Dale’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2017)

Dale’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Anna Faversham wrote: "What about this?

You aren’t going to like Chester; he’s not sure he likes himself. Having achieved his burning ambition to become a successful investigative reporter he is forced to hide from othe..."

I'm not sure the bit about not liking Chester quite works. I'm not sure why. Maybe because there is no reason given why the reader or Chester himself wouldn't like him. I think if you're going to start that way, you have to build on it somehow.

I would also make a bit of an edit:

Having achieved his life's ambition to become a prominent investigative reporter, he is now forced into hiding by the enemies he's made, enemies intent upon killing him..

Something like that . . .

Nice! Great job!

Anna Faversham wrote: "Oh thank you! The story doesn't unfold like that - it's my fault, I'm trying not to divulge too much until I have worked out what it is best to hold back. You're right to mention 'incredible secret..."

You're quite welcome. Looking forward to seeing the results!

I'm not aware of them being bought out. I know a lot of writers were complaining about how non-transparent the payment system was. I think some of the changes were designed to fix that, but they probably also fiddled it to make themselves more profitable. Although, it's really a bit hard to say in my case, because about the time they changed the system, my publication on Medium slowed down for several reasons. So I don't know if the change really affected my payments that much or if it was more than I haven't been published nearly as much.

Yeah I think we're going to need a bit more information. But you could start with something like this:

Chester escaped with his life but not his memory.

Hiding from a threat he doesn't remember, knowing only that he was soon to marry the only girl he's ever loved, now his past is a question mark and his future a riddle. Until a stranger knocks on his door and launches Chester on a voyage of rediscovery [that leads to the revelation of some vaguely-worded but incredible secret].

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Dale, I'm smacking myself in the head, as I hadn't thought of uploading it one's author website. I'll remember that if I'm ever lucky enough to get that far... still working on it. Hugs"

Well, I'm a professional. And it took me a minute to think of it. :-P

Anna Faversham wrote: "Ah... brilliant, Dale. Thank you."

My pleasure!

Why is he in hiding? It is to do with his investigations, or has he been threatened?

Actually, you can email it to me and I can upload it to my website and give you the URL. Send me a private message if you'd like to do that, and I'll send you my email address.

Well . . . if you think about it, posting it here is putting it online. ;-) But what I would do is upload it to my author website and then link to it here. If you're using something like WordPress, you can upload images even if you don't put them on a page. Once they are there, they will have a URL that can be used to post them on sites like this one. The FB option is another good one, so long as you don't mind making it available to anyone who can see your posts there.

If I recall correctly, you need to have the cover online somewhere (e.g., at your own website), then you can type either the URL for it or you can use the img tag. Click the "(some html is ok)" link above for information on how to enter that.

Yeah, I think they took that away some time ago because it wasn't working right, or maybe FB changed something that broke it. Now you have to manually repost your story link.

My latest from Don't Wake the Mage: The Circle. It's a flash fiction tale from the Indies Unlimited weekly contest.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Congratulations, Dale! Before Medium changed their payment method, that might have been $50 or more. Hugs ."

Thanks! I did get over $50 a few times, but mostly it was in the $20 range.

Anna Faversham wrote: "In my very soon to be published ( I hope) wip, I've come across a macho man using the term 'Yay' when he's excited and about to go surfing.

I've used that word because that's what I say. But would..."

It depends. Some guys would, probably, depending on the context. It might be used as a more lighthearted or silly mode of expression than a serious exclamation of excitement, but it's not unheard of.

I got about $10, mostly on the strength of my older stories. I haven't been posting much in the past few months. When I do, I can hit about twice that, but the stories just haven't been coming of late.

For those of you who might be using Story Origin, or even those who are not but might like to give it a try, I've created a group promotion there called "Summer Crime Spree!" for all manner of mystery and crime fiction. The promo will run through the month of July. For information, click here.

To join, you'll need a Story Origin account, then you can connect your mailing list and set up your books. It's a bit of work, but I recently got something like 36 new subscribers as a result of my activity through the site. They have several mechanisms for promoting your work. Let me know if you have questions. It's admittedly a bit confusing at first.

My latest from Don't Wake the Mage: The Crossing.

This is actually a expansion of an older flash fiction story. While assembling stories to be published in my forthcoming collection, The Realm of Tiny Giants, I wanted to include it but thought it was rather thin. My wife pointed out that the woman in the story is similar to the mythical rusalka, so I rewrote the story accordingly.

I posted another humor piece, not under any publication: The Seven Steps of Home Improvement Procrastination. This was a submission to a Slackjaw contest. It didn't win, so I just posted it myself.

I have a new article in The Writing Cooperative: Getting Personal. It's about writing character sketches.