I've been texting my best friend one sentence from "The Novel I'm Not Allowed To Talk About Until It Is Done" every day for 2 weeks now.
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I've been texting my best friend one sentence from "The Novel I'm Not Allowed To Talk About Until It Is Done" every day for 2 weeks now. An excellent way to keep me focused on writing. I highly recommend this to other authors.
The story is about sixty pages long and she's on the end of page one.
I think about the story each day and write a little more.
I'm excited to share the final version on here which I hope will happen in maybe... three months?
When I'm done with the story I will have one of my book industry friends help me with deep editing so it's polished and ready to go.
I want to publish it as an mp3 first. I've always thought of this as a story that one should listen to. I love audio books, and enjoying scifi books "on tape" has been a big influence for me.
I want this to be the kind of story you look forward to listening to on your commute. My husband says I could read it myself but he's biased about my narration voice. Hm.
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F myrmepropagandist shared this topic
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When I'm done with the story I will have one of my book industry friends help me with deep editing so it's polished and ready to go.
I want to publish it as an mp3 first. I've always thought of this as a story that one should listen to. I love audio books, and enjoying scifi books "on tape" has been a big influence for me.
I want this to be the kind of story you look forward to listening to on your commute. My husband says I could read it myself but he's biased about my narration voice. Hm.
I don't think I'm interested in going through a publishing house, even as I plot to abuse my friends with editing skills (they owe me big time! It's valid!)
Willing to be talked out of this.
I would be very happy if a few hundred people read the story, the right people, the ones it was written for. Does that make sense?
But how many people might like this story? I think it's going to be better than books that have sold thousands of copies.
But right now I'm just focused on getting it done.
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I don't think I'm interested in going through a publishing house, even as I plot to abuse my friends with editing skills (they owe me big time! It's valid!)
Willing to be talked out of this.
I would be very happy if a few hundred people read the story, the right people, the ones it was written for. Does that make sense?
But how many people might like this story? I think it's going to be better than books that have sold thousands of copies.
But right now I'm just focused on getting it done.
I strongly believe that authors tend to keep telling the same story over and over in different ways. I have this story I want to tell: its about the beauty of nature, technology, ants, the horror of being misunderstood by others and the extreme loneliness at the heart of consciousness, and how cool libraries and arcane secrets can be... A bunch of things that fit together for me but I wish I could show to everyone because it fills me with awe and horror ... and I need a whole book to explain.
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I strongly believe that authors tend to keep telling the same story over and over in different ways. I have this story I want to tell: its about the beauty of nature, technology, ants, the horror of being misunderstood by others and the extreme loneliness at the heart of consciousness, and how cool libraries and arcane secrets can be... A bunch of things that fit together for me but I wish I could show to everyone because it fills me with awe and horror ... and I need a whole book to explain.
That probably didn't make a lot of sense. It's why you have to write a whole book about it, I guess.
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I don't think I'm interested in going through a publishing house, even as I plot to abuse my friends with editing skills (they owe me big time! It's valid!)
Willing to be talked out of this.
I would be very happy if a few hundred people read the story, the right people, the ones it was written for. Does that make sense?
But how many people might like this story? I think it's going to be better than books that have sold thousands of copies.
But right now I'm just focused on getting it done.
@futurebird
Charlie Stross, author, somewhere in his blog went into this.
Editors and publishers do things which contribute value, and as a professional writer he gains by writing rather than doing those things.As a one-off, perhaps holding the whole artwork to yourself works, but editors tend to point to things obvious to them but harder for a writer to see, I think.
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@futurebird
Charlie Stross, author, somewhere in his blog went into this.
Editors and publishers do things which contribute value, and as a professional writer he gains by writing rather than doing those things.As a one-off, perhaps holding the whole artwork to yourself works, but editors tend to point to things obvious to them but harder for a writer to see, I think.
I have a bit of hubris about my ability to make a story readable, comprehensible, not boring and the basic things that can be hard for writers since I used to work helping writers do just that.
However you may still be right.
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I strongly believe that authors tend to keep telling the same story over and over in different ways. I have this story I want to tell: its about the beauty of nature, technology, ants, the horror of being misunderstood by others and the extreme loneliness at the heart of consciousness, and how cool libraries and arcane secrets can be... A bunch of things that fit together for me but I wish I could show to everyone because it fills me with awe and horror ... and I need a whole book to explain.
@futurebird This is how it works for me.
I can't remember which, but one of the books I've read on writing craft talks about writers' obsessions, that writers often revisit the themes they can't get rid of, that for some of us each new book or story is just a retelling of our *only* story, but that by retelling it so often we breathe life into it again and again.
And the reason why I love novels a little bit more than short stories is because some parts of life are too complicated to be told directly, succinctly. Some ideas are so big they need a hundred thousand words just to scratch the surface.
If your idea is big enough, one book might not do it, and you'll find yourself telling the idea over and over again, always discovering a new wrinkle or perspective, never getting bored. And that's writing.
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I have a bit of hubris about my ability to make a story readable, comprehensible, not boring and the basic things that can be hard for writers since I used to work helping writers do just that.
However you may still be right.
"Who shall edit the editors" as some Roman probably said once upon a time.
I suppose one thing about doing it all oneself is that a version 2 (or 1.1) is always possible.
Enjoy and good luck.
(What do Ants have to do with Peonies, BTW? Someone was suggesting they did.)
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"Who shall edit the editors" as some Roman probably said once upon a time.
I suppose one thing about doing it all oneself is that a version 2 (or 1.1) is always possible.
Enjoy and good luck.
(What do Ants have to do with Peonies, BTW? Someone was suggesting they did.)
(ants/peonies)
Ants are often abundant on peony flower buds… the plant produces nectar from the stem outside the flower to attract them, and they can harvest a waxy coating from the bud. They protect their food source from other insects like thrips that harm the flower, so their presence benefits the plant. There is a persistent gardeners myth that the flower bud can’t open until the ants have cleaned away the wax, but that part isn’t true. -
I don't think I'm interested in going through a publishing house, even as I plot to abuse my friends with editing skills (they owe me big time! It's valid!)
Willing to be talked out of this.
I would be very happy if a few hundred people read the story, the right people, the ones it was written for. Does that make sense?
But how many people might like this story? I think it's going to be better than books that have sold thousands of copies.
But right now I'm just focused on getting it done.
@futurebird in a different life long ago and far away, I used to read a lot of books and essays on how to become a writer. And I'm curious about your thoughts on a common piece of advice that bothers me: "Never write more of a story than necessary to make a sales pitch, and definitely don't finish the story before it's sold. And if you have mistakenly already finished the story, never let a publisher or editor find out it's already finished, because then they won't buy it."
