McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Switching between editor mode and creator mode
Farmerbob1:
--- Quote from: slrogers on March 05, 2015, 04:09:47 PM ---That's good news. Though it still makes a strong case for trying to find a publisher instead of doing it all ones self. At least that way you have someone up front tell you that your writing is worth at least that much and that they're willing to put up the money for it. But then again, college level classes might cost about that as well, and you could chalk up any money lost in the endeavor as the cost of learning. Or one could use the blunt force bootstrap method of spending as little as possible and just make the corrections as quickly as readers identify them (unfortunately, that seems to annoy readers).
--- End quote ---
Concerns about editorial quality is one of the two biggest reasons why I decided to do blog fiction before trying to publish anything.
The biggest reason was simply that I couldn't just sit down and write a whole book without feedback from anyone. Just the idea of writing a whole book without outside input was painful.
The second reason was that I hadn't taken an English class in twenty-five years. I knew I was rusty. I was practically buried in rust. I needed people to help me spot my mistakes.
The third reason was that I wanted to be sure that I was good enough at telling a story to get readership. If I couldn't manage to get a following after a month or so writing, then I was doing something wrong.
I started out with a little fanfiction, and got a lot of kind responses, which encouraged me. Then I started original fiction, and got a lot more responses. Now, across my three original fictions, I see anywhere between 500 and 1000 or so hits in a day, sometimes substantially more if a new forum community discovers my work, and their members like it.
I'd like to make certain that anyone who reads this realizes that one of the less-well-known things that exists in the serial webfiction reader community are the corrective readers. They aren't doing editing-level work, but some of them will point out several things in every chapter they read, if they spot them. Corrective readers helped me so much, especially in the early writing! Correcting what they find is not always required. Sometimes they aren't right, or the mistakes they find are intentional because of who is speaking. However, I always thank them even if I don't agree with them, because people who both read and spot mistakes in my chapters are awesome.
I do not have a full-on editor mode. When I post a chapter, it has normally been read over and poked at a time or two to make it a first-draft quality chapter. After my readership has poked at it a few times, and I've read through it and modified around clumsy bits, it's then a second draft quality. Second draft quality work seems to be about the normal for self-published fiction, from what I've seen, so little editing will be required at least for the first few books, I think.
If I hadn't gotten such a good reception from readers, then I probably wouldn't be where I am today, preparing to publish the book I'm currently writing. Eventually, if I ever get an editor interested in my work (which I haven't even bothered trying yet) I might be able to write entire books without input from others, and then let an editor process it, but right now, that prospect scares me.
Since you have already published one book, It seems as if you might be past the point where confidence and editorial competence is an issue. If not, and if you are the sort of person who can share their unfinished writing with others, then serial blog fiction might be a good tool for practice and confidence building.
slrogers:
--- Quote from: Farmerbob1 on March 08, 2015, 05:19:21 PM ---Concerns about editorial quality is one of the two biggest reasons why I decided to do blog fiction before trying to publish anything.
The biggest reason was simply that I couldn't just sit down and write a whole book without feedback from anyone. Just the idea of writing a whole book without outside input was painful.
The second reason was that I hadn't taken an English class in twenty-five years. I knew I was rusty. I was practically buried in rust. I needed people to help me spot my mistakes.
The third reason was that I wanted to be sure that I was good enough at telling a story to get readership. If I couldn't manage to get a following after a month or so writing, then I was doing something wrong.
I started out with a little fanfiction, and got a lot of kind responses, which encouraged me. Then I started original fiction, and got a lot more responses. Now, across my three original fictions, I see anywhere between 500 and 1000 or so hits in a day, sometimes substantially more if a new forum community discovers my work, and their members like it.
I'd like to make certain that anyone who reads this realizes that one of the less-well-known things that exists in the serial webfiction reader community are the corrective readers. They aren't doing editing-level work, but some of them will point out several things in every chapter they read, if they spot them. Corrective readers helped me so much, especially in the early writing! Correcting what they find is not always required. Sometimes they aren't right, or the mistakes they find are intentional because of who is speaking. However, I always thank them even if I don't agree with them, because people who both read and spot mistakes in my chapters are awesome.
I do not have a full-on editor mode. When I post a chapter, it has normally been read over and poked at a time or two to make it a first-draft quality chapter. After my readership has poked at it a few times, and I've read through it and modified around clumsy bits, it's then a second draft quality. Second draft quality work seems to be about the normal for self-published fiction, from what I've seen, so little editing will be required at least for the first few books, I think.
If I hadn't gotten such a good reception from readers, then I probably wouldn't be where I am today, preparing to publish the book I'm currently writing. Eventually, if I ever get an editor interested in my work (which I haven't even bothered trying yet) I might be able to write entire books without input from others, and then let an editor process it, but right now, that prospect scares me.
Since you have already published one book, It seems as if you might be past the point where confidence and editorial competence is an issue. If not, and if you are the sort of person who can share their unfinished writing with others, then serial blog fiction might be a good tool for practice and confidence building.
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Where is your blog at again? I want to see more of how you approach this.
Thanks.
Farmerbob1:
--- Quote from: slrogers on March 14, 2015, 03:04:03 AM ---Where is your blog at again? I want to see more of how you approach this.
Thanks.
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https://setinstonestory.wordpress.com/author-info/
That link will put you in my updated personal 'about the author' page of my current story, and provides links to my older projects. Symbiote is around 500k words, Reject Hero around 200k words, and Set In Stone is now at about 50k words. You can see how the readers and I interacted. The interaction was (cumulatively) fantastically helpful to me, despite the fact that I did not always agree with the comments.
slrogers:
--- Quote from: Farmerbob1 on March 16, 2015, 05:35:45 PM ---https://setinstonestory.wordpress.com/author-info/
That link will put you in my updated personal 'about the author' page of my current story, and provides links to my older projects. Symbiote is around 500k words, Reject Hero around 200k words, and Set In Stone is now at about 50k words. You can see how the readers and I interacted. The interaction was (cumulatively) fantastically helpful to me, despite the fact that I did not always agree with the comments.
--- End quote ---
Thanks, It's interesting to see how this works. There seems to be so much available on the web that it can be overwhelming at times. And with so many people doing so many different things, it's got to be tough carving out a part and getting a lot of attention. I'll have to figure out how to work something like this for me (so many ideas for books, so little time), I just have to figure out how to use the limited time I have for the biggest impact.
Thanks.
Farmerbob1:
--- Quote from: slrogers on March 18, 2015, 12:03:05 AM ---Thanks, It's interesting to see how this works. There seems to be so much available on the web that it can be overwhelming at times. And with so many people doing so many different things, it's got to be tough carving out a part and getting a lot of attention. I'll have to figure out how to work something like this for me (so many ideas for books, so little time), I just have to figure out how to use the limited time I have for the biggest impact.
Thanks.
--- End quote ---
It definitely won't work for everyone. I happen to have extremely thick skin, but I'm also able to be constructive with criticism that is provided to me. At the same time, I'm willing to say 'no' and not change something if I disagree with a comment. It's a balancing act at times.
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