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In theory, forum posts are usually written in first person, and this thread isn't full of "I verb/verbed" constructions. It's all down to how you word it, although blue cubes is absolutely right, it's way too tempting to drop into robot talk when writers block sets in. There again, I have exactly the same problem with dialogue and feeling like I'm repeating "he / she said."
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Dec 3, 2014 16:24
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Generally he/she said is so unobtrusive that even though you feel like it's repetitive while you're writing, you'll rarely notice it in other people's work. For first person, another useful way to approach reducing the "I" is just stating things as fact. No need to qualify with "I think/feel/see" on everything, even if the information is subjective or false.
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Dec 3, 2014 17:20
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I'm switching gears and starting on an idea I've been tossing around for a few weeks: An alcoholic space repo man and his adventures. His company is called SPACE REPOT, and the t is silent because it's so classy.
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Dec 3, 2014 17:22
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FouRPlaY posted:
What does this actually entail, in text? An actor can fine-tune their facial expressions, body language and intonation to express all kinds of insanely subtle things. In text, it would be the simplest thing in the world to just explain directly that this is what the character is doing/feeling, and I do that sometimes, but it often feels laborious and expository.
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Dec 3, 2014 19:09
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That's where observational skills come in handy. Words are more than capable of conveying subtle change. As a reader, I obviously don't want long, drawn-out descriptions of someone's weird facial contortions, but you don't have to be blunt and just tell the reader exactly what they are thinking, either. In my opinion, the best option is also the most difficult: conveying a character's thoughts and emotions through their actions. People react very differently to things depending on their feelings or personalities, and it's the writer's job to show the reader that. For a quick off-the-cuff example, imagine someone shows up at a party and starts talking poo poo about the host. Maybe one person gets pissed off and confronts them, either physically or verbally. Maybe one person wants to watch the drama and posts up in the corner. One person might feel the urge to say something, but instead they sit there and keep sipping on their beer and looking at a painting on the wall to keep themselves from getting involved. Etc, etc. The idea is to show the reader what that character is thinking through their actions, body language, speech patterns, etc. When it comes to dialogue, that's how you create verisimilitude. I forget who said it, but there's an old piece of writing advice that basically goes "If you listen to a lot of conversations, most people are talking around each other instead of to each other." Outside of asking about the weather or saying good morning, the people involved in a conversation almost always have motivations for saying what they are saying. The key is being able to pick them out and apply them to your writing in a way that feels natural. For instance, if you have a conversation between two people, and one person keeps asking a bunch of long-winded questions while the other person just gives one-word answers and keeps looking around, you've just told us a lot about these two characters without stating anything explicitly. One of them is obviously not interested in the conversation, and they are looking for an excuse to cut it short or leave. The other either has a problem with social cues, or they have a motive for trying to keep the conversation going. That motive depends on the context the author has established. Is the person asking the questions in love with the other one? Are they an undercover investigator fishing for incriminating answers? Are they trying to distract the person while their pickpocket buddy works his magic? People rarely do or say things for no reason, so if you've done of your job of painting a scene and establishing what your characters want / what stands in their way, actions and dialogue start to serve as a sort of shorthand for what's going on in your character's head. This can all change depending on tense and PoV, but the gist remains the same. Show the reader words and actions that mean something, that are a logical extension of their thought process. Minimalism is essentially a school of writing based around this idea, so if you want to see it in action, look at pieces by people like Raymond Carver, Hemingway, Amy Hempel, and Tobias Wolff. Their writing is very lean, free of all but the most essential adverbs, and depends heavily on context to derive meaning.
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Dec 3, 2014 19:44
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Grizzled Patriarch posted:The idea is to show the reader what that character is thinking through their actions, body language, speech patterns, etc. http://writerswrite.co.za/cheat-sheets-translate-emotions-into-written-body-language Instead of saying 'x is worried' you describe them wringing their hands etc. It's one extension of the 'show don't tell' rule - more fun for readers to work it out themselves rather than being told.
