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If I'm looking to write a mystery novel, and I have the broad strokes for the mystery at hand (I know who gets killed, I have a decent idea of who did it and why, but I barely have any ideas for the exact circumstances that led to the crime) but no idea about the details, where can I go to find inspiration? I'm talking areas of news sites that would focus on small to mid-level crime. Or am I going about this all wrong?
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Sep 30, 2012 22:40
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Chillmatic posted:Just my opinion, but I'm doubtful as to how interesting you can make such a story if you don't know the circumstances around the crime itself. Those kinds of details are what makes mystery intriguing. I see what you're saying, and I suppose it's easy for me to say something like "No, see, I'm different." But I worry that if I just wait for inspiration to strike, it's probably not going to come. Granted, I've gotten half of the story I want to tell by living and observing, and while I'm happy to admit that it's more than a little derivative, I love it. I've written three test chapters, they look like crap and for all I know they may actually be crap deep down, but I powered through them in less than ten days writing as many as three thousand words a day, ending up with something over 17,000 words. I haven't been on a tear like that in 9 years. Maybe patience really is a virtue here, and if I just chill out and stop trying so hard, I'll finally have another "Eureka!" moment and put that poo poo together. But I wonder if what I REALLY need to do to crack this thing is to change my perspective a bit and do a little research. So assuming that's the case, where do I begin? Chillmatic posted:It's the reason why I look askance at things like NaNo et al. If your story isn't interesting enough to you to convince yourself that you should take the time out to sit down every day and write it, why would it be worth asking a reader to take the time on a given day to read it? Honestly, I think NaNo's more for people like me, who need a little help/incentive in order to build up the discipline required to write every day. It's an exercise in the form of a challenge, and I think anybody that's truly committed to the craft grows from it (though, yes, it can only take them so far).
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Oct 1, 2012 01:02
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Tartarus Sauce posted:I can understand why people would want to write fanfiction, but for the most part, it just doesn't resonate with me. I'd rather create my own characters and settings, and continue to let myself be surprised by the things my favorite fictional characters do, say, or experience within their own stories. I confess: I've written fanfiction before, mostly for the game EarthBound. This was like ten, fifteen years ago, and it was pretty much for the reasons you listed; in this case, it wasn't that the game screwed any pooches, it's just that there weren't any pooches to screw. I'll explain: for those who don't know, the game was about four kids, around 12-15 years old, who are called on to save the world. A lot of the backstory and character details were deliberately left blank, likely owing to the limitations of the Super Nintendo / the development team's resources, but possibly because you were supposed to bring your own experiences and background to the table. They even ask you to name each character, implying that they should be named after yourself and your friends. They even ask you for your favorite food and your favorite thing; they become factors in the game itself. So it's not so much about four adolescent characters saving the world, it's about you and your friends saving the world... ...unless you're creatively inclined and not satisfied by a 1:1 transition from your real life to the game's universe. In that case, you use the default names and you build characters that are heavily influenced by your life. Then you play through with them, imagining all the conversations they have with each other, their inner lives, their backgrounds, their feelings, their personalities...and if you want to get a little crazy, you think about all the fun things they would be doing if only the game had the capacity to let them do it. Along the way the game gives you scraps of information, little grains of sand that you build on. When I finished with the game, I found that I had built this little universe from the grains I'd been given, and I decided I wanted to play around in it a little more. If it sounds crazy to you that's because, in retrospect, it probably is. But if I thought I was crazy, I thought it was the kind of crazy I shouldn't try to "fix", nor should it be something I kept to myself. So I wrote about these characters; that was my hobby. At the very least, it gave me a chance to develop my thick skin early. While one look at the old stuff will tell you that I hadn't ever "mastered" these things, I also got a basic feel for the rhythms of a good story, building characters, writing dialogue (my biggest strength, even if I've still got a lot to learn), and all the while I was entertaining others, building my confidence. Eventually I got to the point where I realized I was being hamstrung by working in a pre-established universe. I took off the training wheels, so to speak, and I started building new worlds from scratch. I