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crabrock posted:it's just all articles, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions now. this is the most literary of fiction.
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Aug 30, 2017 20:08
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there are professional writers that type slower than you use a phone
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Aug 30, 2017 20:41
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i came up with my current book entirely by going "i want to use this plot element that i really liked in a completely different manner" from a comic i read lol idk, plotting is like, easy? its just fixing poo poo thats hard... and when you realize there's a problem when you're still writing, i like to fix it before i move forward, that paralyzes me a lot.
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Sep 6, 2017 20:24
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td taught me that a huge element of writing success is entirely due to luck and mood
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Sep 6, 2017 20:26
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HIJK posted:FWIW I know how you feel and it's a really frustrating cycle to know what you want but still being unable to reach it. This Ira Glass quote really helps me when I get down in the dumps: thats a lot of words for "write more"
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Sep 6, 2017 22:02
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Mirage posted:I tend to think of writing as more like when schoolkids doodle in their books and turn pictures of Washington into a Japanese schoolgirl or something. Start with a kernel of an idea, then think about what you want to make that idea into. Chew on it for a while. So cops can bring people back from the dead to interrogate them. How does that affect the wider world? What other professions could use that ability? Lawyers, historians, reporters, funeral directors, insurance agents even, just for a start. There's be a gigantic body of law around it. Charlatans would abound. Licensing would be an issue. Can it be done with a snap of the fingers, or is it a whole ritual? If it's expensive or difficult, there would be a disparity between classes in how useful it could be. Necromancy could be a freelance field: Jake Dancer, Private Deadeye. Fifty dollars a corpse, plus expenses. "ask every question a reader would ask about how each thing in your world works, then ask yourself a few more and answer them all in your book" was seriously the exercise that helped me the most w/r/t worldbuilding it really forces you to think about the consequences of your world. test readers are also really good for raising these kinds of questions because if they have one and you haven't answered it, you probably should. anime was right fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Sep 7, 2017 |
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Sep 7, 2017 17:20
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iirc you basically want a synopsis to sell the interesting elements of a (a story about a story, almost), and a pitch should be like, two sentences. what you have looks to be something in the middle of both of those?
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Sep 11, 2017 20:21
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if you can write at that volume and learn at around the same rate per words written you'll probably be published before like 95% of us burkion lol
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Sep 13, 2017 17:42
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Stuporstar posted:What do ya'll do when you notice you're using a particular word too much? I keep shoving "especially" into my sentences, can't think of any word that works better. I finally checked the thesaurus, and not a single word in there has the right emphasis or works in the same context. It's driving me crazy. i fukken love the word quite and will quite you to the death over my overusage of it
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Sep 16, 2017 03:20
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do any of yall have any advice on stuff like fantasy/scifi/world cons etc and networking there or anything thanks peace appreciate it has anyone on the planet actually been published through a paid pitch session? (probably, not often, i'm betting)
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Sep 20, 2017 03:06
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After The War posted:I run the Literature/Writing track for my local SF/F con. What, specifically, would you like to know? What type of networking do you want to do, and what are you looking to get out of it? mostly, get to know peers in my group, learn more about the industry, put names to faces in publishing, learn more about my craft outside of sa and resources i find on the internet. that sorta deal.
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Sep 20, 2017 08:13
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After The War posted:And go to a "Tales from the Slushpile" if they're having one, you'll feel a lot better about your work (and sanity) afterwards. yeah i read a lot of stuff about like... what people submit and i go "okay, i've probably cleared 50% of the minefield already..." ill probably make some really boneheaded mistake somewhere along the line though in my submission period. thanks for the tips (and thats to both zaepho and you). is there a good list of local literary stuff (obviously filtered by like, state or something) by any chance? i live right outside of nyc so i can attend that kind of stuff on weekends in that circle too. anime was right fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Sep 21, 2017 |
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Sep 21, 2017 17:54
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Naerasa posted:I really want to read this guy's story. you're not ready for its genius
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Sep 21, 2017 18:36
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After The War posted:I was going to send you to LunaCon, but it looks like they've already cancelled for next year, so that doesn't bode well. i'll travel anywhere if its worth it and within reason (im not spending more than my allocated budget on going to a shack in wyoming). i've set aside some money for worldcon 2018 already. i probably wanna try some more local stuff tho. maybe i'll hit up dragoncon next year too.
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Sep 21, 2017 22:29
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:You would definitely need to scrub them from these forums before getting anything actually published, should you ever reach that point. People have had to edit out TD entries once they've started shopping them around. or scrub them anyway and never get them published like me (i have only submitted three places i think lol)
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Sep 21, 2017 22:32
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talk about physical things that are happening in your story, use precise nouns and verbs. don't say cloth, say silk or wool. don't say hit, say punched or headbutted. spend time on developing an important idea through physical relationships. talk about the chair in the room as if it represents the room itself, then don't tell us about the room unless we need to know something else. space all actions around the chair so readers know where characters are at all times with certainty.
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Sep 26, 2017 05:23
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PRADA SLUT posted:If anyone is thinking about using it, Grammarly Premium is half-off today, makes a year ~$60. is it worth it
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Nov 24, 2017 21:12
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theres also a huge difference between a twist and a revelation
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Dec 12, 2017 20:13
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was bored and found the first! book i ever wrote on my hard drive. its a complete mess. like, its really spectacularly awful and i have no hopes of ever using it for anything: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fv-4KmCu-z6Zs8DHFLKMEPm7r4-yGAMca-R3XP_jD5c/edit you can read it to feel better about yourselves if you want. or maybe to realize you gotta gently caress up a few times to get better. this was something from 2013? i think. its like a 95-98% complete first draft. and i do mean first draft.
