Fiction Writing Advice and Discussion: Read. Write. Crit. Repeat.

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Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

Couple things:

1) you can say loving in here, and it's easier to read than f******.
2) after the self-pub erotica thread got gross a few years ago, there is a general moratorium on talking about writing erotica. Personally, I think that as long as you are asking questions that apply to fiction writing in general (like what you have asked so far), you are fine, but I am not a mod, and mod opinions may be different. So be aware of that as you ask further questions. If you have explicit erotica-related questions, there are other forums online dedicated to erotic writing, which would be both more appropriate and more helpful.

Your best bet is going to be to read stuff like you are trying you write, though.

And if you find reading/writing about sex monotonous, maybe write it as a non-erotica novel?

Dr. Kloctopussy fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Jul 17, 2018

# ¿ Jul 17, 2018 06:13

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 00:18

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

This was mostly (entirely?) copied from Stuportar's OP in the last fic advice thread

Dr. Kloctopussy posted:

Reader�s Critique:

This is generally the kind of feedback you�d expect when you pass your story along to readers before it reaches an editor. They can be the most helpful because anyone, regardless of writing skill, can look for plot holes, mischaracterization, bad pacing, confusing bits, and so on. You don�t need to know your writing terminology inside-out to give a crit like this, but you do need to make an effort to explain why something doesn�t work for you.

If anything�s confusing, ask the writer questions. These are helpful, because they can indicate something the writer missed. Maybe they�re phrasing something badly, or aren�t filling in enough blanks to give the reader a clear mental picture. Does everything make sense within the context given? Maybe they�re stringing you along, hoping the mystery will compel you to read on, but are being too coy about holding back facts you need to know to get into the story.

Did you stop reading at any point? Tell the writer when and why. Is the verbiage thick and convoluted? Is the writer using big words when it�s obvious they don�t even know what they mean, spewing word-salad all over the place in an effort to become the next James Joyce, yet too lazy to look up poo poo in the dictionary? Alternately, the pacing could be off and the characters could be bland. They could be slogging the story down with info-dump. Are you thinking, �Get on with it,� �Slow the gently caress down,� or worse, �I don�t give a drat about these people?�

Did you enjoy the story? What did you like about it? Was there any bits that stood out? Did any characters stand out, whether you liked or loathed them? If it�s a sample, do you want to keep reading?

Also, avoid the urge to say, �It would be cool if you did this �� I�m guilty of doing this once in a while, and regret it every time. The urge can be hard to resist when the writer is copying some formula and not taking risks. Sometimes you chime in with, �Hey, change the setting/characters to something less hackneyed and you�ll have a more original story.� You might have some ideas. Others might chime in saying, �Hey, yeah, that would be cool.� When this happens, the writer is at liberty to say, �Go to hell, this is my story,� because you�ve crossed the line. To avoid this, point out why you think the story doesn�t work, or what potential they�re wasting, and leave it at that. When it comes to ideas, let the author find them.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2018 07:33

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

Guiness13 posted:

Not sure if this is the best place for this question, but I've got the crazy idea of applying for an MFA program. My problem is that my educational and employment history have been decidedly not fiction oriented. (Worked as a paralegal.) So, who should I be asking for letters of recommendation?

Actually answering your question (probably w/some info you've read, assume that's for other people reading later):
1) Email the university and ask (Email admissions questions to graduate.english@umich.edu or call 734.763.4139; Probably even better: zellwriters@umich.edu)
2)"Can someone other than a creative writing teacher write a letter of recommendation for me?
Yes, you can ask a non-academic to provide a letter of recommendation for your file. It is best, however, if the person writing on your behalf is somehow qualified to assess your writing. And while we will accept recommendations from sources that are not academic or writerly, keep in mind that having a friend or family acquaintance (or even a well-known writer who has never actually read your work) extol your virtues doesn't help the program evaluate your strengths as a candidate."
3) Don't give up just b/c you don't have any ~writerly~ recommendation letters. You have the writing sample to show how you write. Worst case scenario is you're out $75 and maybe feel bad.
5) Grad school admissions thread in Ask/Tell might have some answers
6) Hopefully one of the people who post here who actually have an MFA will answer you.

