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

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

https://www.creativindie.com/how-to-s...

#1 Every year, millions of books get published. Most get ignored. Ask yourself: Why does the world need your book?

#2 Pretend that you’re a reader, and ask yourself: Why should I care? Why should I invest my money—not to mention my time, which is even more valuable—in reading your novel?

#3 Your hero needs to be someone we can relate to, who we can understand. We don’t necessarily have to like him, but we have to care.

#4 Give us a sympathetic hero with a goal we can relate to, and the strength of will to pursue that goal at all costs, and you’ve got the makings of a great story.

#5 There are many books on structure out there, and varying theories about the precise form story structure should take. But you must have the basics down, or your novel will not be successful.

#6 Good stories must have suspense. We want to see our hero struggle, to succeed, to fail, the end goal always in doubt.

#7 Knowing where to begin and end your chapters is an art. Every chapter should begin with a hook. Every chapter should end with a cliffhanger.

#8 Authors with experience in theater or film tend to write better dialogue. Why? Because acting and writing dialogue are one and the same craft.

#9 In real life, constant tension is exhausting. We look for a way–any way, good or bad–just to end the tension, and let life return to normal. So it goes against our natural inclinations to write a story of constant tension, constant conflict, constant suspense.
But…we don’t read fiction to watch the paint dry. We read fiction because we want drama.

Take your time with it. 1,500 words per chapter x 20 chapters = 30,000 words.

Some might finish their novel in 16 chapters, myself, my novel took 24 chapters. The course itself is geared to be a tool for everyone wishing to write their very first novel. I would try to follow the 1500 chapter guideline, submit each chapter just to keep you on some sort of path. Don't listen to random feedback from coursera peers trying to meet their quota. Submit, submit submit. When you are done with the course you will at a minimum be completed with a rough draft of 20 chapters.

It's a great start. You have about 1k more words to make a hook so that the reader HAS to read the next chapter.

Happy New Year GODS!

Welcome Alan, glad to have you in our pantheon. No worries we understand, not everyone is able to write 500 words a day or even sometimes a week/month. Luckily were all here to have a community that supports us when we can write.

David, when you complete the course you don't get a passing grade you get a paper certificate that you can print out which say you took the coursera class. I don't remember taking a quiz other than feedback on what I thought about the course. Hope that helps.

Yep, it works.

I left you a review but if you'd like me to elaborate in anyway just let me know. Also copy paste the URL to your work at the bottom of your submission. If someone wants to contact you or continue reading your submissions they can easily find you. This will help you locate another writer going through the course that you can potentially share feedback with as you progress through it.

@ Beata, yes exactly. Because the majority of my story takes place in the lowers it gives my magic system limits.

Ah, great. I was wondering about this. In my favorite books the magi user consumes something that allows him to perform magical feats such as absorbing stormlight, consuming metals or luxin. However, in the majority of video games I've played, its usually the weapons that need to be exchanged or upgraded.

For familiarity I'm using the most common D&D items that a peer put together for me. The use of these items give off the surrounding perception that my protagonist is an amazingly powerful sorcerer! This grossly influences the rumors about him that he must explain as a prisoner to his sentencing council. The truth however is going to be so less dramatic at times it might come off as comical. An example would be a modern day human tossing a grenade into a crowd during medieval times.

"I saw the man call forth the power of God from the heavens and watched as several of his pursuers exploded right where they stood!"

I'm thinking for my magic system I'm going to want items rather than spells. The highers can create sun crystals as they have direct and prolong exposure to the sun. This will act as a catalyst for magical items but the Magi in the lowers can charge batteries that enable the sun crystal to operate.

This will allow me to create a few items involved in my story and cap an endless spell list. It will also give me a fuel/ammo.

Srey, I cannot see your work. The link goes to my personal submission. At the top right there is a blue link that says, 'Shareable Link' did you use this link?

がんばって!

I'm not a Buddhist practitioner so I cannot answer for that however, I think if you are not directly making fun of or using the symbol in a negative way, it should not be offensive but that is my opinion.

You can also look at:
A triskelion or triskeles.
The Japanese Sakura flower
The Celts believed the serpent was a symbol for rebirth, you could always use an artistic form of a red snake or even a snake with phoenix wings.
An Ouroboros?
The symbol of the third paradise.
The symbol of a butterfly chrysalis. They are sometimes revered as symbols of rebirth since the caterpillar changes into something beautiful.
You could also create your own symbol like an upside down scythe. The blade is down to represent death and the staff goes up into a tree representing life.

Hopefully something in there helps, but I think you could use your lotus without anyone becoming offended if its used in the way you are speaking of.

