Assuming this is your thread, not just about Maiden. Just finished NIT. What a work of genius!
Well, glad you liked it but I wouldn't go that far... Genius! Twas a good spurt of writing.
Anyway, thank you, and don't spend all them credits in one place!
Hello.
I have another long short story I intend to post on amazon posted on this site now. Like NIT, it was posted on the previous site, but in chunks. I posted it here as a complete story of 14K words. It's worth 8.89 credits for a review. 8.89 credits for fifty words! W! T! F!
Hello.
I know a lot of people have more credits than they'll ever use, but for those who struggle, like me, I offer an amazing deal! 17.15 credits for three reviews!
Say what?!?
That's right! I have posted three short stories: Nit, Mother of Grub, and A Matter of When. Review each and you'll score yourself 17.15 credits! Yeah! I know!
How is that even possible? Well I'll tell ya! They're massive. Over 8500 words each. Say what? How is *that* even possible?!? I don't know, but it is! Yee-owza!
So, for the cost of a bit of your time and fifty words each (the minimum for a regular review) you can devour a veritable feast of credits! A cornucopia! A buffet! A bounty! And not to humble brag, but I've been told them stories are worth the time. And time you'll need, so if you decide to take the plunge, plan ahead.
Thank you for your time and happy reviewing!
(This post is made in jest. Mostly. The stories and credits are real. Just pointing newbies there iffins they be needing credits. Tis all.)
Hello, Norm.
Got your message. If you're looking for food for thought, consider opening with scientists making a discovery on some planet, finding an artifact that purports to be ages old. The scientists report hearing voices, but those slowly go away. The story fades away, curious more for the delusions that 'god' was talking to the scientists than anything else. Later in the story, reveal that further study shows the artifact is made of technology that is only theoretical at the moment (but possible), and may house- or have housed- an advance form of artificial intelligence. Set things up so the possibility exists the voices the boys are hearing come from this artifact. As the story unfolds, drop nuggets that the artifact is from the distant future and is basically a 'how-to' for the boys to guide their current civilizations into a future free of death and destruction and all that. Leave open the possibility that the boys succeed, and one of their descendants in the future sends the artifact back in time to guide their steps. The AI can be so vast and intelligent it could be considered a 'god' to use mere mortals, and this is shown by how it manipulates those it has targeted. The future is malleable, so its success is not assured, leaving all sorts of uncertainty. And the AI itself has delusions of grandeur, which only make it seem even more god-like.
Give the voices in the boys' heads an alternate explanation as the story unfolds. Sow seeds of doubt through the first two books. Wrap it up as though the AI has mostly succeeded.
Just throwing stuff out, see if any of it sticks. I would consider looking at the YA Christian market, if there is one, as well as YA science-fiction. Using an advanced AI from deep in the future would appeal to the sci-fi segment, and turning the AI into something equivalent to a god that it must have come from God would appeal to the religious segment (just guessing here). The story arcs can essentially remain the same, pretty much- the boys are being guided by an all-knowing, all-seeing hand (until history doesn't quite repeat itself and the AI finds itself treading into uncharted territory but making prescient guesses as to how to proceed). you can play with the relationship between the boys and this god as the story about the artifiact gets out or such.
Again, just musing aloud.
In any case, if another project has your attention, let this one go. Finish your current draft, then box it up and when you're ready, blow the dust off and look at things after some time has passed. You may take the story down a whole different path. No reason not to. I let Maiden sit on a shelf for years before digging back into it. It's a much stronger work now, and I hope to write my way to a rousing finish that sets up more stories in this Brethren Space I've created. So it can be done.
Good luck!
I think it's always the best way to go to leave a work in some sort of 'finished' state, be it a full draft, an outline, a treatment, or a synopsis. Makes it easier to pick up later. I think you've gotten a full draft out at least, so you're ahead of the game in that regard.
Maiden was one such story. I started it years ago, got eleven chapters in, then put it aside. After my last manuscript, I dusted Maiden off, thought some things through, and I'm deeper into it now than before. But that original foundation is still woven through the current draft, so all was not lost.
Well, just posted two tonight to finish off Chapter 9. Got a spur in me jangles!
Well, despite my best intentions, I'm returning to form.
No matter what I'm working on, no matter any deadlines I might be staring at, I'm simply not writing all that much during the month of February. This is happening with my current work, Maiden. It happened with my previous novel, In Possession of N-ergy. And it happened pretty much with all of my other works. I can't recall a February in recent memory where I've actually been productive with my writing.
Maybe I should designate February as my month to edit. I know I can do that on a daily basis. A good break like that would not only help me get a work closer to publication, but would probably stir up my creative juices, so when I did return to writing, the words would come gushing out. I think that'll be the plan for next year!
Anyone else have times where the routine just gets all shot to hell?
Hello, Norm.
"Satan's Last Stand" gives away too much. 'Last stand' implies a loss. I don't know if you want to reveal that in the title. Yah, everyone knows the good guys always win. But what's the point of reading if you've already removed any doubt about that? If the story you're trying to tell results in heaven on Earth, why not flip the title and go with 'God's Last Stand'? I suppose 'Jesus Part Deux' is out. 'Jesus Triumphant' has a nice ring, but it would be even cooler if you offed him in the opening chapter.
Maybe 'The Shepherd Returns' or 'Walks the Shepherd' or such. i don't know. But to me, 'Satan's Last Stand' just seems to give away too much. Unless you told the story from Satan's POV and tried to make him out to be the good guy trying to save Earth...
