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I will once again bang on my drum and shout that you should all read Lisa Cron's Story Genius for tips on how to avoid this in the first place
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Jan 2, 2022 06:40
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change my name posted:I will once again bang on my drum and shout that you should all read Lisa Cron's Story Genius for tips on how to avoid this in the first place Avoid which thing? Revising?
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Jan 2, 2022 06:41
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Constantly writing down avenues that don't work out and being forced to jump back and totally rework where you started from. Her method isn't perfect (obviously since no one approach will work for everyone), but writing out the inciting incidents for each main character and figuring out what the emotional and plot beats are and how they relate + her scene diagramming guide feel like they'd really help here specifically
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Jan 2, 2022 06:48
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change my name posted:Constantly writing down avenues that don't work out and being forced to jump back and totally rework where you started from. Her method isn't perfect (obviously since no one approach will work for everyone), but writing out the inciting incidents for each main character and figuring out what the emotional and plot beats are and how they relate + her scene diagramming guide feel like they'd really help here specifically Yeah those sound like great tools to have in your toolkit. That said, I think writers are too scared of writing things they end up deleting, for reasons people in this thread have mentioned. I wrote a comprehensive outline for my current novel and I still find myself backtracking because I often need to explore a few variations on a scene before I find the one that flows.
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Jan 2, 2022 07:45
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Alrighty, next attemptquote:Tom Bailey is not a typical Unit 13 field agent. The rest of the squad think nothing of putting their lives on the line on a daily basis, combating any paranormal threat that comes their way. But Tom’s only been drafted in as cheap maternity leave cover. As far as Tom’s concerned, he just needs to get through the next six months without dying and he can go back to his nice, safe desk job where there’s very little chance of anything trying to eat him.
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Jan 2, 2022 09:49
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I rewrote your latest attempt the way I'd do it.FA paraphrasing FM posted:Tom Bailey is atypical even for paranormal combat squad Unit 13. As a maternity cover, Tom desperately wants to stay alive long enough to return to his desk job - if only to avoid being eaten.
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Jan 2, 2022 17:22
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That's definitely a lot more streamlined but also costs a lot of the voice that an agent will be looking for. Is this a cozy paranormal detective book? An Infernal Affairs intrigue thriller? The tone of the query letter helps sell which one it is.
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Jan 2, 2022 18:31
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Fate Accomplice posted:I rewrote your latest attempt the way I'd do it. Thanks I'll just nick that then 
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Jan 2, 2022 18:34
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I keep anything significant I cut in a separate doc. Or more commonly: When I make significant cuts, I create a new draft and name it v1, v2, etc. I almost never go back to the old versions and restore-- if you had to wonder if it should be cut, it should almost always be cut. I also have a separate doc where I paste troublesome paragraphs or sentences to edit isolated from everything else. If it turns out the problem was actually in a previous paragraph, which imo is usually a different problem than a bad sentence, then worst case I cut it later after some polishing practice. Rewriting the same sentence over and over is just part of the (my) process and often enjoyable anyway.
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Jan 2, 2022 18:36
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General Battuta posted:That's definitely a lot more streamlined but also costs a lot of the voice that an agent will be looking for. Is this a cozy paranormal detective book? An Infernal Affairs intrigue thriller? The tone of the query letter helps sell which one it is. It's much closer to being a cozy story. The book has a lot of humour about the agency Tom works for being constantly underfunded and bureaucratic. For example, he has an app on his smartphone to exorcise ghosts, but it charges him every time he uses it. He ends up in peril a lot but I doubt the reader is ever seriously worried about him.
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Jan 2, 2022 18:38
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General Battuta posted:That's definitely a lot more streamlined but also costs a lot of the voice that an agent will be looking for. Is this a cozy paranormal detective book? An Infernal Affairs intrigue thriller? The tone of the query letter helps sell which one it is. I 100% agree - I write and read mostly terse hard boiled crime stuff. FightingMongoose posted:Thanks I'll just nick that then You’re welcome to but definitely adapt it to your story’s tone
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Jan 2, 2022 19:31
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Here we go againquote:When Tom Bailey signed up to Unit 13 he was fully committed to keeping London’s citizens safe from paranormal threats. From the safety of his desk, at least. When a senior field agent goes on maternity leave it falls on Tom to cover her role. He might not be the best that money can buy, but he is the best that the budget can afford.
