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I got plot problems. The first story is about a cyborg that is stuck guarding a house 12 years after a nuclear holocaust. The owners are gone, but a girl breaks into the house and it turns out she's the couple's daughter. The cyborg had a relationship with the girl's mom, so he may or may not be the father. Can cyborgs father children? He doesn't know. I'm stuck on what happens next. I was thinking that because of ~*crazy science*~ there are stasis pods in the fallout shelter and he puts the girl into one of them to wait for better days, but it sounds sappy. The second story is a novella about a viking seidh (magician/shaman guy) that is called to an island by an old friend to solve a series of murders. It's a supernatural horror story with a noir/detective slant. Mostly historically accurate, except for the detective and monster slant. I figured the killer is a draugr (the ghost of a drowned sailor, basically), but it seems kinda boring. Any ideas?
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Sep 11, 2013 18:50
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Noah posted:What happens if you decide to write the story from the daughter's perspective? Why is this crazy dad-bot trying to put her in a stasis pod for what might be forever? I'm 4000 words in, I'd rather not rewrite the whole thing. Your idea sounds better, though.
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Sep 11, 2013 18:59
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:It seems strange to me to want to write a story without having an overarching point or message to the story. As the above poster said, why are you writing if you don't know what it is you're writing about? Sometimes you have an idea but it doesn't work out and then you're stuck?
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Sep 13, 2013 21:40
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Everyone has their own process. I don't always have a point or a theme in mind. Sometimes it's just a character or a scene or a line. The story grows from that but sometimes you get stuck. I got a lot of mileage from the responses to my post, but mostly in an abstract, general way. I didn't really ''get'' any reply that was basically ''well duh, why are you writing the story if you don't know what it's about?'' I know what the story is about. I just don't know how to go about writing it. It happens. I have a couple of ideas knocking around, but they seem boring. I was mostly looking to spitball ideas, which is something that often works for me. I wasn't expecting anyone to hand me a plot on a platter.
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Sep 14, 2013 19:27
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Jeza posted:the prompt for this is write about a scientist in a lab, who upon waking up from being unconscious knows only that 'it has escaped'. Seriously? Jesus Christ. Just in case anyone is super interested about what I'm doing with my life, I finished that cyborg story. The cyborg is malfunctioning and the girl isn't his daughter. She decides to get into the stasis pod because the apocalypse sucks and maybe when she wakes up in fifty years life will be better. Before doing that, he allows the cyborg to leave, but he decides to stick around and protect her and the house for another fifty years. The end. It kinda sucks, I'll probably rewrite the whole thing with a different angle.
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Sep 16, 2013 22:44
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Who the hell takes writing advice from loving Jim Butcher? That's just bizarre. I guess he has sold a lot of books, but still. I guess if you want to write lovely Hellblazer fanfiction he's your man?
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Oct 12, 2013 19:04
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Chairchucker posted:Maybe I'm misunderstanding the point you're making here, but it seems like you're suggesting that any review that comes to the conclusion that a piece of writing is bad should be assumed to be false. That's not what you're suggesting, is it? Because that would be a crazy thing to think. I think it's pretty obvious that isn't what he's saying at all. He's just saying some people are just not your audience, so don't fight them about it.
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Oct 31, 2013 13:29
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Unless you're only looking for pointers on punctuation and flow, you really need an editor who actually reads in the genre you're writing in.
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Nov 25, 2013 20:54
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I wanna try TD but I'm decidedly a genre writer. Will I be stomped?
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Nov 25, 2013 22:32
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crabrock posted:sure come on by and just do whatever you want. That's how we roll in TD. Feels good. Sounds like you're luring me into a loving trap.
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Nov 25, 2013 22:41
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I'm convinced, but apprehensive.
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Nov 25, 2013 22:57
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I don't really trust Stokers. I really liked Years Best Dark Fantasy anthologies though, those are really good. Better than Years Best Horror.
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Nov 30, 2013 01:00
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I sim sub all over the place. Just look on Duotrope what kind of response time they have and space them apart. Send to one that responds in 1-5 days (and is a pro market) and to one that responds in 2-3 months and you should be fine. The chances of getting accepted at both are astronomical and if you get accepted in the first one, you should have no problem withdrawing your story from the second one. Definitely don't do it too often though.