look back at those stories -- they're still up on fanfiction.net -- and they're just straight-up unreadable to me. (Seriously, I'm no stranger to sharing crappy writing I'm responsible fore, but if you want to read it, you're probably going to have to wine and dine me like you're trying to take my virginity.) But it was a fun way to warm myself up, and I gotta tell you: just a couple of months ago, the site notified me of a couple of new reviews that went up, both commenting on how much they connected with what they read. That made me feel really good, and in the end, as a writer, that's all I give a poo poo about : I want to share myself, but I want to entertain others doing it. Whether I do it through some crappy fanfic I wrote when I was young and stupid, or through the new, classy hotness I'm working on right now...well, either way, I win. I guess I win a little more with the new classy hotness since it could actually make me a little money (if God be willing), but pride will always feel pretty good, no matter what you take it in or how much you take in it. I don't know, maybe I get laughed out of the thread for all this, but I felt a need to share my side. Tartarus Sauce posted:Ah, here's a question: I've got an interesting case study here: Tell No One by Harlan Coben. This has a HELL of a hook: This guy's wife was abducted and murdered by a serial killer 8 years ago. He's never gotten over it, never cleaned out the closets, never left the house, always refuses to let his friends hook him up. He's outwardly functional but completely broken emotionally. Close to the anniversary of the wife's death, he gets an e-mail that contains a link to a webcam, and a piece of information that only his wife would know. When he clicks the link at a designated time, a live traffic cam feed pops up, and his wife walks into the frame, mouthing the words "I'm sorry" before disappearing again. (If that got your attention, you can get the book off Amazon here. I'm about to spoil it below. I've masked the more blatant spoilers, but you might still be able to infer what happens from what I left untagged, so be careful. If you want, experienced readers could probably blow through the book in an afternoon or two, so you can come back after you're done.) At this point the whole story is written in first person, and I'm thinking "This is either going to be a slick conspiracy thriller or a slick psychological thriller, but either way it's going to be loving slick." Coben eventually switches off to third-person omniscient (he'll go back and forth between perspectives throughout the book), showing his hand a bit early. I still liked the book -- actually, I loved it, as expected it was pretty loving slick -- but in those early chapters there was a lot of fun to be had from the question of "Is his wife really alive, or has he snapped?" Coben gives the main character an orgy of evidence to bring his hopes up, while instilling just a little doubt in the reader to suggest he's being set up for a huge fall. He plays on the reader's expectation that the main character be crushed so he could rebuild and move forward with his life in a healthy way. Once he starts alternating perspectives, you know something is off, and if you know something's off, you know there's some chicanery surrounding the wife's death and the jig's pretty much up. So he kind of abandons the "WHAT THE gently caress IS GOING ON?" aspect of the story, but he does so to efficiently reveal -- and even humanize! -- the breadth of the forces his protagonist is up against. There's definitely a part of me that wants to read the version of the story that's all first-person and milks the "Sane or Insane?" question for all its worth, but there's another part of me that wonders if he really could cut all the third-person material and still give his ending any weight. So as usual, the question of "what do you think is more suspenseful" is a question, really, of what kind of story you want / need to tell. I think Tell No One is a great story, even if the question of the main hook is effectively settled early. (For the record, even as Coben settles the big question he puts forward a few other "big questions" to replace it, and provides answers that are about as batshit insane as they are satisfying.) Now, if we're talking about personal preference -- and something tells me we probably are -- I clearly prefer to be taken on a ride, though I'm open to knowing the answers ahead of the protagonist(s). Taking readers on a ride is definitely how I prefer to go as a writer, possibly because dramatic irony is a weak point of mine; I have very little idea about the best way to use it. DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Jan 1, 2013 |
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Jan 1, 2013 22:55
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Oxxidation posted:It's cool that you feel like you're connecting with an audience and all, but getting that feeling from fanfiction.net commenters is a low, low standard. Most of those people forget how to swallow food if they turn their heads too fast, if you get my meaning. Point well taken. Believe me, I'm accounting for taste and I'm shooting for higher standards, but I can be happy making anyone happy. (A previous version of this post was phrased in a way that could be viewed as insulting. If you read it, sorry I offended you / pussed out.) DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Jan 1, 2013 |