Giving you advice you didn't even f ucking ask for:
7) As mentioned already, the stipend won't be much money. It looks to be less than half of the average salary for a paralegal in Ann Arbor. Though you say "worked" so maybe you are unemployed or doing something else now.
8) The chances of making a successful career change to anything writing related after getting an MFA are slim, so also consider what effect a 2-3 year gap in your profession would mean for you long-term. (Highly recommend trying to see what previous graduates from the program are doing right now. It's clearly an exclusive program, but not all graduates are successful writers. https://lsa.umich.edu/writers/alumni-friends/alumni-books.html -- I think I'm seeing less than 10 graduates with more than one published novel in the past 20 years? One of them has two listings for what seem to be the same rom-com with only 13 combined reviews on Amazon....)
9) Personally I wouldn't bother applying if you want to write genre.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2018 08:17

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

BigRed0427 posted:

Where is a good place to go or a polite way to ask people to take a look at a piece of writing for either advice or input.

THE BIGGEST ANSWER. JUST GO TO A DISCORD OR SOMETHING. THIS FORUMS IS DYING. FLY FREE. MAKE YOUR OWN GROUP. IT'S FINE. I'M FINE.

Dr. Kloctopussy posted:

GET FEEDBACK

First a note about the word �critiques� � it�s not the same as criticism. It just means outside feedback, not necessarily negative feedback (although most honest feedback is going to include some negatives). I use the two terms interchangeably.

Where to get feedback on SomethingAwful.com

a) If you just need to know if a couple sentences make sense, go ahead and post it in this thread.

b) If you want feedback on something less than 1000 words, 1) critique something in Fiction Farm, 2) post your stuff in Fiction Farm, 3) post a link in this thread. Not sure how to critique? Read on, dear reader.

c) If you want feedback on something greater than 1000 words, 1) create a new thread, 2) post a link in this thread. If you have written something very long (say over 5k words), you will get more feedback if you post it in smaller chunks. Post Chapter One of your novel, get feedback, post Chapter Two (in the same thread). Keep in mind that this is a community, and you are likely to get more feedback if you are an active participant in the community. That means posting in this thread, Fiction Farm, and giving critiques to other people. The best way to get someone to actually critique your work is to trade critiques. I�ll scratch my back if you scratch mine, but in a good way, not like underhanded gangster deals (unless that�s what you�re into).

d) If you know you want feedback to improve your writing, but don�t really have any writing you want to share, try out Ye Olde Thunderdome, where pretty much every story gets a crit and if you are new, kind people will often give extra crits. More extra crits if you keep with it.

e) You can try asking in #readmorewritemore (irc.synirc.net), but I make no promises. Critiquing requires time and effort, and people are often weary of doing it for strangers who may never return the favor and may just ignore it all if they disagree (see note above about ~~community~~ ). Asking for a trade is likely to get you more responses.

No matter what do not post something you �just scribbled down off the top of your head� and ask for critiques. That is a garbage thing to do to other people. If you�re not willing to put any time into improving it, don�t ask other people to put time into improving it. Basic courtesy here. Ideally, you would wait at least one day between writing something and posting it. Read it (and probably edit it) during that time. Surely you do not actually need feedback on it right this very second.If you are freaked out by editing and don�t know what to do, still read it. You might notice some changes that would make it better, and boom, you are editing, good job. (You may also enjoy the editing section of the above post and/or asking questions about editing in this thread.) If you write something while high/drunk/whatever, do not post it until you have read it sober.

If you can�t even be bothered to read and think about what you just wrote a little bit, don�t ask us to do it.

Getting feedback elsewhere on the internet

There are other websites that work similarly to this forum, where you post something and other users will critique it. I do not use any other writing website, but here are some places I hear you can get crits:
http://www.writersdigest.com/forum/
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/forum.php
http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com (has a �credits� system, where you have to critique others before being critiqued. It has an annual $49 fee, but it�s also produced some very successful authors, including Jim Butcher, Elizabeth Bear, and Rae Carson. It has a free month-long trial.)
http://www.critiquecircle.com (this one has a �credits� system, where you have to critique others, before being critiqued)
http://www.scribophile.com (another credit-based system)
http://critique.org/ (oldest critique group on the web, another credit system, and conducted exclusively in .txt format through a crazy email process, but maybe that is your thing!)

