The Writer's Guild

[GymlessRanger]

On 5/12/2016 at 11:57 PM, Zahirah said:

 
Dude, your book looks awesome!  Have you considered making it into a mobile app?

 

Whoops, just saw this! An app would be cool, but it's a tough thing to do. I spent most of the last year developing content for a fitness app and learned a lot about the process of creating an app from scratch. Way too much frustration (and money) for me, I think! 

[Dagger]

Hi everyone,

 

I just joined the forum and thought I'd say hi here since I'm a writer by trade. Currently I am working on fixing short stories and then I have several long projects that wants to be written. I also saw the Wordwar Z that I plan to join probably next week.

[Oramac]

11 minutes ago, Dagger said:

Hi everyone,

 

I just joined the forum and thought I'd say hi here since I'm a writer by trade. Currently I am working on fixing short stories and then I have several long projects that wants to be written. I also saw the Wordwar Z that I plan to join probably next week.

 

Welcome to the chaos! 

[Fearkiller]

On 25.5.2016 at 5:24 PM, Dagger said:

Hi everyone,

 

I just joined the forum and thought I'd say hi here since I'm a writer by trade. Currently I am working on fixing short stories and then I have several long projects that wants to be written. I also saw the Wordwar Z that I plan to join probably next week.

 

Oh? 'By trade', you say? Now, interesting, that.

Would you mind telling more?

 

Do you have anything available for reading yet?

[Dagger]

On 25 May 2016 at 4:36 PM, Oramac said:

Welcome to the chaos! 

Thank you!

 

18 minutes ago, Fearkiller said:

Would you mind telling more?

 

Do you have anything available for reading yet?

Well, as I say in my introduction post in the introduction forum (link in sig), I'm currently going to be rather quiet about all kinds of things so I don't mess up my progress by talking about it too much. (Basically, if I tell my family I plan to do X, Y, and Z, it almost guarantees I won't do any of those things. Same with public announcement of similar stuff. Knowing other people will know I failed doesn't push me, instead telling makes me feel like I've already done it.) So one of my experiments is being rather anonymous here. So I won't be very specific right now, sorry. As soon as I feel more confident I won't sabotage myself, I'll do a tell all.

 

I have five short stories published. I have three more short stories sold to anthologies that will be released late this year, in 2017, and in 2018. I submit most my short stories to magazines, but I've gotten off the horse of submitting regularly so I need to get back to that.

 

I write fantasy and mystery mainly, or my longer works will mainly be those two genres. My short stories are all over the map. Currently I have only fantasy short stories out, one of them humorous, but several of the next few in line to be published are mainstream stories.

[Zahirah]

On 5/30/2016 at 1:24 AM, Dagger said:

Thank you!

 

Well, as I say in my introduction post in the introduction forum (link in sig), I'm currently going to be rather quiet about all kinds of things so I don't mess up my progress by talking about it too much. (Basically, if I tell my family I plan to do X, Y, and Z, it almost guarantees I won't do any of those things. Same with public announcement of similar stuff. Knowing other people will know I failed doesn't push me, instead telling makes me feel like I've already done it.) So one of my experiments is being rather anonymous here. So I won't be very specific right now, sorry. As soon as I feel more confident I won't sabotage myself, I'll do a tell all.

 

I have five short stories published. I have three more short stories sold to anthologies that will be released late this year, in 2017, and in 2018. I submit most my short stories to magazines, but I've gotten off the horse of submitting regularly so I need to get back to that.

 

I write fantasy and mystery mainly, or my longer works will mainly be those two genres. My short stories are all over the map. Currently I have only fantasy short stories out, one of them humorous, but several of the next few in line to be published are mainstream stories.

I have been looking a little more into venues for publishing short stories, fantasy and sci-fi, and I was wondering if you had suggestions for magazines/anthologies.  In the past I haven't read a lot of short stories but need to do more reading if I am going to work for writing for that audience, and wanted to see what you recommend.  Thanks!

[Dagger]

2 hours ago, Zahirah said:

I have been looking a little more into venues for publishing short stories, fantasy and sci-fi, and I was wondering if you had suggestions for magazines/anthologies.  In the past I haven't read a lot of short stories but need to do more reading if I am going to work for writing for that audience, and wanted to see what you recommend.  Thanks!

I find most of my markets on Ralan.com, here is the link to the pro magazine markets and the anthology markets. Remember to always research them, check sample contracts if they have them and which rights they ask for and such.

 

If you haven't been published much, I would suggest submitting to the Writers of the Future contest. In the rules it says how much publishing disqualifies you. I'm still submitting to it because my publications haven't disqualified me yet. This is a contest with an entry fee (I don't submit to contests with entry fees).

 

I've gotten the advice several times to read a few issues of any magazine I plan to submit too. So far I haven't really done that, but it is really good advice. If you just want to read some good anthologies with short stories, I can recommend the Fiction River anthologies—some are one genre, but most are a mix around some theme (many are focused on sf/f, or have sf/f stories in them). Disclaimer: I have three short stories sold to three different Fiction River anthologies coming out in the next few years. I've also read at least six Fiction Rivers and enjoyed them all.

 

I hope that helps.

[Jane Eyre Is My Patronus]

On 3/3/2016 at 4:07 AM, Becoming-Bane said:

I have a question for y'all. I've been having trouble writing lately so my question for you is this, how do you set the "writing mood" for yourself?

