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Google Docs because I like being able to pick up any of my (massive collection of) devices and write something when it strikes me. I also like not having to save compulsively. And it’s easy to share with readers for crits. But I am tempted by features like those in Scrivener. It would be sweet to have my outline or notes in a separate pane next to my writing pane so I don’t have to keep jumping around to other docs while writing.
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Sep 15, 2022 13:17
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Leng posted:Google Docs. One for each chapter, and one horrid mess of an "outline". World building notes go in a TiddlyWiki. I track progress in a Google Sheet. You can use Scrivener to do all this and then you can global search your entire corpus (drafts, research, critiques, everything) in one place!
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Sep 15, 2022 13:22
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Scrivener. I don't really give a poo poo about tracking how many words I write or whatever, but the features for organizing scenes/chapters/etc and the ability to easily create views of e.g. all scenes with a particular character are very useful. Being able to do regex searches across the entire thing (without the performance issues of Google Docs) is great for revision among other things. I also find it helpful (and satisfying) to be able to easily mark draft/revision status in the binder or whatever they call it, though I did end up having to make/add a bunch of icons for the purpose. Also run a local instance of MoinMoin (which is a wiki) for notes and poo poo. I know Scrivener has some features for that but I don't love them. Wallet fucked around with this message at 13:25 on Sep 15, 2022 |
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Sep 15, 2022 13:23
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Is there a way to sync a document from device to another in Scrivener? Like if I write on my laptop I want it to sync on my desktop.
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Sep 15, 2022 21:23
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thehandtruck posted:Is there a way to sync a document from device to another in Scrivener? Like if I write on my laptop I want it to sync on my desktop. There's no direct integration as far as I know but you can just save your Scrivener projects in something like Dropbox. The one caveat is that you need to make sure you exit Scrivener and let Dropbox/etc. fully sync on Device A, then let Drobox fully sync on Device B before opening Scrivener there.
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Sep 15, 2022 21:28
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thehandtruck posted:Is there a way to sync a document from device to another in Scrivener? Like if I write on my laptop I want it to sync on my desktop. I use Dropbox for this
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Sep 15, 2022 21:33
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yup, scriv + dropbox here.
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Sep 15, 2022 21:39
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General Battuta posted:You can use Scrivener to do all this and then you can global search your entire corpus (drafts, research, critiques, everything) in one place! I admit that thought was tempting, but then I contemplated the nightmare of having to export drafts out for alpha and beta reader feedback and version control of all that and I noped out and stuck to sharing my Google Doc links instead because it is easy for me to control access to and for everybody to comment on. (also oh god, I actually have an Evernote notebook that's filled with random snippets of interesting things that may or may not properly qualify as research as well as proto-notes that I basically abandoned and did not transfer over into the wiki or "outline" and I don't want to think about it) Maybe by the time I format the next book I'll finally get pissed off enough at Vellum's idiosyncrasies to try out Scrivener or Atticus. For something that's pretty much branded as the premium book formatting software for indies, it sure has some WEIRD quirks that makes me go  WHYYYYY.EDIT: newts posted:It would be sweet to have my outline or notes in a separate pane next to my writing pane so I don’t have to keep jumping around to other docs while writing. I just have side by side tabs of two browser windows open (one side is current chapter, other side is outline, wiki, whatever other tabs I need to refer to), but then I'm writing on a desktop and not an ipad or phone  though I know kaom has no problems with using split screen on an ipad pro!
Leng fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Sep 16, 2022 |
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Sep 16, 2022 02:29
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Leng posted:I admit that thought was tempting, but then I contemplated the nightmare of having to export drafts out for alpha and beta reader feedback and version control of all that and I noped out and stuck to sharing my Google Doc links instead because it is easy for me to control access to and for everybody to comment on. Press 'export', send out attachments as ms word? Works well for me.
