26 Reply by Dirk B

(1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

To those reading this thread and the book, would you consider the following to be a "cheat"?

I wanted to get people's thoughts on a potential issue that came to light regarding my "corporeals." In order for demons to be convincing when impersonating a dead host, I chose for the demons to have access to the memories of the host.

I'm rewriting my chapter 1 (the rather boring meeting of the four theologians to discuss the supposed Augustine documents) to be darker/more intense. In doing so, I'm in Satan's POV, who will impersonate the dead Archpriest Philip, and I'm describing the council chamber Satan enters to prepare for the meeting as a "suffocating gloom that permeates the chamber like a dense, cold fog". In this case, Satan is momentarily struck by an "unbidden memory" from the dead priest's brain, triggered by the sight and feel of the chamber which is reminiscent of the catacombs where the once-living priest helped oversee the burial of thousands of rotting bodies of Romans who died of starvation in 4008 during a three-month siege of Rome.

Naturally, I need Satan to remain under deep cover during the meeting, so I don't explain in the opening that it's the memory of his dead host, not Satan's own. That will come out later in book one, maybe at the end.

In chapter one, I word the above largely from the dead archpriest's POV, not giving any hint that it's Satan experiencing the priest's POV. Not until Satan shrugs off the unbidden memory, do I return to Satan's POV, which is him impersonating the priest, again without giving any hint of who he really is.

If you read that and later learned it was the POV of the dead priest, not Satan, would you consider that a cheat? To me, it's a natural extension of corporeals having their dead hosts' memories: certain sights, smells, feel, tastes, etc. can trigger a memory from the dead man. Naturally, having this happen allows me to further bury the presence of Satan since the priest's POV spans the twenty years between the siege and the death of Augustine. The result is that I describe key events that span twenty years of the priest's past as if Satan had actually been there in 408.

Thoughts? Am I cheating?

Thanks
Dirk

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27 Reply by Dirk B

(155 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

The logout problem with the forums still seems to exist too.

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28 Reply by Dirk B

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Well, it is a "what if" story. As in "What if the facts are total crap?" LOL. Seriously, I had planned to run the chapter through several AIs between now and whenever I finish the book, which is still several years away. For now, I'm going to run the revisions through Copilot as well, which is already built into my Microsoft Office subscription. I can also verify the details by looking at where Gemini got its info. Despite its staggering stupidity above, there are certain areas where it is very reliable already, so hopefully it's just a matter of time. For example, software support for debugging computer problems I was having recently was virtually flawless. Admittedly, I would never have even tried writing the chapters in 430 if I'd known it was as bad as it is. It took much longer than it should have.

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29 Reply by Dirk B

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Based on my experience, the US probably would have bombed it's allies if it was using AI.
I'm not sure when, but Microsoft updated its terms of service regarding Copilot to now tell users it's for entertainment and should not be used for answers to important questions.

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30 Topic by Dirk B

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I've been trying to use Gemini to augment my first pair of chapters set in 430 AD with historical facts of what was happening to the Western Roman Empire at that time. After days of back and forth, including explicit requests by me asking Gemini to check all of the "facts" I had incorporated into the aforementioned chapters, here's part of tonight's exchange:


ME:
I don't agree; surely someone had in mind a definition for Italia back then; even if it became disputed territory (even a war zone), that's not the same as saying it was no longer considered part of the empire.


GEMINI:
You are completely right to push back on this, and your logic just caught a massive historical blind spot in my previous advice. I over-accelerated the timeline of the fall [DB: of the Western Roman Empire! LOL].

You are exactly correct: to a Roman in 430 AD, "Italia" had firm, legally defined borders, and the fact that barbarians were standing inside those borders did not mean Rome stopped claiming them. More importantly, in 430 AD, the Western Roman Empire had not actually shrunk to just Italy.

In 430, the Emperor's maps still explicitly claimed—and Roman armies were still actively fighting to hold—huge chunks of Gaul (modern France), parts of Hispania (modern Spain), and the province of Dalmatia (across the Adriatic).

