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Post by James on Jun 8, 2015 17:01:13 GMT -5
I think I've started doing what you've described with this short story, Pete. So we can both give it a try.
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Post by Kaez on Jun 8, 2015 20:06:25 GMT -5
I think I've started doing what you've described with this short story, Pete. So we can both give it a try. Oh, very cool. Update me on how you feel about it once you're further along. |
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Post by The Counter Cultist(Sawyer) on Jun 9, 2015 0:32:06 GMT -5
Alternatively post it somewhere more personal like a blog. Which you should have anyway if you plan to self-publish. Finally took this bit of advice. thecountercultist.wordpress.com/Mentioned you guys too, not that there are any viewers to see it. Yet.EDIT: Also I like that idea of yours Pete, I've been thinking about giving it a go too. I'll share anything I come up with. |
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Post by Kaez on Jun 9, 2015 11:09:51 GMT -5
The picture on the blog should be a picture of you, if you're doing the blog for professional purposes.
If I see a blog with an anime face, I immediately cease to take it seriously.
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Post by The Counter Cultist(Sawyer) on Jun 9, 2015 12:09:20 GMT -5
The picture on the blog should be a picture of you, if you're doing the blog for professional purposes. If I see a blog with an anime face, I immediately cease to take it seriously. Point well made, all of the pics I can use were self-taken however and pretty meh. I've got a few photographer friends who can get me a professional looking picture though, just need to hear back from them. In the meantime I'll scan my phone/Facebook profile and look for a halfway decent placeholder. |
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Post by ASGetty ((Zovo)) on Jun 9, 2015 13:56:42 GMT -5
The picture on the blog should be a picture of you, if you're doing the blog for professional purposes. If I see a blog with an anime face, I immediately cease to take it seriously. Point well made, all of the pics I can use were self-taken however and pretty meh. I've got a few photographer friends who can get me a professional looking picture though, just need to hear back from them. In the meantime I'll scan my phone/Facebook profile and look for a halfway decent placeholder. Not to be "that guy" but the whole reason it's suggested that you have a blog if you want to publish is because it allows a publisher to get to know you a little better. As a result, it -might- behoove you to be a little more professional on the blog; a little less fuck this, god damned that, etc. If you're trying to be recognized as a writer, you might try a method which exemplifies an ability to be a little more articulate that using profanity to fill out every fourth sentence. |
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Post by Matteo ((Taed)) on Jun 9, 2015 20:17:03 GMT -5
I was writing up some reviews for the two books I've finished so far this month, and god damn, apparently I have a lot to say about Flex. I've probably written twice as many words devoted to Ferrett Steinmetz as I have for Mikhail freaking Lermontov.
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Post by James on Jun 9, 2015 20:43:43 GMT -5
I was writing up some reviews for the two books I've finished so far this month, and god damn, apparently I have a lot to say about Flex. I've probably written twice as many words devoted to Ferrett Steinmetz as I have for Mikhail freaking Lermontov. Well, I'm intrigued. |
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Post by James on Jun 11, 2015 23:29:13 GMT -5
I think I've started doing what you've described with this short story, Pete. So we can both give it a try. I don't like it. It's really unnerving. Like, I think I'm going to forget to go back and edit it, and so this rubbish will be the final product? Which obviously won't happen, but... I'm not sure I have the right mindset for this approach. |
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Post by Kaez on Jun 11, 2015 23:37:35 GMT -5
I think I've started doing what you've described with this short story, Pete. So we can both give it a try. I don't like it. It's really unnerving. Like, I think I'm going to forget to go back and edit it, and so this rubbish will be the final product? Which obviously won't happen, but... I'm not sure I have the right mindset for this approach. The idea I had was definitely to try to keep my focus and mindset on plot and story for the first write, and try to put the quality of writing entirely out of my mind. |
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Post by James on Jun 11, 2015 23:46:00 GMT -5
I don't like it. It's really unnerving. Like, I think I'm going to forget to go back and edit it, and so this rubbish will be the final product? Which obviously won't happen, but... I'm not sure I have the right mindset for this approach. The idea I had was definitely to try to keep my focus and mindset on plot and story for the first write, and try to put the quality of writing entirely out of my mind. It's that latter part I'm actually finding really hard to do. If it reaches a certain level of okay-ness I'm fine (this isn't great, but I can fix it up in editing). But writing essentially a bare-bone first draft without any flourishes of writing leaves me thinking "this is terrible and might be too much to fix up". I think the issue is that good writing is one part of a good story (with plot, story, characters, etc as the rest). And I can't judge how good something is without having every part being at least a halfway decent level. I'm not seeing the story I'm writing; I'm seeing a summary. It's kind of hard to explain. |
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Post by Kaez on Jun 12, 2015 8:20:47 GMT -5
The idea I had was definitely to try to keep my focus and mindset on plot and story for the first write, and try to put the quality of writing entirely out of my mind. It's that latter part I'm actually finding really hard to do. If it reaches a certain level of okay-ness I'm fine (this isn't great, but I can fix it up in editing). But writing essentially a bare-bone first draft without any flourishes of writing leaves me thinking "this is terrible and might be too much to fix up". I think the issue is that good writing is one part of a good story (with plot, story, characters, etc as the rest). And I can't judge how good something is without having every part being at least a halfway decent level. I'm not seeing the story I'm writing; I'm seeing a summary. It's kind of hard to explain. Hmm. Interesting. I think your best bet is probably to go ahead and do the second run on what you've written so far and see how the end result looks. If you've written something good after all of that, I think you'll have all the confidence you need in the future. If it isn't, maybe this method's no good. |
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Post by James on Jun 14, 2015 18:31:26 GMT -5
So this is something I was going to talk about at Inklings, but since we went rather off-writing track, we never got around to it.
