TL KINCAID here.
I am a writer. I don't write very well, but if most of the books I read are any indication, that doesn't really matter.
"When a young woman disrupts his life and then disappears, a man with no memory tries to track her down. Will he succeed where a black cult, organized crime, old gods, and his own past want him to fail?"
It may end up being garbage. I believe now, where I didn't before, that I CAN write fiction that will sell ... it may not be a break-out run-away best seller, but if the prose is solid and the story is exciting ... it'll get picked up. Maybe not this book, but perhaps the next, or the one after that will be where I reach the point.
Then, after that, it's just a matter of continuing to write solid, exciting fiction that people enjoy reading.
--fje
Book One:
A sequence of actions led a young Malaysian girl into an alternate world called Suvon. Kia's wish to return back to Earth lies in the hands of a baby boy who she calls Niq. Together, they must travel across a war-torn country as refugees to Niq's homeland, where in the capital, Niq's true origins were revealed.
Book Two:
Kia knew that her actions was not without ramifications and she was feeling the pain of its effects as Earth's magic contradicted with her Suvon energies. She returns to Suvon to find a cure and found that years had passed in her absence but none of the wizards or sages could help her foreign condition. It was with Niq, now a student caster on the verge of manhood, who's misadventures led her to a forgotten and very forbidden secret.
Book Three:
Kia had vowed that she would never go back to Suvon and was ready to travel to London permanently to receive her long-lost mother's legacy. But dark creatures attacked her world as a major shift had aligned Suvon's and Earth's timelines together. Kia and her half-brother, Salil, had to walk a fine line through the secrets and deceits of the Nobility Circle, of which Niq, a grown man, was once again at the centre of it.
Book Four:
The secret of Kia's magic branded her as both a traitor and a freak. After being rescued by the leader of the Unshackled rebellion, Kia instead turned toward her enemies' stronghold on a flying island in Suvon, to find Salil and Niq, despite questions regarding their true loyalty. On top of all that, Kia's pain of her magic returned and she wonders if she could even survive long enough to secure the safe passage for the outcasts to Earth.
Final Book:
It was final battle of an event that happened 1200 years ago on Suvon and 170 years ago on Earth and Kia's the catalyst. A painful incident was her final cure but the price she paid with was her faith. She isolates her emotions from her family and friends, keeping focus on saving the future of both her worlds and a possible dark ending. Especially when the man Kia loves was ready to kill himself to protect her and her cause.
I guess I might as well since I finally found the URL for here again.
So I'm constantly on the look out for an artist while on the side improving my very own limited drawing skills.
Hey! My name is Cyndy and I am proud to join this group of aspiring novelists. *waves*
My current project is agent shopping for my paranormal urban fantasy. I am proud to announce that I have two rejction e-mails (but one directed me to try a specific other agent) and one agent who is reading my first 50 pages and summary. My goal is to send to several more agents and collect 25 rejection letters by Summer vacation, unless someone accepts the book first!
Heheh, Dru, Drew....so long as we can avoid being quartered we're good.
Are you learning to become an author, but haven't yet published professionally?
Tell us about yourself and your work here. (Please don't post samples directly to the board. Links ok.)
I guess I can give the basic plot of the novel,
Wow, your super cell photo is beautiful! Looks like a cover for your book! Welcome.
Welcome to Kevin (and why hasn't Karen checked in? :D). Your Gazette looks like a neat site! It appeals to my old west heart. Pass the Colt 45 please---but only if I can shoot it! I'll take a helping of silver bullets though at this point in my life.
Again--welcome to both of you! Meg
(So did the tornado take you to Oklahoma? --via Oz of course?)
Would love to see some of your photos of the old steam engine!
I have been off the boards for a while, so here's an update. A wonderful agent accepted my manuscript and most of my free time has been spent editing and getting it ready for evaluation by an editor. Wish me luck!
I have been off the boards for a while, so here's an update. A wonderful agent accepted my manuscript and most of my free time has been spent editing and getting it ready for evaluation by an editor. Wish me luck!
I just finished writing an ultra, ULTRA low screenplay for a local filmaker here on Long Island called Drive to Darkness. Hopefully it will get filmed this spring. Oh, did I say it was Ulta low budget, I'm getting paid in beer.
I have been off the boards for a while, so here's an update. A wonderful agent accepted my manuscript and most of my free time has been spent editing and getting it ready for evaluation by an editor. Wish me luck!