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Jan 1, 2013 23:14
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Echo Cian posted:This is really basic question, but how do you motivate yourselves to write? I know everyone says "Just start writing," but I can't seem to get myself that far. I got absolutely nothing done in December. I know I'm not self-motivated but this is ridiculous. I go out of my way to convince myself why not to write. For Christmas I asked for (and got) the 2013 Hark! A Vagrant literary wall calendar (titled "There She Blows"). It's a cool little calendar, chock full of funny comic strips and interesting facts about famous literary figures. Because of said facts, you can't really use it to mark down important personal events, but I'm not going to. Instead, I have a big red marker clipped to the calendar, and every time I make any forward progress on my book I'm going to cross off the current day with a big red X. Doesn't matter if I write five words or five hundred: If I'm a little closer to the end than the beginning, the day gets marked. The goal is to have a long, unbroken string of Xs, showing that I've been writing a little every day. And when the string gets long enough, say three or four weeks, THAT'S when I'll start setting word count goals: I figure I'll start with 250 since my words tend to pass like kidney stones, and I'll just keep working my way up until I'm one of those awesome people that'll sit down and crank out five thousand quality words every day. Every habit starts small. Don't focus on hitting word-count goals, just sit down and worry about going forward. Even if you're only doing five words a day, that's five words closer to the end. And if you've got a visual aid to remind you that you keep bringing yourself closer to that end, like a calendar with a whole bunch of Xs marking your progress, that's gonna give you positive feedback. And if you keep pushing yourself to do better, to EARN that positive feedback...no matter how small those pushes might be, you're still a step ahead of half the yahoos who think of themselves as writers. DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Jan 2, 2013 |
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Jan 2, 2013 00:20
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This conversation about dialogue is interesting because I always thought of myself as a strong dialogue writer, but I kind of wonder if that skill has atrophied. Especially since I'm not finding anything outwardly offensive about these passages, but you're right, my eyes are glazing over before I can even get halfway through each one.
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Jan 10, 2013 18:28
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Chill, have you read any Dennis Lehane? What are your thoughts on his work?
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Jan 22, 2013 19:47
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I've got a sample, which may or may not be very good. It's only one fight, not two happening at once, though. I know this isn't Fiction Farm, but would you mind if I critiqued this a little later? If you (or others) prefer I can do it over PM.
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Jan 23, 2013 02:04
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Go ahead, you can critique it wherever. In this thread might be better since I was offering it as an example, so if it's terrible, it'd be more helpful for Molly. (Honestly, that two-fight version probably isn't that good because I wrote it up in only three minutes.) Okay, then here's one schmuck's opinion. I put "here's what I'd do" in spoiler tags to give you a chance to find your own solution (since I know people usually don't appreciate rewrites-as-critiques) (for good reason) (sorry, I kind of suck at critiques). quote:One of the guards came closer, jabbing at the bushes with the rifle’s muzzle. Clearly inexperienced, and not too bright. The other guard was smart enough to stand back, but not smart enough to tell his colleague (Tell him what?). You could definitely condense those last three paragraphs into one. Also, if you'll allow me to break off from the discussion of action scenes, I'd like to direct your attention to another matter: multi-sentence dialogue tends to read better if you stick the attribution mid-dialogue. So instead of: quote:"Wait. Please don't hurt me!" Leara said, filling her voice with fear. You can do: quote:"Wait," Leara said, filling her voice with fear. "Please don't hurt me!" A couple of sticking points to this, though: Firstly, if you're sticking the attribution at the end of a dialogue sentence, then the attribution ends with a sentence as seen above (and the dialogue itself ends with a comma and not a period, to flow into the attribution). However, if it's stuck in the MIDDLE of a sentence, then the attribution ends with a comma. For example, let's say you were going to use that piece of internal dialogue as a kiss-off line like I suggested. So the dialogue would be: "How chivalrous - and foolish." The way to attribute that would be: quote:"How chivalrous," Leara said, "and foolish." Also, like many rules of writing, this one can be bent or broken depending on how you want the story to be read. Since an attribution implies a pause, you may want to hold off on them if you want the reader to imagine your character machine gunning his or her words. Or you might want to show the character doing an extended action mid-dialogue. I'll