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Dec 3, 2014 21:35
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I find that the biggest problem with first person is it's too easy for me to get drawn out into long, solipsistic meditations about things that break up the flow of the action. The advantage of 1st person perspective is it becomes more about a character's experience of events then the events themselves, but its easy to go overboard on their thoughts and anecdotes if I'm not careful. It's still important that everything that's presented has some sort of external motivation and serves the purpose of moving the scene forward.
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Dec 3, 2014 22:29
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Bobby Deluxe posted:Funnily enough, someone recommended this to me: Another way is to imbue their stuff with their personality. A person's car can be like their character sheet.
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Dec 3, 2014 22:32
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qntm posted:What does this actually entail, in text? An actor can fine-tune their facial expressions, body language and intonation to express all kinds of insanely subtle things. In text, it would be the simplest thing in the world to just explain directly that this is what the character is doing/feeling, and I do that sometimes, but it often feels laborious and expository. The dude who played the librarian in Buffy is the perfect example. If he wanted to "be in thought," he'd always look up and put one of the arms of his glasses in his mouth. If he wanted to act "frustrated," he'd always pull his glasses off and sigh. If he wanted to act "evasive," he'd always sip from his mug and look away. Always. The point is these "glasses, mugs, and cigarettes" become cheap tricks, basically cliches, to avoid having to actually show the character in an emotional state. You know -- acting. Authors do this too. Crabrock wrote in the first post in the chain how authors drown their characters in whiskey to show that they're manly men, stoic and covered in stubble. So what does this actually entail in text? Have your characters act. Don't hang cliched symbols on them. Follow perhaps the oldest piece of writing wisdom (after "get paid in advance"): show, don't tell.
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Dec 3, 2014 23:15
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Bobby Deluxe posted:I find that too. One way round it is to intercut 'I verbed' sentences with other sentences. I say what I do. Description or thoughts of that action follow in the next sentence, using passive voice in it's only acceptable form. I find it helps break up the flow. So here's what I've written so far, rough as all hell. I'm pretty sure I've hosed up with the tenses already. Thoughts would be appreciated. quote:I am in the jungle and I have no protection. Shageletic fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Dec 4, 2014 |
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Dec 4, 2014 03:35
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Shageletic posted:Getting excited about a new project idea, YA with a sic fi twist. I wanna do it in first person. Any tips/hazards I need to be cognizant of before making the switch from writing primarily in third person? Thanks in advance. In addition to the "start everything with I" problem, you also have to be constantly aware of what your character knows and how your character views the world. You can't slip out of character or explain anything from a more objective point of view. (I ended up making a long post, so I put the most important point in bold) I think first person gives you the greatest payoff when you have a narrator so overwhelmed by his/her worldview that a more objective narrator would tell a different story. An "unreliable narrator," but I think that phrase is usually conflated with a narrator who intentionally lies. I think you can get into a character's head and voice pretty well with close, limited 3rd person. Here are some examples from my own writing -- usual disclaimer about how I don't think my writing is particularly exemplary, I'm just really familiar with it and have it around. Close third-person: too many adverbs posted:The rotten boards groaned under Mouse's weight. Couldn’t anyone build properly in this city? A thudding vibration across the thatch nearly threw her to her knees. She turned around and saw the guard crouching on the edge of the