General Writer's Block thread

Nice!

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

Congratulations! ^_^

My Games & Writing

Thanks! So far the feedback from people who have purchased it has been extremely positive...it has more or less been "I started reading this, and now I have things to do, but I don't want to stop reading!"

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Congrats! How long did it take you to write that book before having it available for Kindle sales? It took a lot of work and effort, right? And who was your beta/editor? Did you have one? Sorry. I'll stop 20 questions for now and let you answer.

Even when your hope is gone, move along, move along just to make it through

Congratulations, Scribler!

Thread hop: DA, I love that idea.

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

Congratulations!

Thanks! As a matter of coincidence, the work in question now has a completed draft and is currently up in the Constructive Criticism thread, another one of the stickies here.

I'd say I'm being refined Into the web I descend Killing those I've left behind I have been Endarkened

Oh, now I'm definitely going to read that.

edited 2nd Aug '13 3:21:22 PM by LongLiveHumour

Thanks!

I'd say I'm being refined Into the web I descend Killing those I've left behind I have been Endarkened

No problem at all, I like answering these questions.

• I started Margin Play during last year's Na No Wri Mo; I actually finished the first draft in 10 days, and it clocked in a 45,000 words. I spent from November til about February of this year working on the second draft, which brought it up to around 80,000 words and cleared up numerous issues present in the original. The third draft, I finished it in early July; mostly the third draft was focused on correcting three crucial scenes that simply did not want to come together. The final version went live for Kindle July 11th, the paper version coming about a week after that.
• Effort yes, time...not so much, actually. I'm starting to grow more contemptuous of George R.R. Martin's pace because of it.
• My beta readers were a small group of people who expressed interest in the manuscript and who I felt had advice relevant to the story; my goal was to bring some reality into the private-eye genre, so two of my readers were ex-police and one was a current PI. My editor is One Of Us. If that person wishes to be identified, they will identify themselves.
• Cover design was by DG; it was done almost laughably low-ball, but it turned out very good for all that.

If anyone else has any questions about the mechanics of the editing/publishing/marketing process I'll be glad to answer them if I can...and say "I don't know" if I can't.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Eh, I'll come out of the closet. I was one of his betas and his editor. I didn't set out to become his editor, all I promised him was a critique of his first draft. I don't know what he expected, but I don't think that it was a printed out copy of the entire first draft, absolutely covered with notes and comments, plus five additional pages of legal-sized paper of more notes.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

Da~amn.

I'd say I'm being refined Into the web I descend Killing those I've left behind I have been Endarkened

Thing is, that's not what most people would expect as a critique. But that's what you should be able to expect from an editor. Not just a vague "I liked it" or "I didn't like it", or "It was ok". But "This doesn't work, and here's why." My notes were things like "You used the word "twist" five times within seven sentences. The first time, it's the right word. The last time it's the right word. But the other three? find another word — it's jarring.". Or " 'Petulant drizzle' — that's great — I know precisely the kind of rain you're talking about."

"This works, here's why." Or "This doesn't work — here's what I think is wrong with it."

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I'm surprised this surprises anyone.

Mads made a good editor...I ended up taking nearly all her advice.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

I hope this doesn't end with you getting overloaded with beta/editing requests, Maddy^note Uh, we can call you "Maddy", right? Gah, somebody should formulate some guidelines for the nicknaming netiquette..

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Considering her other hobby, I do believe Maddie knows how to deal with spurious requests...

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Yes, Marq, "Maddy" (or "Maddie") is fine.

As to getting inundated, well, you can ask. And if what you've got sounds like something I'd be interested in reading, I may say yes to beta-reading it and/or giving you a critique. And after that, if it's good enough that I can stand the thought of reading it over and over again, I might even offer to edit for you. But I'm not likely to even offer to beta-read for some things — fanfics generally, (especially if it's based on a work I don't follow) or romances. I find it extremely difficult to give a fair, thoughtful critique if I don't enjoy the genre in the first place.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Ok, that got a laugh out of me. Bravo, Scriblerian. (BTW, is "Scriblerian" a corrupted portmanteau of "scribble" and "librarian"?)

Thanks. I often worry about accidentally offending others over the net by coming across as overly familiar whenever I try to avoid overuse of formality via resorting to Full-Name Basis too often; it's less of an issue if we're already have some kind of an established relationship, like the unofficial "clubs" in the media and fanfic subfora.

That's understandable. On a side-note, I keep forgetting that "fan fiction" technically doesn't include "original, not-for-profit fiction".

edited 3rd Aug '13 12:27:05 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

@Marq: an explanation of where I got the name.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Uniting my witch team's costumes was easy: They're witches, so all of their costumes are black and one color only and include a robe and a witch hat. That way, no matter how different their themes are, they look like a team. Uniting my magical girls is proving much harder. They're all based on the Western Zodiac, but I'm not sure how to use that information to unite their costumes. Maybe I could start by including stars in all their costumes?

edited 7th Aug '13 4:16:49 PM by Haldo

‽‽‽‽ ^These are interrobangs. Love them. Learn them. Use them.

Common elements in silver on dark, saturated colours — to connect to starlight against the night sky — might work, perhaps, taking on your own suggestion, with small stars strategically sprinkled. This could then be trimmed with their personal colours and marks.

My Games & Writing

Here's part of something I started revising, a steampunk novel inspired by Oliver Twist. Is the Artful Dodger convincing as a street urchin?

edited 15th Aug '13 6:59:37 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

Yes.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."