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Jan 3, 2014 01:14
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Symptomless Coma posted:And what's your position on multiples? Where they haven't asked you not to, that is. Nah, I don't send multiples, even when allowed. I think it gives them the idea you're dumping all your lovely stories on them.
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Jan 3, 2014 18:20
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General Battuta posted:
Realistically, I have yet to have to withdraw a single story. Granted, I've only had like 4 acceptances, but still. If you're hitting pro markets, the chances are astronomical. If Clarkesworld takes my story, I'm okay with having to withdraw from say, Analog.
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Jan 3, 2014 19:40
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(I'm joking, High Editor Gorinsky)
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General Battuta posted:I sold the last two stories I wrote to Clarkesworld within a week. Who the gently caress are you?
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Jan 3, 2014 19:58
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No, no, I just wanted to know who you are. That's impressive.
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Jan 3, 2014 20:01
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Mike Works posted:I'll post a great cover letter template if I can find it when I get home tonight. Oh yeah, do that. Mine is pretty simple, but I'm curious.
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Jan 5, 2014 04:42
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On the other hand, actual real people swear all the time.
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Jan 25, 2014 01:36
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Chairchucker posted:Actual real people do and say a lot of things, but not all of them make particularly good reading. It really depends on what you're writing about, but yeah, you'll be wanting to write about real people. Meth heads from Kentucky don't say ''frak.''
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Jan 25, 2014 15:27
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Chairchucker posted:Meth heads from Kentucky can say whatever I want them to say if I'm writing the story. If I wrote a story containing Kentuckish... Kentucken? Kentuckesque? Anyway, if I had them in a story they would not cuss. I'd find ways for them to make their point without doing so. They probably wouldn't say frak either because it's not just meth heads who don't say that. Uh...okay. Your meth heads are just extraordinary polite when they speak.
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Jan 25, 2014 16:50
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Eh, I'm sick and tired of those polemics that go ''if you can't poo poo out 10k words a day you're not a writer.'' Not everyone works the same way. Writing a lot is important to get better, but it's been proven again and again that a hobo can come out of nowhere and write a first novel that will blow people's minds. You're probably not that guy, but nobody should be knocking you down because you can only crank out 5k words a month or 5k words a week.
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Feb 7, 2014 12:27
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After hanging out with published writers and editors, I realized all criticism sucks in writing communities. If you get an editor to look at your stuff, they're not gonna hold your hand, but they're not gonna be assholes about it either. They'll go in and say ''this doesn't work, re-write this paragraph'' or ''cut these 10 pages out, they aren't adding anything.'' Anything that's smaller, they'll just change themselves, leaving nothing to argue about. You still learn by looking at the changes as you do your editing. Why can't crit communities do that?
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Mar 21, 2014 19:49
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I wasn't talking about CC, I don't really post here. There's load of other critique forums though. I did post in CC once, years ago and what I got was a two-bit comic telling me the story was poo poo for 200 words so I never bothered again.
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Mar 21, 2014 21:32
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Nobody cares about novellas, turn it into a novel.
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Apr 2, 2014 18:23
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blue squares posted:What about horror/suspense/dark fantasy? I don't know the big markets for that genre. Nightmare Magazine The Dark Apex Magazine (Best one, IMO) Jamais Vous (less so) Shimmer (only sometimes horror) Shock Totem Black Static Nightmare and Apex have all their stories online. The others don't.
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May 11, 2014 21:43
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Hungry posted:Does anybody have any suggestions for dealing with utter doubt once deep into a project? Rewrite the old scene. It'll probably come out more in line with the rest of the text.
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May 12, 2014 18:17
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Anomalous Blowout posted:Hi friends. I haven't posted in CC for a few years now because life got weird and I somehow stumbled into a job as a sportswriter. This owns, but I miss writing and critiquing fiction. I gave myself a kick in the rear end and managed to cobble a couple stories together and I'm considering shopping them around. I pay for it because I track my subs with it and don't want to transfer to The Grinder or go back to keeping notes in paper. It's not a lot of money and Duotrope is overall solid and accurate. If you're thinking that The Grinder has more data (responses recorded), you'd be wrong, at least according to my anecdotal data (I run a magazine and did an anthology a while back). Duotrope reports were about 10% of actual submissions received. The Grinder was 1-2%. Sample size is about 1000 submissions.
