Eldon’s Comments (group member since May 30, 2016)

Eldon’s comments from the Support for Indie Authors group.

William wrote: "I just finished reading Andy Weir's "Project Hail Mary" -- he's the guy who wrote "The Martian." Anyway, Hail Mary is full of flashbacks which are done as chapters. I found it interesting because t..."

Excellent points William!! Thanks :) By the way, is Hail Mary good? It's on my TBR pile.

S. wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Thanks! I posted the question for an author friend who is in the market. I've passed the message along to them :) "

Thank you. Hopefully I can be of some help. :-)"

I'm sure you can be!!

S. wrote: "I'm actually an editor and reviewer, but I've recently been considering becoming a marketing assistant to authors. If I could help you in some way, my rate would be very reasonable, as I am not yet..."

Thanks! I posted the question for an author friend who is in the market. I've passed the message along to them :)

Does anyone here know of a good PA/VA who is looking for clients? Please post their name without links, as per group guidelines.

Thanks!

Rock wrote: "Sorry, old programmer slang.

Replace with 'open the resulting RTF in MS Word...'"

Gotcha ;)

Rock wrote: "I've used Word 2016 to prep all four books with no problems. (I write in yWriter, then export to RTF, post-process with Perl, then snarf the resulting RTF up into MS Word for final formatting) Ther..."

"Snarf"??

B.A. wrote: "I don't truncate words all the time but certain characters who talk that way, I'll use it to differentiate their speech. In one book I throw in some Scottish dialect but it isn't often and you catc..."

Regional dialects have caught out many a writer. They can be very tricky to master.

Dwayne wrote: "Jay wrote: "So what?"

So, it sucks to work hard on an idea only to have someone take the exact same idea and turn it into their own book. If they beat us to the punch, then we could be accused of ..."

Well said, Dwayne!

Jay wrote: "It’s not plot that sells the book, in any case, it’s the writing...."

This line of reasoning always mystifies me. As if the concept of characters and plot are exclusive to one another, or could ever be separated? Give me the greatest, most interesting character that has ever been created, and put them in a room with nothing to do. How long will anyone read that story? Plot matters just as much as character. No matter how well you write, it's very hard to have a story with only one or the other.

James wrote: "For many years I used a desktop computer with a full keyboard, but more recently I bought a large Dell laptop with a generously sized keyboard with illuminated keys. Great for writing in all situat..."

Oh, I like that illuminated keys thing :)

Tomas wrote: "16GB may be good for the future but now, I would think it an overkill. I have W10 with 8GB RAM and it runs quite well even for games, unless it's something very new. Writing demands much less.

Mak..."

Great tip Tomas!! I love my SSD :)

Debra wrote: "I am well aware that a writer writes once and rewrites 10 times. I also know I should never rewrite until I'm at the end. This is my 8th novel, but I really wanted to leave the readers holding thei..."

Without seeing the work in question, I think you might be overthinking it a bit. That's a LOT of rewrites without it even being finished yet.

B.A. wrote: "Because I'm old, I went Indie but it was after I published by first book that the discovered that I didn't know what I didn't know. It if fun and you only have the pressure you put on yourself. You..."

The Microsoft approach to writing ;)

Sherri wrote: "I agree with #6. After all, conflict is what drives the story, and life isn't safe. That should definitely be reflected in fiction. I have to hold back sometimes to determine how much my characters..."

Sorry Sherri :( No links.

Dwayne wrote: "I doubt you're older than me, Gail. But, yeah, I hear ya. I had to learn not to worry about grammar. It helped when many of my literary heroes broke grammatical rules left and right."

Grammar only applies to those who are not famous. Those who are, get a pass ;)

Jeffrey wrote: "Here’s how I did it.

“Agate’ closed her eyes remembering a time over a century ago. She was now in her bedroom, just a few blocks in distance, but many years in time and location from here.”"

Very clear Jeffrey :)

Gail wrote: "Sorry I budged in here. I was focused on flashbacks and just trying to help."

No need to apologize Gail :) I think most books use past tense (said as opposed to says). Some good discussion here!!

Gail wrote: "Wouldn't you also have to make sure that each of the flashback sentences were written in past tense? So, more like "Not long ago, Bobby had a chance meeting with an old flame. They had bumped elbow..."

But if the whole book is past tense, could be dicey.

Dwayne wrote: "It gets tricky. You have to say, "Okay, here's a flashback" without saying, "Okay, here's a flashback" and sometimes the transitions feel a bit sudden, especially transitioning back the characters'..."

Is where I'm at right now - revisions :)

Dwayne wrote: "Usually I will just introduce it in the text. "Not long ago, Bobby had a chance meeting with an old flame. They bumped elbows in a Starbucks and started chatting...""

I like that approach Dwayne :)