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Sep 16, 2022 04:00
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General Battuta posted:Press 'export', send out attachments as ms word? Works well for me. But then I get the comments back as X number of individual documents, then I have to merge them, which creates conflicting edits across multiple multiple documents when I just want to look at them all at once, or compile some horrific franken-spreadsheet. I've kind of avoided that by corralling all of the in-line comments for any given chapter in one shared doc, and then automating the collation of overall comments by using a survey for each chapter. Which still means I have tons of surveys to go through, but at least I'm not having to wrangle 10 versions of the same document. I'm pretty sure Sanderson's monstrous process is the most efficient way to do it, given the sheer number of opportunities his team has had to optimize it but I also think his monstrous beta reading feedback spreadsheet is overkill. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, you can see a screenshot of said monstrosity in this panel discussion with his editors when they discuss his process for beta reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxV20CVtYJo&t=1515s
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Sep 16, 2022 04:59
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I use Papyrus for my writing. It's closest to what I want -- Microsoft Word with some inbuilt analysis and readability functions and so on. But it also has some notes/research sections and detailed character sections which are nice. Scrivener was a bit too complex for me.
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Sep 16, 2022 06:38
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Leng posted:I just have side by side tabs of two browser windows open (one side is current chapter, other side is outline, wiki, whatever other tabs I need to refer to), but then I'm writing on a desktop and not an ipad or phone Yeah, that would be a good solution, but my iPad is dumb and will refresh each pane when I click on it. So my Google Doc goes back to the first page each time. I either have to never scroll or move one pane, which sometimes works.
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Sep 16, 2022 13:51
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I use Scrivener and export to Word when I want to share it. It works for me but I do short fiction, not books.
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Sep 17, 2022 01:46
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just export to word and upload to google docs????
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Sep 17, 2022 09:45
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The Cut of Your Jib posted:e: i got sidetracked, and realize this doesn't help with the million embarrassing stories bit. I'll ponder a segue Hello, I thought what you wrote was kind of excellent and was just wondering if you ever did manage to ponder a segue? I still haven't really cracked it.
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Sep 17, 2022 11:34
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I have revised my letter, using some of the pointers you gave. I was initially under the impression that the synopsis had to be reduced to 2, but rather just 1 paragraph and that I had to be very concise about what happens in the novel. I have taken your advice and that of some others here to build a more compelling blurb. I have essentially traded general things about myself and the novel for room to elaborate on the story. I have decided to drop the Horror genre as I believe it can stand on its own in dark fantasy/grimmdark too. It would give me more flexibility too. I hope to avoid the YA genre altogether, despite my MC's age and where the story takes place. You and others have suggested specifically naming the number of murders and the town's name. These are not given in the story either, so I chose to omit them. Here is the updated version, thank you for your help so far: Dear, [NAME] Thank you for the opportunity to submit my 130,0000 words standalone dark fantasy novel, NIGHT DEMON. Lilian, a thirteen-year-old factory worker in an industrialising town plagued by a serial killer, can see an invisible affliction with other people. When her search for her missing best friend ends with a confrontation with a Demon — the product of this unseen affliction — it’s another Demon named Lucian who saves her life and promises answers. Unfortunately, Lilian’s new lead has problems of his own — Demon Hunters who claim Lucian is the serial killer and see Lilian as an accessory. Between school and the dirty, dehumanising work in the factory, precious little time remains at night for Lilian to investigate her friend’s disappearance. But with every step forward, Lilian is drawn deeper into the world of ghosts and man-eating Demons, one of which with designs far beyond simple serial murder. Only Lilian's ability to talk to Demon-kin might allow her to solve the mystery of one friend gone missing and clear the name of another. NIGHT DEMON combines elements from classic Gothic horror with modern novels like Hide (2022) and City of Gods and Monsters (2022). It also draws on ghostly folklore and features ancient-greek and ancient-near-east language magic. As a content writer, I am occupied with the written word in a professional and creative sense. During the day, my clients tell me what to write about while I apply those same skills to story writing at night. I am thirty-six. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, [MY NAME]
