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Re: Writers Central

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:27 pm
by gimpat01
Carrisa

I'm sorry I can't be much help on the location thing. If it were about Georgia I could help.

As for keeping everything in order, I realized from the get go I was going to have to have an outline. Not because of the story itself but because I tend to get ADD when I write. I'll be in the middle of a scene and some other idea or line of dialogue will hit me and I HAVE to write it down. But I can keep up with it better b/c I can give it a name that corresponds to the rough outline.
For example, the entire time I've been working on my current project I haven't been writting in order of the story. So today I started going through what I've done to see where I was and all I had to do was look at the title of each scene and the look at the outline to put it together. I always have a notepad w/me and an notepad.doc open on the computer so I can put stuff down quickly and then get back to my original work.
It took me forever to realize I needed to do this and I'm afraid I lost alot of work not paying attention.

As for the current project, I'm 52 pgs and 13,039 words into it. The number blew me away because I've only been working on it a little over a week.

My question for the night is, does anyone else have scraps upon scraps of paper w/notes, character info, dialogue, background info and story line ideas laying all over their homes? I have so much stuff it cracks me up and I was wondering if I'm the only one?

Re: Writers Central

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:48 pm
by Iris Messenger
i don't have scraps of paper, i have all these scraps of documents and bookmarks and web-archives and outlines and population charts ... all over my computer. GAH! organization problem!

i probably have fifteen "next american novels" that are languishing in my creative writing folder.

i've only EVER managed to finish one short story which i'm in the process of totally re-hauling. my character had a multiple personality disorder. *shakes head*

so no, i don't think you're the only one!

Re: Writers Central

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 3:38 pm
by Feathers
One thing to be aware of - while it's wonderful to share our original fiction with each other, keep in mind this is a public site. Once you post it, anyone can find it. If you plan to publish someday, and have no outstanding copyrights on your work now, if you post it up on myspace, it's possible for someone to completely steal your work.

I encourage people looking to publish eventually to use some discretion when they share links. Maybe send it in a PM, so anyone surfing on won't find it.

Also, I've heard that if you're looking to be published, publishers don't like to re-publish work, and they consider fictionpress.com to be published. So, using fictionpress.com can hurt any chance of ever getting published then, right? Anyone know anything about that?

<3 Ren

Re: Writers Central

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 4:45 pm
by dragon-girl
'Copyright' just means you wrote it. If you post a piece of writing on, say, deviantArt, and you feel the need to write "(c) EXAMPLE NAME" then you are making yourself look foolish. (This isn't just my opinion - it was from an agent's blog.)

And I'm afraid I don't know anything about fictionpress to be able to comment on whether they would consider it 'published' or not.

Re: Writers Central

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:09 pm
by Feathers
Well, right, copyright means you wrote it, and then there are legal copyrights, as well, I THINK. I could be really mistaken on this,and I own that. BUt I was under the impression that there's sort of a general copyright, like, in a way, this post is copyrighted to me because I wrote it. But if you were to copy and paste it and say it was yours, I couldn't do a single thing about it because I hadn't purchased a legal copyright. Which I do know involves all kinds of hoops and money and ridiculous stuff.

But once you publish with a publisher, that legal copyright becomes yours without all the hassle. It's when you self-publish that you don't get that... and... that's where I get a little confused, but it's why I'm super hesitant to post anything on the open internet, Fictionpress.com.

Something my friends have done is created a closed community for writers (and readers) we know and trust on LiveJournal. We all post and critique each other's works, without worrying about the general public getting ahold of it, or having our stuff classified as "published" so that if we do decide to Go Book someday, the integrity of the piece is in place. I encourage other writers to do the same. Find some friends and have them edit your work for you, if nothing else. Honest feedback is best feedback, and what are friends for? ;)

<3 Ren

Re: Writers Central

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:05 am
by Feathers
Does it count as a double post if my last post was almost a month ago?

Anyway, I was wondering if any of the authors had any writing exercises that they do that they'd be willing to share. I've been looking for some to help me keep writing, but it's a rather overwhelming google search, and I definitely don't have time to try them all.

<3 Ren

Re: Writers Central

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:42 am
by BellaMorte
Hi all,

(does a little awkward hand wavey thing) This is my first post here so I figure I should make it a little formal by introducing myself. I'm Jacqui, and I'm a writer (when I can find the time, that is!). I've been working on a novel since I was about sixteen, and it's morphed through several drafts and is finally beginning to resemble the monstrosity it was supposed to be initially(!). I did a Dip. in Professional Writing and Editing after I finished High School and have been puttering away at poetry and fiction ever since.

In terms of writing exercises, I tend to call them stretching exercises. (laughs) At least, that's what my Popular Fiction teacher always referred to them as. She said sometimes when you were stuck for motivation, or the muses seemed particularly flighty and prone to striking you should just literally put pen to paper and write whatever comes out, be it from staring at and describing the window or the wall. You'd be amazed how dexterous the mind comes when you do this a few times. Something that I personally will often do when I hit a snag in a story or even worse, can't figure out how to begin is to start from the middle, or from a particular line of dialogue that I feel defines one of my characters, and then slowly build around it. I sort of look at it as the single piece of Lego that establishes the foundation of my house. :)

I have no idea if all that yammering made ANY sense. Heh.

Re: Writers Central

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:55 am
by NolitaFairytale
BellaMorte- That's a really good idea. I think I'll try doing that the next time I feel the need to write but don't know what to write.

Anyway, here are some other writing exercises I've picked up from English teachers and the like...

Come up with a first sentence. Whatever pops into your head. It can be something someone said, or something that just happened to come to you. Just write from there, and see whatever comes out.

My personal favorite is an exercise I found on a helpful site that I can't seem to find again. first, look at the following four words...

Mirror

Tree

Air

Door


Relax your eyes and Let them drift from word to word naturally. Eventually, you'll find yourself being drawn to one word more than the others. This word has chosen you!

From there, number a piece of paper 1 to 10. On the space beside number 1, write the word that chose you from the first step. Think about this word for a moment. Then, as quickly as possible, write the next nine words that come to mind. Don't think about it, or try to find words that are directly related to your first word. The words that come are the words that come.

Now, here comes the writing. Take your list of ten nifty words, and try to use them together in a piece of writing. It can be as short as a sentence sentence or as long as a few paragraphs. Whatever it takes to use the words. You may even be inspired to write a longer work based on the idea that came from the list of words. Have fun with it!

Re: Writers Central

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:00 am
by RajaniArchana
Oh lookie! Writers!

*waves*

Hi, everybody! Its wonderful to see all of you writershere, as I am a writer myself! I've been writing sicne I was five years old, but i've only ever finished one orgional novel and tw fanfictions. I'm currently writing a new origional novel that's over 200 pages, and a harry Potter fanfiction on the side.

I've got a question; has anyone else here ever written something that was kind of fantasy, but had to be groudned absolutely in the bounds of reality? Does that question even make any sense?

~Rajani

Re: Writers Central

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:19 pm
by Nightvision
Yeah I guess I'm the average writer. Right now I'm working on a novel, but like any writer I always find myself distracted with a new idea or get bored with my current idea. Thankfully as of now I've worked through that and am now being held down with one single idea.