Also, if you know anyone in "The Biz" who'd be interested, send me a message (fat chance, I know, but I have to try!)
http://rapidshare.com/files/100053009/Episodes_1_thru_5_COMPLETE__single_space_.doc.html (http://rapidshare.com/files/100053009/Episodes_1_thru_5_COMPLETE__single_space_.doc.html)
check on craigslist
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/
sometimes the ultra low budget indies are looking for scripts - but they don't usually just want to option the story - they want a fully developed script. The pay is crap and alot of times they want it for nothing but if you want to try to get your name out there...it's up to you.
To Dusty Black:
Your idea, and no offense meant to anyone else on, is by far the best in this thread.
I think most of us have the same problem; all these sci-fi/fantasy influences, the desire to write in these genres, yet an enormous difficulty in creating a truly "original" idea.
So much has been done. Honestly as soon as I read words like "FBI, special ops, private detective, hidden magic, dark lord," and even at this point just "vampire" and "werewolf" I tune out. This idea you have of removing this "mental block" and things happening to him/encounters is like nothing I've heard before. I don't know where you can take it, but by all means keep writing/submitting.
In this one I have him going after the pope. should strike a chord with a few... ;DAnd mayhap the NSA computer trolling programs just brought up your information while the Pope is in the US. My aunt did this and the secret service showed up after a negative letter to Nixon.. :-) Watch out, fellow reader :-)
Ive been writing for as long as I can remember. I even completed a science fiction novel. I keep it in a drawer as proof that I can finish. I used to be able to just write and write, without thinking, without that voice that tells me every word sucks. Then I went to school for writing and sort of lost my voice and gained that monster that looks over my shoulder and points out whats wrong with every word that hits the page. I spent years trying to find my voice again and to silence my monster.
My dream started out in 1986 with a idea that we needed a good horse book.
Okay, here goes,have you thought about making your stories into game modules and getting them into print that way?
I'm also an aspiring writer, but I've sort of lost my motivation after a few rejection notices. The problem is that I'm a good enough editor that I look at the stuff that I write and look at the stuff that my favorite authors write and I sort of realize that I'm a long way off.
I've written about fifty to sixty short stories, mostly for my circle of friends consumption and to add flavor for the roleplaying games that I run. Most of these short stories are unpublishible, because roleplaying games tend to become full of very inside jokes which would not go over well in the mainstream. I've finished two novel length stories as well, within the science-fiction and fantasy genre. I'd love to post a link for everyone to my writing, but none of it is published to the web atm.
I read what Jim and other authors had to go through to get published and it leads me to think that maybe I don't have the patience and willingness to take leaps of faith necessary to get published, even though I love sharing my stories with others. For now, I'm content to share these stories via my RPGs, which I usually design and run myself without using published systems.
have you thought about making your stories into game modules and getting them into print that way?
Hey folks. I guess I'm not really an aspiring writer, since I don't really plan to publish anything, but I write a lot. Just not on the same project for any length of time. ;D I never get a story past a chapter or two before writer's block sets in, so I mostly just bounce from project to project. I think in the last year, I've started a post-apocalyptic adventure, a super hero story, a sort of Arthurian fantasy, and the most recently project involves some kind of distopian war between technology and creatures of supernatural origins, with homunculi and golems slated as the protagonists.Have you tried doing an outline of the whole story first? Maybe it's not so much writers block but figuring out what to do next.
Have you tried doing an outline of the whole story first? Maybe it's not so much writers block but figuring out what to do next.
Still don't the character haunt you from your buried computer files----"Write me! Write me!" LOL
No, actually. I think it's because I'm a gamer, and am used to accepting that a character is gone, or at least on hold indefinitely. Playing RPGA in the Bandit Kingdoms does that. My first character died in 3 minutes to the first damage roll of the session. Since then, I've retired dozens, maybe a hundred characters. Not many of them have actually died, but there were some I wanted to.
But no, I don't make outlines. I tried with my post-apocalyptic book, but I ended up jumping the tracks pretty quick. Mostly, I write because I feel like it, so when I don't, I don't.
Though I have to say right now, my favorite part of writing is taking beloved well known landmarks... And having them utterly destroyed by epic battles.