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Jan 11, 2018 06:15
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crits after a second draft make the most sense to me because you generally write a scene and identify obvious problems that you need to fix in a single edit session. example i had was i put a bit of emphasis on a jacket because a protag needed to hide something in a pocket later. i ended up writing the scene where the protag needs to slip the item by another person differently because it made more sense when the the information of several scenes came together into a single high-tension scene. i ended up with people going "whats with the jacket" and i knew the problem was there, but now the whole jacket thing distracted from other problems the piece may have had. point being: if you have glaring, fixable problems, the hotter parts of your mess are going to mean your test readers don't pick up on the poo poo you truly need to fix. when you resolve it, i think they'll be looking for those problems being fixed instead and again miss anything you need being caught. first drafts are garbage test reads because you, the writer, already know 90% of the fixes that need to take place. don't waste your test readers time on that.
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Jan 17, 2018 23:58
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Covok posted:I'm sorry, what do you mean by "purple?" I'm unfamiliar with the term. Thank you for taking a look, by the way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_prose
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Jan 19, 2018 22:57
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i think weather openings became popular because of establishing shots in movies/tv and people couldnt figure out how to capture the feeling of how an establishing shot works so they just went macro -> micro in terms of setting lol thats my dumb and bad theory that no one asked for, thanks.
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Jan 20, 2018 22:33
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Foolster41 posted:My mermaid story has a girl waking up, though it's more she's gaining consciousness after a shipwreck. I'm not sure how to not start with waking up and have it in media res. start the scene five minutes later: oh theres a bunch of fresh ship debris, the POV character is possibly underwater and conscious and dealing with a headache. if you thrust your reader into that situation it's a mystery to them.why did the ship get wrecked? why is this character able to breathe underwater? the POV character might be looking for something valuable lost in the shipwreck or trying to solve the wreck along with the reader, there's instant momentum in your story.
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Jan 21, 2018 00:05
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write an entire extended history novel within your novel about the important events that led to the conception of the character you're describing. then throw that all away and write one to two sentences about their most distinguishing characteristics.
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Feb 2, 2018 01:00
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apophenium posted:One thing to not do is something I read in a lovely teen sci fi romance. Practically every scene involves a description of every characters' hair. I don't have any idea about these characters' motives or morals but I can tell you what their goddamn hair looks like. And I'm 400 pages into the thing! what if im using each character's hair as an analogy for something HUh Huh!?! what then huh (oh god im a hack)
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Feb 2, 2018 18:23
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its ok just have your character take a selfie or look at their own FriendSphere profile and talk about their picture there
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Feb 7, 2018 07:32
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clearly the trick is to cold open to a wounded protagonist
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Feb 7, 2018 19:22
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MockingQuantum posted:being chased by something, thinking how they would be in the clear, "if only I had _______" no so you can have them talk about what they look like in a mirror duhhh i actually read a really bad book i think opened like that called minds eye? or something like that. dude opened in a gas station bathroom with an injury and someone chasing him down i think.
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Feb 7, 2018 19:26
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hmm, thats actually a fun experiment, what are the most common cold opens? random person finds dead body (usually a one page chapter) crime in progress tragic ptsd flashback just experienced a grave injury running from or chasing something i kind of associate them with thrillers/mysteries more than anything.
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Feb 7, 2018 19:33
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jon joe posted:Bob was being chased by a monster. It had eaten his arm. And then it closed in, about to eat him. fixed for u
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Feb 7, 2018 20:57
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its fine to use those as cold opens they're just really common!!!
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Feb 9, 2018 23:27
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test readers and put your book in the fridge for a couple of weeks so your eyes are fresh when you come back to it seems about right when you're done with a first/second edit pass, yeah.
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Feb 13, 2018 23:38
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congrats, btw. the first major hurdle is getting a single first draft done, i've found. it's much easier to write an entire book after you've done it once before.
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Feb 13, 2018 23:40
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edit: actually posting this in TD
anime was right fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Feb 14, 2018 |
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Feb 14, 2018 03:08
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who are they and why is danny scared of them. there's like two big things here: if danny doesn't know what he's running from, maybe use the advantage of the unknown to emphasize the element of fear or tell the reader who danny is running from and why. it doesn't have to be a powerful reason, yet, but a reason nonetheless. i think those two things would help a lot.
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Feb 14, 2018 21:43
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true leftist posted:what the gently caress is this thread good for, not a single one of you has ever even kissed a book whats up av
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Feb 18, 2018 02:01
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true leftist posted:i've been sitting here for an hour with my tongue in a coetzee and nobody can tell me what to do next im just glad to see ur well, keep on keepin on
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Feb 18, 2018 02:23
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https://www.theonion.com/author-of-introduction-to-algebra-recalls-textbook-be-1823273519
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Feb 24, 2018 22:27
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spending time with other characters and painting the same story themes in a different light is generally a good thing to do with subplots if its cool or interesting. if you're writing a story that isnt a really tight plot piece, this is generally the funnest thing to do. its not bloat if its fun and/or satisfying to read. i mean ideally a subplot serves the plot and primary characters, but idk you can just do cool poo poo in your bookworld for the sake of it as long as it doesnt bore ppl.
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Feb 26, 2018 09:39
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i actually come up with character arcs now and then write the plot (usually the character arc is based around some cool plot idea or thought tho). its way more fun that way anyway.
anime was right fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Mar 15, 2018 |
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Mar 15, 2018 16:33
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