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Sep 19, 2022 01:37
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!Klams posted:Hello, I thought what you wrote was kind of excellent and was just wondering if you ever did manage to ponder a segue? I still haven't really cracked it. Sorry friend, lost track of this thread for a bit. Honestly, if it were me, I would double down on the screenplay as a framing device. It relates to you. You can tell an embarrassing story or funny story of just you and the groom (the schlubby bachelors), then relate the "meet/cute" and one of the cornerstones of a 'best man' speech is how the groom told you about how they met 'the one.' Pepper it with some quips. And if you have it, an anecdote about you, the groom, and the bride together when you (as an outsider/best friend) can see that the matchmaking is good (if there actually was matchmaking, then talk about that). Lean on the construct of the rom-com and use it to your advantage. Just play through all the story beats. I think it would be a very interesting out-of-the-box sort of speech. You don't have to give it away that you're following the structure, but if you did, that can be part of the joke. "[FADE IN] two slobs sitting on a couch with chip crumbs on their bellies... The phone rings. BEST MAN answers it. It's the bride's best friend trying to set up a date. Best man looks over at his slovenly friend. What?! Why him?" And so on. I think it's a good framework to put embarrassing stories in along with the cute and sentimental tales, and you can build to the happily ever after. --How much time do you have until the wedding?
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Sep 19, 2022 03:47
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wolberius posted:I have revised my letter, using some of the pointers you gave. I was initially under the impression that the synopsis had to be reduced to 2, but rather just 1 paragraph and that I had to be very concise about what happens in the novel. I have taken your advice and that of some others here to build a more compelling blurb. I have essentially traded general things about myself and the novel for room to elaborate on the story. I have decided to drop the Horror genre as I believe it can stand on its own in dark fantasy/grimmdark too. It would give me more flexibility too. I hope to avoid the YA genre altogether, despite my MC's age and where the story takes place. You and others have suggested specifically naming the number of murders and the town's name. These are not given in the story either, so I chose to omit them. Here is the updated version, thank you for your help so far: This is a significant improvement! Well done!
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Sep 19, 2022 12:03
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Sally Forth posted:This is a significant improvement! Well done! Thank you for your feedback. I have since given the letter another pass for clarity and I've taken some of your advice to heart. I think I'll give this version a try with some of my B-list agents. ... Dear, [NAME] Thank you for the opportunity to submit my 130,0000 words standalone dark fantasy novel, NIGHT DEMON. Lilian, a thirteen-year-old factory worker in an industrialising town plagued by a serial killer, can see an invisible affliction within other people. When her search for her missing best friend ends with a confrontation with a demon — and learning that the affliction turns humans into demons — it’s another demon named Lucian who saves her life and promises answers. The first clue she gets is that demons are responsible for the many murders. Unfortunately, Lilian’s new lead has problems of his own — Demon Hunters who claim Lucian is the serial killer and see Lilian as an accessory. Between school and the dirty, dehumanising work in the factory, precious little time remains at night for Lilian to investigate her friend’s disappearance. But with every step forward, Lilian is drawn deeper into the world of ghosts and man-eating demons, one of which has designs far beyond simple serial murder. Only Lilian's ability to talk to demon-kin might allow her to solve the mystery of a friend gone missing and save herself from damnation. NIGHT DEMON combines elements from classic Gothic horror with modern novels like Hide (2022) and City of Gods and Monsters (2022). It also draws on ghostly folklore and features ancient-greek and ancient-near-east language magic. As a content writer, I am occupied with the written word in a professional and creative sense. During the day, my clients tell me what to write about while I apply those same skills to story writing at night. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, [MY NAME]
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Sep 21, 2022 16:29
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wolberius posted:Thank you for the opportunity to submit my 130,0000 words standalone dark fantasy novel, NIGHT DEMON. A mere one million three hundred thousand words? That's barely a novella, pffbffbt.