roof. So, you get a lot from Mouse's perspective here, including her thoughts, without the need for bracketing everything with "she saw" or "she thought" or "she felt." You'll also never see or know anything that Mouse doesn't see or know. You won't know what the guard is thinking or feeling, you won't know about the slew of boats on the river below until Mouse crashes through one. In fact, you can easily change the whole thing to first person by changing "Mouse" and "she" to "I"--but what would you gain? Some first persons: Watch Out: There's Sex posted:“In books,” Jill told me, “women are always punished for deviant sexuality. If they are lesbian; if they have an affair.” She whispered it in my ear as we lay in the shuttle cabin on the way to K-T63490-P4; as she ran her short, precise fingers up and down my stomach, slowly moving lower; as her hard nipples pressed against my back and we flickered in and out of existence, jumping through holes in the universe. “They all die,” she said as I arched against her fingers, “just like Anna Karenina.” It's hard for me to articulate exactly why I think this passage wouldn't work as well in 3rd person. It's very personal, and the entire passage hinges on the narrator's view of herself, Jill, and their relationship. If I'd managed to write the story correctly, the entire story would hinge on the narrator's developing perspective on herself, Jill, and their relationship. Also, I can't think of a way to rephrase "she's killed me a thousand times" into a third person phrase. "She's killed me a thousand times, I thought" sounds like poo poo. Sometimes a little thing like that pushes me into writing in first person. A few lines come to mind, strongly in first person, so I go with it. As with all writing, there's no secret formula. Of course, there are some other fun things you can do with first person. Lying/crazy narrators are the most obvious: a crazy (OR IS SHE?) girl posted:I’m supposed to take another pill now: that’s part of the rules. Stay on the corner, sell the flowers, take the pill, no stealing. I know it’s time, because I can hear the shadows buzzing. They feel me waking up and whisper to each other, a shadowthief, a shadowthief is here. Shadows feel best in the gold light afternoon. Cool purple caresses, cries of delight and recognition: they are my true friends. Much nicer than the solid people. I don’t take the pill. (I'm still beating myself up over that "true friends" phrase, but couldn't think of a replacement while typing this post) Crazy dude. Also more stream of consciousness posted:Sharp teeth, sharp teeth on that one, the Slagland master, high on his sand-colored horse and looking down, so sharp. Those teeth, filed and plated silver, spitting image of Kuraket-the-Consumer. Smiling teeth spitting orders now, walk slaves, walk. And Old Tet, he is walking, is he not? Watch me walk, sharp tooth. Old, familiar sharp tooth. I carry you yet. Yes me, Old Tet, in these stinking robes I hide you. You fetch a pretty penny yourself. A prettier penny than Old Tet can fetch, perhaps, but it’s a shame, such a shame, to pass up a such pretty penny. You can also do fun things with first person, and by fun, I mean fun for you as the writer. Probably not much fun for readers, honestly. Two twins telling a story at the same time: quote:We don’t look it now, but before now we were real lookers. All the boys were after us. All the time. But we said no. Usually. Not because we wanted to, see, but because we had to. It’s the curse. We have over a hundred and sixty years between us now, but we were only a couple dozen when that rotten old gypsy read our fate. It was right after Lucy kissed her first boyfriend, down on the boardwalk after work, and I was sulking jealous. We’d always done everything together, up ‘til then. I tried to get him to kiss Darcy, to keep it even, but he flushed bright red and ran right away. So, we walked out on the pier, just me and Darcy. OH god, more twins, but now they switch in the middle: quote:Like gently caress I’m going to sleep now. Like gently caress I’m going to stay in this stupid house where no one even wants me. Not when I’m just starting to feel good again. I feel the sharp edge of the ring in my pocket and I slam the door as hard as I can. gently caress you, Chloe Madison Baker, you worthless piece-of-poo poo of a twin sister, letting me loving die. Oh god, now that I put all these together, everyone is going to know that I only write like 2 things: Crazy Wizard Girls and Twin Sisters.