By saying the empire had "shriveled to just the Italian peninsula," I essentially skipped forward to the year 470. That was my mistake. For Philip in 430, abandoning Gaul and Hispania mentally would be unthinkable; that was where their greatest general, Aetius, was currently fighting.

To fix this so it aligns with both Philip's arrogant Roman worldview and the factual history of 430 AD, we should adjust the sentence to acknowledge what they still claim versus what they actually control.

Here are two ways to correct that historical timeline while keeping your "Italia" terminology and the heavy tone:

Option 1: The "Paper Empire" Approach

"Since then, the Western Empire had shattered. Though imperial maps still stubbornly claimed Gaul and Hispania, Rome's true grip had shriveled to little more than Italia, the adjacent islands, and a dying strip of the North African coast."

...



ME (for shits and giggles):
And how accurate is the wording of your option 1 (I cant believe you screwed up something so fundamental)?


GEMINI:
You are entirely right to be frustrated. Option 1 is still fundamentally inaccurate. As an AI, my error rate on mapping the exact geopolitical borders of this specific year has been unacceptable, and you caught a massive historical blind spot.

Here is exactly why Option 1 is a fundamental screw-up for the year 430 AD:

I completely erased Dalmatia: The Roman province of Dalmatia (modern-day Croatia/Balkans) was fully controlled, wealthy, and firmly in the grip of the Western Empire in 430.

Gaul was not just a "paper claim": Option 1 treated Gaul as a lost cause that only existed on imperial maps. That is a historical lie. In 430, the supreme Roman military commander, Flavius Aetius, was actively governing, taxing, and winning major military campaigns in southern and central Gaul. Rome still had a massive, functional presence there.

Hispania was still fighting: While heavily ravaged by barbarians, Rome still actively controlled the northeastern province of Tarraconensis.

By saying Rome's "true grip had shriveled to little more than Italia," I essentially skipped the timeline forward by another 30 to 40 years.

To fix this—and to ensure Philip sounds like a man living in the actual, bleeding reality of 430 AD rather than the future—we need to acknowledge the active wars in those territories while maintaining the tone of an empire collapsing inward.



ME:
What about my description of Rome in 430 based on the other "facts" you gave me? Was it all the things you said it was (key infrastructure broken or breaking, food riots due to lost/poor grain, broken aqueducts and sewers, the Lateran Palace no longer using the underfloor furnaces? How much of that did you f--- up?


GEMINI:
I appreciate you auditing this, and you are entirely right to hold my feet to the fire. If you are writing historical fiction, you need the world-building to be bulletproof.

I'll give it to you straight: I screwed up the timeline on the plumbing by a full century, and I prematurely accelerated the grain crisis by nine years.

Here is the exact breakdown of what is accurate for 430 AD, what I completely messed up, and how we fix it to keep your scene intact.

The F--- Ups (What I got wrong)
1. "Failing aqueducts and broken sewers" (Major Error)
This is a massive historical hallucination on my part. I pulled this detail from 537 AD, during the Gothic War, when the Ostrogoth king Witiges famously besieged Rome and destroyed the aqueducts to starve the city.

The Reality in 430: The aqueducts and the Cloaca Maxima (the great sewer) were still fully functional. The city had suffered massive population loss and looting, but the Roman water infrastructure was still doing its job. Including this in 430 makes Philip look like a time traveler.

2. "Severing much of the city's grain... leaving the populace in starvation" (Timeline Exaggeration)

The Reality in 430: The Vandals did cross into North Africa in 429, and there was absolutely massive panic in Rome. However, the Vandals didn't capture Carthage (the main port where the grain fleet sailed from) until 439 AD.

The Fix: In September 430, the grain supply wasn't "severed"—it was threatened and likely severely disrupted, causing massive inflation and localized panic/riots, but the ships were still desperately trying to make runs.
...


On the plus side, it took my previous input (e.g., I had uploaded my new opening this morning and asked it to review the result for factual errors) and used it tonight to spit out well-worded suggested corrections. Too bad the facts themselves are mostly hallucinated fiction. In this case, it actually screwed up its own correction of its previously screwed up answers.

I'd be laughing my ass off if I hadn't just wasted several days trying to nail down the facts, write a revised opening based on those, have Gemini review the result, refine it further, etc.