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May 19, 2014 12:56
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Entenzahn posted:
Yeah, they have email.
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Jun 1, 2014 09:01
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Zip posted:Serious question: The publisher and I have been trying to get a new cover designed for our book. We aren't really big fans of the one we have now. Every artist we offer the job to turns out to be a flake. What kind of book? I do covers and have done some for goons. https://www.ravenkult.com is my website. Mostly horror/dark stuff.
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Jun 30, 2014 18:58
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systran posted:You should go all out and pay a really good cover artist, because if Hard Luck Hank is any indication, a good cover is a bigger deal than the actual writing quality as far as marketing goes. THANKS A LOT SYSTRAN
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Jun 30, 2014 20:18
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Revol posted:I have a passion project that I have had for almost 10 years now. It is a sci-fi graphic novel series. I want to get serious about this project now, but I am still stuck in the world building and planning stages. I have a general idea how the plot will work, I'm still undecided about many world-building aspects, and one of the four main characters is still a blank slate. (I know what this character's importance to the story is, but it depends on parts of the world that I haven't developed yet.) This is a really big story, and I feel like I'm lost. I do have some organization; I have a story bible on my Google Docs with everything I know about the story so far. Who is drawing it?
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Jul 27, 2014 20:27
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Captain Mog posted:Does having teenage characters in a novel automatically make it a "YA" novel? I'm currently in the process of writing a paranormal mystery novel that takes place in a small New England town where teenagers are mysteriously vanishing. It's third person omniscient and the focus is split between an FBI agent called in to investigate the disappearances and a group of teens who are after-school paranormal investigators. Think "Twin Peaks" meets "Buffy" with a Cthulu-style cult as the central antagonists. I am a member of a writing group and some of them told me that this makes it an exclusively adult novel by the mere presence of an adult MC alone, while others have insisted the presence of the teen characters and the focus on the teenagers makes it a YA novel. I guess what I'd be going for is a cross-age appeal thing but some have told me that I would need to focus at least 80% one way or risk isolating both audiences. I don't have opinions but I'd beta read that.
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Jul 28, 2014 18:41
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I don't care about length as long as it's something I'm interested in. If anyone needs a beta reader, I'm around.
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Jul 31, 2014 16:47
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Zip posted:Thank you ravenkult for breaking our cover curse and actually designing us a real decent looking book cover. It looks great!  eyyyyyy
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Aug 10, 2014 19:40
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Bobby Deluxe posted:Are you charging, because I published a 'romance' piece a few weeks ago and it ain't selling poo poo. Naw, I ain't charging, but I don't read romance. edit: If it's not selling, I doubt it's the content of the book, probably cover/blurb combination. Drop by the Self Publish thread.
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Aug 11, 2014 12:59
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Got a formatting question for y'all: what's your stance on widows and orphans? And, to take it one step further, what's the typical industry stance when it comes to seeing them in manuscripts? As far as I know and as far as I'm concerned (I run a small publishing business) I don't care. That stuff's for the finished product, not for manuscripts.
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Aug 12, 2014 22:50
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Nobody makes a living with short stories, but if you're doing it reliably the money isn't terrible. Five cents a word for say, 6k is 300$. If you're Ken Liu or one of those guys you can make a little money while you work on something longer. Anyway people love giving advice about writing and while most of it is technically correct (You should write and read a lot), they aren't set in stone. I've only written about 20 stories in my life and I managed to sell a few of them. I don't write 2k words a day by any stretch of the imagination.
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Aug 21, 2014 18:12
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General Battuta posted:Sales are so rare and so utterly erratic, even if you're Ken Liu, that I don't think the money can be called anything but 'terrible'. On a good year you might bring home a thousand dollars from short stories. I suppose they're not taxed - so probably more than that. But not much! It's not even worth arguing about, really, but Liu sold 20 stories in 2013. Between the original sale, from 5 and up to 15 cents a word (for a few rare markets), the Chinese reprints, any US reprints from older stories and inclusion in Best of anthologies, he probably made a lot more than 1k. But yeah, it's not a lot of money. Still, authors like Valente seem to enjoy some success with short story collections.
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Aug 21, 2014 18:28
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Well, the point stands. There is only one Ken Liu and even 3000$ isn't enough to make a living.
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Aug 21, 2014 19:42
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