dylanmc12 said:
Television has taught me something.
When you write a world and its inhabitants into existence, then it creates a new universe for them, where they live.
When you abandon that universe and stop writing its canon, then it is destroyed by meteors, all of your creations destroyed violently, and it will soon be forgotten and buried among whatever crappy sit-com Fox made in 5 minutes over their lunch break.
So I compulsively write a series of stories that I've self-published in order to keep it alive or else everyone one will die in a horribely gruesome way, and I may just hear a "where's out god now?!" in the corner of my ear.
Congratulations, this is very cool. If it gets published, please release the name. I haven't read anything in a while. And completely ignore the above text, that was garbage I made by hitting my keyboard a lot.
Hahahahahaha. If that's what keeps you motivated, more power to you I guess. lol. One of the things I took care to do in my story was build what I call "meta-humor." Basically, the characters realize and comment on the absurdity of their situations and when something cliche happens they note it. lol
SckizoBoy said:
Keep going! 100000 is pretty par for the course for contemporary authors... mine clocked in at 195000 without its appendices! >_<
Holy monkey nut balls. 195 is HUGE. I guarantee you that you can trim it down to 110 if you tried. Some people like massive books, but 195 is like 900 printed pages in a hardcover. If you ever wanted to get it published traditionally, you would have to cut it down drastically. Most first time readers of an author simply aren't willing to put that amount of commitment into a book. Hell, even guys like Patterson and Clancy (God rest his soul) couldn't get away with that. lol
If it's any consolation, my first draft was 240k but I knew most of that was going to disappear in the editing process.
RaikuFA said:
I'm writing a video game that I considered at one point to convert into a book. Does that count?
What's the book called? I'd like to read it one day.
Yes! Of course it counts. I am writing a video game script as well. The vision I have for it is Gears of War meets Splinter Cell meets Dead Rising. It's gonna be pretty great. lol
My book is titled "The Angel of Darkness" and it is primarily a deconstruction of the urban fantasy genre. (by deconstruction, I mean it lays out how absurd most of those tropes are and makes fun of them. The characters even make fun of the generic title at one point by remarking that if they were in a book, it would probably be titled that)
Flatfrog said:
Without wanting to outdo you, a few months ago I finally went ahead and published my book No One Told No One on the Kindle Store after close to twenty years! I first started it in my early 20s when I was working in a bookshop. After something like 80,000 words I found I'd written myself into a very boring corner and the story was going nowhere. I set it aside for a year or so, and then met a girl who read it, loved it, and told me exactly where I'd gone wrong and how I could fix it. (I proposed to her the next day - I wasn't letting that one get away!)
A few months later I finished the first draft and sent it out to some publishers, one of whom was very interested and called me in for a discussion. She gave me some really useful feedback, sent me away and I completed a second draft which was significantly shorter and tighter, and almost the exact opposite of what she'd asked me to do. Somewhere around that point I realised that writing a children's novel was very, very unlikely to make me any money, and like an idiot I dropped the book like a stone and started a proper job.
Twelve years later, with my kids at the age I'd been writing for, I picked the printout out of a drawer and realised I'd been a fool to abandon it. I rewrote it one last time to bring it up to date with a world of mobile phones and broadband internet, and started sending it around again. But after a few rejections I thought screw this, the world has changed, and went ahead and published it myself.
Now it's sitting in the Kindle Store and I'm not quite sure what to do next!
You had a publisher interested and you tossed it away?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! haha most authors would give anything just to have an agent or publisher give them the time of day, much less actually be interested. Congrats on getting it onto the Kindle store. You should put it up on the Apple Book Store and Nook Store as well. That'll get it more exposure. What's it called? I've been looking for a new book to read.
FlambeNobunaga said:
I'm an aspiring novelist currently 1/10th the way through the first in a futuristic fantasy trilogy. I've got all these great ideas but I can't really find the motivation to do it. Any tips?
As I told someone above, write down your ideas and add to them as you think of more. Eventually you will see a plot start to develop. Also study the fantasy genre as a whole. There are certain tropes and plot points that are used a lot. Depending what you are trying to do with your story, you should know about them to either use them or stay away from them. Or in my case, make fun of them. lol
If you'd like, send me what you have and I'd be happy to look it over for you and offer some insight.
Treeberry said:
Congratulations. I'm trying to write a novel myself but it's so easy (for me at least) to fall into a trap of negativity. Doesn't help when you say 'I'd like to write a novel' and people respond that you'll never make any money, it's hard to get published, why don't you just sit down and watch reality TV with your mouth hanging open like normal people etc.
I used to write a lot but I lost my confidence - and opportunity for growth as a writer - when a teacher completely and utterly ripped into me for writing fantasy when I was younger. I just stuck to 'safe' stories after that.
Out of curiousity what genre is it?
Well it is indeed true that the chances of beoming a "super" author like J. K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyer are slim to none and that if you are not a super author, you will not make very much money. HOWEVER. Don't let that discourage you. I always told myself this: yes the chances are slim. But IT DOES HAPPEN so why can't it happen to me?
My book is technically urban fantasy, but it's more of a genre deconstruction of that where I make fun of the common tropes and plot points of that genre.
) said they'd already bought it upon my linking it, or would shortly buy it... man, I love this place!