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Sep 21, 2022 16:45
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Megazver posted:A mere one million three hundred thousand words? That's barely a novella, pffbffbt. Wait until you see my anthology!
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Sep 21, 2022 20:51
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ultrachrist posted:First 2 pages were workshopped once and it wasn't an issue but I'm prepping for a full story workshop. (from a couple pages back) I had this workshop and there was agreement that I should replace that surplus of opportunities line. Good work, goons. That paragraph needs to be tweaked but most of my revision work will focus on the paragraphs right after it. People really liked the ending and most of the middle, just gotta nail the setup. Workshops depress me. At first, the amount of work that it generates feel daunting, but then I get over it and start writing and get excited again. The worst part is the realization that to make anything good, you need to spend the time to get feedback and talk about it. I know that's the point of writing groups but even established writers I know tell me their groups often devolve into memes about not writing and collapse. So many people out there wanna write but finding people who do so consistently is maddening. I suppose that's why I'm paying for this class and subsequent workshops-- less the method and instruction and more the fact that other people are paying too and thus invested in showing up. It seems to be working. The first story I finished and workshopped through the class just got a detailed rejection from a good magazine explaining why they liked but ultimately didn't take it and invited me to address him (the EIC) directly next time. One thing I've learned recently is to worry less about sentence variety and to just state things directly. If you can do so clearly, the reader gets hooked into what's happening without being hung up on the form. This is NOT the same thing as saying "state things plainly" since it's also true when writing lyrically. More like, adding stage directions ("After" "While" "Before" "In response") or reversing the sentence ("Verbing the Object, Subject Verbed") or making contra sentences ("X should have happened, but Y happened instead") because I'm worried I made too many statements in a row is dumb.
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Sep 22, 2022 04:14
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I went on a trip to Alaska in August, got the germ of a story, and started writing a novel on September 1st. (Actually, I started outlining the novel Sep. 1st along with a scrapped intro scene; the real writing came later.) I've spent most of this month alternating writing with reading a few books on writing (to give me some guidance on the nuts and bolts of doing this), as the longest non-academic thing I've ever written to this point was about 9 pages. I finished September 23rd with 113K words. (It's fantasy with some unique world building, so I don't think this number is 'wrong.') I'm semi-retired, so I have the time to do this, and I've discovered I write extremely quickly with an outline. Quality? Well, that's what subsequent passes are for. I've spent the last three days rereading and editing to put in content/foreshadowing/character beats I thought of later, looking for egregious mistakes*, knocking out unneeded sensory words (" (* and found one huge one, where a secondary character knows a main character's major secret before he reveals it, whoops!) Here's the thing: I can't bear to look at the damned manuscript again today. I don't know when I'll be able to bear to look at it again. But I want to work. I intentionally wrote it as an open-ended novel to admit of a sequel, with at least a trilogy possible if I didn't light my computer on fire out of embarrassment after the first novel was done. (I also have an idea for a pulpy paramilitary sci-fi idea bouncing around in my head -- this would be shorter, maybe 40K words, the first in a series of short stories.) I think I already know what the answers will be but I believe I just need permission. Do I put the novel aside until I get my readers' feedback and start outlining the sequel? (Or maybe my sci-if idea?) Regardless of how long my readers take, how long can (or, perhaps, should) I put it aside for before I have to knuckle down and get back to it?
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Sep 27, 2022 17:47
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Comic sans trick, dawg: make a copy of the doc, switch it into comic sans, print it off and read it like that. It'll instantly feel like a book written by somebody else. I use it to clear those post-draft editing humps all the time, no idea why it works but it does, try it if you don't believe me.