You'll be right at home here :)
Okay, I figured I should intro myself...again (I introed myself almost a year ago here)
My name is Shao, I'm a 22 y/o Fire Fighter/Paramedic. I didn't always want to be a writer, but you can blame that on my seventh grade English teacher who made us write a short story. We got the assignment on the first day of school and we had to write at least a page a day for every day of school, 185 pages to be exact. It was pretty non-structured, the only rules being we had to have at minimum 4 characters, a plot twist, and it had to be something that if we wanted to, we could go back and start writing a second story.
Needless to say, I wrote 300 pages of what I would now think to be a pretty bad story. I thought it was phenominal then, and my teacher thought it was great, but being as if I was trying to write in a "non-fiction" kind of way, (Having nom-fictional ideas wrapped into one truly fictional story) it flowed pretty well, but to read it now, I cringe at every page...
Anywho, I was bit by the bug and I haven't stopped since. I've now stuck with mostly fiction/fantasy/romance/sci-fi, but I'm also working on a book called, "Life Through a pair of Pink-Handled Trauma Shears" which is a non-fiction story about my life so far as an EMT/FF/Medic. I have another story that is based upon a Star Trek RPG that I'm co-writing with a friend of mine...it's pretty jumbled right now, and I'm hoping to sort it out soon.
I might post links to portions of the stories soon, but I have to get up the cajones to actually do it.
Thanks for reading!
~K~
That's kinda how I write. I haven't written in months, but I make notes for story ideas all the time, due to my gaming. What I do write is mostly just for the consumption of my friends and family.
No interest in getting published, personally
well...all my life I have sort of thought of myself as a writer - though I have written very little of any real quality.
I am always the guy with the great ideas but who lacks the moxie to follow through and actually create something of it. (I mean...I shouldn't say that...because I do other things...play music...paint...make various other types of art - it's just a matter of different degrees of inspiration or something)
But now I am about to turn 40 in a few months, and I have really been making a project of getting off my ass and doing some of the things I have wanted to do in the past. So this has me really wanting to take another hack at writing.
I have ideas for two sci-fi novels and a series based around a what I think is a pretty unique character - I am not sure how to classify those, genre-wise.
I have been reading Jim's LiveJournal and that has helped a lot. I had no idea, in the past how to plan out a story before writing it - I just figured I'd sit down and write x-amount each day and it would just end up being a coherent story. Never too old to learn the right way to do stuff.
So yup...that's where I'm at. Oh...and I am new to this forum too, as you might have guessed.
-Danny-boy
Welcome, Dan. I'm inclined the same way - planning out a story before writing it never really caught on for me as a workable technique. I just throw words at the page and whatever sticks is what I edit later. :D
Someone is murdering the good people of Greenfield, and there's talk of a serial killer on the loose. Finding him should be an easy task for a guy with super-powers: too bad he falls out of the sky.
If Marshall Conrad has any hope of ending the killing spree, he'll need a little help from a morbidly obese shop keeper who just happens to be a witch, and a hard drinking senior citizen with a penchant for lifting heavy objects... like automobiles. Corrupt cops, Ogres, thirty six-year-old Siamese cats, and of course, the netherworld. Some days it just pays to stay in bed.
My name is Sean Cummings. I live in Saskatoon where, as of today (December 29, 2008) igloos might offer some measure of warmth because it is frikin' cold outside. (-30 Celsius)CONGRATS!!
I'm a comic book geek of the highest order and self-described nerd. I've been writing since 1978 (as a means of liberating my "inner nerd") and at the ripe old age of forty-one, I can honestly say it's taken me thirty years to get a book published. My first book, Unseen World, comes out on March 2, 2009. Here's the back o' the book for any who might be interested. :)
haha!!! that is EXACTLY how I roll!! Although, I find that I write better when I have my headphones on with the radio blasting into my ears.
My publisher is Lyrical Press and it will come out as an e-book first, then in print if people like it enough. I doubt it would be stocked at your local bookstore though, you'd probably have to order it. :)
OK, since Lisa's mentioned her writing, I suppose I'll own up as well...
Crazy Gerbil Lady and I have just finished the first draft of our first novel, which is in the trusty hands of our beta readers. It's book 1 of a trilogy, and we have another trilogy waiting in the wings. We hope to be published sometime soon, once the book is ready to be submitted.
We're also writing short stories.
Ping: Preditors and Editors and Writer Beware are two good sites to help you weed out the scam artists.
(EDIT - This is also my second book, so it is devoid of the mistakes that first novels are rife with.)
And your third won't have the mistakes in the 2nd, and on and on. I read somewhere that the typical manuscript that reaches a true hand with interest is the 6th... so hang in there and keep writing! Yes, I'm being snarky...sue me, seriously congrats!