show an example from my own work: quote:"Don't be too impressed." Molly reached up for a bottle of tequila on the highest shelf. "My Dad said he was fine with it," she strained, "so long as I don't drive or throw up." She snagged the bottle and set it on the bar. It doesn't follow the typical attribution format, but you (hopefully) know who's speaking, and to me it flows a little better compared to, say: quote:"Don't be too impressed," strained Molly as she reached up for a bottle of tequila on the highest shelf. "My Dad said he was fine with it, so long as I don't drive or throw up." She snagged the bottle and set it on the bar. I don't think anything is WRONG with those sentences per se, but you'll notice that each example, while showing the same action, drastically changes the pacing of that action. I simply prefer the pacing of the first. However, the point is that you can give yourself such options if you know how to bend the rules of attribution. That's it, hope you didn't mind the sidetrack. DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Jan 23, 2013 |
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Jan 23, 2013 19:23
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I considered going to The Book Barn's recommendation thread but I thought I might get some better answers / advice here. Hope I'm not out of line. The main character of my story is a Lindsay Lohan-type in her late 20s / early 30s. More specifically, she's a fashion model in L.A., she's into coke, "pills" (don't know which ones specifically), and alcohol (though I haven't decided how hooked she is on the drink). She's a regular presence of the LA social scene and has a working knowledge of the New York City social scene. I am a fat guy who occasionally drinks beer, and that's the closest I'm ever likely to get to a character like this. Are there any books or articles I can read that would help me get into this character's mindset and/or routine? As it stands, the drug use figures into the story in a big way, so it's something I'd like to get at least halfway right on the first draft. (I'd also be interested in books that deal with rehabilitation as that will also likely figure into the story.) Any material / advice that can be thrown my way would be very helpful -- including any books that you'd assume was covered in school.
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Jun 6, 2013 02:04
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Thanks for the advice, guys! Rachel's Holiday, Jesus' Son, and Less Than Zero are definitely on my list. Poking around those books also introduced me to Jay McInerney: I tossed in Bright Lights, Big City and Story of My Life. Feel free to keep suggesting if you're in the mood!
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Jun 10, 2013 04:57
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Chillmatic posted:Yeah you're really loving out of line here, buddy. How loving DARE you come in here with this poo poo?? I really appreciate you taking the time to help me; for someone who claims to be a writer I'm pretty poo poo at research. This puts me on the right track, though; hopefully I can find my way from here. Can't get better if you don't try, right? But just to assure you guys, I was never planning on learning about drugs by taking them. In fact, for some reason I was kind of afraid that I was going to get one douche giving me a whole "You can't write what you don't know, so go visit the wrong side of the tracks and bring back an 8-ball" spiel. So another thank you to everyone for putting my mind at ease. Y'all are cool. When I get this thing on the market and you crucify me as a hack, I'll still think y'all are cool.
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Jun 13, 2013 04:03
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Chillmatic posted:How Not To Write A Novel is one of the funniest god drat books I have ever read in my life. See, I'm glad you ninja-edited that parenthetical because I was reading that thinking "poo poo, I mean it's a bit dull, needlessly sexualized, and things seem to twist and turn with little purpose, but I can't really find anything egregiously off here." Clearly I need to pick up those two books, like, yesterday.
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Jul 31, 2013 22:34
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qntm posted:I've got a villain character and he's getting up to give a dinner speech to his people. The speech needs to prove that he's done some bad things. But he's not a moustache-twirling cackling guy. He can't straight up say, "I did this terrible thing, and it hurt people, and I like that, ahahaha! Because I am a bad person." That's dumb. It sounds like you've just got a motivation problem. If you'll excuse the use of a TV Tropes term, it's not that you can't figure out how to do an evil speech of evil without making it too obvious; either your MacGuffin has absolutely no value unless it's used in this specific way, or you don't have an antagonist with a valid reason to use it in some other way, or even just to keep it from being used in right way. Ask yourself what your antagonist gains by doing this, and focus on that. Also, try thinking of his decision as either his job or his greatest desire: people will almost always identify on some level with one or both of those aspects, and if you can avoid being too obvious about it, the fact that his moral compass is completely broken will come out in the wash.
