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Try to start as close to the exciting poo poo as you can.
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Jul 24, 2017 13:52
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Naerasa posted:I've also joined some local writers groups, but I've run into issues there, too. Of the groups in my area, it's a mix of either open mic nights (aka poetry slams), 'shut up and write'-style groups where you don't share your work, and hobbiest groups of people who don't have any intention of trying to get published. Those are good for feedback, but they're not so good for helping me bridge the gap between finishing a book and getting someone to look at it. Think you might have to create one of your own and, like, explicitly advertise that you're creating a serious critique group for people who are trying to get published in the other groups.
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Aug 25, 2017 09:59
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Fruity20 posted:I'm doing some world building and i wanted to avoid the unfortunate implications of calling other completely different sapient beings as "races", opting to use "species" instead. my only real problem is how can i explain how hybrids happen between different species? I'd go with 'folk' or 'kin'.
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Jan 16, 2019 19:06
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That I would just describe as Factions.
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Jan 17, 2019 17:01
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MockingQuantum posted:Springboarding a bit off of the cell phone discussion from a couple of days ago: In the pivotal moment, your hero pulls out their cellphone and dials in 911 and the murderghost answers.
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Feb 18, 2019 14:39
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I don't know how good you are as an artist, but if you're at least okay, if I were you I'd just look for someone who's already writing a webcomic to collaborate with. Like, an artist can only really do one comic. A script writer can write several series at the same time. There's bound to be someone out there who is writing and drawing one thing and would like to write one more project but they're at their art capacity.
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May 9, 2019 17:57
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It's valid to want to collaborate with someone just for the companionship. I dunno, I'd suggest just starting to network with creators on your level. Join some Webcomicky Discords and talk to people there. Friend people on Twitter and reply to them in a non-weird way. Eventually you'll build up some meaningful connections. There used to be an old goon webcomic IRC channel where a bunch of creators hung out, but I'm pretty sure that's dead now.
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May 9, 2019 19:16
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semicolons; or gtfo
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Jun 1, 2019 11:29
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There is no story that could not be made better by a talking dog and/or cat as the protag's buddy.
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Jul 29, 2019 14:27
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Are the second world elements prominent enough that they influence the development of the character and plot?
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Oct 21, 2019 00:50
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I've just read a book that claims "show, don't tell" comes from Percy Lubbock's The Craft of Fiction, which is a book published in 1921, which is a bit early for Cold War.
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Nov 24, 2019 21:15
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That does look better. Also, to me, the little guy looks like he's either waving hi or impotently shaking his fist at the big un'. Neither of which fits, I assume.
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Dec 20, 2019 19:29
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You might be better off asking in a specialized thread like Web Novel megathread, Web Serial Megathread and, heh, SF/F Kindle Unlimited Trench. But in general, I think you're better off with something like "Reincarnated as... " or "Reborn in another world...." And just go for a full sentence-length light novel style title, they're hilarious! 
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Apr 30, 2020 11:08
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Every other YA book's Amazon page has that as the first thing you see when you open the book's page and I doubt John Green or his agent has signed off on every book that claims it's for his fans. But they don't seem to be doing it on the actual book copies.