:) I've actually found Jim's LiveJournal blogs really, REALLY helpful.
I'm very excited to be in touch with other writers and look forward to talking to everybody!
So, at long last I've got everything pointed in the right direction. I'm about 220 pages in, and am starting to tromp through the deeper parts of "The Swampy Middle." I'm intimidated, but I know where I need to take the readers and I'll keep pushing till I get there.
Hey all!
Hey, I'm Erika and I'm a soon-to-graduate (graduating a semester early in December, hopefully) English Major with an Emphasis in Creative Writing (ooo, doesn't that sound fancy?). I've been interested in writing since I was in middle school when I had to do a lot of it for one of my English classes and I also stumbled into the realm of fan fiction. My teacher at the time told me I had a lot of potential, and writing soon became about all I ever wanted to do.
I've started (and shortly there after abandoned, after either getting lost in or scared of the GSM) several novels, but just lacked the commitment to continue with them. Plus, I'll admit, they really were terrible. I've discovered that writing high fantasy and writing in the third person are both difficult for me, so now I'm beginning anew after writing several short pieces of fiction and finding my voice in first person contemporary fantasy.
In any case, Stars Never Rise is a story written from the point of view of Roderick, a vampire who's been exiled from his home territory on a false charge and his struggle to get back at the jerk who landed him out in Suburbia and get back home as well. It's a sort of Urban/Suburban fantasy set in the Chicago/Milwaukee area (because that's where I live currently and they say write what you know) and I'm really excited about it.
If you're at all interested, I've got the first chapter posted and some other random, mostly writing related journaling on my live journal, which can be found here http://starsneverrise3.livejournal.com/
Feel free to go and add me as a friend and pester me to look over your stuff if you have a live journal for similar reasons. :) I need more writer friends to keep me on task for this whole thing and I love reading what other people are working on and I'm always willing to give feedback. I've been doing it for my major in college for a couple years now, so I've been told I'm getting pretty good at it ;)
Look at me ramble...I'll stop now. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.
...Somehow, I burned myself out about three years ago. Took eight months off from writing. Came back and wrote, of all things, a 70,000 word short novel set in the Halo (video game) universe. I mean...how stupid is that? I knew it was stupid at the time, but I loved the characters and story so much that I was compelled to finish it. I now consider it rehabilitation and practice, if nothing else...and I did manage to find my 'voice' (such as it is) whilst writing the bloody thing (which you can find through a link in my profile, if you have a lot of free time on your hands and enormous patience and/or literary charity). I guess it's not a total loss.
...C'est la vie.~J. D.
I finally screwed up the courage to post it online on AOL back in the day, and it was the most downloaded story in the Writers Club's file libraries. Ahh, the good ol' days.... Sadly, when my HD got reformatted some years ago, I lost the manuscript. :(Oh Wow and then Oh NOOOO! My heart aches in empathetic pain!
I don't know if I should hug my sister or not for her nagging me, once a month or so, to "post the next section!"I can never get enough huggles, so consider her hugged from me as well.
And if anyone downloaded a story called "Darkest Road Yet Travelled" an age and a half ago from an AOL file library, please send me a copy!Well worth another mention, just in case someone with tech wiz knows how to drag one from the AOL files. They must have them stored somewhere?
Well worth another mention, just in case someone with tech wiz knows how to drag one from the AOL files. They must have them stored somewhere?
I don't know that I consider myself an author, as much as I do a writer. In my brain, authors write with publishing in mind -- I just write to write, and have been doing so ever since I can remember.
In school, I wrote mainly for my D&D campaign, adventures, adventure logs, bits and pieces of "history," that sort of stuff. I wrote a few other things in my later high school years, and my senior year English teacher strongly advised that I attend a summer writing workshop, which I did, and have not regretted.
These are potentially very helpfull. hmm...i need to bookmark this page.
I have pretty much spent the past day on this site(mostly in the area of "Author Cratft")and i have already learned things that my teachers, seemingly purposely, describe in the most complex of ways...I think many english teachers need to be replaced with you guys. Are teachers trained specifically for the purpose of being overly complicated to understand...Now, to start walking away from my complaint box, I think the better of the authors that i have read from and can remember by name are these.
Do any of you have ideas for books that come at the most odd of times?
Always. And almost always when I'm completely unable to write anything down. Like in the shower. Or driving a long distance in the middle of the night.