Merry Christmas to you Tomas

and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to all of you GODS!

Yes! I do it all the time.

I get into my character and try to think of me being in their shoes. Its at that point the story starts taking on a first person present tense. Sometimes it happens after dialogue as well. Usually I catch it after the chapter is complete and i'm reading it aloud but it happens pretty frequently.

Now the beginning of my story I will begin the intro by opening interviewing steps as the main character is being briefed about the due process of law. This will be his chance to tell his side of the story which will end with him being placed into the judicial system.

Upon completion the story should have the beautiful possibility in creating an infinite loop. The ending of the story thus should end with my character being placed into his cell as the beginning of the story opens with the character describing how the events in his life placed him into the cell.

Because the lowers are ungoverned by actual law enforcement, I'm going to base my law there upon the GuardianAngels.org the group that started in 1979 around New York to prevent crime.

In turn, the women married to these 'red berets' will be my ambassadors for the parentless children. They will volunteer by teaching, feeding and clothing the children of the lowers.

The uppers are patrolled by the Sun guards. This adds to the ideology of my world whom heavily worship the twin suns as gods. So their curse words will then reference eclipses, suns, moons etc.

The temple of the Suns will the be charity organization donating foods and items to the ladies of the red berets, whom i'll call the pink berets or pink ladies. (Grease Reference lol)

And here's a link to the most famous short story written in only 2 hours.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/19...

Thanks for Sharing Rachel.

https://blog.findawayvoices.com/finda...

Together, Spotify and Findaway will accelerate Spotify's entry into the audiobook space and continue to innovate the industry, working to remove current limitations and unlock better economic tools for creators.

Findaway's technology infrastructure will enable Spotify to quickly scale its audiobook catalog and innovate on the experience for consumers, simultaneously providing new avenues for publishers and authors to reach audiences around the globe.

“Together with Spotify we have the opportunity to innovate and democratize the audiobook ecosystem,” said Findaway Founder & CEO Mitch Kroll. “We founded Findaway with the recognition of the power of the spoken word through audiobooks and the unique opportunity to empower storytellers and connect them with listeners. We look forward to combining our leading technology tools and world-class team with the reach of Spotify’s platform to provide an enhanced audio experience for creators, publishers and listeners around the world.”

"[Findaway] Voices currently allows creators to distribute broadly,” said Nir Zicherman, head of audiobooks at Spotify, in a chat with The Verge. “and that is a very important part of the offering and something that we plan to keep and to continue supporting because we think that it’s part of what makes the platform so powerful from a creator standpoint.”

Yes (they) if it is a they, are very active. New authors are so full of passion and excitement having completed their first book that they present themselves as targets unknowingly. Out of the 3 million books published every year, each book has less than a 1% chance at receiving any attention.

So a new author hungry for reviews and promotion is willing to spend money in order to gain these. What's unfortunate is that some of the spam mail will actually give an author 20 fake 5star reviews as promised but other scammers will copy and paste their book for free downloads to their subscription members. Not that paying amazon for advertising is any better a waste of money.

The book selling market is continuously dropping. With streaming services skyrocketing, even traditional publishers are showing declining numbers. A new era is arising where self publishers are responsible for all their self promotion which leads to the increase in spam. V-bloggers seems to be the way to go right now but they are realizing how valuable they are and increasing their prices as well. Either way its a pretty good self pub trap until you break through and gather your own following of readers.

A city above a city.

The rich have continued to build up with skycrapers only to leave the poor behind. Now they live above them, literally. The tops of the skyscrapers are connected by a system of bridges creating a city above the city.

The uppers experience sunup to sunup, never ending. They are darker skinned, dark eyes and love to feel the cool rain on their skin. It rinses their world and makes everything reflective, shiny and clean.

The lowers only get rays of sun when its directly over head. They live in the shadows of the skycrapers claiming a good day when an upper throws food from the bridges. The rain here trickles down the sides of the buildings pooling and swirling all the trash, urine and feces about. The rain makes everything dirty and cold, they hate it when it rains.

You're very welcome. That's what this group is for; to read, write and share with each other. It's so much easier to read ten chapters and give feedback than it is to compare a random individual chapters.

Good. I wasn't sure if you were going that route, their is probably an age difference between the two but Sophia doesn't have anyone in her life and it kinda becomes this relationship from the movie 'The Professional' in my mind.

Use whatever you'd like, I just want everyone to put their best work out there and if I make a good suggestion now and then, well, I'm just glad I could help.

Great start. I learned a lot about Cal. Just build your world a bit through environmental description and drop a fishing hook at the end for your readers to keep going.