Novels vs short stories? What do you like/want to/currently write?
I've always envisioned writing novels. While I want to experiment with novellas and novelettes as new forms for the "internet generation", I never really thought I'd be a short story writing. I tend to read novels (I have to make an effort to read short stories) and I've always planned on writing novels.
For me, short stories are kind of a training ground. I wrote Phantoms and realised that while the entire book was rubbish, the second half was less crap than the first half. I was improving and figured if I wrote another novel, that same thing would happen and leave me sort of caught in a hamster wheel. So I focussed on short stories for the last few years to improve my writing before making another novel attempt.
Except, in the last year, I kind of got caught in the race to get publish. I've been writing short stories with an eye on publication and suddenly I wasn't even thinking about novels. And I only noticed this in the last few months.
With this in mind, I thought about how I often find myself rushing things to make stories fit within word limits and how that's been picked up a few times by people like Pete and Zovo. Also, while I'm learning a lot from writing short stories, I'm not necessarily improving my sense of pacing or anything. Finally, I enjoy telling the longer stories; those are the things I want to write. That's the key thing. What do I enjoy writing? Yes, I like -finishing- lots of short stories, but often I'm cutting things I'd really like to write to make sure they fit the form.
So while I'm still going to write the odd short story, I think I'm going to spend a lot more of my writing time with the longer forms (novels, novellas, novelettes). The only thing I'm worried about is that sense of accomplishment/progression. With a short story, you get the buzz of a finished product in a short amount of time. I haven't had to work for something long-term for a while now, I'm a little concerned I'll get disheartened by not feeling like I'm making "progress".
So, over to the forum: do you guys like to write "short fiction" or are you wanting to write longer stuff? What are your thoughts about the whole thing? I'm definitely interested if there's anybody who actually wants to write "short fiction" in favour of novels.
Also, what do you guys think about the relevance of novellas and novelettes in the internet age? I know I've been saying this for a while now, but I feel like a series of novelettes like the Sherlock Holmes story is perfect for the internet generation. Something you can read in a sitting or two, but still providing a little more heft than just a short story.
Also, here's an intriguing thought. Do you think the old WoW Roleplays have influenced your writing toward the longer form? Our big RPs were all novel-length in scope.
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Post by James on Jun 17, 2015 15:34:20 GMT -5
So I've been pretty quiet on the subject of The Selfie of Dorian Gray, and I haven't been writing anything for it lately. But I am thinking about it a fair bit and I've got a question for people who have read or remembered it.
I'm thinking of pulling away from the text way more than I am currently. In Inklings, we discussed how it seems to work best when I'm not trying to stick to the original. My original plan was to basically follow the story's plot the whole way through (Dorian's descent, travel, Basil's death, etc). I'm now thinking of pulling way back from that and writing a far more original script which pulls from the central element, but has a lot more freedom.
Good idea? Bad idea?
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Post by ASGetty ((Zovo)) on Jun 17, 2015 15:52:06 GMT -5
So I've been pretty quiet on the subject of The Selfie of Dorian Gray, and I haven't been writing anything for it lately. But I am thinking about it a fair bit and I've got a question for people who have read or remembered it. I'm thinking of pulling away from the text way more than I am currently. In Inklings, we discussed how it seems to work best when I'm not trying to stick to the original. My original plan was to basically follow the story's plot the whole way through (Dorian's descent, travel, Basil's death, etc). I'm now thinking of pulling way back from that and writing a far more original script which pulls from the central element, but has a lot more freedom. Good idea? Bad idea? No way to tell without trying it. What I will say is you've got over 100 years of distance between the original story and your adaptation. The world has changed immensely in that time. To write a modern story constrained by the rules of the world a century ago will create a narrative disconnect I think. Take the basic premise and follow it to it's logical narrative conclusion as determined by today's standards and rules; both social and physical. Throw in nods to the source material when appropriate, but don't stress about sticking to it. Things may turn out very different for a modern Dorian. |
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