Everyone answered this question with advice that was not only really good but also thought-provoking and kind of poignant. I'm not gonna do that; I'm sorry. My answer to this question is "video game soundtracks." Especially the soundtracks to Skyrim, Bastion, Mirror's Edge, Journey, any of the Dragon Age games, and any Tomb Raider game.

[Dagger]

29 minutes ago, Jane Eyre Is My Patronus said:

Everyone answered this question with advice that was not only really good but also thought-provoking and kind of poignant. I'm not gonna do that; I'm sorry. My answer to this question is "video game soundtracks." Especially the soundtracks to Skyrim, Bastion, Mirror's Edge, Journey, any of the Dragon Age games, and any Tomb Raider game.

I like your taste in games/music.

[UnquietBones]

In case anyone needed a bit of a pick me up!

 

 

[Fearkiller]

Thank you. 

[Thrillho]

I need an alarm to make me check these pages more than once a month. 

[Oramac]

OK writers!  A question for you: if you have some cool item that your character is using, how do you make the item awesome and compelling without it becoming a Deus ex Machina to the plot?  

[Dagger]

3 hours ago, Oramac said:

OK writers!  A question for you: if you have some cool item that your character is using, how do you make the item awesome and compelling without it becoming a Deus ex Machina to the plot?  

Some ways to keep it from being Deus ex Machina: By having consequences for its use. Consequences could be anything from it has limited uses to it drains the character to it having an opposite and devastating effect somewhere else any time it is used.

 

Making it awesome and compelling are a lot about how the characters react to it. Not what they say, but how they act around/to it. Otherwise I have no specific ideas without more info.

[Nock the Wise]

3 hours ago, Oramac said:

OK writers!  A question for you: if you have some cool item that your character is using, how do you make the item awesome and compelling without it becoming a Deus ex Machina to the plot?  

 

I suggest you give the item's powers a downside. I remember a series of fantasy stories, by Mercedes Lackey I believe, where the heroine had a magic sword that would help her avenge her family but it required to her to go to the assistance of any woman in need in the area. It would wake her in the night and drive her out into the rain to assist someone. It almost always happened at an inconvenient time.

[Thrillho]

Also, the item is, say, easily stolen, or even easily lost. Having this powerful and cool and effective item that gets taken away by a genre-savvy opponent is great for the item, the villain AND the character. 

[UnquietBones]

4 hours ago, Oramac said:

OK writers!  A question for you: if you have some cool item that your character is using, how do you make the item awesome and compelling without it becoming a Deus ex Machina to the plot?  

 

Adding a price for the power is the way I'd go too!

 

It could be emotional (absorb the minds of the people whose powers you steal) or physical (magic that is powered by blood/sacrifice) price to the user or to something/someone else. You can use the Warp Drives, but they rip apart space and time. You can bring peace to Gotham, but only by becoming something they hate. etc.  

[Oramac]

Sounds like consequences are the way to go.  Every post basically said that.  haha.  Thanks everyone!!  

[Thrillho]

I am now officially signed up for English 205 in the fall.  My 206 prof is the same professor this time around and he's super-stoked to have me back.  206 was Fiction and Novel Writing, 205 is Poetry.  I've always wanted to try my hand at poetry, or learn something about it in a proper classroom setting with discussion and stuff, and now that I'm old I figure this is probably the best time. 

[Jane Eyre Is My Patronus]

2 minutes ago, Thrillho said:

I am now officially signed up for English 205 in the fall.  My 206 prof is the same professor this time around and he's super-stoked to have me back.  206 was Fiction and Novel Writing, 205 is Poetry.  I've always wanted to try my hand at poetry, or learn something about it in a proper classroom setting with discussion and stuff, and now that I'm old I figure this is probably the best time. 

Ooh fun! I very firmly believe that learning poetry will make you a better novel writer. When you're writing a story that's thousands of words, you can get kind of sloppy with them. When you're writing a poem (unless it's the Illiad, I suppose) it's much shorter so you have to make every single one count. Writing poetry teaches you to be deliberate in your word choice. Disclaimer: of the three creative writing classes my college taught, writing poetry was the only one I didn't take, so everything I'm saying is from the perspective of someone who feels they missed out.

[Thrillho]

Self-editing was the biggest thing I learned from English 206.  My initial draft of The Downs was ~13,500 words.  I chopped that sucker down to 9,000 and re-wrote the ending in the final week of the class. I've NEVER removed that much from my own work before, and it felt... good.  And the story was much better for it.  I liked what I'd written, but it didn't need to BE there. 

[Shibs]

Good evening! I am definitely interested in learning a bit more about the Writer's Guild.

Also, out of curiosity, did anyone else get their start doing post by post roleplaying? That's what got me hooked, but that was years ago.

[Dagger]

14 hours ago, Shibs said:

Also, out of curiosity, did anyone else get their start doing post by post roleplaying? That's what got me hooked, but that was years ago.

Yup. Me too. And it was also years ago for me.

[Thrillho]

That wasn't my START, but it was sort of where I went from 'writing silly crap for my own amusement' to 'writing silly crap to impress complete strangers'.

 

Very important step. 

[Jane Eyre Is My Patronus]

I got my start writing Maximum Ride fanfic, admittedly. But I found someone to role play with that really uped my game.