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Jan 3, 2022 12:02
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FightingMongoose posted:Here we go again quote:When a senior Unit 13 field agent goes on maternity leave, it falls on Tom Bailey to cover her role keeping London safe from paranormal threats. From the safety of his desk, at least; his budget doesn’t cover travel expenses or any sort of security. I’ve obviously taken some liberties with your plot, but I think a lot of the detail can hopefully be replaced by better examples from the actual story (eg I’m not sure what happened last time the daemon appeared, and if that actually led to any kind of backlash). I’ve tried to focus on two areas which I think were missing from this latest revision: first, I really enjoyed the kind of workplace humour you had in your first synopsis, which really helped set the tone of the piece, so I’ve doubled down on that. Second, I think all of your synopses so far have kind of skirted around the actual tension between Tom and Martha. I’ve tried to make this more explicit here, by setting up a conflict between the two of them — even though they both want to defeat the daemon, they’re doing so for two different reasons which don’t quite align (again, reading between the lines a bit). Good luck with your novel! It does sound like a fun and exciting read 
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Jan 3, 2022 13:25
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rohan posted:and uncovering her coven’s plans would be enough to land him a promotion and a corner office. rohan posted:
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Jan 3, 2022 14:20
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I wanted to launch my webseries a month ago. I don't feel like it's ready yet, but am six chapters and a prologue in - a month and a half of weekly posts. This is in addition to background material and maps and whatnot available on the site. I hit writer's block three or four weeks ago. I like where I ended the last chapter - the protagonist just got a heavy loving dose of "this is what life is in the Wastes" and is disturbed as gently caress, but I just got blocked.  Goddammit, I'm gonna stop pissing away time on SA like I have been for a month and put something on paper before the end of today.
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Jan 3, 2022 18:05
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The serialized nature of royal road enforces my bad actual writing behavior. I imposed the mwf chapters for one book and then the F chapters for another. One way or another, chapters are getting out and i am getting that backlog written, edited and out the door. And then I added another for the challenge. Oh boy.
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Jan 3, 2022 20:23
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How do web serials get traction? Is there a business model or do you just post and pray? Wildbow got lots of attention but he's kind of the exception I think
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Jan 3, 2022 20:52
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HIJK posted:How do web serials get traction? Is there a business model or do you just post and pray? Wildbow got lots of attention but he's kind of the exception I think (This is assuming you post on RoyalRoad.) It helps to start out by posting a lot of small chapters - at least once a day, twice a day if you can manage it - for at least a week.
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Jan 3, 2022 21:13
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FightingMongoose posted:Here we go again
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Jan 4, 2022 01:40
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HIJK posted:How do web serials get traction? Is there a business model or do you just post and pray? Wildbow got lots of attention but he's kind of the exception I think https://ellegriffin.substack.com/p/zogarth Long answer there. All of her post are good. Short answer: have a backlog, post consistently, write well, have a good blurb and cover. I didn't post anything until I had 40 chapters and I keep 20 chapters in the bank.
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Jan 4, 2022 01:58
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Also I have been doing a lot of review swaps with other authors and shout outs.
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Jan 4, 2022 01:59
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My turn to ask for a blurb crit  ! This is for a new adult single POV first in series fantasy novel (approx 110k words though who knows, the word count keeps climbing during revision) that I plan to self-publish.quote:Petition (Resonance Crystal Legacy: Volume 1) It is wordy and far too long and terrible and I am terrible at blurbs  My comparable titles (inasmuch as my crappy MS Paint efforts resemble actual works of art  ) are:
I'm also looking for beta readers. If this sounds like it might be something you would enjoy, then please PM me (or if you don't have PMs then let me know where I can reach you in the thread). Leng fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Dec 30, 2023 |
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Jan 4, 2022 02:49
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Managed to put out almost 1,000 words today. Felt nice, though I can't say they're amazing words. Words all the same. 