I've been here a while, including the old site. This happens all the time, usually at the beginning of the year, too. It'll happen again at the Strongest Start competition. I guess people just don't think writing is for them, or have trouble with criticism. But yah, I've devoted time to reviews only to find them ignored, the author of the posts gone with nary a goodbye. Hmph!
Hello.
This ought to be a good group, really. Brutal, but good. Hope to post and review soon!
Hello.
Well, this is an interesting place. Makes sense I guess to open threads like this for further discussion and what not. So I think I'll pull a chair up to the table!
I guess I should drop something of import to make this post a legit post. So, I will be focusing on Maiden for the time being. While I do have more of Sister Bevenlee and Mother of Pox done wrote up, I want to get a full first draft of Maiden out before the end of February. (Which means I should be writing insteada posting, but whatevs.) Still got a lot of story to tell, but I think I can do it. Maiden's been a project ten years in the making. High time I got at least a full draft done did up to see if continuing is worthy of the time. I think it is, and the story does have the potential for another. But a full draft will tell me rightly or wrongly.
Anyway, happy to be here!
Hello.
Sol, on my short story "Special" it says I have 6 inline reviews (at the top of the page) but down below there's only two. Did the site mis-count or is there something going on behind the scenes, like drafts of inline reviews not yet submitted? Just curious.
Also, does anyone here use Scrivener? I just decided to take the plunge, and I'm finding it actually pretty darn helpful. Once I get used to it I plan to use it to heavily revise the current draft of my novel-in-progress, Maiden. I've got two more long short stories going inside it, rather than WordPerfect, and just recently pulled Special out with the goal to turn it into a .mobi file for Kindle submission. WordPerfect turns novels into e-books without any problems (I used it to re-publish my novella Closure) thanks to a new project template that comes free with the program or you can download it at Corel's website, but since that project template requires a table of contents, it does not work for short stories. But Scrivener has the capability, so I'm giving it a shot. Just wondering if anyone here has experience with the software, and if so, your thoughts.
The glitch seems to have disappeared.
Hmm.
It's self-correcting. The site's gone sentient. Next thing you know it'll be editing our posts as we publish. Poof! Everyone's writing is perfect!
"The Secrets of Story" by Matt Bird. Maybe a bit more foundational than the others, but very good.
When I ordered this book, I thought the title was "The Story of Story" and that it was about the evolution of the 'story' as we know it. Ha ha ha! I still enjoyed it.
First person POV? Sure. Third person POV? Not so much but entirely doable.
In the Reply box, and all boxes, I think, there are small lines in the bottom right corner. Click and drag on those and you can re-size the box.
I agree, the default size is smallish. But you can re-size it to your convenience.
If this is all about having enough credits to post, rather than accumulating a worthless pile of a few thousand credits, why not consider my earlier suggestion: the author gets one-tenth of the posting cost back with each review. That way, if a post gets ten reviews, the author recoups the cost to post. In return, the author reviews the work of ten other authors (reciprocation for those who reviewed). So the author is still following the spirit of the site and reviewing, while obtaining valuable feedback. Eleven authors sticking together and reviewing each others' works can ultimately post their own for free.
Of course, this will mean massive accumulations of credits (after ten reviews, how many would YOU have? And if all the credits it costs you to post are recouped, that adds up, too). But if people posting here have trouble accumulating credits, instead of directly rewarding the reviewers, reward the author with return credits for each review. In theory this forces authors to post clean, legible posts (with proper punctuation). Posts replete with typos and punctuation errors (which could have been caught with a simple proofread before publishing) would lose reviewers if there are cleaner options available. I think this would form healthy groups of authors and reviewers and reduce the stress of binge reviewing to earn the credits to post (of which I am guilty of).
Just throwing it out there.
Sol and I came to a deal where he's gonna pay me in credits rather than the cash prize I won in the flash fiction contest. When that drops into my account, I'll have over a hunnert credits for the first time... EVAR! I feel so... rich. Almost as good as bitcoins, right? AMIRITE?
Those are HTML formatting codes. I did notice that, too. Just something to do with the text field, I imagine.
That's exactly what I said!
I dream of someday starting a book with a dream...
Be nice to have a contest where the minimum word count needs to be 5,000 words. The higher the better! Any genre, just make it nice and long! Who's with me? *crickets*
Lol - Hey Seabass, Beware of lemon and tartar sauce !
Hey! If my name was correctly passed on, ain't not no problem, as I am a metal rather than a sea-faring animal. Ha!
Yay! Spur of the moment idea sees the light of day, bears fruit! Who'da thunk that first entry all those moons ago would hold up like that? In reading some of the reviews, a few people called it way in the back when, too. Wow! (I wonder... were they judges?)
Congrats to gray and mj for coming up with such stellar takes on that little image. It sure looked easy, all things considered, but turned out to be much more difficult. Lots of entries! Like a buffet of ideas. All spurred by that image.
Funny, though, how many people refer to me as Seabass. Where'd that 'r' go? Probably in one of my postings...
Post shorter chapters? What are you, mad? Nay, I say! Nay!
Actually, if I write the next story I have in mind, the chapters will definitely be shorter. Just the nature of the beast, I think. Reviewers who have read them long chapters have said they were long, but they couldn't really find places to cut. Just have to say what I needs to say.
Anyway, taking a break for a bit. Will still do reviews (and maybe build up a pile o' creds) but won't be posting for a while. And I'll be traveling soon, so I may not be on the site for a few days, either.
And... four thousand? WTF! You should post a trilogy and see if you can without doing a single review to fund it.
