576 Reply by Dirk B.

(50 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

One thing about the TNBW group in Booksie is that we are down to a small number of active users who might join that group. Over time, as members of the TNBW group fall away through natural attrition, we would need to add new members to that group in order for the group to remain useable to us.

Booksie, as far as I remember, only allows you to post your writing to one group. If we decide to post to the TNBW group, then that's the only place we can post our work unless we duplicate the written work in two places (i.e., as if we were writing two distinct books). Technically doable, but it stinks as a workflow.


In order to find/encourage advanced writers to join a group with us, it probably makes more sense to create another group for advanced writers (who do quality reviews, or at least try). Call it Advanced Writers and perhaps require permission to join. I suspect every TNBW member would also become a member of an Advanced Writers group and then we post our writing to Advanced Writers only. Keeps out the younglings until they can handle a lightsaber. :-) The TNBW group then becomes a place to find each other on Booksie, not a place where you would post writing. Advanced Writers is more aptly named than TNBW in order to attract other serious writers to us.


Bill, please let me know if my understanding of Booksie as described above correct. Is an Advanced Writers group with a need to request permission to join a good way to go? Thanks

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577 Topic by Dirk B.

(50 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

This evaluation is on hold while we focus on trying to revive TNBW first. See the "Reviving TNBW" thread instead.

I've been having offline discussions with several of you over the past months about the fact that the site is on life support. In fact, New Books (chapters) on the Home Page barely moves anymore. I've also discussed this with Sol at length, and he simply doesn't have the time to keep running two sites indefinitely. It would also require time from him and a developer to make a few bug fixes and minor enhancements needed to get and keep new users, not to mention all the invisible backend work that they already do to keep this site going.

Although he hasn't made a firm decision yet to shut us down, the writing is on the wall. Day to day support (bug fixes, minor enhancements, user support) is currently inadequate and makes it almost impossible to get/keep new users. Although, I'm going to take over a few more of Sol's regular TNBW admin/support tasks later this month (on a volunteer basis), that's not going to save this site. It should, however, buy us enough time to evaluate Booksie from a TNBW member's perspective, figure out where the pain points are, and see what the best workflow would be to keep doing the things that made/make our site invaluable to us.

Why switch?
- bug fixes
- minor enhancements
- a number of existing features we don't have and won't get
- ongoing development of new features
- larger audience of potential reviewers, including (one would hope) more/deeper domain expertise
- virtually identical user interface of core features (some wording changes)
- no points system (see below), so no need to scrounge and pay points to post
- a TNBW group on Booksie, where we can find each other and continue to read/review each other's work
- more contests
- the Booksie AI to analyze your writing and give you feedback (Terry raves about this)
- less expensive subscription, if I remember correctly, including one free year at this time

Biggest drawback I know of at present seems to lie with the quality of some of the reviews. One solution for that is, if you're getting crap reviews ("Good job!") in return for you putting in hours reviewing their stuff, either encourage them to do better, or drop them and find another reviewer.

While the points system here currently incentivizes others to review your work, it's usually the same people who read each other's work on this site (especially now with so few active users), along with an occasional one-off review from/to someone new. With or without points, it all comes down to our individual network of connections. If I find someone in Booksie beyond the TNBW group who gives great reviews, I would want to make them part of my network, assuming they're interested in my writing and I in theirs. I don't know about others, but I usually can't keep up with more than 6-8 reviewers (even less at present because real life intrudes yet again). So, you really just need to find N reciprocal reviewers on Booksie, where N is the number of reviewers you can handle, and add more as existing members of your network drop out.

I'm certain there will be other pain points for those of us on TNBW, but I haven't spent nearly enough time on Booksie. And I could definitely use the help of as many TNBW members as possible to kick those tires and report here what you find out, both good and (especially) bad, and potential workarounds.

Given how few active users we have and the complexity of moving reviews and chapters from here to Booksie (there are bound to be incompatibilities), I think we can reasonably expect that very little can be brought across automatically, although Sol and his elves may surprise me. And while it may be a pain to repost all of our books/chapters (again), no points are required to do so on Booksie. Since the lights aren't going to go out here tomorrow, we should have plenty of time to start copying (applying) suggested edits from our incoming reviews into our manuscripts.

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578 Reply by Dirk B.

