Any of you guys write a novel?
- Thread starter Mr_Roboto
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My advice is get a tape recorder and start recording it.
My grandfather was published around a decade after his death. He wrote about a few basic accounts of his existence from the depression to the war to some aspects of every day life.
A bit different than where my mind is, I'm wanting to write some dystopian Science Fiction.
You guys can tell I have a decent command of the English language. When I was in school I used to write quite a bit. Actually thought of becoming a writer. My English teacher in HS and I didn't see eye to eye. He didn't like sports cars and most of my stories had cars in them with Fast and Furious themes. Getting Bs and Cs when I was an A student otherwise made me think I wasn't very good at it. I actually walked out of school with 3 months left my Senior year after I got into an argument with him. That was it for me and school until I got my GED a few years later so I could take college courses.
I also wrote SciFi (big surprise, LOL) and started a SciFi novel. About 50 pages in I decided it was crap and gave up. It was more fun to drive than to write, especially with cute young ladies in the passenger seat getting all kinds of excited from fast driving and loud exhausts.
I probably should have tried harder to listen to corrections from the teacher and people I let read the stories. Teenagers can be stupidly stubborn. LOL
I also wrote SciFi (big surprise, LOL) and started a SciFi novel. About 50 pages in I decided it was crap and gave up. It was more fun to drive than to write, especially with cute young ladies in the passenger seat getting all kinds of excited from fast driving and loud exhausts.
I probably should have tried harder to listen to corrections from the teacher and people I let read the stories. Teenagers can be stupidly stubborn. LOL
A novel? No. I was published for a few short stories and poetry when I was in my late teens and early 20’s and was published when I was in high school and was offered a partial scholarship to Brown University but couldn’t come up with the extra funds to go. I tried working on a novel but life took over and I didn’t have time to continue working on it. Still have the concept in my head as well as a few others including a children’s book.
If you’re going to attempt a novel write down/record EVERY idea you have even if it’s just a stream of consciousness thing for whatever you’re writing about. I had too many ideas that went the wayside because I forgot to write them down. Also think smaller at first and work on a short story style then expand on it.
First, second and third drafts always suck and every time I read my work it sounds like a sophomore in high school wrote it but by the third draft things get better. I would always submit a fourth draft and let editors do their job.
If you’re going to attempt a novel write down/record EVERY idea you have even if it’s just a stream of consciousness thing for whatever you’re writing about. I had too many ideas that went the wayside because I forgot to write them down. Also think smaller at first and work on a short story style then expand on it.
First, second and third drafts always suck and every time I read my work it sounds like a sophomore in high school wrote it but by the third draft things get better. I would always submit a fourth draft and let editors do their job.
you guys are okay. I appreciate the input, ancedotes and banter alike. I've got about 2-3 pages written out as of now, the going is super slow but I'm putting say 30-60 minutes into it a night on nights I feel inspired. I'm also working towards a solid framework as well while writing about the aspects I've already got somewhat sorted in my mind. I'm not trying to slam something out so I can go to a publisher, I have a concept I want to get out of my head and if people are entertained and enjoy it that's a good bonus.
Really? Your posts (when I see them as most recent posts) are the reason I click into threads I normally wouldn't. Your creativity cracks me the fuck up man. Recent example, I saw 1quick updated his thread about a "race", leading to a story that you replied to "NICE VIDEO" That shit cracks me up every time. I think your creativity is 100% there and you could go Mike K any day of the week just doing what you do, no need to put any thought into it.
Either of you guys mind taking a look at my outline and what I have? I want to modify heavily the initial part I think to add detail. My outline is about half to 2/3 done at this point. I think I'm writing to about 150-200 pages if I had to guess although perhaps a bit longer in reality.
duly noted. I'm writing to a length I feel as if I've successfully conveyed the story I wish to. I am thinking 30-50K words plus or minus a few. Pretty broad scope admittedly, but that's life. I'm not trying to pad out some college term paper here.This is the synopsis of the plot I have right now. My actual outline is about 8-9 pages as of now, and as said probably 2/3 done.