A frequent claim about those other sites is that they are all �hug boxes� where everyone will just tell everyone else they are great or whatever. I have no idea if it�s true. Maybe we�re just being smug. If anyone has experience with any of these, chime in.

Writing Groups

Another option is to get together with an online or in person critique group. Basically, you have a set group of people who critique each other�s work on a regular basis. Some benefits to working with a set group include motivation through peer-pressure, knowing the common strengths/weaknesses of the other members (valuable both for your critiques of their work, and evaluating their critiques of your work), and of course, life-long friendships.

These groups can be an excellent source of motivation, as long as everyone continues to participate seriously. In my experience, it helps to have at least one super-reliable person who will give you the �I�m not mad at you, son, just very disappointed,� look if you gently caress up. Or maybe actually be mad, and be willing to kick people out if they aren�t pulling their weight. If everyone is kind of slacking off on a regular basis, the group will probably fall apart. Yes, this one is based on personal experience (we can�t live without you, Systran ).

Working with the same people means you get to know their writing and their critiquing styles. Maybe one writer in your group is great with plots, but isn�t so great with dialogue, so you can pay a little extra attention to that. Maybe one writer in your group never likes your dialogue, but no one else has a problem with it, so you don�t take it super-seriously.

Will you actually become life-long friends with your group? Who knows, but Brandon Sanderson is still working with people he met in his critique group in college, so maybe. On the other hand, I�m not sure if those people are his friends or not.

This article describes some general considerations when looking for an online critique group (it applies to in-person, too). The most important part (in my opinion) discusses how to know if a crit group is right or wrong for you:

Finding Critique Groups

In person:
If you already know local authors, they might be able to refer you to in-person groups (or invite you to theirs). If not, your best bet for finding in-person critique groups is probably a google search:

https://www.google.com/search?&q=San+Francisco+Writing+Groups

Online:

Feel free to post in this thread looking for people who want to make a writing group. Please describe what kind of work you would be open to critiquing, planned frequency of meeting, method of exchange/discussion, etc. Don�t worry if you don�t know all of that. You�ll probably want to discuss it with other members of the group anyway. Just something more detailed than �hey let�s do a group.�

Running your own group:
1) You should really be that super-dedicated person if you�re gonna start the group
2) Have set times and frequencies to meet
3) Have set expectations for how much people are going to submit
4) Have set expectations for how extensive/detailed the critiques should be
5) We used a combination of google groups, google docs, and google chat to share and critique works. It worked well, and that�s what I would use again. There are also plenty of places online where you can set up your own forum for free, and that could also work.

Many of the forums linked above also have places to find set writing groups. Here are a few places that focus more on groups:
http://www.ladieswhocritique.com (women only, matches you with a single critique partner, not a group)
https://www.inkedvoices.com (both a place to find groups, and a platform for exchanging and critiquing work. This is a pay service.)

I�m just finding these on google, so again if anyone has used them (or any others), please let us know your experience.

When joining a group, in person or online, read the description of the groupscarefully, and make sure it sounds like what you want. For example, do not try to join a group focused on poetry if you are writing paranormal romance. If you want to work with a small group of people consistently, you might be wary of a drop-in group. On the other hand, don�t get discouraged and give-up if none sound perfect. Give things a try, you might find something you like.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2018 08:46

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

sebmojo posted:

The tldr is read the op, I believe

op is too long, didn't read

# ¿ Aug 30, 2018 01:46

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

I don't think that Scrivener will arrange things in columns exactly like you are talking about, but I think you can find ways to see the same information usefully, if you are flexible about it, and make good use of Scrivener's meta-data features.

I started to write a long post showing how I might do what you're looking for with a partially-written novel that I've actually entered a bunch of meta-data for, but it turns out I'd have to include pretty long explanations of how meta-data works in Scrivener. That's a lot of work, and I'd probably end up doing a sub-par job of it.

So, may I suggest doing a google search for scrivener corkboard, where people who actually use the corkboard feature regularly tell you actually useful things!

Sigh.

Maybe I should just make the super-long post about boobs I have half-drafted instead :/

Edit: Thanks for reading the OP! This post probably added nothing new other than a link to a google search that anyone could perform for themselves in less time than it took to read teh post, but whatever!

