174 replies to this topic

[FuzzyNova]

I have been working on a story for some time now. I am really into Skyrim and lore related to The Elder Scrolls. Although, I have been reading a few of the battletech books. And that is some good stuff. Alot of them have different authors but each one is great. I have been inspired to create my own science fiction mech based story. I am horrible at writing and critique my own work more often than I praise it. One day I will finish and publish my own work. One day.

[Mister Blastman]

Marack Drock, on 14 December 2015 - 05:27 PM, said:

UPDATE---

Working on editing the book now. Finished at about 250 pages (minus appendices), and is now being edited by my English Professor. After that... I will need to find a publisher... *grumbles*

Don't forget beta readers after the edit! Pick several, like five or six. Mine have given wonderful feedback--some of which that has lead to me writing a whole new first chapter and re-arranging a few things here or there.

[Mister Blastman]

Marack Drock, on 15 December 2015 - 10:51 AM, said:

I have 4 who have been reading while I have been writing, and advised me a great deal. After the edit they will get a reread and input on what needs work etc and then there will be another edit, reread, and the process will probably go on forever until I fall dead or hate my book enough to just say "**** it" and find a publisher lol

I know the feeling man!

I need the money bad right now but it isn't worth publishing until is done right. What madness we have descended upon...

[Mister Blastman]

Marack Drock, on 15 December 2015 - 11:17 AM, said:

My biggest problem is character development. First book has 36 characters alone, so half the book is actually just character development right now. There are also about 50-70 pages of appendices (that I didn't count in the total for the book cause they are not the story) which detail history, factions, technology, and specific characters from times long past that are still relevant to the story or are mentioned. My planned series has 85 characters and spoiler... only 13 live through the entire story and only 5 from the first book.

Wow. That's a lot of characters. I have about twelve named characters though a few are minor and so far my biggest issue is plot clarity. I've got great scenes but the reason for progression isn't clear enough to the reader due to the surreal/dreamy nature of everything. I intended it to be that way but feedback says make it clearer!

I've also got some work to do on helping readers care about a couple of characters. Ah well, it's all part of doing what we love.

[VVald0]

Marack Drock, on 15 December 2015 - 11:17 AM, said:

My biggest problem is character development. First book has 36 characters alone, so half the book is actually just character development right now. There are also about 50-70 pages of appendices (that I didn't count in the total for the book cause they are not the story) which detail history, factions, technology, and specific characters from times long past that are still relevant to the story or are mentioned. My planned series has 85 characters and spoiler... only 13 live through the entire story and only 5 from the first book.

Sounds like a mess of a book. Everyone involved in proof reading it would be on the bottle for sure.

[Mister Blastman]

Stephen King has hilariously awesome advice on writer's block...

Quote

“Whenever I’m stuck, I just write about a man who’s convinced that he’s slowly transforming into a laptop sleeve, and he gradually alienates his family, friends, and everyone else around him by eating their laptops without warning and saying, ‘I’m just keeping them safe from coffee stains and water damage!’ I’ve written that story a few times and just published it under different titles, like It, The Shining, Dark Tower II, and Dark Tower VI.”

Edited by Mister Blastman, 18 December 2015 - 06:50 PM.

[Mister Blastman]

Marack Drock, on 18 December 2015 - 06:53 PM, said:

hahaha definitely something I'd expect him to say

and also. With the advent of seeing the new Star Wars movie... I am over my own writers block and am trucking this along cause damn that motivated me.

Hehehe. I see it on Sunday. I'm in the midst of this new Chapter 1 based on beta reader feedback, then tying it into chapters two and three with sprinklings in the first half of the book... yeah, it is a bit of work, but the first is the real bear that has been gnawing at my ankles. It is a lot of thought--especially when you write the book in the ole' style of "follow the story."

Anyways, it is the rope that binds it all together so naturally I'm sitting here every night until 9:30 PM trying to find excuses to do other stuff but shake my fists defiantly into the air, scream at the top of my lungs and force myself to beat at the keys like rocks are bound to my fingertips until I chisel out something good.

It will be done! It must!

And then as a diversion this week I wrote a rough draft outline of my next book--not the sequel to this one but another story I came up with that happens fifteen hundred years in the past, in the same universe, before this one. Ah well. That's writing.

But good ole' Stephen, he helped me plow ahead tonight. Bless him.

[Hex Pallett]

So, I guess I finally managed to actually write something. It's kinda like an experiment, in which I tried to squeeze a bunch of ideas that has been circling around in my head for a while. I suppose the best way to describe it Witcher-Deus Ex-Battletech-The Expanse. This particular story is mostly done but it still kinda lingers my head, so I suppose one way to get rid of it is to let it out into the wild, by which I mean let ppl read it.