Do any of you have ideas for books that come at the most odd of times?
I think we all need some comedy and laughs in life. its like my second oxygen.
oh dear lord, yes. i got one of those damn ideas watching tv and drinking Kool-aid (completely unrelated) and it's one of those ideas that put on a wrestler's leotard and puts your brain in a full nelson until you write it all down (which was probably 3 hours later)and then you missed half your TV show or your Kool-aid has gone warm... :P
and then you missed half your TV show or your Kool-aid has gone warm... :P
and then you missed half your TV show or your Kool-aid has gone warm... :Pit was a DVD, actually.
oh dear lord, yes. i got one of those damn ideas watching tv and drinking Kool-aid (completely unrelated) and it's one of those ideas that put on a wrestler's leotard and puts your brain in a full nelson until you write it all down (which was probably 3 hours later)
... on the initial community board is a link to JB's writer craft notes ...
Did he ever finish these, elsewhere perhaps?It think we prefer that he keep churning out Harry books as a top priority.
I think they are great bits,and I would love to see his take on antagonist/protagonist, etc.Recently mentioned in this thread somewhere is something called, writingexcuses.com. (web cast) They have a great discussion on that if you've never found it before.
I've actually been writing for most of my life, but my C-Type personality (I think that's the quiet religious one who ends up going insane) makes me perpetually unhappy with what I write and too bloody scared to show it to anyone but my cat. Okay, I don't have a cat. But if he did, he would hate my unbelievable literary slop.
So I mailed off my first short story to a magazine today, no doubt triggering my first rejection letter.
Save it. :D I have my four or five saved, including the personal one from Gordon Van Gelder that's tacked up above my desk. Some rejection letters are the next best thing to an acceptance letter!
So I mailed off my first short story to a magazine today, no doubt triggering my first rejection letter.Hey let us know and we'll throw you a celebration rejection party! First's are important and fun!
haha thanks meg!
hopfully though it doesnt get on your reject-o-meter!!(if i ever finish the book :-\ lol)
yes, but mine was quite rotten. It was a paper letter two sentences long and not even signed. it wasn't even from the agent that I sent it too. So--I pulled the entire agency from my listing. So there--we are even now. Hey, it's all a mind game anyway. What was yours like?
Nothing beats the poet who had her poem returned to her torn up in little tiny pieces! Now that was an agent's assistant who was having a very bad, horrible etc day...
Well, I received my first rejection letter today. Oddly enough I feel...rejected. sigh :-\
Jim butcher is my hero, I think my ultimate dream is to someday be able to give a copy of MY published book for him to keep, just so I can tell him that he was the inspiration that kept me going. He's an awesome fantastic mane.
While I agree that Jim is a great guy, I have to say that his mane is rather lackluster. Especially compared to my own flowing, curly, shiny one that I shamelessly use to garner female attention ;)
Still waiting to get my rejection letter (or not!), but it should only be less than a week now. The anticipation is torture! But I'm still working on making the manuscript better for submission if it ever comes to that, and working on manuscripts for both other books in the series envisioned as well as random side projects.
We have ample pictoral documentation of Jim's mane, and none of yours.
Piks plz.
And piks are needed for??? LOL Like your piks.
While I agree that Jim is a great guy, I have to say that his mane is rather lackluster. Especially compared to my own flowing, curly, shiny one that I shamelessly use to garner female attention ;)
LOL. I had to fix my typo now, but at least it was a funny typo. My browser has taken issue with the Butcherboards so if I type anything half the length of the screen it won't let me see what I'm writing until after I post it.
Y'know what cemented for me that I'll never be able to quit my day job, even if I sell a few books? Tanya Huff still has to work a day job. How many books does she have out now? I've read all of them, and loved most of them. Scary.which is why writing for your own pleasure is a vocation not a career for what-- 90% of novel writers?
which is why writing for your own pleasure is a vocation not a career for what-- 90% of novel writers?
Ayup. And welcome welcome! Good to see new budding vict*cough* aspiring dreamers ;)LOL *handing Brew a brew!*
Hey Panda, Panda, Panda! You going to Fayette? (This is the Panda from KC area right? I mean how many pandas can there be in here?) which is why writing for your own pleasure is a vocation not a career for what-- 90% of novel writers?
... Kinda worried about it being in multiple formats (mainly switching between interviews and first person.)could be cool though. Best wishes on it.