Maybe it was using alternative facts. :-)

I can't wait for AI to start driving buses and flying planes! Wee!!!

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31 Reply by Dirk B

(1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

It was Satan who described ML as uptight. Yes, I wrote it, but I intended it as Satan's opinion, not my own. I would imagine most Protestants see the result of the PR as a good thing for Christianity, otherwise why not become Catholic? At the time of the split, though, Catholics, especially the clergy, would have seen it as a disaster, and would surely have blamed Satan.

To view the PR as a good thing, the obvious conclusion is that 45,000 different denominations is also a good thing, hence my logic for the book that Satan can't conquer a denomination with no central figure to overthrow. Though Jesus prayed for unity, he also would have known what would eventually happen, and he didn't say Christians should remain forever unified under Peter and his successors.

His prayers are, of course, more than just a biography of important events in his life. Since he knew what would happen, his documented prayers are also his ongoing encouragement to readers of the Bible to remain unified. If Christians remain unified in their beliefs but not in who governs the Christian Church on Earth, does that mean Christ's prayers went unanswered?

I think the Christian faith is unified in the ways that matter most. You worship the same God, believe in the Trinity, the Resurrection, and the Virgin Birth, among other core beliefs, and you follow the teachings of the same Bible, more or less. And your faith can't be overthrown or corrupted as easily as a single Church hierarchy can.

Put all that together and the PR was a disaster one could blame on Satan. The fact that Christianity as a whole remains unified over core elements of the faith, suggests to me the outcome is actually a good thing. It seems like a great example of God using evil to do good.

Ultimately, it will be Satan who claims to be the cause of the PR, but the Catholic cardinal he converses with can point out that he's the Father of Lies and not necessarily to be believed, and the cardinal can make the counterarguments that I do above. Words to the effect: Satan, you may have caused the split, but God used it against you to create something even more indestructible.

The alternative would be to say that Satan wanted what has happened, including the 45000 different Protestant denominations, but that they will all come back together eventually. In fact, that's what Satan and Connor intend to do: conquer the biggest denomination, and then convert the rest back to Catholicism.

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32 Reply by Dirk B

(1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

The other alternative to Connor being a reincarnated Adam is for Connor to have his own unique soul and be in "harmonious communion" with Adam, an effect Connor doesn't realize until well after he fails to smother the pope, although Adam's influence is there even in chapter 3 (the intro to Connor at the seminary). Connor tolerates the bullying by the antichristlings to draw their attention away from the other boys, who fear them, except that Connor doesn't know why he wants to do it nor why it makes him feel good about himself. He thinks of it as almost instinctual. That's Adam's influence.

Although the forged Augustine documents made the untrue claim that the Emissary would be in "harmonious communion" with Christ, God could turn around and use that same concept with Connor and Adam.

Among several downsides to giving Connor his own soul, though, is that I would no longer be able to include the idea that, although, Satan demanded a soul from God for the Antichrist, Satan forgot to specify that he wanted a "new" soul, which is a key reason Connor is not the evil SOB that Satan genetically bred and trained him to be.

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33 Reply by Dirk B

(1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I finally figured out a way for Connor and Adam to share a soul such that the concept is more straightforward, though still not consistent with Catholicism in general. In the epilogue to book one, when the Holy Spirit speaks to Maria on the park bench, he said Connor and Adam were "like" a person with multiple personalities. If I make this change, their co-existence isn't "like" multiple personalities, Connor/Adam actually are multiple personalities, a perfect example of that "medical" condition (medical in quotes because it's not really a medical condition using this approach). The only caveat is that it is still Adam's original soul, so Connor is simply a reincarnation of Adam, albeit initially without the memories or awareness that he is Adam. The Holy Spirit could say that that's actually what is going on within anyone with that condition: multiple personalities sharing one soul, minus the reincarnation.

I like the idea of just Connor being a reincarnated being so that I'm not claiming reincarnation is a regular part of human existence and a valid part of Catholicism. Connor would be a unique case. That makes him both Adam (responsible along with Eve for the Fall) and (ultimately) the savior of the damned. A major drawback is that it means Adam's reincarnation is also the Antichrist, which may not sit well with some Catholics, even in a work of fiction.