Dr. Kloctopussy fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Oct 18, 2018

# ¿ Oct 18, 2018 08:18

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

HIJK posted:

If you�re looking to get away from overly descriptive writing (which is a good idea imo) then I would recommend reading lit from before movies became popular to understand how authors described action and settings before the advent of movies. That includes a good chunk of Victorian lit though not exclusively. Chandler and Hemmingway are good for this sort of thing.

It�s old language but it�s worth looking at to understand good writing.

Every novel by Chandler and Hemingway was written* during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood.

Chandler wrote the script for five feature length films, including the classics Double Indemnity, Blue Dahlia, and Stranger on a Train (based on the Patricia Highsmith novel) before he wrote what is probably his second-most-famous book, The Long Goodbye. His most famous book, The Big Sleep, was released in 1939, the same year as Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.

Hemingway has the slight advantage over Chandler, in that he has zero film credits to his name on wikipedia, but on the other hand:

quote:

To Have and Have Not (1944) is famous not only for the first pairing of actors Humphrey Bogart (1899�1957) and Lauren Bacall (1924�2014), but also for being written by two future winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Ernest Hemingway (1899�1961), the author of the novel on which the script was nominally based, and William Faulkner (1897�1962), who worked on the screen adaptation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_the_United_States

Neither of these dudes were writing before the advent of film, or even the mass popularity of film, and if you want to see how authors described action and setting before movies, you cannot look to Chandler or Hemingway for examples.

And while I also cannot agree with the general recommendation to look at pre-modern authors to see examples of less-descriptive writing (there is a reason why the opposite is usually recommended....), I do highly recommend looking at some Dickensian poo poo to remind yourself of what a true wide-angle opening shot can look like in prose:

Charles loving Dickens posted:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

I know you loving tuned out at the first 5 words, and decided to have another flashback to your high school english class instead of actually reading a thing, so maybe close your eyes, take some deep breaths, imagine finally telling that dumb teacher to go to hell, and then actually read the hilarious loving McSweeney's article Dickens wrote a couple centuries ago.

Edit: it has been brought to my attention that it might look like I am talking to HIJK when I say "you" here, but rest assured, dear reader, that I am not. I am talking to YOU! To the extent this applies to you. If your high school english class didn't inspire a loathing for Dickens, then i invite you to enjoy it either again, or fresh and unfettered by the chains of essays on the Golden Thread.

And I apologize to HIJK for being a jerk.

* Do you want to go through a bunch of hoopla to argue that like two of these books were written several years before they were published? because if for some reason you want to go to bat for that, I will loving look up the original manuscripts. But neither of these guys were even BORN when the Lumi�re brothers screened their short films in Paris. So why don't we save ourselves some time with that "argument.

Dr. Kloctopussy fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Feb 20, 2019

# ¿ Feb 14, 2019 11:52

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

HIJK posted:

Well I�m sorry I got my eras mixed up, but I was trying to suggest authors that I found useful for describing scenes and actions without being overly cinematic. I�m sorry that you took it so personally, and that you decided that I hated English class (I didn�t, English class was relatively enjoyable to me). I also have no particular desire to argue with you regarding these books? So why are you making GBS threads yourself so hard?

Because it's fun, and I occasionally care about accuracy when talking about writing, and the bit about Dickens wasn't intended to be personally directed at you, even though in retrospect it does look like it could be, sorry about that

Dr. Kloctopussy fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Feb 20, 2019

# ¿ Feb 20, 2019 09:48

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

Nae! posted:

I do try to stay positive but after five novels of full requests>form rejections, it's hard to keep upbeat about it. I know I've just got to keep writing and keep trying, but yeesh, it's not fun being kicked in the dick a dozen times a year.

Al Cu Ad Solte posted:

Same, man. Been querying since 2016 across 3 novels and it's difficult to tell what exactly isn't resonating with a particular agent since 99% of the time they don't give any kind of feedback. Just gotta keep writin' I guess.