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Jan 4, 2022 03:08
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I feel like it's way too dense re worldbuilding elements? There are a lot of big fantasy names that we don't have context for and so they're really hard to sink your teeth into. We've got: 1) the Conclave 2) Chanaz 3) the Aleznuaweite Guild 4) resonance disciplines 5) Ennuost Yrg 6) Lowdocks 7) Houses/House-Born 8) Petition Day 9) Supplicants quote:Rahelu’s parents couldn’t afford to send their magically talented daughter to the Conclave so they did the next best thing: they sold what they couldn’t carry and left Chanaz behind. For they have heard that the Aleznuaweite Guild will train anyone in the resonance disciplines and everyone who is willing to put in the work can rise above the station of their birth to the level of their talent—even a foreign fisher brat without a coin to her name. To me, it seems like the elements that actually matter are: 1) Rahelu 2) The Guild 3) Resonance 4) Ennuost Yrg (the city where The Lowdocks are?) 5) Petition Day There's a tight and muscular plot in there, poor child has a gift and manages to rise up through society through merit, with a clear and concrete endgoal that she needs to hone her skills for, it's just sort of currently playing second fiddle to a bunch of worldbuildy stuff rather than being supported by it. It takes three paragraphs to get to Petition Day, which seems like the protag's primary motivation? You want to get to her current needs/goals as quickly as possible rather than taking the scenic route through the backstory. SurreptitiousMuffin fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Jan 4, 2022 |
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Jan 4, 2022 03:09
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Leng posted:My turn to ask for a blurb crit Thoughts in no particular order: - I'll beta read for you. Shoot me a PM and I can turn around some thoughts in like three weeks or so. - I get the gist of your plot from the blurb, so that's good. Rahelu has magic powers, but she's poor, so her family has to move to a place where they can afford to educate her. Unfortunately, the new area sucks, and they're even poorer than before, so Rahelu has to enter some contest to get an education, otherwise the move was pointless and her family is super-duper broke. If that sounds like an accurate summary, then you've done a good job getting the plot across. - You've got a ton of unfamiliar concepts nouns in here. Some of them (ex: Chanaz, Aleznuaweite Guild, Ennuost Yrg) are names that you don't necessarily need; while others (ex: Conclave, Petitioners, and Supplicants) can be swapped out for basic nouns that don't require capitalization (ex: council, applicants, trainees). The fewer unfamiliar nouns you have in a blurb, the better. - That being said, what's a resonance discipline? I don't need to know your whole magic system in the blurb (in fact, I don't want to), but I should have some idea what makes your world's magic unique. What do the resonance disciplines do? - Rahelu is your protagonist (I assume) but you focus a lot on her parents and their actions and desires here. What does Rahelu care about? Does she have her own reasons for going to magic school, or is she only doing it to fulfill her parents' dreams? If she's only doing it for them, how does that make her feel? If I'm going to read a book about her, I need to know who she is and what she wants, not who her parents are and what they want. - Unfortunately I have nothing useful to say about your comps, because I've only read half of them and I'll need to read your manuscript before I know if they work. Knowing who Rahelu is as a character will also make the comps more obvious. Having said that, if you're self-pubbing this, I wouldn't sweat having the perfect comps since you'll be the one doing all the marketing. That means you get to choose how to lure in readers! edit: god damnit muffin, I wanted to be the one to point out the proper nouns
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Jan 4, 2022 03:16
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Yeah I don't really have anything to add aside from what Nae and Muffin said-there's a bit of Proper Noun Overdosage, maybe cut some of that back, focus more on Rahelu than her parents, etc.
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Jan 4, 2022 04:22
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Those are some amazing, comprehensive crits. Thank you! Here's a revised version that eliminates most of the Fantasy Proper Nouns, adds magic system flavor with more of a focus on Rahelu and bringing up Petition Day earlier: quote:Petition (Resonance Crystal Legacy: Volume 1) Nae posted:- I'll beta read for you. Shoot me a PM and I can turn around some thoughts in like three weeks or so. Thank you, that would be amazing! I will PM you by the end of the week (I'm hoping I can nail some revisions on the opening first, as it currently sucks).