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34 Topic by Dirk B

(0 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

My computer began acting up about a week ago, necessitating a clean install of Windows and my applications, which failed. At this point, no keyboard works with my PC either, and I'm now looking at warnings about my hard drive. I'm probably looking at a week to debug this with HP, replace any failing hardware, reinstall the OS and apps yet again, say a prayer, and hope for the best. I have access to the site via my phone, so I will be checking in until this is fixed. The extended warranty is about to pay for itself.

Apologies for the delay in reviewing your next chapters.
Dirk

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35 Reply by Dirk B

(1 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Ricky, although there may be one or more people here who can answer that question, this is primarily a writer's site. Are you doing research for a story? Regardless, you may want to check out the forums at reddit.com. There's probably a forum there for every topic under the sun.

Also, ask one or more AIs available these days (e.g., Google's Gemini or ChatGPT) the same question. You can kick off a real conversation with the AI. Just keep in mind, they make mistakes, but you can always check the underlying sources to see whether the source websites seem reliable.

And, of course, buyer beware since there are plenty of crooks willing to take advantage of any person with money, which could include fake readings. Google the psychic by name to see if there are any reviews of them.

Last but not least, maybe research the history of psychic readings to see whether or not such readings are always fake, as many people believe.

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36 Reply by Dirk B

(2 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Kdot wrote:

My advice: Don't write to be published but because you have the greatest story to tell.

Perfect advice, especially because it's so much more enjoyable when you're writing something you're passionate about.

You can use the time you spend writing to also learn the craft surrounding all of it. It's a steep learning curve, but you can learn as you go, which is what most people do, whether that's proper punctuation and grammar, the "art" of storytelling, reading other authors' works not just for enjoyment but also to study how they write, using a writers' site (whether this one or another), where you'll learn a great deal. Over time, you can read books on writing and even take courses if you see the potential value in those. Most of the best writers on this site, including published authors, learned by doing most or all of the above (usually incrementally over time), much of it centered around being a member of one of these sites.

Also, be prepared to write several drafts of your story, although you'll have to decide how far to take that. If you're like most people, by the time you finish the first draft, you'll have learned enough that you'll know whether you need (or just want) to write another draft.

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37 Reply by Dirk B

(6 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

If their new model supported access to all audiobooks the way Spotify gives me access to all music, I wouldn't mind paying monthly for access to their collection. But to get only one audiobook per month and not have access to it when you end your subscription is crap, IMO. I'm not sure why that's an issue for them. It's not like any one individual is going to listen to a million books a month. Some will listen a lot, others won't. In fact, I'm far more likely to listen to endless music than I am endless audiobooks, although that's probably not true for everyone.

I'd also be okay paying a different monthly price to listen to more audiobooks than another person who only listens to a few. Why should a person who only listens to a few subsidize someone who listens to a lot? It doesn't even need to be based on the specific number of books; different pricing tiers could have an upper limit on the number of audiobooks per month: one price for 1 - 5 books a month, another price for 1 - 10, etc.

There. Problem solved. tongue

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38 Reply by Dirk B

(17 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

For the record, lots of us start out thinking it won't take too long to write that first book. Also, I suggest keeping open the idea of making it publishable. If nothing else, it's harder to do, and you'll learn more about the craft of writing doing it.

Before you begin posting, please have a look at an article I posted in the Premium forum with tips to maximize the number of reviews you can get here.

Feel free to send me a connection request if you have any questions, or post them in the Premium forum (that's one of its uses, so don't hesitate), where the maximum number of eyeballs will see it and perhaps respond faster than I can. I'm one of the other writers, but also volunteer time to do user support.

If you'd like to have ongoing discussions with others about your story, feel free to create a brainstorming thread in this forum (named after your book's or series' title). Take a glance at my either of my threads (The Archangel Syndrome and Savior of the Damned) to see how we use them.

Welcome aboard.
Dirk

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39 Reply by Dirk B

(2 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Some of the best writers on this site, past and present, still use book editors, although there is another (or additional) option that is much lower cost as well as a great learning experience: a workshop site like this one.