This guy is my hero when it comes to rejection letters: The War on Loneliness - Got My 1600th Short Story Rejection

Before you cringe and move on*, he has been published in nearly every major sci-fi market and a few lit mags as well, has a YA novel out now (published by Disney-Hyperion), and another one that is through revisions with Harper Teen. From the post:

"In the last 100 rejections I�ve sold five stories, including my first two sales to the �Big Three� (the remaining science fiction and fantasy paper digests): �Bodythoughts� to F&SF and �The Intertidal Zone� to Asimov�s. I�ve also sold a solicited story to A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, and I�ve sold stories to Lightspeed and to Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Not a terrible haul, especially considering I haven�t written many stories in the past two years."

I enjoy clicking through his links to his other milestones (he has a post for every 100th rejection starting with 300 D:), but I especially like his post on his 1000th https://thewaronloneliness.com/2013/04/25/some-thoughts-and-additional-statistics-re-my-thousandth-short-story-rejections/

He also posts pretty regularly about the way he approaches writing, and his (evolving) process, with more clarity and less salesmanship than most writing advice books I've read. It is neither organized or comprehensive, but I have found his thoughts helpful.

*I have mixed feelings about how important it is to me that I make sure you know that he is a Real! Successful! Author! instead of just someone with extreme emotional resilience, but.... I guess what makes me feel better, personally, isn't someone who can keep trying in the face of frequent rejection, but someone who faces frequent rejection, but is still a success by my standards.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2019 10:46

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

Dr.D-O posted:

Recently I wrote a piece of flash fiction for a contest Weird Tales was running. Despite not writing a lot before, I really enjoyed it and was hoping to write more short fiction in my spare time. Ideally, I'd like to submit my work for publication somewhere.

I was wondering what people's experiences have been with submitting short stories to online magazines for publication?

A brief how-to/what's-what guide to publishing short fiction can be found near the bottom of this post:

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=1&threadid=3807739&pagenumber=1&perpage=40#post468811196

General Battuta posted:

You will be rejected for years, gradually improve, start consistently selling, and, if you keep at it, end up placing stories in your dream markets. if you don't get tired of casting stories into the void along the way since nobody reads short fiction except short fiction writers

^^^^ my one acquaintance who has had lots of short stories published in pro SFF markets says exactly this, and also had a horrifying blog post (which I can't find now, thank god) titled "Just got my 1300th rejection letter." Stephen King, in On Writing, talks about how he had a railroad spike on his wall that he would impale all of his rejections on, and it was pretty much full-up when he finally got a story published.

Should we not tell new people these things?

I will now do the plug that I'm surprised no one else has done: We have our own dumb weekly flash fiction contest, which we have somehow done every week for over 8 years now (hoooow????). Thunderdome 2020ty: This Dumb Joke Will Continue Until the Words Improve.

You will not get published, but someone will definitely read your story and give you honest feedback! And we've mellowed out a lot, so no one will tell you that your words made them want to drink bleach! Probably! ...should we not tell new people these things?

If you don't feel like doing Thunderdome, I encourage you to write whatever you want and still seek out feedback, either by posting a thread here in CC (please let us know in this thread b/c most of us are lazy) or hitting us up on discord at: https://discord.gg/nzJy9MJ (the discord is thunderdome-branded, but not thunderdome-exclusive).

I really hope all these responses haven't discouraged you--getting published isn't easy, but it's also not the exclusive end-goal of writing. If you had fun writing, keep writing.

Dr. Kloctopussy fucked around with this message at 12:49 on Aug 26, 2020

# ¿ Aug 26, 2020 12:47

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

It seems possible -- though I certainly don't know for sure -- that this might not be something you have to 100% solve perfectly on your own. You're going to get a lot of editor comments, and it would make sense if some of those were directed at the issue of resolving whether or not it's a standalone or not.

But to make it possible, I think a solid approach is to have a complete story arc that solves a small problem that is part of a much bigger problem. It's the balance between those that's tricky, because you can't leave the reader feeling like the big problem is what should have been resolved. In the rest of the series, your protag gets more involved with (and becomes more capable of solving) the big problem.

So, for example, in book one you save someone from a secret government facility. At the end, they are rescued, you've achieved your personal goal, hooray. Then by the end of the series you are leading the pirate army and destroying the entire government. Or you're a girl trying to get into a magic school that's always been for boys by passing all the crazy entrance tests. Book 1, you get into school, hooray. End of series, you're leading a pirate army that's destroying the entire magic government. Or you're an intern at a famous fashion magazine and your boss is a real bitch who treats you like trash. By the end of book 1, she treats you like a human being and you get a full time job. Hooray, I guess. But by the end of the series, you are leading a pirate army and destroying the entire fashion industry with your new pirate-themed couture line.