(65 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Got him. Thanks, Bill.

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579 Reply by Dirk B.

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

Only a few short scenes left to write, with 3 pages worth of space free to use.

Problem now is, in this chapter, which comes at the end of act 1, Joseph is no longer the immature jerk he was in my last draft of act 2. He's light years kinder and more likeable. And you feel sorry for the guy.

Not sure what I'll do about that. The only way I'll ever finish and publish this book is if I need several breaks from Connor over the next few years.

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580 Reply by Dirk B.

(65 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Got him. Thanks, Bill.

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581 Reply by Dirk B.

(65 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Thanks, Bill. They're gone.

Dirk

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582 Reply by Dirk B.

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Thanks, Dagny. That's a great alternative. I thought of that, but thought it would wind up being boring. However, yours works well.
I'm reworking the chapter now, so I'll make a decision when I get to it.

Dirk

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583 Reply by Dirk B.

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

Crap. The chapter ended up being too long. Now I'll have to see if I can salvage my favorite parts. The conversations between Joseph and the nurse (or medical resident) are some of the best scenes, but the invasive tests he's forced to undergo will have to be reduced to summary form. Too bad.

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584 Reply by Dirk B.

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

Kdot wrote:

In Canada, at least, when you're on suicide watch, they'll issue you paper clothes

What would be the fun in that? smile  And you can still choke on paper.

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585 Reply by Dirk B.

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

Wow! Apparently there are real cases where prisoners hung themselves with only underwear (see below). So I guess Joseph's psychiatric hospital had legitimate reasons to be concerned that he might off himself with his clothing.

We performed external autopsies and examinations on two inmates who had committed suicide by hanging themselves with their underwear and using the window bars of their cells as ligature points after they had been placed in solitary confinement. In one case, the inmate had even been deprived of her clothing (with the exception to her underwear).

https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 … 017-1704-5

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586 Reply by Dirk B.

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

Looks like I'll probably blow my June 30 deadline. What I had thought might be a 10-page chapter has morphed into a giant (hopefully no more than 30 pages). Although I may eventually take a hacksaw to this in the future (don't ask me how), for now I want to finish the first act with a really strong chapter before I put the book back on the shelf. Poor Joseph is locked up in a psychiatric facility, where the shrinks take away his clothes to prevent him from harming himself and to force him to cooperate. I got that crazy idea from a story I once read about a psychiatric prison taking away most of a psychotic prisoner's clothing out of some bizarre fear he would somehow harm himself using them. Not sure how, though. By swallowing them maybe? I took it a step further and made Joseph stark naked, having to frequently keep his hands over his privates. tongue  And as luck would have it, he has to spend much of the time in the presence of a beautiful young nurse not much older than him in situations where he can't cover up. I am so mean.

I'll just make the forced nudity a metaphor for the degrading way the mentally ill were and continue to be treated in secure psychiatric settings.

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587 Reply by Dirk B.

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Thanks, Bill.

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588 Topic by Dirk B.

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I'm trying to figure out the best way to show a word being stretched out by a speaker, as in: Neeever gonna happen. Technically, that changes the e sound to ie, which is not what I intend. Or is my example generally understood to be just a stretched vowel?

Thanks
Dirk

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589 Reply by Dirk B.

(1,461 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

LOL. Connor is already capable of telekinesis (tk). For example, at Capernaum, he uses tk to tear stones from the old ruins and hurl those with bone-crunching force at the demonic hyenas. He's also the one who topples the Baldacchino in St. Peter's Basilica. Also, I need tk to explain his ability to manipulate clouds (have them form, have them dissipate, have them concentrate into thunderstorms, etc.) and to manipulate water to generate a rainbow over St. Peter's Basilica at the end. He also uses tk during a major fight with his father halfway through book 2, and again at the climax of book 2, when God "cleanses the Temple". smile

I was merely considering whether or not to involve tk in his jump off Megiddo. He'll use tk again in his battle against De Rosa's most powerful lieutenant at the end of book 3.

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590 Reply by Dirk B.