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Jan 4, 2022 06:24
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I'd also be willing to read this despite my inexperience, though Discord would probably work better for me than PMs ( RisingDragonBlade#7518 )
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Jan 4, 2022 07:16
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The new blurb reads a lot better IMO, and it sets up some good motivations without going overboard with establishing worldbuilding context. In terms of tightening up the language: I think the beginning of the synopsis could be tightened up to introduce Rahelu earlier, eg: quote:Rahelu is a natural at channelling Emotional Resonance, a powerful magic that can be used to conjure the past, discern truth from deceit, or even foretell the future. I’m not a big fan of “Petition”, to be honest — I’m sure it makes sense in the book, but here I don’t understand why it’s in title-case. Perhaps explaining what the Petition entails, eg “Once a year, hundreds of hopeful students enter the Petition — a brutal challenge held by the Houses, from which a select few will be chosen to rise above the station of their birth”. I’d also cut out some of the needless detail — “hundreds” works okay at setting the scope, but “only the twenty best” honestly minimises the stakes for me (that actually seems like decent odds) and the later “average of five people are stabbed” is some decent flavour-text that’s probably out of place in something that needs to be this tight. (In fact that entire parenthetical would be better incorporated into the paragraph itself, or else cut.) Also: admittedly, I’m not across publishing trends, but I’m not sure why this is “new adult” as opposed to YA? My understanding was that “new adult” leans more toward late teens and might cover more mature themes such as sexuality, or gaining independence, which don’t seem to be covered here. Judging by the blurb, I was imagining the protagonist to be no older than a young teen — I think if she’s meant to be older, this could be made more clear. It sounds like a fun read and I’ve read and enjoyed at least some of your comps, so I’d also be happy to be a beta reader when you’re ready
rohan fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Jan 4, 2022 |
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Jan 4, 2022 07:21
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Leng posted:I'm also looking for beta readers. If this sounds like it might be something you would enjoy, then please PM me (or if you don't have PMs then let me know where I can reach you in the thread). I can beta read for you if you wish! We've conversed in newt's Night City Thread, so you know my style. quote:Petition (Resonance Crystal Legacy: Volume 1) Should add I like your blurbs. My thoughts are below
The talent level / birth level thing in the second sentence is bugging me for some reason. Not the content but the execution. I dislike that we learn about her lowly birth after the Great Houses line, and the fact that it is in brackets. The 2nd and 3rd paragraph also repeat the same information, just in different ways. 2nd paragraph: Rayleigh, a foreigner fisher brat, is going to enter the Petition, and if she fails she will lose out on rising above the station of her birth. 3rd paragraph: Rayleigh, who lives in the low docks, is going to enter the Petition. The Petition only accepts 20 people, and if Rayleigh is not accepted, she and her family will stay in the Lowdocks. DropTheAnvil fucked around with this message at 07:28 on Jan 4, 2022 |
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Jan 4, 2022 07:25
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Dream Weaver posted:https://ellegriffin.substack.com/p/zogarth It's an interesting interview, but these excerpts are pretty offputting tbh: quote:Pretty much every story on Royal Road is LitRPG—which I write. If you write in that genre and you publish a lot, there are a lot of people who search for those kinds of stories and you will get on some of the trending lists and gain a following—but only if you post a lot. quote:There are a few things about Royal Road that are annoying when you post. For example, anything LGBTQ you pretty much can’t write about, because you're going to get your story downvoted. You're going to get criticized and people are going to hate it. If there's even a hint of a gay or bi character anywhere in the novel, it won’t do well on the platform. In fact, any romance is going to get hated on because people hate it for some reason on Royal Road.
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Jan 4, 2022 08:07
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kurona_bright posted:It's an interesting interview, but these excerpts are pretty offputting tbh: I'm not saying it's easy. But otherwise even Elle Griffin, who has nailed the marketing game as much as anyone could, even she went from a pay wall for her own novel on substack, to a different model almost immediately. A month in and she changed and then wrote about it so it's fascinating. Mother of Learning makes money each month that that is standard fantasy. Beware of Chicken is probably the highest grossing fic there and that's a xanxia subversion of tropes. I think about 20 fics make enough there via patreon advance chapters to live off of. In the web serials SA thread they are always talking about a few specific fics(TUTBAD) and i am sure that you could note that royal road just like specific things a bit more. However for months my LGBTQ+ story has been outpacing my main novel and it's been causing me to tear my hair out since I have put so little effort into that story(Tales of the Riverfolk, now in Volume 2) which was initially made as a reader magnet for my other book( Red mist, same.world some characters carry over ). So what I am saying is that good writing is good writing and if you want to read your polygamous bisexual otters selling fish story, well loving write the drat story. Also it's great for a ton of feedback.
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Jan 4, 2022 09:57
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He's not wrong in that if you want to make money cranking out multiple chapters a day of a basic Blue Boxes Go Brrrr story like he did, that audience is not interested in The Gays, because the genre is there for straight dudenerds, who are significantly more likely to be on the spectrum, to vicariously live through. But there is definitely a sizeable audience for stories where the author is actually trying. Just do your thing, if it's good and (more importantly, haha) if you update regularly, you'll probably find an audience.