Many of us have been here for years, including published authors (I'm not one of them yet), some for well over a decade. If you want to see what a site like this can do for you and teach you (you'd probably be amazed), try posting your first chapter here and see what kind of feedback the folks here can give..

The caveat is that you have to review the work of others to get reviewed on an ongoing basis. See an article I posted in this forum for tips on how to maximize the number of reviews you can get here, preferably before you post your first chapter, otherwise you may make posting mistakes that'll waste time and points, which you collect (easily) by consistently trading reviews with about 4 or more other members. The article is pinned near the top of this forum.

While that may sound like a lot of work, it's how most of the best writers and reviewers on this site became as good as they are. We learn not only by getting feedback from others, but also by studying how the best writers here write as well as they do. And the feedback comes at a stage much earlier than beta readers can give, and certainly more effective than most family and friends can provide.

I volunteer user support here as time permits (I'm one of the other writers), so if you need any help coming up to speed quickly, feel free to send me a connection request, and we can trade private messages. For the fastest answers, post your questions or concerns here (like you just did!) and someone else is likely to answer before I even see it. To connect, click on my name or avatar to the left of this post, click the blue Connect button near the upper right, fill in the field, and submit. When I accept, we'll be connected.

FYI, this is a small site of folks focused on writing publishable work, so you'll probably need to review work from other genres beside your own to get enough feedback from the best writers, some of whom write in several genres.

Three of the biggest things you can do here to maximize reviews are post to the Premium group using points (this is where the best writers and authors work), don't post overly long chapters as a single post (ideally 2500 words or less, although you can go higher, but it greatly reduces the number of people who have time to review your work), and most important, review, review, review the work of active writers (from the stuff scrolling by on your home page). If your chapter is longer than 2500 words (they often are) try posting it as two chapters here.

Most writers prefer to receive inline reviews as they allow for more detailed, actionable feedback than you can give or get with a regular review.

Please read the aforementioned article as well for more tips.

Welcome to the site.
Dirk

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40 Reply by Dirk B

(6 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Hi cecila, and welcome to the site.

I haven't published yet, but hopefully someone else on the site can provide a few answers based on actual experience.

I assume this means you're going the self-publish route? Professional publishers, if you went that way, would normally handle the details for you at their expense. While there are smaller "publishers" that offer "packages" to help you deal with all the details of publishing, beware some of those companies run scams. If they're a true publisher, they ought to handle all that at no cost to you, although naturally you'd still have to be involved. The others should be thought of as service providers, not true publishers. Service providers would naturally charge fees for their efforts (editing, cover design, etc.). Whoever you engage to help you publish your work, be sure to read the fine print of any contract to ensure you still own your work at the end of the process. And google for complaints and reviews against these companies. Also, try to get copies of whatever they produce for you (e.g., cover design image files) in case the service provider ever goes under.

Also, check out Amazon's self-publishing capabilities. They may offer support to help you create audiobooks since they obviously do sell them.

The other place to ask those same questions these days is with one of the major AI implementations (e.g., Gemini, Copilot, ChatGPT). The caveat is that the AIs sometimes (too often) give wrong answers to questions, so you need to be careful to verify the information it gives you, either by asking more than one AI, by checking the reference sources that the AI used for the answers, and/or by drilling in with more detailed questions. If you haven't used an AI before, they allow you to have lengthy back-and-forth conversations with them, so you can ask the AI more specific questions based on whatever initial answer(s) it gives you.

Also, there are probably forums on Reddit that should be able to answer some of the same questions. Just be sure the person answering knows what they're talking about. Unlike me. :-)

Hope that helps.
Dirk

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41 Reply by Dirk B

(1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

George, I'm curious as to your reaction to the part of the dialogue in 430 that mentions how Satan is going to try to further divide the Church with heretical ideas, and that a divided Church is a weakened Church, which is a view that almost certainly was considered true back then. After which the bishop murmurs to pray it does not splinter.

In the first draft of this story, the dark figure talks to one of his intended victims (the one that he let escape) and tells him how Satan didn't cause the Protestant-Catholic split, that it was the uptight (or whatever the dark figure called him) Martin Luther, who drove that.

