Aspiring writers thread

[rocknroll41]

On July 10, 2017 at 11:34 PM, wasted said:

If you have something short you want to publish

https://flashfictionmagazine.com/submissions/

Thank you!

just to give everyone an update on my progress: I was able to solve my writer's block problem by removing some of my ideas that conflicted with one another and moving them into their own separate short stories instead, while condensing my novel down to a novella.

im about halfway through the first draft of my novella now!

[J Dog]

On 7/29/2017 at 9:20 PM, rocknroll41 said:

Thank you!

just to give everyone an update on my progress: I was able to solve my writer's block problem by removing some of my ideas that conflicted with one another and moving them into their own separate short stories instead, while condensing my novel down to a novella.

im about halfway through the first draft of my novella now!

Progress is always a good thing. That's good you just moved your ideas instead of throwing them away, never know, another story could come out of those.

Some cool advice I read recently...conflict builds character. That's pretty good if you think about it. You don't have get all deep trying to constantly build up character, put them in conflict, their actions and reactions will automatically build their character.

[rocknroll41]

22 minutes ago, J Dog said:

Progress is always a good thing. That's good you just moved your ideas instead of throwing them away, never know, another story could come out of those.

Some cool advice I read recently...conflict builds character. That's pretty good if you think about it. You don't have get all deep trying to constantly build up character, put them in conflict, their actions and reactions will automatically build their character.

That's actually cool that you bring that up, cause one of the things im still struggling with is character development.

initially, I wanted my lead hero to be sort of the usual "dream-seeking" type of character who learns to break away from society and be the person theyve always wanted to be deep down. This was a reflection of how I didn't really like my job at the time, so I was trying to create a story built purely on escapism.

eventually I grew to like my job so I changed the story to reflect this, and instead made the moral about learning to conform to society and make the lead character someone who learns to get used to doing something they don't really like for the benefit of others.

But now I'm starting to dislike my job again and want to revert the story back to the way I originally had it, only im afraid that the generic "follow your dreams" and "screw society, be who u want to be" thing is really overdone and cliche at this point.

this also begs the question: should stories be about fantasy-fulfillment and escapism, or should they be about characters learning valuable life lessons and how to find their place in the world? I guess the sweet spot would be to find a way to do both.

I guess the best thing for me to do now would be to focus on world-building and conflict, and see how the characters respond naturally to that, like you said.

Edited August 2, 2017 by rocknroll41

[AxlsFavoriteRose]

On 7/10/2017 at 8:34 PM, wasted said:

If you have something short you want to publish

https://flashfictionmagazine.com/submissions/

thank you! i am working on one now but idk if i can make the max 1000 words!

[AxlsFavoriteRose]

danggggggg i was already pretty well into a story when i thought about a better one! it's about catfishing, cyber sex, sexting and really the ways people have "catfished" through the ages. i know it's fiction but i think Cyrano de Bergerac was an early quasi type of catfishing! the only problem is the site i was led to says no erotica but says sex is ok if it is important to the  story. so who defines what is and is not erotica? i seem to believe Anne Rice's Exit to Eden was deemed erotica but that had um...whipping and things? the hell with it, if i can't use that site i will use another. or have it published myself...after all this is a 'bucket list" item for me and if i do say myself i have LOTS to say on this subject! and i believe it will be useful for those caught with a fishing line holding a big old catfish!!!

[J Dog]

On 8/2/2017 at 11:25 AM, rocknroll41 said:

this also begs the question: should stories be about fantasy-fulfillment and escapism, or should they be about characters learning valuable life lessons and how to find their place in the world? I guess the sweet spot would be to find a way to do both.

I guess the best thing for me to do now would be to focus on world-building and conflict, and see how the characters respond naturally to that, like you said.

Fantasy fulfillment or learning life lessons. Good question. Just depends on the writer I guess. If you have an agenda or some really big point you're trying to make then go for it. Me personally, I just like a good story with good characters. More times than not, if you've got those, something will be learned along the way naturally, even if it isn't some huge inner revelation.

Its like music in way, you can be Lennon and try to teach the world a thing or two, or you can be AC/DC and just be about making kick ass rock n roll. I'm good with both as long as it sounds good. So I guess I'm trying to say is either is cool, it's just all about execution. (Which can be said for a lot of writing related questions)

One thing about the learning life lessons thing, it can become heavy handed and feel forced if overdone.

