Current Events > CE Writing topic -- This Time It Won't Purge? Edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

M3sterybumper posted...

Awesome stuff

Thank for the support but my latest update was this lol:

spanky1 posted...

Well I should pretty much be done with my book tonight.

If anyone feels like beta reading a 180k fantasy novel, pm me. >_>

:P

I found some beta readers thankfully but dont know if they're actually reading it as of now lol, except for one who I am trading with in chunks and updating each other as we read.

So far the main problems are the ones that I feared, which are too many characters stuffed in, along with telling the reader the conflict via character speeches instead of showing them.
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Can't decide if I want to minor in creative writing or math... wtf

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@spanky1
I'd love to read your work.

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DuranOfForcena posted...

what's your major?

Business

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deanshow posted...

@spanky1
I'd love to read your work.

Well I think we missed the boat on the beta reading timeline (unless you can read super fast), but I could always send a link when it's for sale.
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Doe posted...

Business

Creative writing will be more useful than math for business....not even joking about that either.

source - I have my MBA

Currently working on a semi-autobiographical novel about my 31 day stay at a mental hospital. Currently have two publishers that want it, but I haven't written in it in over a week due to depression

A writing topic! I was thinking of making one not realizing there was one! Hello! Please be nice. I will be here often!

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I hate that my writing has taken a back seat but I gotta hustle and make done dough so Ive been spending my nights building my wifes website. Almost done and can hopefully make a little dough from it.

This means something has to take a backseat as there are only so many hours in the day and Im tired

but I shall return

What kinda website are you making?

And how's the baby?
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I'm writing a Facebook based Battle Royale featuring loads of local people in my town and it's so exhausting to write.

Yet everytime I leave the house, I have people asking me when the next episode is being written and the pressure is too much.

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I keep toying with the idea of making a serious effort at getting published, but I don't think I have the confidence for it. I finished my last novel several months ago, my friend read it and liked it (I don't have the money to hire a professional editor or anything, so it's the best I can do), and I kind of wrote out a basic query letter along with a synopsis and a longer summary, but I just feel too intimidated to go beyond that. I have very little confidence in my writing, so trying to put myself out there is a really daunting task.

I haven't done too much writing lately, either. I've been a bit too depressed to do much beyond a few very short (4-5~ pages) stories in almost a year now. I want to pick myself up out of that and to work on something longer again, but I haven't had much luck.

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dotsdfe posted...

I keep toying with the idea of making a serious effort at getting published, but I don't think I have the confidence for it. I finished my last novel several months ago, my friend read it and liked it (I don't have the money to hire a professional editor or anything, so it's the best I can do), and I kind of wrote out a basic query letter along with a synopsis and a longer summary, but I just feel too intimidated to go beyond that. I have very little confidence in my writing, so trying to put myself out there is a really daunting task.

I haven't done too much writing lately, either. I've been a bit too depressed to do much beyond a few very short (4-5~ pages) stories in almost a year now. I want to pick myself up out of that and to work on something longer again, but I haven't had much luck.

ah just do it. The longer you wait the more sacred it becomes

play a game called im not really gonna send my query out until I get 70 rejections and start working towards those nos

yoy can do it

Sooo my girlfriend sent an agent a few sample chapters and they said they wanted to read the whole thing! So she sent the full manuscript and a month or so later they said they really liked it, but suggested a small change and said they wanted to see it again later.
She made those changes, but now we're just wondering when later means. When should she send it in again?

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dotsdfe posted...

I keep toying with the idea of making a serious effort at getting published, but I don't think I have the confidence for it. I finished my last novel several months ago, my friend read it and liked it (I don't have the money to hire a professional editor or anything, so it's the best I can do), and I kind of wrote out a basic query letter along with a synopsis and a longer summary, but I just feel too intimidated to go beyond that. I have very little confidence in my writing, so trying to put myself out there is a really daunting task.

I haven't done too much writing lately, either. I've been a bit too depressed to do much beyond a few very short (4-5~ pages) stories in almost a year now. I want to pick myself up out of that and to work on something longer again, but I haven't had much luck.

I didn't either until very recently. I've written 12 full books and about a half dozen or so are in various stages of completion, and I did self-publishing for a while, but I wanted more and I needed to know how an actual publisher would respond to my work.

Sent out 14 emails last fall and heard back from 2 of them. Both want to see the finished manuscript and like what they've read so far. They aren't random house or anything crazy, but still. The crazy thing is that, not a that I'm the closest I've ever come to my dream, I haven't written in that book for over a month. Just too depressed and I have no urgency to finish at least a draft :/

I guess I'll keep the topic going for a little bit. What genres do you guys typically write in?