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Jan 4, 2022 11:50
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rohan posted:Also: admittedly, I’m not across publishing trends, but I’m not sure why this is “new adult” as opposed to YA? My understanding was that “new adult” leans more toward late teens and might cover more mature themes such as sexuality, or gaining independence, which don’t seem to be covered here. Judging by the blurb, I was imagining the protagonist to be no older than a young teen — I think if she’s meant to be older, this could be made more clear. DropTheAnvil posted:
Thank you both SO MUCH for asking these questions. It made me realize that I've been waaaaay too close to this and I've completely left out the new adult angle. Rahelu is 17 so there is messy learning to adult stuff, including some more explicit language, sexuality and violence than I would include if it were YA, but it's also not quite adult and not grimdark. The heavy focus on the Guild means everyone is taking "magic school" away from the blurb when the book doesn't spend any time at magic school because it is about what happens post magic college graduation. Like we're talking fantasy job applications where it's a Shark Tank meets The Apprentice cage match. Here's take 3: quote:Petition (Resonance Crystal Legacy: Volume 1) rohan posted:It sounds like a fun read and I’ve read and enjoyed at least some of your comps, so I’d also be happy to be a beta reader when you’re ready DropTheAnvil posted:I can beta read for you if you wish! We've conversed in newt's Night City Thread, so you know my style. Thank you both! Will PM you later this week. PS: DropTheAnvil I was gonna PM you with the hopes of convincing you to beta read for me regardless of whether you responded in this thread because the comprehensive crit you did for newts was incredible and I loved it.
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Jan 4, 2022 20:14
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Leng posted:Thank you both SO MUCH for asking these questions. It made me realize that I've been waaaaay too close to this and I've completely left out the new adult angle. Rahelu is 17 so there is messy learning to adult stuff, including some more explicit language, sexuality and violence than I would include if it were YA, but it's also not quite adult and not grimdark. Also, “fantasy Shark Tank meets the Apprentice cage match” is a pretty compelling hook that I’m not really getting from the blurb as written, unfortunately. I was definitely getting more “magic school” vibes from the original blurbs, and I’m wondering if you should focus even less on the school aspect than you are now? “She barely graduates” is a bit of whiplash in the second para as it’s being set up as a magic school blurb before that’s ripped away from us. quote:Rahelu is a natural at the resonance disciplines: the ability to manipulate emotional echoes to discern truth from lies, conjure the past or even foretell the future. Her parents sold everything and upended their life for her to train at the Guild — but she’s still a foreign fisher brat, and when recruitment season arrives, her natural aptitude is nothing compared to the wealth and privilege of the other trainees. The one thing I think your new blurb’s missing is a hint of conflict — obviously there’s an implied conflict in the Petition Day, but I think the actual nature of the conflict could be made more clear. Here, with the “challenges reveal more about herself”, I’m assuming there’s a bit of inner conflict, and perhaps some messy interpersonal conflict with the other candidates, based on the “messy learning to adult stuff” you mentioned. The question “how far will she go” implies there’s some sort of dilemma she’ll face at some point, and I think we could add some set-up to make this a bit clearer. [edit: ugh, “sacrifices were not in vain” is now in twice, sorry 
rohan fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Jan 4, 2022 |
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Jan 4, 2022 23:27
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Dream Weaver posted:
Thanks for pointing this out, based on the Zogarth interview I got the impression that any LGBT characters would get your story downvoted into oblivion.
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Jan 4, 2022 23:49
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Sailor Viy posted:Thanks for pointing this out, based on the Zogarth interview I got the impression that any LGBT characters would get your story downvoted into oblivion. https://www.royalroad.com/forums/thread/108535 The community made a list. So there is demand.
