Andres’s Comments (group member since Jul 29, 2020)

Andres’s comments from the Gathering Of Dedicated Scribblers group.

Alright I'm back in the office. How is everyone?

Sorry I haven't been active this week. I got a lot of work I'm knocking out. I wont be on next week either.

Please try to review each others work. I think both Alan and Marcia have new chapters out that no one's read yet. The more we all contribute the more we assistance we get in return. Be safe and happy Valentines to everyone.

As a reader I want to read your POV's in a timeline. If one character is going to be forgotten for a while just end the chapter in a way that allows the reader to know nothing special is happening. For example, the character has a scene that ends with them getting in a car or airplane going to their next destination. Several chapters go by and we come back to the character in their destination.

Another example would be that a character was imprisoned. When we return to that character we open the scene with something like them asking their jailor, "How long have I been in this pit?" The jailor responds, "Pipe down. It's only been two weeks. Your pit hasn't even filled with urine yet." Right, a simple throwback for your reader to see, oh, this character has been doing not much for two weeks.

If it still bothers your OCD, write a 400 word chapter. Character 'A' went through the day to day routine still wondering about character 'B'. Colors seemed to dull once again as he continued to wonder tonight, just like every night, what character 'B' was doing and if she was happy.

Now your reader will have touched base with your 2nd POV. Okay, they are still there, they are not doing much and boom back into main story.

In the end there is no "Right" way to do this. Only the way that you wish to tell the story. If your readers love your story, the way you chose to write it was the "Right" way.

You're very welcome sir.

Reviewed chapter 7. Hopefully I gave you a spark for chapter 8.

From chapter 6 to 7, when did Greg get Susan's keys?

Alan, I created the topic for you in case you needed help but if you want to try making it yourself just for learning purposes I'll delete mine after you do.

If not, you're welcome to start using it as your own.

Alan wrote: "How can a skinny, lost, frightened teenager, alone in an alien land so far from home possibly return a hero."

You continue to remove your submissions from the previous chapters so I can't read the ending and start this chapter to check how one flows into the other.

Are you deleting and submitting them again?

We're here for you Alan. No need to pay when you can do it all for free on your own time line.

A big example of this is writing sex scenes. We're grown ups, we know how it happens. So when we write a scene we might tend do say:

Then under the low light of moon reflecting from the placid surface of water did they enter into it together. The brisk chill gave her gooseflesh propelling her into his body, into harnessing his warmth. With the buoyancy of the water she wrapped her legs around him and he carried her.

Right, we describe the scene, we don't go into details of what is exactly happening. When you write this way your readers know what your writing about. When someone picks up your book they are reading a suspense/mystery/romance. They are not picking up your book to read about the innerworkings of the FBI. Write about what you know and it will work out. Don't write about criminal law if you don't know about it because when you get technical is when readers start nit picking at your story specifics.

Your title is actually very fitting advice. Admittingly you don't know about the LE side of things which is completely fine. Don't let it hinder your progress in the story. Describe things to the best of your ability because the verbiage and vernacular are not what's important. What's important is your story, characters and plot.

So when you write, you put they did a 'takedown operation'. During your 2nd draft, when the story is complete you will start to polish a completed story. Beta readers will then come in to help and say, "Change take down to 'Sting or Sting Operation'" unless you're writing about a hacking program then you might want to use 'HoneyPot'.

My point is, stick to what you know. Write the story. The most important thing is you complete it. Then you can go back, research and polish. If you try to research while writing you often get mislead by facts. These will tend to divert your story down side plots as finding or learning new words/events/places/people sparks imagination. Then when someone fixes the specifics, it derails the entire side plot that associated with that research.

Are you shopping around for a book publisher?
Many of you have asked us about our favorite independent publishers. While we can’t share every single small press that we love in one list (that number is always expanding), we will start with our perennial favorites.

https://nybookeditors.com/2020/03/the...

33 Specialized Manuscript Publishers that Accept Direct Submissions

https://authorspublish.com/33-special...

Great idea Marcia, let's see if you get their attention.

Welcome James,
So the site is owned by Amazon. Amazon also owns KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) which is the largest EBook vendor in the world. You can publish through them for free.

Through this site you can create your own GoodReads author profile so that readers can easily access your information. This alleviates needing to create your own as an early writer.

Through your profile you can add chapters of your writing that everyone can see/read/critique.
Start a blog for your readers.
Answer questions from your fans.
Link all published works from you and share some more personal information like favorite quotes, books you've reviewed and authors that inspire you or you follow.

GoodReads is all about books so you will find a lot of groups here that relate to what your trying to do. There are beta readers, there are editors, reviewers, illustrators, and common people looking for their next read. Through this site you can also do book promotions and marketing down the road.

Okay, still organizing and cleaning things up. I've created an archive to move all the articles 'over 1 year' of inactivity. This should keep the other active topics a bit more clutter free.

Through the Coursera course I was able to finish writing:

https://www.amazon.com/King-Arthur-Lo...

This is my YA version of the Arthurian Legends. The story focuses around three protagonists, Arthur, Guinevere and Merlin.

I believe i've caught up on reviews for everyone that's asked for one at least in the last week or two. So now I'm excited to get back into my story.

I also went onto Coursera and refreshed the links to us here. I notice we trickle in members but many don't chat, i'm wondering what we can do to make a new member feel a bit more welcome when they're wondering where to start.

Thanks for sharing. That's a great article!

Every topic that has no comments after a year will be moved into this folder. This will help to maintain a resource of previous information discussed and shared with members but also minimize the bombardment of active topics for new and current users.