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Dec 4, 2014 08:32
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Shageletic posted:So here's what I've written so far, rough as all hell. I'm pretty sure I've hosed up with the tenses already. Thoughts would be appreciated. I'm pretty new to CC so take my suggestions with a grain of salt. I found some of it a bit hard to read I've bolded notes and suggestions below for the stuff that stuck out for me on my first read through. If I'm wrong anyone feel free to correct me. quote:I am in the jungle and I have no protection. (Am in or was in? Because the next sentence reads 'there were the trees' not 'there are the trees' ) Other than the tense shifts I felt like I spent too long in the dark before finding out you were talking about a sign, keep your suspense for more riveting reveals, let us know it is a sign earlier then describe the brickwork, vines ect. You obviously have a character your trying to build with the way he talks, I did a re-write as to how I would make it flow personally, though it probably doesn't sound like your character saying it. "Some minimum wage idiots must have had the lovely job of hefting, hoisting and pulling that ridiculous sign above the short brick wall surrounding the grounds. Perched up there so proud, even the overgrowth of vines couldn't diminish its pretentiousness. I couldn't help myself as I crossed the threshold, I hocked up the biggest loogie I could, arched my back and spat. It landed right between the words TRINITY and ACADEMY" Edit: like I said, new to CC so if anyone wishes to correct me on this go ahead. Most of my editing/writing experience is unfortunately limited to the finance sector. Here to write and learn! Ol Sweepy fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Dec 4, 2014 |
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Dec 4, 2014 08:41
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I love poetic description. Seriously. All my favorites writers use it. H. Ellison, McCarthy, Gibson, Chandler, Lovecraft, Mishima. It adds style, uniqueness and atmosphere. Problem is, unless you do poetic description just right it's purple prose. And everyone hates purple prose. Is there a trick to writing it well? I have a hard time judging what works and what doesn't.
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Dec 4, 2014 11:44
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I also like poetic description. What makes it work for me, I think, is a combination of ingenuity and clarity: thinking about something in a way that's fresh and elicits an emotional or sensory response, and conveying that clearly enough to get the idea across. If you miss the mark with ingenuity, it's cliched, and if you miss the mark with clarity, it's not effective.
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Dec 4, 2014 12:07
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God Of Paradise posted:I love poetic description. No, really. A cliche is something we love so much, we've drained it dry and ruined it. For example, why do we say "falling in love"? Why did that become the normal phrase instead of "becoming in love"? What is it about love that reminds so many people of falling? I bet you'd never even thought about that, but now you're thinking about it and getting a little happy feeling down somewhere deep. That's become the ideas remain resonant, but the specific combination of words is burnt out. Try to find a new way to say an old idea. Take an old, tired idea then get all Ezra Pound up in this motherfucker and make it new. Also, try to be brief and clear. Big wanky purple prose descriptions are fun to write but terrible to read. Keep it simple, keep it obvious, make it new. --- Anybody got any experience with single-author short story anthologies? I'm putting something together, but I've never been published outside individual shorts in magazines/collections and I have no idea how to go about it.
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Dec 4, 2014 12:54
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Bompacho posted:I'm pretty new to CC so take my suggestions with a grain of salt. I found some of it a bit hard to read I've bolded notes and suggestions below for the stuff that stuck out for me on my first read through. If I'm wrong anyone feel free to correct me. Cool! Thanks for the edits I've already incorporated some into my couple of paragraphs. Quick thing. I'm trying to write as a fifteen year old. I don't know too many fifteen year olds that use the word "pretentiousness". So the incorrect word choices, the fuzzy grammar, the simplistic writing in general (him trying to decide between using the word heft, hoist, or pull is the kind of decision a kid might agonize over when writing into his live journal, oh gently caress I just realized I'm old). I'm trying (TRYING) to mimic the kind of present, closed off perspective you'd see in something like Jesus' Son. Its an approach full of hazards, and its probably not achievable, but I'm curious enough to give it a shot. Also, I don't want this kid to be spitting all over yet. But I can see how fluffery and meat-less the paragraphs I've posted can be. A consequence of posting a couple of paragraphs at a time, maybe? Hopefully?
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Dec 4, 2014 13:32
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Shageletic posted:Cool! Thanks for the edits I've already incorporated some into my couple of paragraphs. Good work then, I was 100% still reading your character correctly and picked up that he was quite young before I got to the part where you even mentioned a school. I completely understand that my example was not your character, it was just me typing for more flow and structure you could insert your character or flavor into, if that is any help. I started to write a first person short horror story a while back (Diary format) from the perspective of a 15yo girl. I'm a 27 year old guy. It's not easy trying to emulate youth. I sure as poo poo didn't know what I wanted back then how would I know what my character wants?. While I did't like the book so much, Chuck Palahniuk's 'Damned' did manage to hold strong as being written from the first person perspective of a 13 year old girl rather than a 52 year old man.