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Jan 5, 2022 03:47
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Did someone say web serials?HIJK posted:How do web serials get traction? Is there a business model or do you just post and pray? Wildbow got lots of attention but he's kind of the exception I think Wildbow put in a lot of hard work and effort but he also got extremely lucky when Eliezer Yudkowsky gave him a shout out at the height of rationalist mania. Even Wildbow admits that this was a significant turning point and what ultimately allowed him to do what he does today. The other thing that allowed him to do it is that he was able to live off a Patreon of 1000-2000 a month before he launched Ward. The 'independent' web serial community was also a lot more active back during Worm's first few years. As a creative, Wildbow does very little to actually market his work or reach new fans. He's very lucky the Worm fanbase is so energised and has managed to get him where he is after an actual decade. But I mean, think of it this way: he's been working his rear end off for a decade and it appears he hit his peak with Ward, the controversial sequel to Worm. If you're not posting on RoyalRoad then, well, here's the hard truth: you don't. The web serial community is a shadow of what it was just a few years ago (although RoyalRoad is doing better than ever.) I think the goon-written Katalepsis is one of the more successful web serials If you're posting on RoyalRoad, then as others have said, you want to post every day and at different times of day. Preferably you want to post multiple updates a day. Getting on the Trending lists is paramount. There used to be a way to game the algorithm to make that very easy but I think they've caught it and fixed it. There is a model but even then you're relying on luck. It's no different from any other kind of online content creation where it follows a Pareto distribution (or, as Freddie de Boer pointed out with Patreon, a Pareto within a Pareto.) If you're asking this because you're thinking of writing a web serial... To be frank, write a web serial as a way of forcing you to write x amount of words a week. I would not recommend writing it if you are intending any kind of significant income. That way, you might as well just go down the Amazon route. Even Wildbow would probably make way more money putting his stuff on Amazon than depending on Patreon donations. When I say Amazon I do not mean Vella, their serial platform. Based on authors I know who have been using it, that thing is apparently on its last legs already and I can't imagine it lasting too much longer. Sailor Viy posted:Thanks for pointing this out, based on the Zogarth interview I got the impression that any LGBT characters would get your story downvoted into oblivion. I had a story with three LGBT protagonists and it was never a problem on RR or otherwise. However, my RR traction was not particularly great as I was writing an introspective/philosophical action thriller (topped out at #118, I think) so I probably skated by the stuff someone like Zogarth talks about. Either way, I hit #2 on TopWebFiction for a while, so, it was never much of an issue. Dream Weaver posted:I'm not saying it's easy. But otherwise even Elle Griffin, who has nailed the marketing game as much as anyone could, even she went from a pay wall for her own novel on substack, to a different model almost immediately. A month in and she changed and then wrote about it so it's fascinating. I spoke with Elle Griffin a few times and she seems like a lovely person but I feel she fell right into the trap that so many prospective writers do when they first hear about web serials. That is, and I'm including myself in this, they think something along the lines of 'Wait, people will pay this much for [any given web serial]? It shouldn't be too hard to do that!' and immediately find out that, sure, there's an audience -- but it's an extremely limited one with very narrow tastes (see also: Vella.) Her whole interview thing seemed like an interesting attempt to ingratiate with a bunch of the biggest writers in the hopes of finding an audience that way. I think she's ditched her Substack serial writers Discord and serial subreddit she set up, too, and turned to funding a web novel via crypto apparently which feels like further evidence that she didn't find whatever returns she was looking for. She had a plan, she came out swinging, and then shifted gears very quickly. There's an emerging band of people who want to post fiction on Substack but I have no idea how it's working out for them. Elle's own chapters seem to have less traction than her articles which is matched by what I know of Freddie De Boer's fiction. There was an article I read on Substack recently that was about the way you succeed at making money on the platform and it's big point was that, basically, you want to write something that people can't get from normal/traditional media. This is the same with web serials, which is why the big money makers are all basically LitRPGs. The issue I think Elle had is that there's just no significant audience for normal genre fiction and the number who'll pay for it is even less. They can just... go buy an Ebook for 4.99 and get a full story. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Jan 5, 2022 |
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Jan 5, 2022 05:55
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Megazver posted:(This is assuming you post on RoyalRoad.) It helps to start out by posting a lot of small chapters - at least once a day, twice a day if you can manage it - for at least a week. Dream Weaver posted:https://ellegriffin.substack.com/p/zogarth Milkfred E. Moore posted:Did someone say web serials? This is really interesting, thank you. I'm despairing that Yud once again has his grimy little hands in this but it makes sense. I'm intrigued by the idea of web serials but I don't think I'd like to try it as a means to making a living, it seems like a lot of work that I'm not currently capable of producing. And LitRPGs, ew. I'm not cynical enough to write those. I think a web serial sounds like a good way to get some practice -- put something out no matter what -- but I tried a once a week publishing schedule on a story back in 2014 and by the time I hit the fourth chapter I couldn't keep up the pace. Now a days I can put out a short story per year. Awful.
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Jan 5, 2022 06:51
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https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/literary-fanfic This is an interesting article about how fanfiction is bleeding into literary fiction. Excerpt:quote:Fanfic tends to have a distinctive style: heavy on sentence fragments, emotionally expressive actions, and one-sentence paragraphs; filled with italicized phrases, syntactical repetition, and present-tense verbs. These stylistic features arise from the genre’s particular demands. In fic, the writer’s task isn’t to create a character named “Han Solo” or “Barack Obama.” It’s to convince the reader of this particular instantiation of a character they already know. Backstory and general habits of mind can be excised without much loss; elements that intensify character presence and readerly identification—strong emotions and bodily descriptions—are emphasized. The result has a particular staccato rhythm. Everything, from syntax to narrative perspective, stresses immediacy.
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Jan 5, 2022 07:25
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