Sort of like a NaNo thread? That would be fun. I'm still outlining my big idea and doing alot of reading, so my progress bar won't go up for a while. I just saw this thread as an opportunity to say "Howdy!" in the meantime. So, uh, howdy.I've never done NaNo, but you might check in with the #amwriting on twitter. There are no goals other than personal, but when you feel that 'I'm a lonely writer in the middle of no where and no one understands me." It's a nice little place to post your progress. People stick tips in there too for example.
I'd go for that. Hey, whatever happened to that 'how to write a synopsis' thread idea you had, meg?Dropped into the drain, they say is my brain. Wait, counting syllables... I made a tiny poem! I still think it was an excellent idea and will get something posted shortly. Same with the word count. We've had several writers mention that they hit a spot and stagnate. Maybe it will help push them over the hump into smooth writing again.
I know of groups that use their chat rooms to hold Word Wars - at a set time every day (or whenever you feel like opening the room), authors write for a set blocks of time. 35 minutes, take a break, twenty minutes, take a break, forty minutes, etc.oh wow. what a wonderful idea! I'd be willing for a drop by occasionally as the schedule worked out.
And I notice the JB boards now have chat rooms with channels...
Josh Vogt here, fantasy author who has recently signed on with Folio Literary Management. My agent and I are prepping an urban fantasy novel called Enter the Janitor to send it around to publishers in the coming month.
Great to be here!
JRVogt.com
The Fiction Writer's Virtual Toolbox - 150+ links to tools and resources for writers
Follow on Twitter @JRVogt
A few sample pages Liz? It, before I pop the card? Sound like something I'd really like. Meg
Very cute illustration! He looks kind of the way I always envision Nobby Nobbs of Discworld. :)So Liz, love your cover.
Hey Wiggles, lovely post, but I think you should pull the website to your outline. Just a little too much intellectual content there? Mickey is really cautious about this and I tend to always lean on whatever side he takes. Better to be more cautious that feel like an a** later...
Best wishes on your writing. I love the image!
Thanks for the very kind endorsement, Meg! And yes, feel free to cut and paste the opening paragraph (or I can do it if the site won't allow you to.)site won't let me... Can you? that would be cool. I ordered it yesterday from amazon.
Very cute illustration! He looks kind of the way I always envision Nobby Nobbs of Discworld. :)
Er...remember that Nobby actually carries a note from the doctor saying he's human.Very true ;)
that young man is much too good looking for that.
Er...remember that Nobby actually carries a note from the doctor saying he's human.Kyle might need one later on. He sorta looses his hand and few other things. The hand gets eaten and the bones get sent back to him as a necklace.
that young man is much too good looking for that.
Kyle might need one later on. He sorta looses his hand and few other things. The hand gets eaten and the bones get sent back to him as a necklace.ooooh! fun!
Well, it's not a novel, but the RPG I wrote is now published, just hit the printers last night and should be shipping out in two weeks. So, I am officially published... sorta :D
Maybe it's time to trot it out, dust it off, tune it up, and see what can happen.ESPECIALLY these days, when RPGs have largely been homogenized into D20 system or similar variants by a handful of companies. I miss the 80s, with the ten-frillion independent game systems and companies. There's a market for that sort of de-centralized and diversified product field again
Snow,
It is difficult to ask for criticism while at the same time not sounding desperate for attention. I know absolutely no one on the board so I'll try lurking and posting a bit to get to know folks before opening up with content. If interest occurs then swell but I'm not going to shove my work down people's throats. Thanks for the advice on PMs though, I appreciate it. I'd also love to read anything that anyone has even if all I have to offer is a theatrical background and a talent for spelling in terms of criticism. I can also display praise in a modestly acceptable vocabulary. So, Snow, I guess I'm asking if I may read any work you've written or if nothing else a pointed finger at someone whose work you like on the board.
No worries. :D
Mmm, it's a pity really since it does help.
What... What? WHAT? that the?.... Good God man! Really? ROFLMAO
I need some help. I can't figure out how to make a system of how magic works in my books. My characters wield wands but I only want to use those as a focus for directing their magic. Any help would be awesome thanks.
I would like to state for the record that I write too bloody much. The first Dark Nova book which got published last year was just shy of 500 pages, and 251,600 words. The second book which I am working on now is rapidly nearing that... I'm doomed....Well, epic is epic... You might be doomed, but I'm sure it will be in several chapters of mental and physical agony as befits the genre! LOL Best wishes on your sequel.