Basically, if you end up leading a pirate army, you are good to go. Also for some reason you are the protagonist of all your own books.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2020 05:18

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

2020: People actually read the OP?!?!

Ccs posted:

Is there a new Fiction Farm thread to post prose snippets of less than 1000 words? I've noticed the topic listed in the thread OP has been vaulted.

Thank you for pointing this out, I have updated the OPs with the link to the new Fiction Farm Thread!

Leng posted:

It took a couple of weeks but I finally made it all the way through this thread. That OP is some amazing stuff!

To contribute - I've seen Writing Excuses brought up a few times in the thread, but not Brandon Sanderson's main YouTube channel which contains all of his BYU lectures on writing SFF and some other miscellaneous questions on writing that he's been answering during his livestream signing sessions. This is the playlist for the 2020 lectures:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSH_xM-KC3Zv-79sVZTTj-YA6IAqh8qeQ

Most of what he covers applies to any genre (or any storytelling really), though there's a few that are very specific to SFF (e.g. world building and magic systems). He also has 2 lectures covering the business/publishing side of things (traditional and self publishing).

Jerry B Jenkins also started up a YouTube channel and recently posted a pretty good video on writing dialogue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpWKp-fnZuU

Thank you for the validation I desperately crave, I have added these resources to the OPs!

I don't frantically F5 this thread as much as I used to, so if anyone ever has suggestions/corrections/additions* for the OPs, do not hesitate to PM me. If you don't have PMs available, just quote something incredibly intelligent that I've said, and I will notice and respond to you instead of scrolling by looking for the opportunity to make a dumb joke.

You can also find me, and many other cool writing people on the thunderdome-branded but not thunderdome-exclusive SA writing discord: https://discord.gg/nzJy9MJ

*like for example if for some reason you've been keeping a bunch of links to cool posts/resources in this thread.....

# ¿ Oct 3, 2020 10:25

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

General Battuta posted:

I hate this loving job

Glad to know it never gets better!

(But also encouraging vibes, you can do this, keep going, imposter syndrome is real, you aren't an imposter, anyone in your way is being completely unreasonable, and you are 100% correct)

# ¿ Oct 15, 2020 05:58

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

Zaepho posted:

All the big name genre author's I've had the opportunity to speak with over the last few years are recommending looking at all 3 avenues of publishing for new(er) authors.

Have any of the ones you've spoken with worked personally with small presses? It would be cool to get the thoughts of someone with experience in multiple avenues.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2020 22:50

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

Thumbtacks posted:

That's helpful advice, thank you! It was kind of a weird week yeah and I didn't get a ton of foodback (this is one of the few weeks where there wasn't individual feedback, the judge was just kinda "most of these were fine, these were the really bad ones and these were the really good ones" which was kinda unfortunate)

Don't worry! Feedback on individual stories is usually given by multiple judges a few days after judgment. Because of the length of the stories, it will probably be an extra few days, but you will probably see something by late next week.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2020 20:55

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

queserasera posted:

Can anyone suggest a bare-bones personal wiki program that's still being maintained and updated? I've been using Notebook but I'm worried it's going to crash and burn one of these days. Specifically I want something no-frills and doesn't need internet to work. Is WikidPad the only solution here?

I've not talked to any writers who use a wiki program (though it seems like a pretty useful idea, actually), so I'm not sure this is the best place to ask. Maybe I'm wrong and people will jump in with suggestions, but I would personally see if there are any other threads focused on wikis or personal software?

# ¿ Nov 6, 2020 01:51

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 00:18

Dr. Kloctopussy: Apr 22, 2003; "It's time....to DIE!"

Oh no a double post, ummmmmm....guess I better think of a fiction advice adjacent thing to say pretty soon here

It's NaNoWriMo and we have a thread for it!
https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3945506

Dr. Kloctopussy fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Nov 6, 2020

# ¿ Nov 6, 2020 01:52

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Fiction Writing Advice and Discussion: Read. Write. Crit. Repeat.

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