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Dec 4, 2014 13:51
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:
Are you trying to trad pub it? As far as I know, single author anthologies are like the absolute hardest thing to sell, but if that's what you want to do then the advice is probably pretty much as the same as with shopping around a novel: find a publisher that puts out anthologies similar to yours / that you enjoy reading, write up a strong query letter, and cross your fingers. Self-pubbing is probably the more realistic option, but even then the general consensus seems to be that you should just try to publish each individual story first, then anthologize it later when the publication rights revert back to you. At least that way you are guaranteed some compensation (assuming you get them picked up by paying mags) and then the free exposure + potential awards / reviews / being able to say "someone else thought this was worth paying for" may help you move a few copies here and there. Sadly most people that aren't already "famous" from novels or really talented at self-promotion are probably only going to get sales from friends and family, and getting trad published with a single author anthology sounds like an enormous uphill battle. It sucks because I really enjoy reading short fiction more than novels, but apparently I'm in the overwhelming minority, at least when it comes time to actually spend money.
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Dec 4, 2014 18:07
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:
Where have you published? If you've been in some good magazines you might be able to sell it to a small publisher. They don't usually do very well though.
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Dec 4, 2014 19:04
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:
Hit John Shirley up on Facebook. He's a Facebook addict and an extremely nice guy. He will gladly give free advice to anyone who asks for it. Dude's got like 8 short story collections. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 09:06 on Dec 5, 2014 |
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Dec 5, 2014 09:04
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God Of Paradise posted:I love poetic description. You got some deece answers already, but you should note that those posters' advice about clarity and cliché pretty much applies to writing as an entire craft, not just poetic description or even fiction. This is because there is no specific "trick" to share. I'm about to repeat a bromide, but your trouble with putting descriptions to the ear-test is treated by exposing yourself to both good and bad writing (preferably more good than bad) and then each time reflecting upon what attitude the author took toward descriptions, what vocabulary and style they chose to render those descriptions, whether this attitude and this stylistic approach were effective for you, and why or why not. To add to your list of poetical stylists to study, check out Nabokov (I'm not deep into his work myself, but I can specifically recommend the story "Beneficence" for being nearly a prose-poem) and I'd also recommend Far Tortuga by Peter Matthiessen, which is a somewhat experimental (and good) novel executed almost entirely in dialogue and poetic description. edit for another concern I remembered while pooping: Description vs. narrative pacing is an immemorial struggle. Half the work of writing good passages of description is knowing when to write them at all, and how often. Try to take note of not just where description's used by good authors and how, but also where they've left it absent. Nitevision fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Dec 5, 2014 |
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Dec 5, 2014 23:04
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Nitevision posted:Nabokov (I'm not deep into his work myself, but I can specifically recommend the story "Beneficence" for being nearly a prose-poem) I'll read it. I liked Invitation to a Beheading when I read it as a teenager. If you've read one book of his it's probably Lolita, which, like all books Kubrick adapted, is good but not as good as the film. Despair bored me and I couldn't finish it. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 09:06 on Dec 6, 2014 |
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Dec 6, 2014 09:00
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You are a bad person.
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Dec 6, 2014 16:26
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God Of Paradise posted:If you've read one book of his it's probably Lolita, which, like all books Kubrick adapted, is good but not as good as the film. 
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Dec 7, 2014 08:55
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Pale Fire, motherfuckers.
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Dec 9, 2014 01:02
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Baby Babbeh posted:Pale Fire, motherfuckers. Yeah this is a great book.
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Dec 9, 2014 01:13
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Forgive me if this has been answered already, but what's the best way to have a non-anglophone character in an English work? One of the characters in my story is French and for a while I used to sprinkle French phrases into her speech, but my limited knowledge of the language has given out and I don't want to repeat too many phrases. I'm toying with the idea of making her speech awkwardly transliterated -- English words, French sentence structure -- but most of the time it makes her sound "normal" awkward as opposed to "English as a second language" awkward. I'm also leery of going back to my old method of peppering her speech with French phrases as it might confuse the reader unless I immediately add a translation afterward, and that has its own issues of mucking up the flow unless I'm careful how I do it. I know the best answer would be to learn French, but my free time is already divided between writing and job hunting, and while I think French is a beautiful language, I'm more in love with my terrible, awful writing.