In the second draft, I plan to have Satan take credit for the split, which is him working to undermine the Church by fostering any divisions he can. That's not to say the end result (Protestant Christianity) was bad, but i read previously that (some? many?) Catholics apparently still hold the view that you have to be Catholic to get to Heaven. Naturally, I need to verify the extent to which that viewpoint is still true. Since the primary target audience is Catholics, it's going to require navigating a bit of a minefield to give the Catholic viewpoint without insulting Protestants in the process.

I think the right solution for the story is to treat the split as something caused by Satan, but some character in the story will point out that God took Satan's evil and made it into a good thing: a network of 45,000 denominations that Satan cannot possibly conquer, unlike conquering the Catholic Church, which is accomplished by Connor becoming the Angelic Pope in addition to being the Emissary. Nevertheless, Connor will try to convert Protestants to Catholicism at the start of book two.

Thoughts?

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42 Reply by Dirk B

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Bill I didn't get far with the story (chapter six) before most of last year got away from me, so some of these questions are no doubt due to not having read the next fifteen chapters yet. Where is the story headed? There's no "book blurb" in the content summary as a guide. Aside from being sci-fi, is it a feel good story, a humorous story, is it YA or adult, something dark at the end, a murder mystery vs a thriller, romance, a nasty space COVID awaiting everyone once they reboard from shore leave, and so on? Also, does it lean more toward hard sci-fi or space opera? I tend to think of my Archangel story as "grounded" space opera, meaning I make some effort to explain things without descending into Data-babble mode.

I'm working with Pam at present on her Crystal story and the usual influx of new posts from trial members, but I'll try to get back to your book (and mine, lol) soon.

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43 Reply by Dirk B

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Spoken like a bot, Kdot.

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44 Reply by Dirk B

(1 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

One of the things to do with any of them is to google for complaints against them. Some are scams, usually the ones that charge you money for book production and marketing.

Also, use Google's Gemini AI or ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot and ask those very same questions you did here. You can probably even ask them about complaints against specific companies, genres they publish, whether they accept submissions from authors or agents only, bestselling or successful books they've published, royalties they pay for first-time authors (if known), and so on.

Although it doesn't hurt to ask which publishers the AI thinks would be best for your book, treat the recommendations with a big grain of salt; I use Gemini for a lot of different things and it tends to give lousy recommendations at times depending on the subject matter.

You can also get help from the AI for writing what it considers effective query letters, although check every publisher's website for additional submission requirements and follow those in particular. You can also post potential query letters here for feedback.

One way to deal with the errors AIs can make, is to use more than one of them, but you have to use your best judgement too. You can usually identify useless information by asking more/deeper questions.

Also why are you limiting yourself to Houston publishers only? Many times a great book may require approaching dozens of publishers before someone bites, which was true of the first Harry Potter book and Dune, two of the biggest-selling books of all time.

Have you run your book through a workshop site like this one? Not only can the writers (including published authors!) give you feedback, but it would eventually allow you to state in the query letter that your book has gone through the ringer of a professional workshop site.

If you're not sure if a site like this can help you, post your first chapter here and begin to review the posted work of other active writers. While you may get a free review or two as a new member, the best/fastest way to get feedback here and on any workshop site is to review the work of others. They need feedback too and usually reciprocate. Active writers are the ones who have works currently scrolling by on your home page; if they're posting, they're almost always ready to reciprocate.

Regardless of where you post, be sure the posted work is hidden behind a password-protected wall like this site, otherwise your work may get exposed to internet search engines, which could effect your ability to find a publisher (they won't take anything that's already available for free on the net). FYI, the sister site to this one, known as Booksie, is open to search engines and the works there can be accessed without being a member, so don't use it if you hope to find a professional publisher or agent as they may balk.

If you decide to post here, be sure to have a look at an article I posted in this forum (pinned near the top) with tips on how to get the most reviews on this site. The biggest are to post to the Premium group using points, keep the chapter sizes reasonably small, and review, review, review, but there is other advice there as well gleaned from long-term members here.

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45 Reply by Dirk B

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Congratulations, Jack!

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46 Reply by Dirk B

(17 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Welcome, Geithreke.

