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Important!!!!!! for anyone that loves to write!
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How young? I don't want to be a golden oldie! Shirley
i want to be an author and i have been writing a lot of diffrent things right now! Can you give me any advice?
Hi, Kenzi,Have you finished anything? Short stories are an excellent way for a young (or debut) author to find an audience.
You need to get something finished at least in first draft, and then decide which genres you like best, and which seem to be most popular right now.
In Romance, one agent was recently looking for stories with sentient plants. Futuristics and Fantasies are very popular at the moment. Mysteries and Thrillers are always in season. Regencies are out of favor again.
Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
[image error]
The best habit to get into is finishing what you start.The second best habit is read and write daily.
Your genre will make itself known. Might be your own genre, a cross of two or ten others. I'm a firm believer in making your own game, carving your own niche. It's a tougher route, but after you're successful, you're free.
Mari
Hi. I just thought I’d let you know that my novel ‘The Wannabes’ is now in the giveaway section of this website. There are five copies available. Good luck is you go for it!
Jason, that's when most authors turn to pen names. I know one author who absolutely refuses to share the pen name she uses for erotica. All because she doesn't want it to influence her other work (which is also a pen name). You won't find her real name anywhere either.
I'll keep trying to get that erotica name outta her though. I want to read her stuff! LOL
Christie
Author of the Alex & Fiona series
Christie took the words right out of my mouth. Pen name. Keep your different lines of books separate.I write and publish under my own name, M.L. Bushman, but I also write and publish under Kris Karrel.
The former gets all my books that may have what some would call overriding spiritual themes, although these themes don't conform to traditional religion but rather my different views of the Cosmos.
The latter gets my racier stuff, the more graphic love scenes, the heavier violence, and no spiritual themes in sight.
This is not to say that in either line I spare the reader any--I don't--it's just that I don't want devotees of one type of book picking up another without first being aware that there is a marked difference between the two.
All my books share a couple of elements, however: There's always a paranormal aspect to the story and you'll always find a cowboy somewhere in the cast.
Absolutely true, Jason. We call that 'branding' in the business. It's tricky for authors to try out different styles once they've been locked into one genre. As an example, John Grisham left his political thriller arena to write The Painted House which did not sell well because his readers wanted the typical Grisham novel. I imagine the publisher wanted him to use his own name to support sales but he might have been better off using pen name as Christie suggests. It can be a catch-22. My agent recommends resisting choosing or promoting a brand until you really know which direction you'd like to go. dana mentink
www.danamentink.com
stop by for a monthly contest
yay im joining, Tale_of_lost_ink!!!
Cool - I planned that a pen name would come in handy :)I have been working on a story for 7 years (not done, after heavily criticizing too much) and still have a burning question.
Though, before I ask, I should fill you in. My chapters or bits are told in the character's point of view. I heavily try to deepen and mark what their personality so the whole book isn't the same type.
My question would be: what would be appropriate personalities?
I used these to start out with -
Funny/Comical
Strict/ always in the clouds
Caring
Smart, as of speaking they use some old english
Based off me
Very, very evil.
And, sorry of the questions, what would be good roles? I know a lot of major stories have a betrayer, a leader, a wise person, a young warrior/main, the helper that seems so pitiful, and the smart-guy and so on.
Celia,After reading your post, I think you're analyzing too much. Sit down before a blank screen or take a blank piece of paper and write. No rules, yours or anyone else's, no plot, nothing but an idea. And then write. Let your hair down. Forget formulas, forget what someone else insists are all the elements of a good story--blow off every bit of teaching or advise you've ever heard and just write.
Don't analyze the story until you've reached THE END. The object here is merely to get from the beginning to the end.
The first rule of writing is that there are no rules. The caveat to that rule is everything in moderation. If you write a story with only one character in it, how are you going to satisfy that list you've got there? Answer is, you probably won't. In my opinion, if you try to write by any formula, you're going to suck all the fun out of the process for you and suck all the life out of the story for your readers.
Isn't life itself interesting because you never really know what's going to happen one minute, hour or day to the next? It should be that way for you when writing, and for the reader setting down with your story.
Believe me, if there was any kind of formula or list of required elements that guaranteed a good book at the end, we'd all be churning them out, and we'd all be bored silly.
Just write, see what characters show up in your stories of their own accord and what mischief they get into, what evils they confront, what truths they learn, what worlds they conquer entirely on their own. If you let it, this storytelling is an amazing process, guaranteed to teach you a thing or two about yourself along the way.
Just write freely and well. And see what happens.
Mari
Celia, I think what you're trying for is Character Description and Backstory. That's an excellent place to begin; defining personality/behaviour and then configuring internal and external conflicts.
Write the Backstory first: Who, What, When, Where, Why. You'll find the next step, Character Description will flow more easily. A very basic example might be: Timid young woman with bubbling, hidden anger resulting from childhood abuse.
Seldom is a character black and white, and the complexities will add depth to the characters. For example, the above protag is revealed through shy behaviour (showing) and your knowledge of her history allows for consistent internal conflict with believable motivation until the resolution.
Roles as you describe them, are archetypes used primarily in Fantasy and Mythology constructs, typically for screenwriting.
Plotting and planning are invaluable for not only creating a cohesive tale with the internal/external conflicts but also the synopsis that must accompany any submission to a publisher.
Good luck!
