151

(11 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

sounds very messy!

152

(11 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Is the best way to do your inline and summary, then save it, then go back to the Xline to edit and amend if need be?

His blog is excellent too. http://www.secretsofstory.com/2011/08/u … klist.html

p.s. to Amy: finally got in. All I had to do was log out and log back in. D'oh!

It is said that no writing is ever wasted. I think that's so true. If my trilogy never comes to fruition I have learnt so much by writing and discussing what I have written.

amy s wrote:

Better said than me. I write for myself. I revise for others

totally right!

Norm d'Plume wrote:
Lynne Clark wrote:
amy s wrote:

Write your book for you instead of what you think people want

yes, I will have to. I can't please all of the people, all of the time sad

Amy, I disagree. If Lynne's purpose is to write a book that sells well, then she should definitely keep her audience in mind, otherwise, she'll end up like me, having spent six years writing a story that now needs a complete rewrite. If things go as planned with other stories, I doubt I'll ever go back to it. My next book has the target market identified up front, which will affect the story and tone, rather than leaving it for an unsalvageable third draft.

Norm, it depends on the definition of 'people'. I shall write for myself after keeping the audience in mind, and the editors who will want to change it, and the thoughts of my agent. 

Perhaps not so much what other people think.

Except you lot and your reviews, of course. tongue

I shall go through the (new) first chapter and check it picks up all of the senses; taste, touch, hearing, sight, smell. You are right, it lacks richness.

It won't be as speedy as usual, though. Today I am doing company accounts. Woe is me sad

SolN wrote:

This imbroglio has been my fault. I've been far too lax with the forums. Allowing a thread that calls out new members is not the best way to go about enlarging the site. Allowing politics and topics unrelated to writing in the Premium forum was a bad idea also. Unless the thread deals with a writing-related topic, it doesn't belong. If the thread gets overly argumentative, noxious, or offensive, it will be gone. Premium is like the town commons and in public, there shouldn't be drunkness, disorderly conduct, or bar brawls, no matter if the participants shake hands and make up the next day. It looks bad for the town.

But behind closed doors you can do whatever you want. There are already plenty of other groups you can belong to. Or, you can start one of your own and create whatever rules you want. This is why I designed the site the way I did.

I appreciate all of your thoughts and feedback. I'm going to close the thread tomorrow.

Sol

Lots of forums have a group that is specifically for talking about off-topic subjects. It is often called 'The Coffee Shop' or something that suggests sitting around chatting and putting the world to rights. If you opened that group, you can simply refer threads that don't fit the criteria for where it is situated to start a new thread in the off-topic group. Saves offending anyone, you can make it clear that is what it there for, newbies know where to go, or where to avoid. At the moment, you don't seem to have anywhere like this, so as people get chummy, they have nowhere to go and just natter to new found friends. 
I'm not sure I agree with you about the initial question on this thread. It struck me as being a reasonable question, about writing and about writers. It probably shouldn't have fingered anyone in particular, but, that apart, it wasn't contentious imho.  An early shot warning about naming individuals would have been fine, surely?

njc wrote:

What is the story?  Does Izzy face challenges that ready her for The Main Event?  Do those challenges start (perhaps) with things that mirror ordinary-but-difficult experiences?  Do they come to include experiences that define her?  Mustakes and consequences?

Imagine the Wizard of Oz basic story with schools and magic Skills. I can't give you the story, I realise, at the moment, as I am in the middle of changing the whole darned thing. But as I change it I'll think carefully about your comments about challenges. I want a challenge of some kind in each chapter, even if it is tiny.
I think it is time to buckle up and really get down to moving it about instead of mulling it over in my mind. Maybe the tap of the keys will help move it along.

amy s wrote:

Write your book for you instead of what you think people want

yes, I will have to. I can't please all of the people, all of the time sad

amy s wrote:

Question: where is Izzy first under threat? Is that a potential starting point?


I don't know. As the book stands, she isn't under real threat until one-third of the way through. The first third is very much School and Learning.  I am now worried that might be boring to an MG reader.

I realised today that, much as this is coming of age and all that, it is actually The Wizard of Oz, except she doesn't go home, she runs away with the Scarecrow yikes

forgive the appalling spelling on my prev post. I was watching tv and typing on a tablet and it kept autocorrecting all over the place. Grrrr to tablets!

kraptonite wrote:

And (sorry for keep coming back), I have to say that a positive relationship with said gracious lady author on this site, prompted me to read a library of books and take a Creative Writing Course at the National Library of Aruba. Changed my life. As simple as.

Oh well done you. I think your explanation casts a different light on the reviewer question.  I find it very difficult to review work I actively dislike. I don't mind pulling apart something I can find something in but if it leaves me quite cold? No. Is that usual or just me?

I'm pretty sure you're right. Amma and Mikhal don't appear afterwards.I was using them time identify her age, position in the family and some  personality.  Question no is how far along shall I move it. I'm thinking if the first chap I have on here is still too placid then maybe the dorm and the argument w with Shayne and move the rest into backstory? Or intro the antagonist as early as chapter 2 and up the ante that  way

kraptonite wrote:

I've recently been politely informed within a review reply, that the author doesn’t need reviews. That is appreciated, but I’d rather know before I pen the review because I’m trying to make the review meaningful (in so much as I can).