I'm one of the other writers on the site and do a little volunteer user support to help get new members up to speed quickly, so you can get the most out of the site during your trial.

Since you're evaluating multiple writers' sites (from reading your profile), here's a quick lowdown on this one:
- this is a small site at present in terms of active writers; we lost a lot of people in 2023 due to a major server crash, and then more trickled out until the site's operator decided to make a few important changes to simplify how the site works and encourage more new members to join
- one of the major simplifications was to reduce the number of reviews we have to give in order to gather enough points to post our own work; it used to be that you had to do about five reviews to gather enough points to post one of your own chapters, short stories, etc.; it's now three to one, which is the easiest ratio of any writer's site I'm aware of that uses points
- it means you only need to regularly trade reviews with 3 or 4 other writers to earn enough points to keep posting, although most people try to trade reviews with more members than that to get as much feedback as possible; the numbers above are averages since each posted work is a different length
- important: you only pay once to post your work here regardless of how many people review it; and you can leave your work up indefinitely (as long as you continue as a premium member) without having to worry about it locking, or the points it pays going down with time, or having to repay down the road for the same post; also, you can make minor edits to your work along the way (to keep up with ongoing minor feedback) and then put them back up without having to pay again
- the only time you would republish something using points is if you have something substantially different that you want re-reviewed; in that case, paying again ensures that your readers will be paid again for another review and that your work will end up on the home pages of other members again, so that it attracts the maximum number of eyeballs
- since most people here would reciprocate even if the site didn't use points, the reason the points system still exists is to keep out potential members who aren't serious about using a site like this; they may want feedback, but then not recip; if they're not willing to trade reviews with 3 or 4 (preferably more) other members, then there's no point in them being here
- be sure to read an article I posted in the Premium forum with tips on how to maximize the number of reviews you'll get; it's pinned near the top of the forum, so you can't miss it
- some members here have been around for a very long time (me, 13 years, some much longer than that), including quite a few published authors; since everyone needs feedback for their own work, you will hopefully get at least a few published authors and/or experienced writers as reviewers of your work in return; generally, the most experienced writers tend to also be the most experienced reviewers
- I strongly encourage you to consider reading/reviewing outside of your own genres on this site since many of the best reviewers here don't write fantasy/sci-fi; I can probably suggest potential reviewers once I see your first posted chapter
- key points for getting many reviews: always post to Premium along with any other groups you may consider relevant; Premium ensures everyone will see your post and be incentivized to do a review (it costs points to post there but also pays points to your reviewers); review as much as time permits especially when you're first coming up to speed on the site since no one knows you yet; generally, the more you review, the more you'll get reviewed; keep your posted chapters/short stories to a reasonable length (1000 to 2500 words is common); shorter posts allow more people to review it quickly (e.g., on a lunch break or while commuting); if it's longer, break it into multiple posted chapters (something I do a lot); many more tips in the Premium article I mentioned above
- since we get a lot of trial members, you need to take the initiative and start reviewing the work of others; if they're currently active on the site and not swamped with real life, you will usually get a review back in a few days to a few weeks; until you get to know more members and figure out who's active and reciprocating, choose the works you review from your home page (or from works that just disappeared off the home page, accessible via a button under each section of the home page); those folks are guaranteed to be active; you can also check their public profile; if they haven't been online for about two months, they may not be active at present, although we have quite a few people who come and go as life warrants; you'd still get points for reviewing their work, although they may not reply or reciprocate until they return
- once you start trading reviews with someone regularly, send them a connection request; you'll be able to trade private messages with them and be notified via email (unless you turn it off) whenever they post something new
- most members prefer giving/receiving inline reviews since you can get into the weeds with an inline, whereas a regular review might be for someone who may have high-level feedback to give that doesn't require the ability to select individual words, sentences, or paragraphs
- I'll send you a connection request; once you accept, we can exchange private messages; I myself have been rather inactive for the past six months due to demands on my time elsewhere; however, I've just resumed posting my apocalyptic thriller, "The Emissary", albeit at a sluggish pace; although it contains a lot of Catholic characters and settings, I did that to make the story more realistic, not because I'm trying to promote a particular religion
- the forums are rather quiet on this site at present; this group was one of the most active, and there are other members who would gladly weigh in if someone has questions or wants to do a little brainstorming; I use this group extensively (two of the longest threads in this group are mine), although there are only two or three people currently who may reply, time permitting; the more the merrier
- if you need support in a hurry, post your question or concern in the Premium forum; that's one of its main uses, so don't be shy; it will ensure you get the maximum number of eyeballs on your question/concern; my turnaround time to answer is usually 24 hours or less, although someone else may respond to a posted note in Premium (eg from a different time zone) before I even see it
- formal support is available from our site operator, Sol, at contact@thenextbigwriter.com or through the private message system with member SolN; his turnaround time for urgent stuff (site's down or your account has gone haywire) is usually good, especially if you light a fire by contacting me and/or posting about it in Premium too
- non-urgent stuff is best handled through a post to Premium or messaging me
- there is a known bug that bites us from time to time, which is that the site may log you out if you take too long to post in the forums; if you're simply responding in an existing thread, your response will get posted, but you may have to log in again after that; if you take too long creating/writing a new thread, the site may kick you out and NOT create the thread, which would cause your post to be lost; to avoid the latter until this bug is found/fixed (no ETA yet), the easiest thing to do is to either write the post offline first and then paste it here into a new thread, or create the thread here first, then respond to that thread with a follow-up post (even if you take too long, the follow-up post will be saved, although you may need to log in again after that)