Writing 12 books is an accomplishment and youre likely in the zone to get a deal

i write thriller

bubblegum thriller that is want to see made into a movie. Fast plot, decent character dev, but nothing deep deep

Bump.

DuranOfForcena posted...

sounds pretty vague, to be sure. i think what i would probably do is shoot the agent an email letting them know the changes have been made and you are ready to send the revised draft if they would like it.

Interesting, interesting. How long should she wait?

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Interesting, interesting. I shall let her know, thank you.

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ApherosyLove posted...

Interesting, interesting. I shall let her know, thank you.

Hope it works out man!

In my own writing news, how popular/successful are one-off fantasy novels?
When I think of fantasy, I feel like most of them are large multivolume epics that span so many books. I don't have the attention span for that.
Or the material.

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Made a topic about it, but thought I'd ask here too:

When it comes to saying something without directly saying it, like allegory or songwriting, when does it become too obscure or difficult to understand what the writer means iyo? I'm not writing either of those, but songs seem like a good example because people tend to argue over what lines actually mean or are referring to all the time. I want to be as indirect as possible without being unintelligible (meaning no one has any idea what I'm talking about unless I tell them). Right now I'm sort of using synonyms, allegory, and allusions/specific language to get the point across and sometimes I feel like it works and others I think to myself "that's a really cool sentence, but unless you know me or what my point is to begin with I don't think anyone's going to get that".

DuranOfForcena posted...

it might be prudent to write to the market of those kinds of anthologies instead of going for a one-off novel.

Ummm hmmm. I think my story is too big for that, though

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Still plugging away at this new book (just a bunch of loosely connected vignettes about my struggles with mental health). I think I'm going to make it a long-term project while I work on the one I've been writing off and on for the past few years, which is a semi-autobiographical novel about my experience with a 31 day civil commitment at a mental health facility. It's the one the publishers I mentioned are interested in so I really should be writing in that instead but...eh, I'm more in the mood for the other book lately it seems.

im writing a short story about a guy that likes milk too much. that's the only parameter I made. This first assignment just has to be 3 pages. I meant for the story to be comedic but it has come out weirdly melancholy because it's written from the view of the guy's younger brother that he takes care of and he is kinda neglecting his needs because stocking up on milk is so important to him today

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YO I'd read the shit out of that

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Got this e-mail a few minutes ago from an agent I queried in November:

Hi Kyle,

Thank you so much for giving me a chance to see your work.

Ive now had a chance to review your query and Im sorry to say I dont feel Im connecting wholeheartedly with your writing, despite its many charms. So at this time, I feel it best to step aside.

Please know that this is a very subjective business and that tastes range widely among agents. Someone else may feel very differently and you deserve someone who is passionate about your work and is confident about their ability to position it.

I truly appreciate the look and wish you nothing but the best of luck with your future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Alexandra

Oh well, at least she was nice. On to the next one!

Artisan1990 posted...

Got this e-mail a few minutes ago from an agent I queried in November:

Hi Kyle,

Thank you so much for giving me a chance to see your work.

Ive now had a chance to review your query and Im sorry to say I dont feel Im connecting wholeheartedly with your writing, despite its many charms. So at this time, I feel it best to step aside.

Please know that this is a very subjective business and that tastes range widely among agents. Someone else may feel very differently and you deserve someone who is passionate about your work and is confident about their ability to position it.

I truly appreciate the look and wish you nothing but the best of luck with your future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Alexandra

Oh well, at least she was nice. On to the next one!

Keep plugging! I'm waiting for my third rejection. Been 20 days or so with no response yet. I could send it out to more people but if my query letter isn't making it past them, I wanna know so I can go ahead and adjust that first

Romes187 posted...

Keep plugging! I'm waiting for my third rejection. Been 20 days or so with no response yet. I could send it out to more people but if my query letter isn't making it past them, I wanna know so I can go ahead and adjust that first

Will do! And nice, I hope it works out for you! Just got e-mails from the two publishers confirming that they have my new e-mail for when I send the full manuscript (I'm leaving school so I won't have access to the e-mail I corresponded with them with initially) so I'm pretty excited about that. I was worried it'd been too long and they weren't interested anymore. Still researching who to send to next if these don't go anywhere. Kind of tough to find even smaller publishers with an open submission policy.