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Dec 15, 2014 01:56
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You just write it in completely normal English.
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Dec 15, 2014 01:57
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How do I write good?
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Dec 15, 2014 02:01
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blue squares posted:How do I write good? g - o - o - d
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Dec 15, 2014 02:08
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But how would I get across that she has difficulty speaking English? I could rely on something like:Marci Mourir posted:Marci stammered a frenetic jumble of English and French, her words mashed together in an indecipherable blather. She caught herself, red-cheeked, and turned away. She took deep, steadying breaths. "Derek. I am pregnant. But I do not think you are the father." That doesn't really happen in the story, of course, but this is generally how I write Marci. She's unsure of herself, and intimidated by her lack of facility with the English language among other things, so she has a hard time speaking her mind. EDIT: And so do I. I hate phonepostin'. 
Screaming Idiot fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Dec 15, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 02:14
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Oh, I thought you meant the story took place in France and they were all speaking French, but you were writing in English. If she is an ESL speaker in the US/UK/wherever, you can include some intentional errors. Most younger people from western Europe (France not quite so much though) have very good English to the point that you won't find them stammering mixes of French and English. Having her never use contractions is pretty dumb. How long as she lived in an English speaking country? If someone from western Europe has been in the US long enough to get pregnant and have a bunch of English-speaking friends, they are going to speak very well with few errors. They will definitely know how to use contractions.
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Dec 15, 2014 15:17
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Just go with "sacre bleu!" and "mon dieu!", along with an affinity for wine and baguettes. Have your francophone harp on how disgusting pigdog Americans are and how much nicer things are in Nice. Some snooty "haw haw"s should help. Unless this character is a redditor, do not randomly preface nouns with "le".
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Dec 15, 2014 15:35
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systran posted:Oh, I thought you meant the story took place in France and they were all speaking French, but you were writing in English. Sorry I wasn't clear before. She doesn't actually get pregnant; the excerpt I posted was an example of how I've written her thus far and not an actual event in the story, but you make a good points. I also considered having her slip back into using French whenever she's nervous or agitated, at least when she talks to herself. I'm honestly trying not to write her as a stereotype -- I want her to come across as an ingenue, at least initially, and as time passes she shows more and more inner mettle. Oddly enough, she doesn't literally come from France -- not ours, at any rate. Without cluttering this thread up with unnecessary details about my writing, the piece I'm writing involves alternate realities united as a single oppressive mega-nation, and Marci happens to come from an unaffiliated reality ravaged by centuries of war and sickness and other horrible things, with only a few inhabitable areas remaining. She was sent to the capital of the mega-nation (planet Central, of the Central Union) so she could live in relative peace, but she was taken into custody and continually interrogated about her homeworld for many years until she was freed on the condition she joined a secret group dedicated to maintaining the safety of the Central Union, placing her at odds with her former homeworld. I know, it's another silly sci-fi/fantasy setting, and I'm not going to lie, the story itself is full of derivative elements. But I've written roughly five full-length novels about it, and I'm nearly finished with a sixth. I have reams of material written about the world so I can keep details straight (WORLDBUILDING!  ), and I have everything mapped out, including ideas for sequel projects.My biggest problem is editing. I have so much I want to get down that I never find the time to go back and edit my previous works, and so the earliest chapters are nothing short of eye-rolling. For gently caress's sake, I have a prologue of unreadable garbage followed with a first chapter WHERE THE MAIN CHARACTER WAKES UP, LOOKS INTO A MIRROR, AND GETS READY FOR SCHOOL. When I finish the sixth book, I'm going to put writing new material on hold while I edit what I already have. I'm just afraid of losing my enthusiasm for writing -- I've read many posts in this very thread that detailed what a soul-crushing process editing can be, and I hope when I finish my editing (and re-editing, re-re-editing, etc.) I'll still love to