What book is everyone writing right now?

[blutoski]

Hi Ian, it's self-published via Create Space, an Amazon subsidiary. It was seven years in the writing, and I couldn't be bothered hawking it around the agents & publishers.

It's actually my third novel. The first two are more autobiographical and need a lot of editing so character s are not identifiable. My fourth is work in progress.

Editing is difficult, as over that period of time, people's names accidentally change, or in one part of the book they'll have a parent who has one profession, and then later on, you realise they have now not only got a different trade, but a different nationality. Even the dog changed breed.

But after final draft number 20 , I think it's ready to publish, hopefully in the next few days.

I recommend joining a writers group, so you stay motivated, get to read your piece out loud to an audience and get constructive feedback and support.

I have a question about writers groups.

My prose technique has progressed to the point where I don't think I need feedback on passages. Mostly at this point, I'm trying to learn how to develop more interesting primary plots, spin off subplots, develop characters, improve pacing, &c. Stuff that happens over 50,000 words.

At this point, is there any value in attending writing circles and submitting relatively small excerpts. For example, I find my submissions lately need to be couched with "and this character did x in a previous chapter", which often tips the writing circle colleague off about any surprise development in the excerpt, reducing the value of having it read.

ETA: my writers circle limits our submissions to <5,000 words - could the problem be that I need a different type of review community that would be willing to evaluate larger submissions?

 

[Senex]

I'm thinking of writing a book about how sad it is everyone reading this right now will die before we figure out the mysteries of the universe. How many dimensions are there? How many universes? Others after us will know more.

 

[Tiktaalik]

I have a question about writers groups.

My prose technique has progressed to the point where I don't think I need feedback on passages. Mostly at this point, I'm trying to learn how to develop more interesting primary plots, spin off subplots, develop characters, improve pacing, &c. Stuff that happens over 50,000 words.

At this point, is there any value in attending writing circles and submitting relatively small excerpts. For example, I find my submissions lately need to be couched with "and this character did x in a previous chapter", which often tips the writing circle colleague off about any surprise development in the excerpt, reducing the value of having it read.

ETA: my writers circle limits our submissions to <5,000 words - could the problem be that I need a different type of review community that would be willing to evaluate larger submissions?

I used to go to a group where there was a limit each time, but nothing stopping you from submitting a chapter each time. Several of us went through entire books a chapter at a time, getting feedback as we went along - kind of like a serialized novel. It does require a commitment, depending on length of work.

 

[C_Felix]

I'm thinking of writing a book about how sad it is everyone reading this right now will die before we figure out the mysteries of the universe. How many dimensions are there? How many universes? Others after us will know more.

I want to make a snarky comment about the Bible, but I can't think of one.

 

[Craig4]

I'm thinking of writing a book about how sad it is everyone reading this right now will die before we figure out the mysteries of the universe. How many dimensions are there? How many universes? Others after us will know more.

I'm thinking of writing a cookbook for foods that can be incorporated into sex acts. It's important to let the ribs in barbecue sauce cool before beginning.

 

[Axxman300]

I'm in between my 7th and 8th novels. Just one short story has been published in an anthology so far. NaNoWriMo's coming up and I plan to spew #8 out then.

 

[deaman]

The Complete History of Dingle Balls.

 

[Ian Osborne]

My novel's in second draft at the moment. A former employer of mine who's a professional author has beta-read it. I'll be incorporating his suggestions into the book, and then hawking it around agents.

 

[blutoski]

I used to go to a group where there was a limit each time, but nothing stopping you from submitting a chapter each time. Several of us went through entire books a chapter at a time, getting feedback as we went along - kind of like a serialized novel. It does require a commitment, depending on length of work.

It sounds like I might need to find a new group, then. This one is putting a firm limit at 5,000 words, which is well short of a chapter. Meeting monthly, at this pace, I would not have a full set of feedback for almost a year.

 

[fuelair]

I'm thinking about writing a little something I like to call Moby Duck.

 

[Senex]

I'm thinking of writing a cookbook for foods that can be incorporated into sex acts. It's important to let the ribs in barbecue sauce cool before beginning.

I'll stick with honey and ice.

 

[C_Felix]

A little something called the "Ghost Adoption Agency."

 

[Polaris]

I have a question about writers groups.

My prose technique has progressed to the point where I don't think I need feedback on passages. Mostly at this point, I'm trying to learn how to develop more interesting primary plots, spin off subplots, develop characters, improve pacing, &c. Stuff that happens over 50,000 words.

