General Writer's Block thread

No problem.

The organisation could be simply not interested in damaged goods.

Well, they did create a giant robot that destroyed a good chunk of Colombia forces in a terrorist attack, and never took the blame for their actions.

And they never seemed interested in taking back the robot, either. Huh.

I'm going to publish a short comic story as a teaser in the form of a fanzine in a convention.

Can some of you wish me luck? I'm in the phase of "BUT THIS SUCKS, WHO THE HELL WOULD PUBLISH THIS?!'

Good luck. ^_^

I don't know your story, and thus am in no position to guess at how well it might do, so let me simply say: I hope that your worries prove unfounded, and that the teaser proves more popular than you expect. ^_^

Good luck.

Good luck! I reiterate what said.

Does it make sense that buying tents separately is cheaper then buying one tent for all?

If it's a "two for one" deal for tents, I don't see why not. Or maybe they were bought in different stores.

Today I found out that publishing the first draft of your novel online will cut your official-publishing revenue in half with most traditional publishers.

I found out on Nanowrimo that you can't publish more than three chapters before sending in a manuscript if you want to be considered for full publishing rights AT ALL. Even after editing. If you publish more than that, you'd most likely be limited to reprinting rights (about half the rate of full-publishing).

Compared to my writing instinct of "first draft? Doesn't matter—I'll post this for exposure," the legal issue is very interesting for me.

I've already got twenty-six chapters of Moonflowers up, so that's like nine times the cut-off rate anyway.

edited 2nd Sep '15 5:37:38 PM by Sharysa

IS there any pages where people go in depths about what would happen if science was applied to say elemental powers? I distinctly remember watching a page here, that discussed that if power over lighting/electricity was actually the movement of electrons, then theoretically they should be able to use that power for full on disintegration by breaking electron bonds.

Yeah, advice I learned the hard way is that you shouldn't publish stuff on the internet that you want published traditionally. I think you can self-publish or sell it as an e-book, or maybe keep it up as a web serial of sorts.

^^Required Secondary Powers.

edited 3rd Sep '15 11:46:52 AM by SeptimusHeap

Dunno if there's such a page, but in the end magic and science are two distinct kinds of things. Science is a methodology. As long as you apply the scientific method to magic, it doesn't matter if electricity are eletrons moving around or spirits shifting cosmic rays from one place to the other, as long as it produces a constant effect (even if magic seems to be completely random whenever you use it).

Yes! Thats it! Required Seconday Powers, Analysis page! Perfect, absolutely perfect, thank you!

Onto the matter about publishing however. If you put up everything online as a first draft, but take it down before sending it to publishers before review, would you still be treated as having posted it up online?

Since the internet is eternal, I'd say yes.

Yeah, it seems my options are either self-publishing (in which I'd have to shoulder a LOT of work or hire people to do it) or indie-publishing if I'm not content with traditional publishing hassles or settling for reprinting fees.

edited 3rd Sep '15 3:31:54 PM by Sharysa

That sucks, but at least you have a built-in fan base for your second installment.

Well guys, I published the fanzine.

It got a positive reaction!!

Ow O I still think is not that great, but good lord, hearing positive reviews!

Sadly, I still can't publish it online yet. My pal says we need to make sure is copyrighted before posting it online.

edited 7th Sep '15 12:17:51 AM by Tomodachi

My second installment AND the edited version of the first story.

Congratulations! But if you've already published it in print, why are you hesitating to publish it online?

edited 7th Sep '15 11:55:04 AM by Sharysa

Good question, but I suppose that, since that printed version was a teaser, my pal want to make sure is fully copyrighted before publishing it for real.

So for my writing class I took this summer, my final story was a twenty-something page monster that was my attempt at a Lovecraftian tale about a guy who discovers that he's the prophesized messiah of this cult in this coastal New England town. He doesn't believe it at first, naturally, but then is seduced by the high priestess and caught up in the whole thing - and is convinced that he's the incarnation of this Light/Fire God. He wakes up, and the Priestess reveals that she's his sister and that she's now pregnant with their incest demon-child, which drives him mad enough to murder her - only then the unborn fetus bursts out from her corpse, and it's naturally disfigured - horned, hooved, tentacled, etc. so he kills it too. Then he goes out into the village, where he orders everyone to kill themselves which they do. And then he looks in a mirror to see his demonic self looking back at him, and he realizes that yes - he is the physical vessel of this dark god, and yes Evil Feels Good and walks off to cause more chaos elsewhere.

Having read more Lovecraft since then, I'm really interested in creating my own mythos where there's all these what I'm calling "Nether-Gods" at work in the world (set in the 20s and 30s), but it's more Lovecraft Lite in that there's a few sympathetic humans fighting against them. And also more traditional occult entities and Gothic horror themes. To give you an idea of the variations - one of my protagonists is a New Orleans Witch Doctor and another is a death-seeking immortal sorcerer trying to find a victim to pass his curse onto, but still has unfinished business to attend to first.

However, I'm not sure how structured I want to make this mythos - or if I even should commit to it being a mythos in the first place. I mean, I don't want to rip off Lovecraft entirely - but I just really like the idea of strange things happening across several disconnected short stories that all take place in the same universe, with characters crossing over from time to time.

So I guess my question to you guys here is should I just kick the mythos thing out of my head and focus more on singular short horror stories or focus more on establishing a clear sort of anthology-type thing? I mean from what I've said so far does it sound too ripped-off? I guess that's my main concern, is if I'm just rehashing Lovecraft rather than trying to do my own thing. That's one of my greatest faults as a writer - taking emulation to the point of plagiarism. I suppose I more want to create a bastard child out of Lovecraftian themes and Gothic horror themes - almost with a dash of period piece set in the 20s and 30s.

I dunno, I'm conflicted on the general idea. Halp meh.

edited 4th Oct '15 10:44:40 PM by HisInfernalMajesty

Take one element of your fiction that is different from something Lovecraft did- it doesn't matter what it is, but ideally something that is related to the nature of the monsters, but it could be something related to the setting, or a thematic difference, or a unique kind of hero; and make that the centerpiece of a couple of short stories. Take this difference and see where it leads you. That way you know you aren't just ripping him off, and you are doing something that comes from you.

I've been reading some of the episodes of Anime Addventure's Chained World series, which depicts a mega-crossover alternate universe where slavery endured across the world as a legal practice (albeit in heavily regulated forms), with some elaboration on the setting here that includes the divergence point behind the changes to reality. This got me to thinking... Is the stated point of divergence really sufficient to create such a world? If not, what would be needed that is missing?