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Sep 1, 2013 21:59
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Question: Why are we discouraging large swarths of expository dialogue in a Thunderdome entry when part of the benefit of Thunderdome, if not its very reason for existence, is that beginning writers can try poo poo like this with little relative risk? I mean, the outcome of McSlaughter's entry is either: a.) It sucks rear end, the author is told in no uncertain terms that it sucks rear end, and learns a little bit more about his/her capabilities or limitations, b.) It actually works really drat well and the READERS learn a little something new, or c.) A variant mix of (a) and (b), wherein the readers can see that the author was trying to do something cool, but couldn't make it work. This is what we do. Because of the flexible, personal nature of art, we can't learn not to write poo poo until we get it out of our system. So let him write poo poo. Tell him it was a bad move later, and if he's a big boy (or girl), he'll accept it, learn from it, and move on.
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Nov 24, 2013 16:55
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Not to bring you down or otherwise invalidate you if the answer is "no," but are you published anywhere? Between the sound advice you give and your apparent taste in entertainment I'd really like to read your stuff.
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Jan 23, 2014 18:50
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I can't help but wonder if it's a question of class and regard. I believe polite, intellectual society elevates literature above filmed entertainment; therefore, writers of "literature" are expected to behave according to the rules of polite society. Of course, as culture marches on and swears lose their power, it's easier to accept their presence, but that more still has a hold, still tells people "Hey, don't overdo it or you'll look like one of the groundlings." Bear in mind, I'm not advocating that we burn it down or anything like that. (EDIT: And I certainly don't intend to paint all writers who refuse to swear as a bunch of stick-up-the-rear end fun vampires.) When I think "Great Passages of Literature," even I don't think any of them include phrases like "Go gently caress yourself motherfucker," "Eat poo poo you slimy little cuntpunch," or "God dammit what a beautiful fuckin' day, huh?" But I think it's less a tenet of "good/bad writing" (though that's certainly present) and more of a personal social issue. In the end, writers just have to keep in mind that certain words have power with diminishing returns. Deploy them well and they'll give your piece a certain flavor. Deploy them poorly and you look like an idiot. Which is really what most people have been saying from the get-go. DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 05:22 on Jan 26, 2014 |
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Jan 26, 2014 05:18
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elfdude posted:Hey ya'll looking for advice on trying to write a story where a character hates themselves. The problem is I'm having a hard time coming up with a way to describe this beyond, 'they hate themselves'. Does anyone have an idea of how to convey this to the reader in a less obvious way? I have some experience with this. I wouldn't say I'm awesome at it, but I figure that if someone hates himself, he's either looking for redemption, is just kind of waiting God out, or he's self-destructive. Either way, this is the kind of thing that gets revealed through action: Is he going to jump a little too hard into opportunities to prove himself? Will he often make life harder for himself? Does he only put in the bare minimum of effort to get by? Maybe his feelings swing from one area of the spectrum to another depending on whatever? Either way, as mentioned earlier, characterization is as simple as "What happens when your character faces an obstacle?" This is one of those things you don't bother to describe: if you do the job right it comes out in the wash.
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Jan 30, 2014 06:29
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sebmojo posted:From the ever awesome Robert Brockway. I am printing this out and sticking it on my wall.
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Feb 6, 2014 23:45
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Yeah, as somebody who plays maybe too many video games, I suspect I need to hear this. Not that I've ever taken cues from video game writing, and frankly I'm not all that interested in fantasy (as liberating as it sounds), but you've got me curious.
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Feb 25, 2014 04:39
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I hate to keep dragging this back into video game chat, but I'm just too curious: 3Romeo, have you ever played Spec Ops: The Line? I'm not saying you'd be into it, but again, I'm curious if you have any thoughts on it story-wise. (Just in case you haven't heard of it and you're curious, here's an LP of it.)