I’d love to be able to help you out but with my 1 year old running around (literally) I don’t even have time to take a dump.
A little advice. Write as much as you want and edit the hell out of it, you’ll learn what’s needed and what’s not and it’ll eventually flow better. Set it down, walk away for a few days and don’t even think about it then go back and just read it while taking notes on what you want to fix but don’t fix anything until you’ve finished reading the entire thing. If you edit while reading you’ll take away from the entire experience and distract yourself. If you read and take notes you’ll find yourself editing your notes at the end and keeping things you initially wanted to delete and deleting things you wanted to keep.
Walking yet? If not watch out for that one!
I'm taking a step back from the actual story writing and writing the outline now, which is totally bass ackwards since I'm probably a bit under a quarter of the way in on the actual writing.
That said, I'm going back through constantly on what I've written. I'm not changing the structure in particular, but more so the word choice at this time. I expect to constantly iterate as I go along. I'm doing the outline to add structure, and I think it will be easier for me to get people to help me avoid any major structural pitfalls before I need them fixed. I had the introduction and largely have the ending figured out, I'm still trying to fill in the middle somewhat.
Oh, and here's the plot synopsis I forgot.
Lynn lives her life as two people. By day she works a job helping grow children in a world that is barely tolerable and extremely isolating to her, but she spends her nights immersed gaming, building, with freely available drugs and sex. Meaning comes from this virtual world rather than the actual world where virtually everyone eschews social interaction or doing anything meaningful that won’t get them bitgems to use when immersed. Even the most basic of things are taken for granted in the real world, to the point where people are willing to sell any aspect of their humanity to advance in the immersed world.
This changes one day when Lynn has progressively larger challenges around staying immersed. She ends up crashing her car, which leads her to find a mysterious man who gives her information and guidance that helps her enter the real world for the first time.
Horrified by what she finds and so dysfunctional in a society that can not stand to be in the real world for any period of time, she discovers why this dystopian experience exists. Left with a choice, Lynn ultimately comes to the conclusion to pay the price and take a path to exile rather than co-operate with a deeply disturbing system designed to treat people as a commodity.
Lynn lives her life as two people. By day she works a job helping grow children in a world that is barely tolerable and extremely isolating to her, but she spends her nights immersed gaming, building, with freely available drugs and sex. Meaning comes from this virtual world rather than the actual world where virtually everyone eschews social interaction or doing anything meaningful that won’t get them bitgems to use when immersed. Even the most basic of things are taken for granted in the real world, to the point where people are willing to sell any aspect of their humanity to advance in the immersed world.
This changes one day when Lynn has progressively larger challenges around staying immersed. She ends up crashing her car, which leads her to find a mysterious man who gives her information and guidance that helps her enter the real world for the first time.
Horrified by what she finds and so dysfunctional in a society that can not stand to be in the real world for any period of time, she discovers why this dystopian experience exists. Left with a choice, Lynn ultimately comes to the conclusion to pay the price and take a path to exile rather than co-operate with a deeply disturbing system designed to treat people as a commodity.
Walking?! He took his first unsupported steps at 10 months, 3 days. He started running 2 1/2 weeks after that. Crawling lasted like 3 weeks, apparently he has places to go.
It sounds like you have things well organized and you have a good plan going for finessing what you’ve done (order doesn’t matter) to get a good end result. It’s a grind but if you stick to it you’ll be fine just don’t get hung up on unnecessary details or back story, leave something for the readers mind to fill in a few blanks.
It sounds like you have things well organized and you have a good plan going for finessing what you’ve done (order doesn’t matter) to get a good end result. It’s a grind but if you stick to it you’ll be fine just don’t get hung up on unnecessary details or back story, leave something for the readers mind to fill in a few blanks.
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