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Jul 3, 2020 19:00
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KJ Parker is a good start. He typically writes about brilliant, but deeply morally flawed scholars of some kind who fight to extricate themselves out of vaguely hosed up predicaments, often caused by said moral flaws. Most of the stories are set in what fans call the Parkerverse, which is a fairly low magic world mostly modelled after the Byzantine Mediterranean. Academic Exercises is a good introduction to see, if you like his schtick. Goblin Emperor by Sarah Monette is a very wholesome palace drama. Guy Gavriel Kay's whole thing is taking a historical setting and writing a thick-rear end novel set in a fantasy-ied up version of it, over and over. It's usually pretty good. The first two Chalion novels by Lois Bujold are very good. (The third was a little too romance-y for me.) The Empire trilogy by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts is about a noblewoman from a small-fry clan in a pseudo-Japan, who, after her every male relative is murdered, has to lead what's left of her family to survive and, eventually, attain revenge and become powerful. Terry Pratchett's Discworld. There's, like, a lot of it. Read it one book at a time as a palate cleanser in-between other books. I'd suggest starting with Guards, Guards. China Mieville's The Scar. Very inventive worldbuilding, solid, if slightly thesaurus-y prose. Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun. Very literary. His two main schticks are extremely unreliable narrators and peppering the entire texts with really subtle hints, clues and lacunas so that pretty significant revelations sometimes hinge on a single clue that might only become apparent after you've read the book at least once. I am a little dumb for this series, to be honest, but I can't deny it's pretty good. Jack Vance's Lyonesse. Vance's take on Arthurian fantasy. A late period masterwork of his. Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft. An unassuming schoolteacher gets separated from his wife when visiting the Tower of Babel and has to, well, assume, buckle swash and so forth, to try and find her. Megazver fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Aug 2, 2020 |
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Aug 2, 2020 21:39
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Mycroft Holmes posted:Is it wrong that all I write is fanfiction? I don't really have any original ideas. Do what millionaires do and change enough details in your fanfiction that you won't get sued and sell it! 
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Aug 23, 2020 20:53
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Scribophile seems it's pretty similar to critters. Does anyone have any experience with it? Also, https://www.reddit.com/r/DestructiveReaders/
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Oct 30, 2020 18:23
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I've narrowly avoided getting a losertar the few times I've participated, but this particular tradition never struck me as something that makes TD better. Gang tag sounds a lot better.
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Dec 23, 2020 23:45
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I would suggest stepping up a level of abstraction and instead of trying to write something that you feel doesn't work, write a detailed outline of the sequence you're writing and try to figure out what's not working/what needs changing.
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Feb 2, 2021 20:14
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Some inspiration for you guys: https://twitter.com/saundersjoe/status/1365392422880993282
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Feb 27, 2021 11:36
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Nae posted:There's a reason people still talk about Save the Cat decades later, and not Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot: Snyder made more of an impact with his theory than with his execution. Whatever the overall quality of his screenplays may have been, it's been pretty well established that his understanding of structure was top notch. Popular writing gurus tend to not actually have popular writing projects. It doesn't necessarily make their books worthless. Most athlete trainers haven't actually beaten any records themselves. As for story structure, read this series of articles by Jim Butcher over at his LJ (lol). It's free! https://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/ Megazver fucked around with this message at 10:56 on May 15, 2021 |
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May 15, 2021 10:52
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Doctor Nutt posted:Haven't posted in CC for a long time; hopefully it's okay for me to ask a quick question in this thread. I have been writing for the first time in years (feels so good), but one of my friends gently mocked me for still using Microsoft Word. Is there a better software out there for specifically short fiction/novel writing? flex on them by using Notepad EDIT: I actually mostly use Notepad++ Megazver fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Jul 24, 2021 |
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Jul 24, 2021 15:35
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General Battuta posted:My scenes are too long. My chapters are too long. My manuscript is too long. Help. How do I structure scenes so I can get in and get out quickly??? have u tried being good and not being bad
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Aug 21, 2021 14:08
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D34THROW posted:Anyone ever successfully written a short story (or short story series) or novel (or novel series) using an RPG system to determine the flow of things? Basically playing, say GURPS, against yourself. I'm thinking of doing so because I've tried collaborative writing before and I really like the unpredictability of it, so I'm thinking RPGs as a guide might be a way to incorporate that into my writing proper. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3959142
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Oct 27, 2021 17:11
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Fletch by Gregory MacDonald is a good book to read if you want to see how to do pages of nothing but dialogue.
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Dec 31, 2021 16:42
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Fate Accomplice posted:It’s me, the goon who has no idea what a maternity cover is. It's when someone is shooting at you, so you duck behind some pregnant ladies, hoping that your assailants aren't assholes enough to keep shooting. You can tell how horrifying daily life in UK is by the fact that they actually have a special term for this.