Link to my story is here. Hope y'alls find it entertaining. Criticism of any kind is welcomed.

Also, welcome back Marak!

[Hex Pallett]

Marack Drock, on 04 February 2016 - 02:40 PM, said:

Hey Helmstif! I am planning on reading this over Spring break! Can't wait!

Thanks! I switch to another file tho so read this one instead.

[Mister Blastman]

Marack Drock, on 11 March 2016 - 10:28 AM, said:

Hey everyone. You can start reading my novel on Figment right now. I am doing it chapter by chapter so I can get feedback on it as it goes. The first chapters are old and need editing so please let me know if/when you find grammar errors.

http://figment.com/b...ective-Morality

Not sure if you want feedback here or elsewhere... (has to do with publishing models etc.)

But after the first chapter--the prelude--What a conniving *******!

I've never read game of thrones (nor seen it) but it starts off with that kind of feeling.

I do have one minor comment and this is something I've contended with in my various drafts, and it has to do with the introduction and appendixes. Do you need an introduction and appendixes?

I thought about doing the same for my first but after lots of thought, I instead sprinkled all that information throughout the novel instead through mostly showing and occasional telling. Just something to think about.

The other is when you directly name religions--be careful, as you may or may not turn off readers as a result if it feels too preachy.

I enjoyed the prelude. I'll read more here and there in the coming days when I can. I'll try and keep my feedback more story content/structure oriented rather than grammatical structure and methods as every writer has their own style. I'm in full-blown fourth draft mode with my own and trying to get blocks of chapters out every week to my betas--less than a third to go! (but it has grown by 40% and now is over 150k words).

I have a feeling yours will continue to be neat.

Edited by Mister Blastman, 11 March 2016 - 08:12 PM.

[Nightmare1]

Sorry that I've been away so long y'all!

Update: My book has been published for a year now, and I'm finally able to start pursuing some marketing. I recently purchased a service from BookGrabbr and still have 23 free "Grabbs" remaining. If y'all are interested, feel free to "Grabb" a free copy!

https://bookgrabbr.c...without-a-cross


I also recently was offered the chance to send my novella to the Frankfurt International Book Fair in October. I'm really looking forward to that!

[Nightmare1]

Cool!

[Mister Blastman]

Chapter 28 is almost done... six more to go and I hope this will be the final draft. I'm pushing 160k words now for the finished book but It is bound to go a little longer and this is only the first of three or four in this series.

Thinking back... first draft was around 115k, second was 137k, third was 123.5 and fourth is... huge.

But, it's epic fiction and I've been dabbling with stream of consciousness. My betas wanted more intimacy with the characters, and stream of consciousness lets me explore first person perspectives while using an overarching third person narrative. I don't think I've seen it used much in sci-fi... but, it is a wonderful way to merge perspectives and let folks get inside character's heads of I've found.

I still have so much to learn.

[Mister Blastman]

Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 31 March 2016 - 08:22 PM, said:

THAT IS AWESOME! I wish I could write 164k words. My book is like 32k or something.

It's a bear man. Going through two drafts in nine months time, cover to cover is rough. But it is what the betas wanted!

Breaking narrative is a hard decision to make. I've thought of splitting this one into two parts (kind of like LOTR book one is two) but haven't found a way, yet.

Funny how we start with a seed and it sprouts into a giant tree, isn't it?

[Mister Blastman]

Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 31 March 2016 - 08:39 PM, said:

The earliest part that led to this I wrote when I was 13. It was my character Marek Drock actually lol. I wrote him in a BattleTech comic that I wrote for myself, and then he became the forefront of basically everything until he ended up as a chaplain in my current story.

Hahahah very nice!

Heh, I was that kid in school always drawing comics at his desk or pictures or whatever, all the time, in class. And then in the mornings there I was sitting in front of my locker working on a thick packet of rpg rules I was creating. The fun part was putting them to work in homeroom and watching it function.

That was a long time ago. And I don't regret everything else I missed in school, due to it.

[Mister Blastman]

Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 08 April 2016 - 05:20 PM, said:

Today was the most productive day for my book in a long while. I finished part one completely and it came out at 137 pages and 38,729 words. I am so excited. Now I can start on part 2, which I call the depressing arc. I was originally that 200ish pages and when I went back and reread that... omg so much exposition. My book was like a giant exposition monster had taken a giant **** in it. So yeah... I cut out like 70ish pages of useless exposition. My teacher said my book was kind of like reading Lord of the Rings if the exposition dumps never ended haha. So yeah Part 1 is 137 pages in total now. I am now working on part 2 which I already had around 60 pages of that done (because I wrote it about a year ago as a standalone). So I will be reworking it, and rewriting. So in total I am still around 200 pages, just need to stop being an exposition granny.