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Sep 27, 2022 20:37
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:Comic sans trick, dawg: make a copy of the doc, switch it into comic sans, print it off and read it like that. It'll instantly feel like a book written by somebody else. I use it to clear those post-draft editing humps all the time, no idea why it works but it does, try it if you don't believe me. This is why I draft in Garamond, it makes me feel way more professional
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Sep 27, 2022 20:56
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Admiralty Flag posted:Here's the thing: I can't bear to look at the damned manuscript again today. I don't know when I'll be able to bear to look at it again. But I want to work. I intentionally wrote it as an open-ended novel to admit of a sequel, with at least a trilogy possible if I didn't light my computer on fire out of embarrassment after the first novel was done. (I also have an idea for a pulpy paramilitary sci-fi idea bouncing around in my head -- this would be shorter, maybe 40K words, the first in a series of short stories.) Stephen King's On Writing talks about his view on when to get back to a novel, you might want to pick it up. The general idea is when you can see the tree for the forest, and are able to handle criticism and editing duties. Some of those editing duties might involve a whole rewrite of the novel (To rearrange events or match a genre better). I would put the novel aside until you get your readers feedback. You could get hung up on editing a scene and find out the readers love it. Start outlining the sequel, maybe do some short stories(Thunderdome is over here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3989882 ) to get used to the editing/revision process.
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Sep 27, 2022 21:06
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:Comic sans trick, dawg: make a copy of the doc, switch it into comic sans, print it off and read it like that. It'll instantly feel like a book written by somebody else. I use it to clear those post-draft editing humps all the time, no idea why it works but it does, try it if you don't believe me. I do this but with Lucida Sans Typewriter or something along those lines.
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Sep 27, 2022 21:23
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Admiralty Flag posted:I think I already know what the answers will be but I believe I just need permission. Do I put the novel aside until I get my readers' feedback and start outlining the sequel? (Or maybe my sci-if idea?) Regardless of how long my readers take, how long can (or, perhaps, should) I put it aside for before I have to knuckle down and get back to it?
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Sep 28, 2022 11:53
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Admiralty Flag posted:Here's the thing: I can't bear to look at the damned manuscript again today. I don't know when I'll be able to bear to look at it again. But I want to work. I intentionally wrote it as an open-ended novel to admit of a sequel, with at least a trilogy possible Since you also posted in the self-pub thread, the correct answer from a self-pub perspective is "write the sequel". By the time you're done struggling through that, you'll have: distance, alpha reader feedback, AND a concrete idea of where the sequel is going. Then you can go back, do your alpha/dev/structural revisions and give it to beta readers. At that point, you can choose between revising the sequel or drafting the third book. By the time your first book comes back from beta readers, you'll have even more distance, a really solid idea of how the trilogy goes, and you can knuckle down to do line edits. Or maybe more structural ones, who knows? Do not write the sci-fi idea until you've finished the trilogy. From a self pub stand point, you want to be profitable, especially since you have a limited budget, and completed series are the best way to be profitable. Leaving readers hanging without a completed series will kill you. (This is quite apart from the fact that bouncing between two totally different books might do your head in. Earlier this year, I did revisions on a fantasy novel and a bilingual kids picture book at the same time. I will never do that to myself ever again.) EDIT: I'm posting that in the assumption that you are self publishing because you want people to read your work and enjoy it and recommend it to other people, in which case either prepare to approach it professionally like a business or as a very expensive hobby that you may never break even on. If you just want it out there and you don't really care about readers, then write whatever you want, and go back to your manuscript when you can look at it without your stomach dropping (try a month if you want an arbitrary time frame). EDIT EDIT: Also don't sweat the line level stuff too much now, really. You might get feedback that entire scenes/sequences/arcs don't work and it is a waste of time to polish something that you might delete or rewrite entirely. Focus on the line level stuff when nothing structural is gonna change. And the other trick besides Comic Sans is to read it aloud. And the proofreading trick is to read the whole thing backwards, starting at the end and going word by word. Leng fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Sep 28, 2022 |
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Sep 28, 2022 13:20
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Wungus posted:Yes, put it aside. The comic sans "trick" doesn't work for everyone (it definitely does not for me) but time does--and feedback will help you align the hunches you've backbrained about how to fix the story in the time you haven't been looking at it. Just printing it out in general helps me get some distance from it and actually read what's on the page, but I'm not sure I could stand reading an entire book in comic loving sans. Then again my advice should not be taken, as I printed everything out and read/edited it in about a week and have now spent months actually applying the edits. Then again again, it might have been fine if what I was looking for was structural issues.