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Feb 25, 2014 18:39
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Save the Cat is great for basic strategies, but keep in mind that Blake Snyder, RIP, wrote two movies and then this book on how to write a successful screenplay. One of those movies was Blank Check. I'm sorry that I missed the conversation about gay characters because one of the main characters in my novel-in-progress is a lesbian, and there might be an explicit scene with her. And being a straight guy who is all too aware of how commoditized lesbian porn is, the prospect of writing such a scene that has to work on levels beyond "erotica" is awkward at best. My strategy is this: if I end up describing a very intimate, personal act for my reader in explicit detail, it can't be just because I want to do it; I have to need to do it, and "I need a situation that forces my reader on a date with his/her old friend Myra" isn't enough. It has to contribute something vital to the reader's understanding of the characters or the expression of a theme. And yes, I hope it gets people a little hot as well, because if it's not funny or sexy, it's just taking up space. But this is a strategy that can really be applied to any sex scene, gay or straight. There's just additional pressure because you/I don't want to be seen as yet another rear end in a top hat guy that goes "AND THEN THE TWO HOT CHICK 69ED AND IT WAS HOT BECAUSE THEYRE TWO HOT CHICKS ALSO BIG TITS" But in the end, it's like everyone else has said: just as you would ideally treat a gay person no differently than you would treat anyone else, you should write your gay characters just like anyone else. Most likely, their sexuality will only be a minor to moderate detail that won't affect your story at hand. CB_Tube_Knight, you can watch this space if you want and I'll go dig it up, but there's a video on YouTube: "Real Lesbians React to Lesbian Porn." (EDIT: There you are!) Very funny, very informative. Even if you don't plan to write anything explicit, I found it to be helpful in sorting reality from pornographic fantasy. Even thinking that you know the difference may help you get over feeling gunshy. DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Mar 12, 2014 |
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Mar 12, 2014 06:49
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Nika posted:Well...I promise I am not trying to kick up poo poo in here, but There's no way to express how much I appreciate this post. Thank you for making it; I will keep it in mind as I develop this book. As far as reading LGBT fiction, a friend of mine pointed me towards the Lambda List a few months ago. However, I think I went in looking for something too specific; I may have even somehow misunderstood the purpose of the site entirely. Are you familiar with that site? If so, is there anything there that can help me find some legit crime/mystery novels with LGBT overtones? For that matter, is there anything you'd personally recommend, regardless of genre?
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Mar 12, 2014 14:37
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To add to this: I'm not just into crits because I want to be a better writer. Obviously I do, but what I really relish is the potential to have a conversation about whatever my reader sparks to. That goes for whether the critiques are positive or negative: I recently got feedback on a romance piece, and the reader thought my male lead was too much of a simpering, whiny douche. Me: Well, that's the beginning of his arc. He's supposed to be that way. Reader: Right, but there's "This guy's balls haven't dropped yet" and then there's "The world needs a lot loving fewer of you." And THEN there's [my character]. Me: Wow, poo poo. At what points did you feel like you wanted to strangle him? Reader: Well, [-a-], then there's [-b-], and of course [-c-]. Me: Well, [-c-] is intentional, I wanted to communicate blah blah blah... Reader: I see, but you overshot and so it's yadda yadda yadda... And even though that's months of hard work and writing from a certain mindset getting shredded (well, I suppose you can't call the above getting shredded, but you know what I mean), I get off on conversations like that because I'm connecting with my reader, learning a little more about him/her, and I'm learning a little something about human nature and how we perceive others. I can't speak for all writers, but I'm certain I'm not the only one who loves that poo poo and gets pumped from conversations like that, positive or negative. Might be something to keep in mind, assuming I'm not a freak of nature.
