april. Can be done from any for fun project, not just a single project, and if you want to count editing in some way you can as long as it is reasonable. I am not checking to make sure everyone is legit, so just be honest. I have prizes, but only so many good ones :P
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...7MN6BfjyAw4ouC02ClpRI8GyY/edit#gid=1380516186
This time around I am dropping the goal to 10k words (and removing participation rewards)
speaking of which no one knew there were participation rewards, but hey those who participated in the thing will have a chance at picking a reward on the page of rewards.
The order will be in order of who had the most words.
Conker = 3 games, One for getting the challenge of 25k plus words, one for participation, and one for having an entry every day.
Xagarath = 2 games, one for participation, and one for having an entry every day (He doesn't have one for the 31st but there are a few hours and I figure he will)
the rest in order get one game
MaximumSpider
Flowers
DTL
weemadarthur
mu cephei
Zacmortar
and even though you didn't write any words by the chart I will still count you as participating
so
UCBooties
Xaszatm
Delio
though I know for a fact UC wrote in march so yeah....
anyways prizes will take a bit to sort out but I will work on getting those out.
feel free to join for april, the only active conditions to get a game will be beating the goal of 10k words, and beating me (another estimated 40k word month for me) but I will likely have some hidden rewards as well.
I hope people participate and that it helps people to write.
reminder, contest is pretty simple. Just try to get 10k words in april. Can be done from any for fun project, not just a single project, and if you want to count editing in some way you can as long as it is reasonable. I am not checking to make sure everyone is legit, so just be honest. I have prizes, but only so many good ones :P
I wrote around 21,000 words but never threw it on the doc. I'm impressed that I managed to get that even with my shitty work schedule this month. Will definitely shoot for next month.
Ah i see, that would switch game choice order then.
also next month if you can just put in how many words you do in a given day. The sheet should be set up to automatically add them up in the first box.
Thanks for running this! I don't have the consistent writing schedule of some here, but having the daily tick/reminder's been pretty helpful in keeping track of my different projects.
Really considering if I should just disregard what someone told me on gaf a few years ago and try getting my first book published again. This new book just seems like it's.... I don't -- fuck! I think I'm not going to advance sticking with this.
I don't think it's ever a good idea to determine the fate of a novel based on just one opinion, unless that opinion has some major credentials behind it, like it's an actual acquiring editor who is turning down your submission for publication and lists the reasons why. When someone in that position says "no," that's not just an opinion, that's a business decision that directly affects the final fate of your book. If it's just someone else on forum... it's one opinion, and opinions are a matter of subjective taste, unless you have actual authority to make acquisitions based on your opinion.
On the other hand, if it's been a few years, try reading the book again. If you've been steadily writing since that book, odds are that who you are now, and how much you've improved will make you look back at that book and think, "Yeah, there's stuff in here I can fix."
My book was too long. It's 148,000 words. I started writing a new book specifically because he said that with the intention of it being short, but it's been like three years since I started it and I still haven't finished it and I'm overall displeased with it.
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148k is a damn long book, but my first novel wasn't that much shorter at 132k. Sometimes novels are big.
No one wanted to publish it though. I plan on going through it again, cutting another 5k or so words, and self publishing. Ideally that'll happen this year. Sometimes novels aren't marketable either :P
To be fair, 148K, if you're trying to submit it to the Big Five trade publishers is tough for a debut author. That's not to say it won't happen, and it definitely depends on the genre. When you're talking about science-fiction and fantasy, 120K is still a bit big, but still publishable, for certain genres like space opera or epic fantasy, since editors and readers both know there will be a lot of world building that'll eat up the word count. But verging on 150K... yeah, you're taking a big risk. Unless it's exceptionally written, in which case the word count doesn't matter at all.
I guess the other question you need to ask is does it really need to be 148K? Can it be trimmed down? Are there extraneous scenes or chapters that could be entirely deleted, or compressed/condensed/folded into other chapters and still get the point across? If you really like your original book, but word count is the issue, there's nothing that says you can't just revisit it and see if things can get cut down, or, worst comes to worst, you split it into two books, which actually gives you an excuse to expand on the story.
I've had this discussion in the past I don't know how many years. I already cut shit and I can't just end it abruptly before the time skip because it will essentially have a non-ending.
Also, I don't know how you go from you shouldn't just listen to one opinion to yeah, listen to it, come on now bruh.
Also, I don't know how you go from you shouldn't just listen to one opinion to yeah, listen to it, come on now bruh.
I'm not saying that person's opinion was right that your book was too long. I'm saying that the industry standards for publishing make that a hard sell for a first time writer. But it DOES happen. If a book is great, the word count is immaterial. If you're not confident that the book you have is great, then take it back and make it great. The first novel I ever wrote was over 200K in length, but I still managed to get a literary agent to make an offer of representation on that book. Unfortunately, he couldn't sell it, because even though he believed in the book, and even though the editor he pitched it to believed in book, that editor couldn't convince the publishers to take a chance on it.
It all really depends on what YOU as the writer want to get out of the book. If you want to go with the trade publishers, there are lot more hoops to jump through. If you don't care about that, just self-publish, and the word count won't be an issue. It's a different set of concerns, and worries, but self-publishing has been viable for a few years now for some writers, as long as they produce quality work.
Excellent, you're running it again :) :) I was hoping you would, even though I failed abjectly in March. Thanks for the participation reward! Though I shall only claim it if I feel I tried my best in April's challenge. If that's all right.
Was it me who said something about word counts? I know I've discussed this with a few people on gaf in the past. I don't think I would've told you not to even try to publish it though, I would never want to discourage you like that!
It's true that 148k words is a lot for a debut author, especially if it's not epic fantasy or another subgenre where that's expected... but look, you gotta do what works for you. It sounds like you've tried cutting it down and tried writing something shorter and not felt right with either one of those. That might be a sign that writing shorter isn't a good fit for you, and that's fine. Maybe that means ignoring publishers altogether and self-pubbing. Maybe it means submitting to agents anyway while knowing that if they aren't interested, it might just be that it doesn't fit what they think they can market. Maybe it means publishing in a serial format online or something else that's more out there. If trying to squeeze into the traditional publishing mold isn't working, you can always try something else! (Or, again, try to get in without squeezing and see what happens, because why the hell not?)
Don't let me or some other jerk on the internet discourage you, please.
that's fine, I am not forcing anyone to take rewards :P
though I am still waiting for Xagarath to pick theirs.
I appreciate the vote of confidence.
Alright, after months and years of procrastinating, I have finally finished a proper first draft of my novel at 76.145 words.
I can't say I'm looking forward to all the work that still needs to be done lol
Restructing a story based on some workshop feedback. The idea is smart for a short story (gives the reader a direct conflict upfront to balance with the external conflict), but it's really throwing off the pacing of the first few pages and drastically altering one of the ending scenes. Revision is hard, yall.
I'm in same boat as a few others. I do 99% of my writing at home, but I write much more when I'm not home. Too many distractions.