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Sep 28, 2022 13:23
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Dr. Kloctopussy posted:Getting feedback elsewhere on the internet My first two alpha readers have my first novel in their hands -- I can't believe I actually put my work in someone else's hands to read! It's exciting. I've got some other alpha readers lined up. (I want to roll it out in waves, so I can get feedback, iterate if needed, and then put out a revised version to a couple more readers rather than blowing my whole alpha pool at once.) But I have to start thinking about getting some writers' critiques eventually. I don't know how valid the quoted websites still are in terms of quality; the OP is 5.5 years old and I don't know if this section has been updated. In any case, to get anyone to read my work I'm going to have to critique other people's stuff first, either because of credit systems or because no one is going to pick up my tome and critique it without knowing that I'm contributing, and I'd like to get started on that. (Of course, I'm also going to start looking for a writing group and develop that way, but I think that's slower than what I need right now to get this novel done; I can work that in parallel.) TL;DR: My novel is high fantasy and is currently 114K words. Any contemporary recommendations about which of these (or other) online communities to go to to start building rep/credits for crits?
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Oct 2, 2022 23:23
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Admiralty Flag posted:TL;DR: My novel is high fantasy and is currently 114K words. Any contemporary recommendations about which of these (or other) online communities to go to to start building rep/credits for crits? Post an excerpt in the fiction workshopping thread. Also I'll alpha read for you if you'd like, since I also read/write high fantasy—you can check the same fiction workshopping thread for my style of crit and if it's what you're looking for, feel free to PM me and let me know what kind of feedback you want.
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Oct 3, 2022 01:03
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To be a bit cynical about it, if I was trying to publish a fantasy novel soon, I'd probably put in a bit of effort to become a recognizable poster over at /r/fantasy, to increase your chances at being able to do a bit of self-promo, strike up a relationship or two with fellow authors, get an AMA, etc.
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Oct 3, 2022 10:44
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Megazver posted:To be a bit cynical about it, if I was trying to publish a fantasy novel soon, I'd probably put in a bit of effort to become a recognizable poster over at /r/fantasy, to increase your chances at being able to do a bit of self-promo, strike up a relationship or two with fellow authors, get an AMA, etc. Speaking of /r/Fantasy, how is the book club going over there Leng?
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Oct 3, 2022 15:14
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Megazver posted:To be a bit cynical about it, if I was trying to publish a fantasy novel soon, I'd probably put in a bit of effort to become a recognizable poster over at /r/fantasy, to increase your chances at being able to do a bit of self-promo, strike up a relationship or two with fellow authors, get an AMA, etc. Nothing is worth this imo.
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Oct 3, 2022 15:51
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All marketing is rooted in cynicism.