(1,461 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Cool ability: since Connor can use telekinesis, he ought to be able raise himself off the ground, though I intend to make it a limited ability, but if he can levitate, then he can use that ability (heightened temporarily by the wine from the Garden of Eden) to help him when he runs & jumps off the edge of Megiddo to jump over the attacking horde of demons and come at them from behind, while his cousins attack from the front. In other words, he uses telekinesis to help him stay in the air longer, while his boosted momentum from jumping from Megiddo takes him much farther than he otherwise could, over the hordes to land behind them.

The other option is to ignore telekinesis in this particular scene and make it the wine that allows him to sail over the hordes. An easier explanation.

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591 Reply by Dirk B.

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

Kdot wrote:

I feel so evil

I know the feeling. I'm dying to write bad Connor (first half of book 2).

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592 Reply by Dirk B.

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

Kdot wrote:

The ship's axe-murderer is 10x better now too.

I've added hints of him in two spots (ex: mysterious hulking shadow from odd direction when all characters are accounted for) and given MC plenty of time to wonder who that is.

Going to do one more sighting, this one a blurry / grainy camera snap as he runs past behind her... enough for her to see it's a crew uniform. Then can have her go the captain but he'll be like "No one matching that description on duty" or something. When he finally shows up for the first chase scene, it's going to be such an ah-ha moment.

I feel so evil

I like it. The axe-murderer was a great character. I can't remember his exact demise, but it would be cool if there was some way to hint that maybe he lived and got clear of the ship, without actually confirming it. Of course, then people might expect him to show up later.

Let me know if you post his revised version.

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593 Reply by Dirk B.

(1,461 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

A further refinement of the above is to use first-person narration of the historic scenes. That would really put the reader in Connor's place in the scene. If I can figure out how to do it, the scenes would allow the reader to, for example, walk on water. Walking on water is a very tricky one, though, because in the first draft, Jesus walks on water in the past, whereas Connor walks on water in the present and is attacked by the sudden storm. It'll be hard to show Connor in both the past and the present. I need to think about that some more, but putting the reader into those historic scenes would be really cool.

They'd be very short scenes, though, since I don't have the enthusiasm to research enough historical details to describe anything at the level of detail I use for those locations in the present.

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594 Reply by Dirk B.

(65 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Bill et al, I deleted the latest accounts reported above. I didn't realize I already had that ability. I thought I was just a moderator at the moment.

Power! Unlimited Power!

Please continue to report spam accounts here, and I'll deal with them. I removed Sol's name from the subject line and made this thread sticky at the top of the forum, so it should be easy to find.

Bill, what made you think watkinsayden81 is a spam account? Their profile is empty. Did they post something to one of the forums? Thanks

Dirk

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595 Reply by Dirk B.

(14 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Alan, I updated the subject line to fix the typos you mentioned above (I have extra moderator privileges).

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596 Reply by Dirk B.

(9 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I am so happy for you, MJ. What a relief that must be.
When I finish up here, I'll go do a Snoopy dance. smile

Dirk

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597 Reply by Dirk B.

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

Is this your normal approach to writing? Write a core story, then pad it until you reach the needed wordcount? Are you sure the additions won't feel like padding?

To be clear, I'm not lecturing. Just curious.

The Connor trilogy began with the twist at the end of book 1 in mind. Then I built the story around that, which grew quite naturally into an end times trilogy.

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598 Reply by Dirk B.

(14 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Thank you for the update, Alan. It's sad that Di's health continues to worsen, although it's wonderful to know that you are finally receiving support for her care. I'm sure many of the folks here will keep both of you in our thoughts and prayers.

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599 Reply by Dirk B.

(17 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

George FLC wrote:

I put Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address into Grammarly.

Opening sentence:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Corrected by Grammarly:
Four hundred and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Technically, Grammarly is correct by modern standards, but Abe may very well have inserted the comma after Liberty intentionally to create a pause (it's a speech, not fiction after all), or that comma is the result of a jolt in the train while he wrote it. smile

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600 Reply by Dirk B.

(17 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

jack the knife wrote:

I just finished reading a thriller by Brad Thor, a bestselling novelist. He starts so many sentences with “ing” participles,  it is painful to read. Where are the editors?

Replaced by AI. smile  After all, why not? Apparently AI can already write fiction. At some point, will AI-generated books rival human-written ones? Eventually, each person may have their own "instance" of an AI in the cloud, which they can then ask to generate a book for them matching whatever criteria they want. Why buy books if you can generate them on the fly?

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