Also just grabbed "Man without a Cross" from amazon on paperback. Its going to be here on the 11th so I can't wait to read it.

That exposition hurdle is a big one! You have no idea how much I cut out of my first two drafts when I went into the third. The trick I found, was turning all that telling into showing--that let me keep much of the important content still in the story while working out all the redundant stuff. And when you're showing, you can turn some of it into action sequences, or secondary story arcs and enriched plot lines.

But I still find it is impossible to remove all exposition. Some of it is just unavoidable in science fiction. I still have a few segments here or there scattered throughout but it looks nothing like it first did.

Congrats on the big hurdle!

Myself... I just wrote for five hours. It took me two weeks to finally nail down Chapter 28 in the fourth draft... it doubled in size but there's some epic stream of consciousness in it now coupled with dialogue and plot directing that was iffy before--it feels like a compass sticking to magnetic north now whereas before it was floating around like a boat out at sea... and it does this with a character losing his mind so imagine taking a wishy-washy situation and somehow giving it a clear course. It was... hard to write.

But I worked on nothing but 29 tonight... and got all the way through it... a chapter fifty percent longer than 28--and only because I put all the extra time into making the previous chapter right.

28 is what I call a transition chapter... the kind that lies between a series of events--an arc of several chapters. But transitions are critical because you need to go from point B to C and they help you get there--mess them up and everything else melts into chaos.

It's past midnight and I'm tired.

[Mister Blastman]

Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 08 April 2016 - 08:36 PM, said:

I don't exactly have much for transitions myself. My book is currently split between the POV's of three different characters and I attempt to take the "build up a chapter and the arc" and then I drop and go to another POV. Then at the very end I introduce conclusions as to all these different little plots and stuff, except the main arc which is left open so that Part 2 can pick up where everything left off.

It is really tedious I personally think. I write in like a cross between Third-Person Limited and Omniscient... Kind of. It is weird I have found. People seem to like it, but I find it rather strange. At times it is completely Limited, and some times it borders on Omniscient but doesn't quite make it there.

Well now on to Part 2. Editing the pages I have, and then reworking them completely, and then finishing that arc. Part 3 will be the worst.

I do swap around occasionally between characters but I have one true main as well as a secondary lesser main and then several minors. I guess a better word for transition would be bridge--and I find them unavoidable due to how complicated the situation I've put my characters in.

And stream of consciousness lets me delve deep into the minds of whomever I choose and mix first and third perspectives in the same scene.

Though I limit usually exposure to the workings of one character's mind per scene. On rare occasion I'll give a line or two from a secondary but it doesn't happen often.

[SuomiWarder]

I published game material under my own company name Three Sages Games for a while. Four board games, some D&D OGL stuff. Lead to two stories getting published in a collection called Of Dice and Pen. Sold the company, but recently started working on a Fate based table top RPG called Solar Patrol '55 (1950s era retro sci fi with atomic rockets).

My fanfic B Tech work was well enough received that the MechAssault team named a map after my lead character (Linna's Fjord). It should still be at DropShipCommand.com. Suomi Warder stories. Search author name Wainio.

Won a few small writing contests here and there. Still haven't actually finished any of my novel length projects to approach a publisher. Almost have a swords and sorcery anime influenced tale ready. Will probably end up self publishing on Amazon or something.

I keep thinking I should get serious with my writing - and then life keeps interfering with the need to have a roof and food.

[Mister Blastman]

SuomiWarder, on 15 April 2016 - 07:05 PM, said:

I keep thinking I should get serious with my writing - and then life keeps interfering with the need to have a roof and food.

I've learned that if you don't make it happen it never will--and that means sacrifice in one way or another. Thus, I work and write six days a week until almost midnight. I haven't had a vacation in two years. I need one... bad. I promise myself after this novel gets published, I'm going to the beach.

[Hex Pallett]

Okay, I have a weird writer story that I gotta get off my chest.

I have in my hand the complete manuscript of a novella. It's from this hot Croatian chick I've been Twitter-stalking for a while. About a year ago she was tweeting if anyone would be interested to see her writings. I was bored, so I asked for it.

And it was this insanely good old-school cyberpunk thriller with AI-sovereignty element seamlessly integrated into it. Back then it was only like half done, but it immediately hooked me - I mean, someone actually writing old-school cyberpunk, wiring your brain with computers and ****? That alone was surprisingly enough. I loved it, and it totally surprised her that I did, and we immediately clicked. For the rest of last year she kept developing the story - which was really gritty and ****** up - and it actually got me all fired up and began doing some writings too.

Now her book is mostly done, but the girl is finishing up her undergrad and all busy with life and such. When the book is officially out, expect me to be shilling it