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Oct 3, 2022 15:53
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Megazver posted:To be a bit cynical about it, if I was trying to publish a fantasy novel soon, I'd probably put in a bit of effort to become a recognizable poster over at /r/fantasy, to increase your chances at being able to do a bit of self-promo, strike up a relationship or two with fellow authors, get an AMA, etc. So, Megazver is right in that r/Fantasy is one of the most welcoming communities I've found for debut self-published authors:
General Battuta posted:Nothing is worth this imo. The General is also right in that the amount of effort you'd have to put in to get to level of being a recognizable poster is probably not worth the ROI. You would have to sink a LOT of time doing that, and that time, imo, is better spent writing the next book. DropTheAnvil posted:Speaking of /r/Fantasy, how is the book club going over there Leng? I was going to put a summary in the self-pub thread, but seeing as how trad pub books are in play as well, I'll post it here. Of the 3 books picked last quarter, mine performed about in the middle (using engagement as a measure, e.g. upvotes and comments) which was better than I expected, because the other two books were by more established authors (one trad-pubbed and one self-pubbed, but who has been at it longer and has a decent following). Hard to tell what percentage of readers actually participated in the book club read. I ran a giveaway for the whole month to try and give it some extra visibility, which I think helped. Total promotional effort on top of the regularly scheduled book club posts by the book club organizer: weekly posts in the r/Fantasy self-promo thread, the giveaway post itself, a post the following week over on r/freeebooks, another post the following week over on r/YALit, and then some ad hoc stuff on Instagram. In total, I gave away 857 copies of the ebook. The first ~250 or so came during the first two weeks; the rest of it came in the third week when I got a mysterious 211 one day spike in Kindle downloads—and I have no idea what caused it, because I did...nothing that day. Maybe it was r/YALit, but the post I made in their self-promo thread was 2 days prior to that and I was late to that thread as well, so I doubt it got that much traffic. I also ended up with a good review on Amazon and Goodreads from the book club organizer (4 stars on Amazon, 3 on Goodreads, but the actual rating is 3.5 in the Goodreads review, so he split the difference in rounding on the platforms), who wrote  that had many good pull quotes for me to use in places, and has expressly said he's looking forward to the sequel. It's also extra nice because that book club organizer is a self-published fantasy blog-off reviewer from past years and is well-connected in the community.Since the end of September, some more ratings have trickled in on Amazon and I hope that'll continue to happen in October. Was it worth the ROI of running the hardcover giveaway? I don't know. That's expensive, I won't lie; I'll report back with a dollar figure after I finish posting them all, but it's gonna be in the hundreds of dollars (because I'm also covering international shipping, which a lot of other authors running giveaways don't do). Would I have gotten close to the same result if I'd just stuck with an ebook giveaway? Maybe! You will definitely get some readers on r/Fantasy, but it's not gonna be like...explosive growth or anything. That said, when you're this early on in building a readership, I don't think it hurts, as long as it's not eating into your writing time. I mostly sort posts by new, scan whenever I have a spare 10 mins while waiting in a queue or something, and comment on posts that jump out at me where I have something to add. Probably the better thing to have done was...not miss the deadline for entering this year's self-published fantasy blog off competition. Oh well. There's always next year.
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Oct 3, 2022 23:02
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Megazver posted:To be a bit cynical about it, if I was trying to publish a fantasy novel soon, I'd probably put in a bit of effort to become a recognizable poster over at /r/fantasy, to increase your chances at being able to do a bit of self-promo, strike up a relationship or two with fellow authors, get an AMA, etc. rp'ing as a catgirl and ending every comment with "nyoro~~n" so people will recognise me and buy my book
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Oct 4, 2022 04:28
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Admiralty Flag posted:I still can't get over how awesome the OPs are. And thanks for the advice on my last question. I just needed a day's break and then I was able to continue working on it full-steam. I used sff.onlinewritingworkshop for a while. It was pretty alright. You need to take critiques from randoms with a big grain of salt because they might be idiots or (more charitably) have tastes that are incompatible with your own. If possible try to reciprocate crits not only to form a relationship but to know how much weight you should give to someone's opinions. I've only shared short stories on that forum but a lot of people share novels. The way the system is set up means you can only get crits on 4 chapters at a time, so you will often see people sharing "Novel Title, ch. 29". So if you want to crit that you will have to read all 28 chapters in their backlog library (for no credit) or you can just give your opinion on the chapter by itself, which is allowed but is probably quite useless to the crittee. The best thing that can happen in one of these credit-based crit groups is that you find someone whose writing you respect and who respects yours in turn, and develop an ongoing crit-sharing relationship. This has only happened once to me, but it rules.
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Oct 4, 2022 04:39
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Sailor Viy posted:or you can just give your opinion on the chapter by itself, which is allowed but is probably quite useless to the crittee. Can we imply, from your use of the term “crittee” that one who gives is thus a “critter”?
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Oct 4, 2022 04:43
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