I have found i love wighting more than reading
my second draft of the first book is being profred by my amazing frined who checks things like gamer and that my plot makes sens to other humans
my second book has about two chapters but i am working on it
my frined wants me to publish the first book but i am kinda nurves about letting her read it let aloune the rest of the wourld and don't have mutch nolige about how one would do such a thing
Welcome Darkshore. I look forward to your thoughts here in Author Craft.
[/quote
In about a mounth my second draft will be proof read and i am going to check it but then i will need some people who know next to nothing to beta read it for me if your interested i would like to know but i will not put it on my blog so you will have to ask me directly for a coppy. ;D
Already been posting in Author Craft so it should be obvious, but as a background, I've written to complete novels and have to absolutely admit that they are drivel. I spent about 9 years now not writing more than the occasional short story to fill in my rollplayers in my stories with world building elements or minor plot points that tie things together. During that time, I unconsciously worked on my storytelling craft, building stories that addicting my roleplayers to my worlds and weaving complex plots that gave emmense satisfaction (at least to me) when the threads came together.
The hard part of that medium is that between when plot points are introduced and when they tie together, months or years may have passed and sometimes the roleplayers don't remember well enough the points there characters would easily put together. Now, I'm traveling, away from my family, and my daughters are avid readers interested in the genre's that I prefer. I'm writing a story so that I can tell them this story at a distance. There is no pressure to craft and publish the story in an ultimate dream of worldwide renown. I'm comfortable just being the local storyteller and using this medium like I would my vocal stories.
And, wouldn't you know it, this is the cleanest, most readible story I've ever written. I'm not sure if that's because of my years building believable and engaging characters, complex plots, interesting world settings, and straightforward rules for players to use or if its because I writing to an audience I know and care to make understand clearly what I'm saying. Either way, writing is fun again.
Update while I'm waiting for the first editing pass. I'm not sitting by idle. Yesterday I wrote the first 1.8k of the second book in the series Admiral's Gambit. Today the total word count is now up to 10K!
So here goes nothing. Who knows how long I can maintain this furious pace but I aim to keep it up until I burn out or have to go get another job.
Have a blast guys and gals.
Remember to always follow the dream,
The Deposed King
Ok, I must ask; Where do you find the time? 1.8k words is amazing, I was happy the one time I knocked out 600 words one night! :(
EDIT: Ok, I sold myself a little short, I wrote 1k words that night, but on most days I sit down to work on things its more like 300.
one of my freinds has started writting and she keeps asking me for help
i may poserbly be giving her advice bast on what i have read here as i have only been writting for a few years
I'm very pleased to announce that my novel Murder Ballad is now available as a trade paperback direct from CreateSpace and as a Kindle e-book:
"Manhattan in 1947 is a man's world, but hard-boiled redhead Allison Malloy can match the boys drink for drink and wisecrack for wisecrack. As secretary to a private eye, she knows typing and shorthand are only part of the job--and the job just might kill her. Rescuing her boss from the clutches of a dangerous femme fatale, helping him beat a murder rap, and saving his life don't pay extra, but that won't stop Malloy from trying..."
(http://th_Murder_Ballad_Cover_for_Kindle.jpg)
A hard copy is now available on Amazon as well.
I'm very proud of this book. Writing it was one of the hardest, but most satisfying things I've done in a long time. Please feel free to visit my website and follow the links to read an excerpt and purchase the book: http://elizabethkwadsworth.com/
And of course, reviews--good, bad, indifferent, but above all, honest--are welcome! :)
edited to add description and (hopefully) photo)
Thanks for the support, Deposed King!
One question: how do you track sales on Amazon? I can't for the life of me figure that out.
Thanks! (Grand total of 2 here.) :)
I have been writing for easily 10 years, probably more. I haven't gotten anything published yet--still working on that part. But I do have a website with some short stories and a novel that my husband and I wrote together. www.gorthus.com I am considering e-publishing, but I need to have cover art which costs more than I can afford right now.
Hi!
I have written several short stories (which I promptly lost, or as I say "I hid them for future creative inspiration") I enjoy writing, though it takes a long time to write or type ((not that I write or type slow but I have to get the right feeling from it) which means I write once and revise twenty or fifty times). I am still learning of course they say that you never stop learning. Hopefully I will have more time to write during the summer after I finish my senior year of high school. :P Then college will start... ::)
Hi, I'm Vivian.
