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

(+) Yeah! (+)

DuranOfForcena posted...

errr.... wrong thread lol?

How? Write me wresting storylines and I'll book them in my game and tell you how they turn out, lol

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DuranOfForcena posted...

oh

well, personally i'm not interested in wrestling whatsoever, so i'll pass, but good luck

I could make them all CE users. . .

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I'm sure someone did. SOunds like fun, lol

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Well, it seems my book is mostly a hit with beta readers so far. Most are in agreement that at least from the second chapter on they couldn't put it down. So that's nice to hear.

DuranOfForcena posted...

awesome! nice going.

Yeah, but they're all in agreement that they didn't really care for the first chapter >_>

I think it does its job of setting the story and everything up, but at least they like the rest

You know what's really funny? So my own personal tastes in literature lean more towards complex or "poetic" prose, and I always get into these arguments with people about simple writing vs. more complicated. I favor the latter, but arguably my best work so far, the one the publishers want and beta readers love, is written very simply. So maybe I'm just a hypocrite, idk lol.

I write for catharsis.

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:O

I wonder what happened.
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There really should be a CE Discord for writers. Apparently there's one for just CE but I don't how to get in :o

So I'm about 7K words into my new book. It's a sequel to the one I just wrote. :)

My last book ended up being 170K words, so I'm really focusing on this being shorter. 80K is the goal, and I made an outline to keep me on track. So far it's working out well.
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So just a question out of curiosity.

What do you guys do, or how do you feel, when you realize that an idea for a story you had has already been done pretty close to how you imagined it?

I was just thinking about this time I was planning a story about a bullied student getting revenge on his school by sucking it into a demon-filled dimension, and then several months later finding out that this was the exact premise of one of the Shin Megami Tensei games, lol.

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I'm back, baby! Ayyy!
Also I gave up on my current chapter and skipped ahead to a new one!

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@Romes187 any progress on the book?
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spanky1 posted...

@Romes187 any progress on the book?

no, now that we have been sheltering at home for like 2 months, I have to help with the 2 kids on top of work and by the end of the day i am spent...and just want to sit and listen to podcasts lmao

no luck on the three agents i sent to a while back but haven't had the motivation for some reason

Aww. :(

Well there's always amazon self publishing if nobody ever takes it.
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yeah I haven't really tried. Was probably gonna send to around 100 agents before doing a self publish but again just haven't had motivation or time to think about it. Gonna take some more distance away and do a re-read. Might be good for me to have a few months. Let it cool down.

That and Im just too damn tired haha. dad life got me beat.

What did the total word count of it end up being?
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Is word count something you have to keep track of for publishers?

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LightningAce11 posted...

Is word count something you have to keep track of for publishers?

Well yeah, in that publishers are generally looking for a specific length range, especially for first time authors. You dont want super long or super short.
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spanky1 posted...

What did the total word count of it end up being?

Mine right now is at about 82k

I've started going through it again...only chapter 1 as I just started.

But I think what I'm gonna try is the self publishing route despite not really trying traditional publishing...bc I'm wondering if that industry is gonna be killed by the quarantine stuff or what...who knows...but right now I could use some dough and doing an edit, putting it on amazon, and blasting out some social ads seems within my reach hah

mainly because I do this stuff for a living anyways and know how to market so it'll be a bit of a help

I envy that word count. :(
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I write pretty lean

first draft was like 55k words (basic story)

second draft was putting description in and world building a bit (70k words)...also changed the story up a bit in a few places

third draft was dialogue beefing up (77k words)

then on edits I added more in and as I removed the telling, the showing increased word count to like 80k or so

Rest are just details i add here and there

looking at articles online on how to market a book, it looks like most "experts" don't even know how to use things like FB effectively...

same thing with my industry (real estate). hopefully this gives me an advantage....

Wondering if I just build a quick webpage and drive people there for sales along with amazon

I've committed to writing some Vidya game reviews but it's tough to motivate

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I would read a video game review by you rog0

I've always hear the best way to market is to simply use amazon ads. Oh and mailing lists, but that takes actual effort.
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yeah opt in lists work great if you have an audience

or i just run an ad on facebook to people who liked

[insert book comp here]

and send them to a landing page i make for my book

$50-$100 and I can get in front of quite a few people so i may double up amazon efforts with that...but i gotta go through it again

chapter 2 and noticing some errors. the time away did me good and i have some excitement to see my words again so thats nice

might need to get some other eyes on it as well

Girlfriend re-sent her sample chapters in with changes, and the publishers wanted to see the full manuscript again!
This might be it guys!!

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Nice!