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Mar 21, 2014 04:30
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shooz posted:Even if you don't rage and froth at the mouth like a dog with rabies whenever someone criticises your work, it's still hard to resist the temptation of explaining and arguing, and trying to prove the criticism wrong. If I start explaining something, it's not because I think of the criticism as "wrong." No matter what, something failed to fire, and 99% of the time that's gonna be on me. (The other 1% covers unforeseeable Acts of God.) When I explain, it's with the expectation that the reader isn't going to magically see it my way; I'm simply looking for more information so I can better do my job, and I make sure that's clear to anyone offering crits.
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Mar 21, 2014 16:38
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Sitting Here posted:Great! How can we help you with that? He's probably -- and I'm not saying this to throw shade, CB -- but he's probably just looking for somebody to either validate him or set him straight because he's committed, but still just a little conflicted about what he's doing. Which is natural; at the risk of sounding like a snob, it's impossible for most readers with refined tastes to take fanfic seriously. And if your tastes have become more refined in the days since you've last worked on that fanfic, CB...well, it's tough. End of the day, if you're comfortable knowing that you're not going to see a dime from this, you should go for it. Finishing anything you've started is good for the soul anyway, and you're likely to learn a little more from the experience (as you would with any kind of writing). Just don't take the feedback you get from it too seriously.
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Mar 29, 2014 03:01
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General Battuta posted:Oh, no, definitely do as many rounds of revisions and beta readers as you want (that's what I meant by drafting). Sim subs means 'simultaneous submissions', something you're allowed to do with novels but generally not short stories: you can identify a list of agents who might be receptive, and submit to all of them at the same time. Be sure to read their submission guidelines super carefully and give them each exactly what they want. In particular, hone your query letter down to a slim, effective hook, because it's all most of them will ever look at. I was thinking of self-publishing for my novel, but this recent talk has convinced me to at least try to submit to agents/publishers first. But if I may, I'd like to pose a pie-in-the-sky hypothetical. The novel I'm writing is self-contained, but it would still be the first in an intended series. Let's say it gets published, it's a commercial failure, and the publisher isn't interested in moving forward with book two, but I'd still like to write it for self-publication (assuming that no other house would be willing to pick it up). Would I be able to do that? Or would a typical publishing deal force me to sign over the rights to my characters, thus blocking me from freely publishing future stories with them? This may be a stupid question, but I'd like to be 100% on it.
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Apr 2, 2014 00:17
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Axel Serenity posted:Obviously I'm new to the realm, as well, but from what I understand it will be up to the quality of your agent more than anything. Most people I've seen as being success stories say you should submit to agents first, since larger publishing houses don't even accept unsolicited manuscripts. From there, it's all about their bargaining power and ability to work with publishers. So assuming that's the right answer, it's pretty much up to me, a man with relatively little business business acumen and an untested bullshit detector, to be able to sniff an agent out of the likely few who may be willing to represent me. Of course I'm happy to wait for information from a more seasoned source, but that's...utterly loving terrifying. No wonder people cling to self-publishing so tightly; even if you fail miserably, there's something comforting about that failure being on your own terms. (I do appreciate the two cents, though.)
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Apr 2, 2014 00:45
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Huh.
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Apr 5, 2014 19:58
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For better or worse, I just started with the text. The story I wanted to tell. And the more I dwelled on it, the more parallels I drew between the story and the "big things" that were on my mind that may have driven me to tell this story in the first place. That's how I learned that this private eye novel was really a story about nostalgia -- and in turn, perception. Knowing that has informed my characters and their development, as well as the solution to the mystery I created (though I'm still cornered on how my protagonists figure out the culprit). Of course, the big flaw in this plan is that all this time spent dwelling was not spent writing, which isn't necessarily smart when you're on your first pass. So assuming I answered your question, take my words with a grain of cliché.
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Apr 24, 2014 18:50
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Stuporstar posted:How do people feel about POV shifts from 3rd person to 1st person in a story? For example, a character uncovering clues by interviewing people. Harlan Coben did something like this for Tell No One, where he'd stay in the protagonist's perspective for a few chapters, but then pull out for a few chapters to show the broader scope of the conflict he had stumbled into. I recommended the book earlier in the thread; it remains a solid beach read if you're up for a straightforward thriller/mystery.