Did everyone say hello? If you did, then this feels like I'm in an AA meeting (Author Anonymous?).
Like everyone else, I've written stories for a long time. And, yes, I've a few books completed over the years. Most of them will make anyone howl (with laughter) or cringe (in pity or dismay). But going back to them is useful because it reminds me that, yes, I've gotten better and that there's always an opportunity to improve.
I've just put up two books with Smashwords under the name V. Griffen. It's only been a couple of days, but I'm giddy that I've already made a few sales. Yes, I did the happy dance. While I'm keeping my expectations realistic (low), it's also a heady feeling knowing my work is Out There. It also makes me a little nauseous with anxiety, but I'm not going to talk to you about that. :)
My books are in the Urban Fantasy genre. There's magic, ghouls, pucks and chupacabra (that's singular and plural). Spoiler: no vampires. Sorry.
Still, I enjoyed writing them and I'm enjoying writing the third in the series. Got two other books in the planning stages, so I plan to be busy for a long time to come. That is, if I can be forgiven for inflicting them on everyone.
Here are the links to the books, so any of you be so inclined.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/282162
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/283445
Hi, I hope you don't mind but I thought I'd share my story (my personal story) with everyone. When I was a kid I never even considered attempting to write fiction, god only knows why. I was always an avid reader, but just never had any ideas of my own.
My first year in college everyone, regardless of major, was required to take a course in creative writing. Considering how large the college was, you can imagine the English Department scrambled for people to teach these courses. My instructor was a low-level junior instructor fresh out of school himself.
He gave us our assignments and told us to write, so I did and he hated it. I barely passed the course, but not because I was a bad writer, but because I wrote the way I wanted to write, not the way he wanted me to write. It wasn't until many years later that I figured that out. For years I thought I couldn't write fiction, or anything for that matter. Until I took other classes that required writing reports and so on, and was told by those instructors that I was actually a very good writer.
I still didn't get serious about even considering writing until about ten years ago when I started doing text-based Story driven RPGs online. I met a would-be writer there and we started encouraging each other. Over the years I
have dabbled and toyed with ideas, written summaries and chapters but never finished, but he has already self-published several short stories and books.
I finally have a Fan-Fiction idea that I am comfortable enough with to follow through on. Even managed to write an outline that has a beginning and an end, as well as started writing it out.
If I manage to pull this off, I may try my hand at completely one of my original story ideas. Very late bloomer, but better late than never.
greetings peoples of the interwebs, tis I, Nik, ruler of far away undigitized lands.
the best way to describe myself I guess (in the context of this particular forum) is an aspiring writer, with firm emphasis on aspiring. I love stories, I love plot lines, I love seeing how characters work their way through their troubles like some sadistic god. I love watching a story weave its way in front of me whether it be a book, a movie, video game, graphic novel. Sadly my attempts at weaving my own story threads have left much to be desired. a few half hearted attempts at fanfiction and one piece of original fiction that I crafted when i was in high school and only recently remembered that I had. its on fictionpress if anyone wishes to gaze upon it (just ask and I will provide a link) but I wont torture the unwilling.
I am here to mostly gain inspiration from my fellow writers as a will to work and the focus to see my work through is something that I sorely lack and maybe, just maybe I might learn something too. anything is possible.
toodles :D
And In Primus the most important bit of wisdom I shall depart is also the most difficult and useless to thee. For it is this: you must give yourself permission to write the stink bomb. The words wafting off your pages will and must repulse you with every word you write. Yet without cease or fail you religiously return to pound out more onto your word processor. You must solemly vow to never go back, never edit, never delete! These words until you reach the end of your manuscript (that way when you do go back to work on stuff before you're done, you are 'sneaking' around for a few words instead of giving yourself permission to look at how terrible the stuff is) .
keep after it, ToniVA,
The Deposed King
Keep those original manuscripts and come back to them someday. You'll be able to do a line item edit and revise and expand one day. Even if you have to revamp most of the conversations.
Regardless, great work on your latest effort. I hope it works out for you!
The Deposed King
I've updated my website to include a couple of excerpts from Body For Hire:. Nice Liz! Also enjoyed meandering around your webpage.
http://elizabethkwadsworth.com/Read_Excerpt.html
Enjoy!
Welcome farmerbob1. You've going JB's writing blog about technique? Checkout podcasts at writing excuses.com too. Both are invaluable! I've a writer's blog at megevonne.logspot.com as well. Happy writing journey!