[OmarBradley]

On 8/2/2017 at 11:25 AM, rocknroll41 said:

That's actually cool that you bring that up, cause one of the things im still struggling with is character development.

initially, I wanted my lead hero to be sort of the usual "dream-seeking" type of character who learns to break away from society and be the person theyve always wanted to be deep down. This was a reflection of how I didn't really like my job at the time, so I was trying to create a story built purely on escapism.

eventually I grew to like my job so I changed the story to reflect this, and instead made the moral about learning to conform to society and make the lead character someone who learns to get used to doing something they don't really like for the benefit of others.

But now I'm starting to dislike my job again and want to revert the story back to the way I originally had it, only im afraid that the generic "follow your dreams" and "screw society, be who u want to be" thing is really overdone and cliche at this point.

this also begs the question: should stories be about fantasy-fulfillment and escapism, or should they be about characters learning valuable life lessons and how to find their place in the world? I guess the sweet spot would be to find a way to do both.

I guess the best thing for me to do now would be to focus on world-building and conflict, and see how the characters respond naturally to that, like you said.

A good way to test character development is to take your main character at the end of your story, and mentally put them into a conflict situation from the beginning of the story. If they handle it the same way (or if you don't know if they would handle it differently), you haven't done your character development job properly.

On the latter query, I agree with J Dog. There's AC/DC and there's Lennon, both serve their purposes. 

Edited August 6, 2017 by OmarBradley

[rocknroll41]

Regarding the whole "ACDC and Lennon" analogy, here are my top five story influences that im trying to capture the essence of:

Star Wars (minus the prequels)

Back to the Future (1985)

Aliens (1986)

The new Trek trilogy 

superhero movies (in general)

would you guys say that stuff is more ACDC or Lennon? I'm guessing ACDC, even though all of the aforementioned films still have strong morals imo.

Edited August 7, 2017 by rocknroll41

[rocknroll41]

13 hours ago, Oldest Goat said:

"ACDC"

Fair enough. That translates to "follow your dreams"/fantasy fulfillment then, in my head. So I'll try to steer the story in that direction.

maybe I should listen exclusively to acdc when I write my next draft XD

[rocknroll41]

3 hours ago, Oldest Goat said:

Didn't mean that in a derogatory way, nothing wrong with those influences. I completely concur with what J Dog said.

I just realised, where the heck is @wasted ?? Is he banned @downzy ??

Oh don't worry. I didn't take any offense to it at all! That was the direction I was leaning mostly towards anyway.

[rocknroll41]

Finished my first draft today. 

14 chapters. 11,805 words in total (21 word doc pages). So it's novelette length.

i plan on going into a lot more detail with various aspects in my second draft. So I think when I write that I'll be able to pass the length required for it to be considered a novella (17,500 words).

[J Dog]

On 8/8/2017 at 10:34 PM, rocknroll41 said:

Finished my first draft today. 

14 chapters. 11,805 words in total (21 word doc pages). So it's novelette length.

i plan on going into a lot more detail with various aspects in my second draft. So I think when I write that I'll be able to pass the length required for it to be considered a novella (17,500 words).

Very good my man. Finishing anything is a big deal. I read somewhere that only like twenty percent of people actually finish writing what they start (have no idea how they can get that number). But not finishing does seem to be a problem a bunch of people have. So feel good about that. Keep puttin in that work.

[rocknroll41]

1 hour ago, J Dog said:

Very good my man. Finishing anything is a big deal. I read somewhere that only like twenty percent of people actually finish writing what they start (have no idea how they can get that number). But not finishing does seem to be a problem a bunch of people have. So feel good about that. Keep puttin in that work.

Thanks, I appreciate it! I think a lot of the reason why people never finish is cause like halfway through, you realize that what you're writing is still shit, so you think to yourself "let me backtrack and start all over." The problem with that though is that then u get into the habit of always backtracking and starting over, so it's better to push on and finish a draft, even if it sucks. 

[rocknroll41]

Finished my second draft now.

-19 chapters.

-36 word doc pages.

-19,746 words in total (so it's long enough to officially be considered a novella now).

gonna take a break for a bit and then work on the third draft.

[J Dog]

On 10/22/2017 at 6:38 PM, rocknroll41 said:

Finished my second draft now.

-19 chapters.

-36 word doc pages.

-19,746 words in total (so it's long enough to officially be considered a novella now).

gonna take a break for a bit and then work on the third draft.

[rocknroll41]

Started draft #3 now. Got through chapter one already today. Gonna try to make it a full novel this time (40,000 words).

the interesting thing about this draft is that, this time around, I don't have a full outline at hand like I did for the other two. I have a vague sense of what'll happen in this version, but a lot of the details and in-betweens im just gonna make up as I go along. Go on the journey with the characters, so to speak. I heard that's how Stephen King and George RR Martin both write their novels, actually.

i don't even have a concrete ending in mind, as a matter of fact! So this should be interesting lol.