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Jan 2, 2022 02:48
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HIJK posted:How do web serials get traction? Is there a business model or do you just post and pray? Wildbow got lots of attention but he's kind of the exception I think (This is assuming you post on RoyalRoad.) It helps to start out by posting a lot of small chapters - at least once a day, twice a day if you can manage it - for at least a week.
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Jan 3, 2022 21:13
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He's not wrong in that if you want to make money cranking out multiple chapters a day of a basic Blue Boxes Go Brrrr story like he did, that audience is not interested in The Gays, because the genre is there for straight dudenerds, who are significantly more likely to be on the spectrum, to vicariously live through. But there is definitely a sizeable audience for stories where the author is actually trying. Just do your thing, if it's good and (more importantly, haha) if you update regularly, you'll probably find an audience.
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Jan 4, 2022 11:50
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Chairchucker posted:Feels like the rule, then, should more be 'No LitRPGs'. The LitRPGs are what pulls in four to five figure Patreons, I'm afraid. Still, you can write smarter LitRPGs with diverse characters and still earn cash. I've just finished read This Used to be About Dungeons and that's about a group of Megazver fucked around with this message at 11:41 on Jan 5, 2022 |
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Jan 5, 2022 11:33
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Even with the edit, I don't really see your point.
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Jan 5, 2022 13:24
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is there a context in which all the Inner Goddess lines from 50 Shades would actually be good
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Jan 10, 2022 01:31
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Fate Accomplice posted:what does the word arch mean in this context? a: MISCHIEVOUS, SAUCY b: marked by a deliberate and often forced playfulness, irony, or impudence known for her arch comments … decided to answer them by being teacherly in a sort of arch, Olympian way. Etymology: The prefix figured in so many derogatory uses (arch-rogue, arch-knave, etc.) that by mid-17c. it had acquired a meaning of "roguish, mischievous," softened by 19c. to "saucy."
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Jan 10, 2022 01:56
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REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS posted:What if it’s a comedy? Should have used Jokerman instead.
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Jan 20, 2022 16:29
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sebmojo posted:someone is still mad about ned stark (not saying you are junpei, that's just the most prominent example i can think of) Game of Thrones makes it work, IMO. It's pretty "here's how this would have actually unfolded, given what we know of real history" But on the other hand of this, Joss Whedon definitely murdered a whole lot of characters for cheap drama, and the respective shows /movies got poorer for it in most cases. You can even see someone else going "yeah wtf dude, let's actually not get rid of this very good character" with Agents of MARVEL. The only time it worked was with Buffy's mom.
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Jan 23, 2022 16:37
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Junpei posted:I would like to go to every elementary/middle school English classroom and remove all posters that give a bunch of synonyms for "said" and tell you to never use it. Listen to audiobooks every day, and you'll want to go remove King's On Writing from libraries instead.
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May 8, 2022 09:53
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DTaeKim posted:My wife writes fanfic as a hobby. Today she got this PM out of the blue: There are people who take money for this sort of thing. Have your wife reply that she takes $20 per 1k words, money in advance, lol.
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May 19, 2022 16:03
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I prefer "castinated".
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May 22, 2022 14:11
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There's also the fact that "of color" is in vogue now. I think I'm gonna choose to not read any more about this, but without any other info I'd bet that's what she was probably going for.
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May 24, 2022 00:23
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Embrace it by deliberately picking saucy slang for all your fantasy words, but making sure they're not something they can cancel you for.
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Jun 22, 2022 23:11
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For a fantasy novel ~200,000 is fine, IMO. If the book was action ACTION ACTION then you'd want to get it down to ~100k, probably, but I think a comedy book should be fine at 170K. Beware of Chicken is ~130K and tbh I wish it was bigger.
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Jun 24, 2022 15:52
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