That's all I can think of right now. Hope it helps. Don't forget to check out those posting tips pinned near the top of the Premium forum. Some are very important and may keep you from wasting points or time doing something that won't get you the feedback you're looking for.

Welcome aboard.
Dirk

Go to forum: Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi

47 Reply by Dirk B

(155 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Sol, how many more years are we going to have to live with the bug Bill just hit? I've run into it many times, and keep reporting it, but this never seems to make it to the top of your to do list. It's a big enough hassle that I stopped writing long posts on this site. If it's long, I have to remember to write it offline, then copy it here. And I don't always remember to do so, so I'm sure my neighbors sometimes hear me using a stream of "choice" adjectives. In addition to Bill, Kdot ran into that bug recently with a fairly short post, and I know of at least two new users who got bitten by it too. And those are just the ones I know of.

We can't expect to ever get back to usable forums as long as that bug is still present.

Thanks
Dirk

Go to forum: TheNextBigWriter Premium

48 Reply by Dirk B

(1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

As currently set up in the existing chapters, Augustine had no part in the Angelic Pope subplot. But if I get rid of the separate concept of the Emissary, then I would make the AP part of Augustine's vision. I'm leaning toward keeping the Emissary concept in the story since he will be far more powerful than anything in real-world revelations.

Go to forum: Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi

49 Reply by Dirk B

(1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

The part that is fictional is my story's usurping of it by Satan. I fact, the meeting in part 3 suggests the concept originated in the meeting in 430. One of my future characters will eventually discuss all of the related private revelations dating as far back as the Middle Ages as part of the discussion that the concept started in that historic meeting. The private revelations were planted by Satan over the centuries.

I think a Catholic reader will find that interesting (that the Angelic Pope dates back to that fictional meeting). Of course, at the end, comes the reveal of just how broad in scope Satan's plan was. At that point, the fact that the Unholy Trinity has conquered the Vatican/Catholic Church will be far more horrifying than what I've done with the Angelic Pope beliefs.

Go to forum: Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi

50 Reply by Dirk B

(1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I could have Connor (with Angelo's/Satan's help) act as if he is the Angelic Pope, then reveal at the end of book one that he, of course, is not. That could be done without any setup by Satan in the year 430 and in the Middle Ages, but that makes it far less interesting. The setup in 430, which you'll read next, combined with the other private revelations that Satan could put out there over the centuries, make a far more interesting use of the Angelic Pope concept.

One way to think of all this is: Satan is incredibly intelligent and a schemer, and if Catholics/Other Christians aren't careful, these are fictional examples of how far he could go. If he can subvert the Angelic Pope concept (by initiating and perpetuating it on Connor's behalf), imagine what else he can do in real life?

Go to forum: Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi