[Chat], and the world [chats] with you; [Brainstorm], and you [brainstorm] alone.

Orikaeshigitae

would anyone like to come edit my fancy-pants website?

Orikaeshigitae

@ruzkin, i'd up the letterspacing on your name and title, make your name bigger - 24->36pt? - and move the title up the cover a bit. all to fight the squishing and oddness that the amazon storefront introduces, especially with the kindle badge.

great work, though. proud of ya for all you've accomplished this year already.

Wank

VanityPants wrote: »

Next batch of queries went out today!

... well, at least we're all in this little hell together, huh?

I honestly have to stop submitting for a while, it is demolishing my self-esteem

Objectively I know this is just the way the world works, but for the sake of my mental health and productivity, I gotta let off

Quoth

Taking a break is fine, especially given your insane submission schedule. Maybe focus on writing instead, not that you had stopped writing to submit but... You know. Maybe check out some places looking for themed work?

VanityPants

Wank wrote: »

VanityPants wrote: »

Next batch of queries went out today!

... well, at least we're all in this little hell together, huh?

I honestly have to stop submitting for a while, it is demolishing my self-esteem

I know how you feel. I think I'm going to take a little break between this batch and the next one. Not too long, but I have another book I want to start writing and querying just screws with my focus.

ruzkin

Thanks Ori, I might do some cover edits once I have a few of my novella projects knocked over!

Cheeseliker

Orikaeshigitae wrote: »

would anyone like to come edit my fancy-pants website?

What would this entail, exactly? I am no professional editor or anything, but I have an English degree and do some writing and stuff. You might be looking for someone whose got actual experience in editing though. I just know I would love to do anything to help your awesome site. Still trying to come up with an article in my brain.

Oghulk

So I've never edited a fictional piece before, and I just finished the first draft of my short story and was wondering if any of y'all fine folks have some tips for going through and making changes?

ruzkin

First, put it down for a while. Two weeks, a month maybe. You need to be able to look at it objectively, with fresh eyes.

Then, come back. Reread. Was this other mystery person's story gripping? Where did it bore you? Where did phrases not hit the mark? Where can words be trimmed without losing effect? Did the character arcs satisfy? Did you feel that this mystery writer gave you too much information in some areas and not enough in others?

Then, fix those mistakes.

tapeslinger

My first step with editing is to tighten up the language-- this can be as minor as making sure all elements are consistent with regards to verb tense, point of view, grammar, spelling, etc, and then I sweep through to be sure that the details I intend to show are "visible" and ... hm.

Beyond there it's really dependent on what the story contains and what it's meant to contain. And yeah, unless you're writing on a deadline, give it some time to marinate while you are busy writing something else!

Oghulk

Alright, thanks for the tips!

liquiddark

@Wank: Bit of a devil's advocation here, but I do think it's good to get used to rejection. The trick that I took to heart a long time ago is if you have a piece that you're happy with, just keep sending it out. Have a schedule and a tracking system and use it to keep everything in turnaround. Choose a number of rejections (say, 5) to use as your milestone for a piece review, and only review the piece after that many subs, or after you get a piece of feedback that clicks for you.

I've gotten out of the habit, mainly because I've been out of the habit of writing short stuff for a while, but it really does work to keep things off your mind. Acting helped here - auditions are brutal, but at some point you start to see that directors are usually rejecting something other than talent. Editors are the exact same as far as I'm concerned.

liquiddark

@Oghulk: I would add "cut everything you can". It's an old rule, but a goodie - a piece is finished when there's nothing left to take away. Of course, if you're like me and consistently underwrite, it's not the most useful rule in the world. Sometimes you do have to learn to produce more raw material.

Oghulk

liquiddark wrote: »

@Oghulk: I would add "cut everything you can". It's an old rule, but a goodie - a piece is finished when there's nothing left to take away. Of course, if you're like me and consistently underwrite, it's not the most useful rule in the world. Sometimes you do have to learn to produce more raw material.

Interesting concept. I like it!

Probably won't get into editing it until next weekend anyways since I'll be constantly busy until then, which is good since I just finished the first draft last Saturday.

Baron Dirigible

liquiddark wrote: »

@Oghulk: I would add "cut everything you can". It's an old rule, but a goodie - a piece is finished when there's nothing left to take away. Of course, if you're like me and consistently underwrite, it's not the most useful rule in the world. Sometimes you do have to learn to produce more raw material.

That's a good rule.

Edcrab

ruzkin wrote: »

First, put it down for a while. Two weeks, a month maybe. You need to be able to look at it objectively, with fresh eyes.

Yeah, not to create an echo chamber, but this is something I have to do pretty much every time. I can pick up someone else's story and go to town on it, but something I've written myself needs to die back a little and be less fresh in my mind before I can distance myself from its creation... and attack it like it's an overgrown plant in need of pruning.

Quoth

It's always fun to write something, post it, and get comments that suggest the thing you wrote and the thing being read are not the same. Then it's time to play Who's Doing It Wrong, everyone's favorite editing game.

Edcrab

The lobster is metaphorical. I can't stress that enough, especially because you clearly don't understand the intent of that passage.

ruzkin

I know I've written something crappy when Nyss gives up half way through.

Wank

Hey guys, anybody want to go down a few doors and read the new short story?

zenpotato

Not fiction, but I got my contributor copies of a professional society journal in which I placed an article today. That was nice. It was just two pages on some technical writing bullshit, but it was cool to see myself in print for the first time in a long time.

I think this means I'm internationally published (the journal is from the UK). That goes on my bio; between this, some 12 page comic stories, and placing 100 words on Tor.com a few years back, I've got a staggering body of work to reference. Now all I need is some acclaim.

liquiddark

Best I can do is a little Konami, sorry

Chronos21

Hey Wank, did you ever expand or do anything with Devolution?

Wank

Chronos21 wrote: »

Hey Wank, did you ever expand or do anything with Devolution?

Threw it in the ABNA contest, was a finalist. I've actually considered going back to it lately for a big ol' rewrite.

chiasaur11

liquiddark wrote: »

Best I can do is a little Konami, sorry

Still beats my Active Enterprises.

I find it best not to talk about that incident.

Chronos21

Wank wrote: »

Chronos21 wrote: »

Hey Wank, did you ever expand or do anything with Devolution?

Threw it in the ABNA contest, was a finalist. I've actually considered going back to it lately for a big ol' rewrite.

That's awesome. I thought that story had a lot of potential. I assume you beefed it up before the ABNA sub because they have 50k word mins, right? If you do rewrite, I'd love to take a look at it.

SkutSkut

Oh boy a personal response rejection, movin on up in the writing world.

Wank

Chronos21 wrote: »

Wank wrote: »

Chronos21 wrote: »

Hey Wank, did you ever expand or do anything with Devolution?

Threw it in the ABNA contest, was a finalist. I've actually considered going back to it lately for a big ol' rewrite.

That's awesome. I thought that story had a lot of potential. I assume you beefed it up before the ABNA sub because they have 50k word mins, right? If you do rewrite, I'd love to take a look at it.

Yeah I expanded it a little, but to be honest it would need a hell of a lot more work for me to be satisfied with it. I'm actually revising a steampunk YA novel if that piques your interest?

Chronos21

Wank wrote: »

Chronos21 wrote: »

Wank wrote: »

Chronos21 wrote: »

Hey Wank, did you ever expand or do anything with Devolution?

Threw it in the ABNA contest, was a finalist. I've actually considered going back to it lately for a big ol' rewrite.

That's awesome. I thought that story had a lot of potential. I assume you beefed it up before the ABNA sub because they have 50k word mins, right? If you do rewrite, I'd love to take a look at it.

Yeah I expanded it a little, but to be honest it would need a hell of a lot more work for me to be satisfied with it. I'm actually revising a steampunk YA novel if that piques your interest?

I do love me some steampunk. The only problem is that I'm in the midst of exam and paper season right now, so I probably wouldn't be able to give you prompt feedback on something that long. Still happy to take a look at it though.

Wank

I know how you feel, school is killing me at the moment. But if you PM me your email I'd be more than happy to send it over to be read at your leisure.

spcmnspff

Hey TWB. I have a couple of The Secret World beta keys to share with friends. Would love to share them with regs from this forum. Only condition is you have to read the writing in the game! PM me if you're interested.

DarkHawke

Oh man, I've been gone longer than I thought.

MKR

I'm working on a cover for a book that is purely hypothetical:

liquiddark

There's something slightly annoying about the blue and light green/red bars. I get the sense of swirl on first glance, but after that it sort of breaks down and doesn't make sense.

MKR

I was going for a Metro-styled interface. I'll work on the colors and shapes tomorrow.

DarkHawke

'practical and hopeful' feels a bit awkward as a subtitle. Pick one? I'd go with hopeful.

tapeslinger

Seconding Darkhawke on that, the phrase as-is reads too clumsy, and hopeful is definitely the more interesting of the two words.

MKR

I have a short outline bound by a simple three-part structure.

I'll work on the cover later. These are good suggestions though.

ElJeffe

So hey, funny thing.

When you have a bandage on your hand due to tendonitis and a store clerk sees said bandage and asks what happened, and - as you hand them money - you jokingly respond that you have a highly contagious strain of leprosy? They will not find that nearly as amusing as you do.

MKR

I once asked a bakery employee how many Bavarians it took to fill a Bavarian cream donut.