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May 2, 2014 20:24
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Anomalous Blowout posted:2. This reads more like the blurb on the back of a finished book than a query letter. This is interesting because the stuff I read on Query Shark suggests that a LOT of query letters follow the same basic structure, and open up with the kind of back-of-book blurb used here. Of course, Query Shark is where bad query letters go to get beaten into shape, but I've never seen (or maybe I just blocked out) any criticism against using blurbs. What am I missing here?
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Jun 20, 2014 03:57
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I hate to add to this dogpile, Sithsaber, but you don't even have to be a writer to figure some of these things out. High School Theatre Classes, I learned pretty quickly that what you intend won't buy you a squirt of piss in the middle of the Sahara. It's all about the end result, what you can communicate. All you've been able to communicate so far is "I'm still learning the ropes" and "I'm a colic-stricken baby who responds to admittedly mean-spirited attacks with equally mean-spirited retorts, designed to remind all you losers how much better I am than you." Want to be a writer? Prepare to gently caress up. Develop a thick skin so you can take it when you gently caress up. And maybe try to apply the things you learn to all your writing. I don't know what's more pathetic: you calling for someone else to report blue squares because you're too busy nailing yourself to a cross, or you defending a bad piece of writing by claiming you were texting, for gently caress's sake. And also, when Chillmatic posts like he did above, you listen. He's twice the motherfucker we aspire to be.
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Jul 9, 2014 07:31
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Sithsaber posted:If I can't get around to posting some poo poo in the next 24 hours, feel free to ignore me. Why wait 24 hours when I can start now?
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Jul 9, 2014 14:25
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magnificent7 posted:Jesus Christ this place is the worst place to feel good about wanting to write. I regret that. Really I do. I prefer not to be one of those misanthropes that stresses the pitfalls and drawbacks of the work and underplays its emotional rewards. Yes, it's true that this job can suck, but... ...like, okay, the other day I was working on my screenplay, sketching out this light, flirty conversation between two people. And I have a solid idea of where I'm going with the story in general, but the relationship at the center of it had been tricky to pin down. However, I'm writing out this bit of dialogue, and I come to this sudden realization that this flirtation is really spelling out why these two people need each other so much despite having such different backgrounds. It's a fascinating relationship that I know people are going to flip for, maybe not in any way that'll make me rich, but certainly in a way that'll make them feel richer. And for all I know, it could actually be terrible and stupid. But for now, I'm proud. And if the feedback shows that I was indeed on the wrong track, I'm going to crack THOSE problems and be proud all over again, and that'll make the slog seem worthwhile. If you don't get off on that kind of thing, I'm not going to tell you not to write. You've got your reasons; remember them and embrace them. Sithsaber posted:Panderfapfap pander fap. If Oxxi is still crying he should use the search feature while I'm away. I'm sure I have some overblown cartoon analysis he can enjoy. Shut up until you can post some work. I'm honestly tempted to challenge you to some sort of pseudo-Thunderdome. I'm not even sure I'd win. I'd just rather you talk about your loving craft instead of making GBS threads on everyone else here. DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Jul 9, 2014 |
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Jul 9, 2014 16:16
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Sithsaber posted:I just meant the use of the phrase "ethnic name" mainly because you were right to assume that my name is ethic.(and that's okay) You know, I was just about to ask if people prefer writing to music. See, I like writing to Peter Gabriel myself (among others, of course), and it turns out I have a pretty decent song of his for this situation! Also: magnificent7 posted:I like him and Literary Agent Vader. A publisher charges you 12k to self publish? How does that work? I guess if you're under contract to them...?
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Jul 15, 2014 04:53
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Sithsaber posted:Should I care more about freytag's pyramid/dramatic arc or Campbell's monomyth/ story circle? You should care, first and foremost, about telling your story. I say that as someone who is horrible at sitting down and putting words to paper, but I know enough to know that no single theory or approach is going to tell the story for you. Read up on them if you want, they can't hurt, but in the end stories are always their own beast. People who stick too rigidly to formulas and theories usually end up shooting themselves in the foot.
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Jul 15, 2014 06:26
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