At this point, is there any value in attending writing circles and submitting relatively small excerpts. For example, I find my submissions lately need to be couched with "and this character did x in a previous chapter", which often tips the writing circle colleague off about any surprise development in the excerpt, reducing the value of having it read.

ETA: my writers circle limits our submissions to <5,000 words - could the problem be that I need a different type of review community that would be willing to evaluate larger submissions?

I've only belonged to one back in the late 1990s, but my experience was that they're only as good as the members that make them up. The emphasis was heavy on writing for eventual publishing, and some of the members were very good at what they were doing (one had a stage play and two American Civil War novels published since then).

They tended to grind to a halt when people attended who wrote for therapeutic reasons and had no interest in improving their craft (which was frustrating because one guy had potential as a decent fantasy writer, but he never failed in hammering his message home with all the subtlety of an air raid). That and the people writing non-fiction. Hearing people read chapters of their ongoing novel - serial style - is one thing. Having to listen for 90 minutes about the history of kabuki theater every Sunday is quite another.

As long as they're giving constructive criticism, I'm all for them. I've always been good at dialogue and description, but my story-craft itself was something I got a lot of help with in the one I attended.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

My writer's critique group taught me how to write but I have to agree with Polaris, "they're only as good as the members." I so lucked out ending up in a group with a strong leader that is as insightful as hell when it comes to critique.

 

[Polaris]

My writer's critique group taught me how to write but I have to agree with Polaris, "they're only as good as the members." I so lucked out ending up in a group with a strong leader that is as insightful as hell when it comes to critique.

My group was as much social as it was critical - we sampled beers and liquors and politics as much as we did writing. At one point we made hand-pressed pear cider in an old (1800s) press with only a little bit of wasp innards. There was a camaraderie that helped a great deal with a complete lack of hard feelings.

One of the members - Pete - was a door gunner on a Vietnam War "little bird" helicopter who crashed in the Mekong with his intestines hanging out. He based a lot of his stories not on himself but on the medic who pulled him out and patched him up and had psychological issues (he once hid under a table at a Vietnamese restaurant) to the present day (1990s still). He was a really good guy, but he had major issues with the director of the published play of the group member mentioned before.* Pete hated Cormac Macarthy ("That master-of-the-run-on-sentence son of a bitch", he called him). Which was unfortunate, because I think he was afraid of accusations of imitation, and he dialed it back and eventually quit to my knowledge. [His recurring character, Burwood the psycho, was a modern-day version of
Barney Fife with an obsession with cavity searches, even for stuff as minor as littering].

*Pete and the director got into a fight in front of the rest of the cast and crew over the position of a door. The director said, and I quote, "I am the director, and I will put the ******* door wherever the **** I want." So the director fired him and put a mediocre actor in his place as the lead.

I don't know whatever happened to Pete after that. But h

e was always at the group before that point, and he always had excellent, diplomatic criticism until he left.

Character matters a lot in writers' groups is my point.

ETA: Deleted my premise and basis for my current novel - I'll reveal it after my first draft is done.

 

[Ian Osborne]

Interesting thoughts on why you shouldn't quote lyrics in a novel here. I have a little Robbie Williams quoted in mine. I'd better take it out before seeking a publisher.

 

[Ian Osborne]

I'm now overhauling my novel with a final edit, getting it ready to send to publishers and agents. So the next thing I post here will probably read, 'rejected again!'

 

[Polaris]

Anybody here ever tried writing from the viewpoint of animals? Most of my current novel's major characters are wild animals, and I have a system I've been using based on the numbers of words they can speak to each other, which is influenced by how much time they've spent around humans. For instance, the protagonist - a mountain lion - only speaks in two word sentences, while another prominent character, this time a turkey vulture, can do four words.

I'm aiming to keep the anthropomorphism to a minimum, since there's really no way to avoid it altogether.

Not really looking for advise so much, just some discussion.

 

[blutoski]

Interesting thoughts on why you shouldn't quote lyrics in a novel here. I have a little Robbie Williams quoted in mine. I'd better take it out before seeking a publisher.

This is also mentioned in Sandra Newman's [How Not to Write a Novel], although in the context of "write your own damn prose, don't borrow from Dylan and say that's what the characters are thinking too"

 

[RoseMontague]

Published novel #4 back in October as well as a little short story I wrote for Halloween. Sales are going pretty well, it's my best book yet. I'm working on the next one, just a couple of chapters written so far.