Thank you, both. I don't write down or plan a real form of plot - that might be a fault there. I always criticize it BEYOND . . . thank you so very much for the help, and I promise to keep that in mind. :)
I never plot. Takes all the fun out of it. I am my book's first reader.Now, go write something...LOL
Mari
I'm new to this group, but I've been writing stories for a long time, but I've never been able to finish anything. I've gotten close, but never actually finished. I lose all my enthusiasm for it when I get another idea that is completely irrelevant to the one I was writing. How do I finish a story?
Kenzie, this is how the creative force of the Cosmos gives you the next stepping stone in your path--you get an idea for the next story just before you finish. So, to motivate yourself to finish a story, write the opening to the idea you have and save it, telling yourself that as soon as you finish the story you're on, you get to write to that new opening, but not before. If you're truly meant to be a writer, you'll finish the one you're on, just to get to the new one.
I have around twenty openings like that stashed. I'm just finishing my sixteenth novel.
Mari
I started carrying a small spiral notebook around with me (It's now permanently affixed to my hand.) and writing notes when a new idea came. That let me move ahead with the WIP, yet keep those new thoughts for later. You know, for AFTER I finished what I was working on.
I had a question about editing books. I wrote a fantasy novel a few years ago. It is about 180 pages long. I have had friends who read it and love it, but I have the hardest time going back and seeing what is wrong with my writing. I also don't know how to get my work out there for other people to read. I have written A LOT of short stories over the years ranging from all sorts of topics. I have a booklet I carry around everywhere I go so that when I hear a really neat idea or come-up with something I think may be neat in a story, I write it dow.
Should I start posting some of those short stories in places? And should I worry about people possibly taking my work?
First of all, get this book called Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King (between the two of them, you're going to benefit from decades of experience in editing). This is the only book outside of Stephen King's On Writing that I heartily recommend. And once you've read the book, and once you've identified some of the weaknesses in your writing, then start critiquing others' writing. Be kind in your critiques, but unfailingly honest. Be prepared, too, when critiquing because some authors will simply go ballistic on you, tell you that you don't know what you're talking about, and for a while, you might believe them. Don't. If your heart is telling you something's wrong with a story, yours or someone else's, even if your head isn't altogether sure of the reason, stick to your guns. Remember, too, when critiquing, that the writer does not have to agree with you or change one word or one comma based on your assessment of their story. I used to preface every critique of someone else's work with a notice that this is only my opinion, take it or leave it at your desire. You will never learn as much about your own writing, and seeing the problems in your own writing, as you will helping others with theirs.
Everyone has trouble seeing what's wrong with their own writing, but if, and only if, you can acquire the skill of objectivity, of treating your work as if it belonged to someone else, you can go far in seeing and fixing your own work. This requires you to be ruthless, however, to know your darlings and murder them at the press of the delete key. Most writers cannot do this.
After you've revised, revised, revised, start pitching your stories to every market and contest you can find. I wouldn't necessarily give them away for free, but just starting out, it's not a bad idea to give a couple away just to get your work out there and get some feedback. No one is going to steal your work. A rejection slip is feedback, even a form rejection. For some writers, the rejection slip is a validation of their worst insecurities, a reinforcement of everything negative they feel about themselves, of every doubt they have about their work. It's the glass half-empty. This attitude is also an indication that the writer's skin is not thick enough for this business, the belief in one's self and one's work not nearly strong enough to survive.
For others, though, the rejection slip is a challenge, a reason to work even harder, to do better, to move on and write more and learn more, if only to prove to the world what the writer has known all along--I am worth something, my work is worth something, worthy of publication. To believe in yourself, to achieve against all odds, to persevere--these are the writers that eventually make it, mainly because they never took rejection personally and nothing swayed the faith in one's self.
Hope this helps some.
Mari
Thank you so much Mari, it will definitely help out. I will look into that book. Thanks! :)
i have a question. i started writing this book a while ago which i grew attached to dearly. though, i knew it wasnt that juicy of a story. boy and Girl are friends, boy moves away, girl starts to like boy, girl runs away to find boy. Yet, i still love it. I got to page 112 when i crashed. I was busy for a few days and didnt have a chance to write. When i came back i had completely burned out. not only that, i had a MUCH better story idea inspired by a dream a few days before. So i dumped my old story and began writing scenes for the new story. ive been working on this new story for a few months now, and i want to make sure i dont drop out on this one like before. Any advice for a new and confused writer???
And also, its a romance, so what happens when i write makeout scenes and then have my mom read the book when im done???
First off, finish what you start, even if you think it sucks. Not finishing is a bad habit and very difficult to break once ingrained in you as a writer.I wouldn't worry about makeout scenes or my mother reading them later, when the book is finished. After you finish, you have tons of revision to do, so chances are she may not see them for a very long time.
Finish first, worry later.
Mari
Penelope - I'd suggest you read The Writer's Idea Workshop How to Make Your Good Ideas Great. I'm reading it now because I've started several ideas, taken a break from writing, and now want to get going again. I've read a lot of writing books and this is the only one I've seen that hits the problem you and I are having head-on. Jack Heffron, the author, provides prompts and ideas for stories you've lost steam on.Good luck to you!
thanks both of you! i just stopped by to the library today and picked out four very promising books on writing. My mother found a very nice book called /plot/ by Ansen Dibell. it says on the cover: how to build short stories and novels that don't sag, fizzle, or trail off in scraps of frustrated revision-and how to rescue stories that do. Mary - i added the book you suggested to my to-read list. thanks again both of you!
Writerpedia
Books mentioned in this topic
The Writer's Idea Workshop: How to Make Your Good Ideas Great (other topics)Knight's Fork (other topics)
heres the link:
http://www.setbb.com/l2w/