Writing a work of fiction...

[Bronn]

Bump almost a year later...

I'm still world/story building for my stuff but it is starting to get bulkier.

I do believe I am going to start out with a novella or some short stories, and try to submit it/them to a lot of writing contests and awards stuff. After that, if it turns out well (well, even if it doesn't, I suppose) I plan on doing a series of 4 books in the same world as the novella/short stories. I'm not opposed to getting an agent or a publisher if it works out that way.

Obviously, my hopes are pretty high for what I might achieve from this, even though I haven't even started a story that happens in the world, I have pretty high expectations for myself.

 

Anyone got anymore advice or experience now that wants to add it to the thread?

[Captroop]

Worry about story first. You seem to be really focused on your grand plan and distribution, and the business aspect. You're an amateur writer working on your freshman effort. At this point you should be focused on one book, making it exceptional, and finishing it. Everything else is ancillary.

 

Also, you need to understand that as this is your first novel (I assume) that unless you are truly a writing prodigy, it's probably going to suck. Like, suck badly. And that's not a slight on you, or your writing abilities. Everyone's first book sucks (again, outside of extremely isolated exceptions by literary geniuses). So before you devise a whole 4-book series, your objective should be finishing something; a complete story, beginning, middle and end. Not the first leg of a marathon. A short story, novella, or novel. Just finish it. Learn from it. Get better.

 

My other piece of advice: You're eventually going to hit a wall where the payoff and thrill of doing something creative tapers off. And you need to be able to fight through it. It's common. It's the trough of enthusiasm you feel after the initial high. The only way you're going to finish is you have to push the rest of the way to the finish line.

[PhillyB]

what platform are you using to write?

 

i'm spending the next couple of weeks finally finishing up my book (which is very bulky, lacks skeletal structure, and needs tons of editing) and i'm currently in the process of transferring it from microsoft word to scrivener.

 

spend $45 and download scrivener. it's specifically designed for writing books and has an interface and organizational capabilities that are far, far, far more conducive to completing your project than word. i've been using it for about a week now and i'm still learning the ropes, but i already love it. it's going to be the difference between this thing getting done and languishing in the corner of my hard drive for the next decade.

[PhillyB]

writing is hard fucking work.

[Bronn]

Oh I don't really care about the business side of things at this point. The bigger picture for me is that I have been world-building and brainstorming and idea developing enough to finally start some plot development and organizational planning for the future of where I want the stories to go.

 

Basically, I am going to begin the short story/novella thing ASAP. It is set in the world I have created but at an earlier point in the timeline than the novel series I want to write down the road. It'll be the introduction to the world and it's history but, at the same time, its own story.

 

Thanks for the scrivener link. I was actually going to start in Word too, but I might save myself a step and jump on something like that. I like that it'll export to E formats as well, and it looks very powerful as far as organization goes. Right now, I'm using a private online wiki format for that since I can access it anywhere and even from my phone if an idea hits me that I want to throw on it.

 

FYI Captroop I am a goddamn literary prodigy!! ;)

[PhillyB]

scrivener lets you create countless instantly-rearrangable work panels that's invaluable for being able to jump seamlessly from one thought/scene/section/idea to another… actually i'd say it's made for works where you've got to develop large amounts of external information before actually composing a story in its context. i think they have a demo version you can download or something

[thefuzz]

I have to be honest...I don't think that I could ever write a fictional book.

 

Congrats to you and PhillyB,

[pstall]

writing is hard fucking work.

Yes it is. I cant tell you how many mental sabbaticals I have to take to get the creative batteries charged back up.

Then you watch some films with phenom writing and you go omg I can't get to that level.

But I submit to you what I call the Hootie and the Blowfish effect.

They wrote and played songs they liked. Not what would be consumed by the masses and like them or hate them they struck a nerve. 16 million cds sold.

So that oddity keeps it in perspective for me.

I hope to finally finish one screenplay by end of Sept and give to a producer and see what happens.

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