write as much as I do now. I don't think I'll ever break into writing as a career, I don't think I'm good enough, but someday I want to write something someone can enjoy at least half as much as I enjoyed writing. That means I have to clean it up; throw out some of the useless baggage and purple prose, the awkward and stilted attempts at humor, the cringe-inducing unintentional over-sexualization of the woman protagonist in the first book, and the bloated, unnecessary descriptions of things that don't need describing. I have a long, long way to go before my work is anywhere near readable, but I want to make my work good, and I'm very glad I found this thread. I learned a lot just by reading the posts, and if it's all right, I'd like to ask advice as necessary. Thanks for answering my questions so far, by the way -- it's just a little thing, but it's the little things that make books work. Blade_of_tyshalle posted:Just go with "sacre bleu!" and "mon dieu!", along with an affinity for wine and baguettes. Have your francophone harp on how disgusting pigdog Americans are and how much nicer things are in Nice. Some snooty "haw haw"s should help. I actually did end up giving her a preference for wine. Cigarettes, too. 
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Dec 15, 2014 16:51
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Holy gently caress dude, five draft-finished novels?  Stop loving around and edit the poo poo out of the first one so you can send it to an agent. drat. I mean, I like to think my prose is pretty drat readable but here I am with a few half-finished novels, including one with about 30k words that I'm supposed to have gotten to 50k by New Years. And you have five. Seriously, fix up that first one, maybe find a good close-reading buddy to help you out, and try to get an agent.
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Dec 15, 2014 16:53
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I just checked the word count for my work, and yup, 633572 words in all. And that's only the .wps file I keep the main stories in -- I'm not even counting the short stories, extra material, and cut material I liked but couldn't fit in. I... I think I might have a problem.
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Dec 15, 2014 17:14
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Screaming Idiot posted:I just checked the word count for my work, and yup, 633572 words in all. And that's only the .wps file I keep the main stories in -- I'm not even counting the short stories, extra material, and cut material I liked but couldn't fit in. I would cut off a leg to have this problem, get this poo poo published!
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Dec 15, 2014 17:32
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It's actually fairly heartening to hear people tell me to keep working. I really do want to edit the first book into a more readable state, but I don't know anyone who would read my work. None of my IRL acquaintances are readers -- most are barely literate -- and I need someone clever enough to tell me how terrible I am, but considerate enough to encourage me to improve while hurling heaps of well-deserved abuse at me. I can't ask that of this forum -- it's too much work to ask total strangers to do pro bono, and there's also the same factor that keeps me from participating in Thunderdome: embarrassment. Writing's my only pleasure and I'm already scared shitless by the idea of other people reading it, but the thought of staying awful is equally frightening! There's also the fact I've written five books in the same series to consider; I'm afraid someone will read it and tell me it's utterly unsalvageable. I'll have wasted years! I know this all sounds stupid and petty, and it is, but I have no idea what to do beyond editing and revising my work. I know there will always be mistakes, inconsistencies, and outright atrocities that I won't notice because I'm the one who made them -- or to use a metaphor, most people can't smell their own poo poo -- so this is a pretty nasty snarl for me. Does anyone have any suggestions for a course of action? I want to become a better writer, even if nothing I write is ever published.
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Dec 15, 2014 18:15
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Man, if you've written five books then you've already improved in some small way at least. Take the first page of your first book and the first page of your most recent story and compare them. You'll see how different they are.
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Dec 15, 2014 18:18
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 11:49 |
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You could post a thread with your first two or three chapters (as separate posts, makes it easier to switch between) and people will give you feedback. Hell, post it and link it here and I'll at least review your first chapter. Even if you can't get a buddy or two to read your whole novel, if some of us can help you fix problems with your first few chapters, you can apply the lessons to the rest of the novel.
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Dec 15, 2014 18:57
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