I wonder what they felt they achieved by posting their work on a review site, if they didn't want it reviewed? Readers are appreciated for their views, but for a writer to post work they don't want to hear anything about? Why? To me, that seems rather odd.

Was it something I said? I wasn't trying to be argumentative, just chatting. What a shame.

amy s wrote:

I’m not on Dropbox. Not familiar with it. (Embarrassing)

It's just cloud storage so like a spare hard disk. I use it to keep my files backed up. I have a horror of my computer going down and me losing the whole lot.

no worries, I've sent you a message with a link that will take you straight to the files. They work just like files on your computer - the scene by scene is Excel, but the others might still be .odt (Open Office or LibreOffice, the free Windows Office alternative). If you can't read them, let me know and I'll convert them into .doc or .docx or .rtf as you require.

Amy, is that an email for a link or are you on Dropbox -it doesn't recognise your email when I tried to give sharing permissions?

I can give you the outline of the five chapters that exist so far, although that isn't the same as what they will eventually be. I can give you a Dropbox link to a scene by scene excel sheet that will give you the whole book if that would be helpful?

She is going to have to overcome the antagonist as she finds herself in his grasp. She doesn't know how she got there, and he thinks she does, so there is a conflict as he tries to get her to tell him something she doesn't know. But there are in fact several antagonists, each with different agendas. Along with her own growth and maturation.  I think I may have overegged it all sad

amy s wrote:

Version 0 is correct. I don't record how many times I've rewritten. It's depressing.

I want you to read Chapter 1 of Dictates because it is an example of how to integrate magic into your story immediately. Remember, there is no 'first book' in my story. If you want the best then it is Dictates because this is the most recent of my rewrites

Speediness? Rewriting your first chapter in two days? How could I fail to note that little fact?

Ideas for integrating magic into the first half of your chapter. Describe the room more. Since there is a creation magic in play that makes food and clothing poof out of thin air, the room would be decidedly different from an average kid. The contents would be limited by the mother's imagination, and she would be reluctant to throw anything out. There would be no stores, remember, so everything the mother made would be limited by her ability to design. This is a big day, so what are the details she put into the newly created uniform? What colors did she choose for the room? Can she create furniture? Is there something that Izzy's friend has in her room that the mother couldn't create...something that Izzy has always wanted?

Have the mother wearing a new dress for the occasion.

Has Izzy ever seen her mother create? Why did she just ask her mother where food comes from at the age of 12? In retrospect, that question made me wonder. The analogy that I can come up with is kids with the ATM. Need money? Just go to the ATM, mom. It is an endless supply in their experience. Magic for Izzy would be like that. Part of her regular life. Rip up a pair of socks? Mom provides. Hole in the couch? Fixed the next day.

Just a thought to mull over.

What you say about being totally complacent about how magic works is exactly what I want to portray. Nothing at this stage feels as if it is an effort, so why should she go to learn the Skills if her mother can provide what she wants? What teenager wonders (unless forced to) about how her clothes miraculously arrive clean and pressed in her wardrobe? Why she can't have the latest tablet or phone? How are the bills paid?   Or any of your own examples. Likewise, she has known for ages (as Amma keeps telling her) that she has to go to Skill School (like going up to Senior School when you are comfortable where you are) but it is only now it is the day before that it is real in her mind.

Descriptions are tricksy. If I want to keep the action momentum going, fast and furious, for this initial footstep into her world, what would she be noticing other than what is in her head? Right now that isn't anything to do with the colours of the room, the furnishings, what her mother is wearing. Not even the colours of her uniform. She might have noticed and remarked later, but she gets into another argument with Amma about going to school, so I don't think she would notice even then.

The only thing likely to be in her mind is a) oh no, she isn't going to freeze me out of bed again, is she (by the way, this is based on a personal memory. My dad used to get me out of bed for school when I wouldn't get up by pulling the blankets back and applying a freezing wet face flannel to my feet, or my belly if it wasn't covered by my pyjamas. So I know how fast you can get out of bed if that is threatened...)
and b) if I DO have to go school (though I won't, nobody will make me) what will it be like?

which brings me to another question.
How far along is it acceptable to introduce the antagonist?
Currently, the main antagonists aren't introduced until about a third of the way through, when she changes locale. I do have a POV character in this new place, and I am thinking of putting some 'this is happening there, whilst you are getting on with your stuff here' chapters just to introduce the antagonist earlier.

Do you all have any thoughts?

I don't mind you requesting at all. I'll have a look in the morning.

amy s wrote:

K just writes to kill off his characters. I've learned not to care about anyone. He also writes about 30 mph horses and has his MC ride bareback in freezing cold weather wearing nothing but a sheet. Did I say the character was bareback? Naked except for a sheet? In the freezing cold when she had availability of clothing in the castle where she just killed everybody? OK, moving on.

This is why he needs me around. I scream and stick pins into his voodoo doll when he pulls that kind of crap.

He must think some people don't feel the cold.

Bevin Wallace wrote:
William Short wrote:
Bevin Wallace wrote:

You don’t have to be a paying member to be a Premium member...

I think the non-paying membership is called ‘Basic Membership' nowadays.

If you aren’t a paying member, you can still “reply” to a post in Premium, but you can’t “create” a topic.

Ah, I got it, now. Thanks.

For me, not paying meant I couldn't post any writing so I had to pay up or the site was of limited value to me.