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How best to set goals for annual performance reviews? At my company, we have annual performance reviews and also a process where we set goals for the year. When it comes time to set goals, we are expected to create them on our own. I'd like to use them when the performance review comes around as something to point to and say "see, I did important and valuable things, give me a raise/promotion". However, I don't see how I can do this if I'm just making my own goals and I can't get any input on what management thinks is important to focus on. I've tried expressing this multiple times to multiple managers, but they always say they'll get back to me and then seem to forget the conversation ever happened, even when I bring it up multiple times. I guess what I'm struggling with is my goal is "become a more valuable employee so my salary goes up", but the "more valuable" part is up to them to decide, and I cannot get any guidance on what I should be doing to achieve that. Last year I was told to create three goals: One that was not work related just to improve myself as a person (example was to take up painting if you're a technical person), One to make myself more valuable to the team (I think the example was to learn a new skill) One to make the team more valuable to the company (such as improving a process) Even if I do the first one perfectly, obviously I'm not going to get a raise or promotion if I stuck to my new painting hobby or whatever. Maybe it will improve my performance indirectly by making me more well-rounded, but it's worth nothing on its own. The last "goal" is really just fishing for ideas, because I have no control over what the group does. My "goal" for that this year was for our group to spend more time getting feedback from our users on applications we develop, which everyone agreed was a good idea, but I doubt anybody did it and it's not like I can force them to. The middle goal is the only one possibly relevant to judging my performance and value, but even then, if my manager doesn't think what I picked is worth a raise then I'm still stuck. If I were in a position like sales, then it'd be easy to come up with goals we both value, but as a software developer, it's less clear. Even when I suggest specific goals, I can't get feedback on them, and they get ignored at review time. So how do I use this process to help me get promotions and raises? Am I being unreasonable in expecting guidance from management in creating my goals? Am I completely missing the purpose of setting annual goals and I need to think about this whole thing differently? <Q> I can't get any input on what management thinks is important to focuson. <S> I've tried expressing this multiple times to multiple managers,but they always say they'll get back to me and then seem to forget theconversation ever happened, even when I bring it up multiple times. <S> The annual performance review that many large organizations go through <S> are almost universally loathed by all save for the HR department and a few high-level but out-of-touch execs. <S> This tiresome grind is tolerated annually because it's seen as the means for giving people raises and bonuses in a way that appears objective and "by the book". <S> If your managers are like most, they've already decided how to cut their bonus pie for distribution among their staff and have some raises in mind. <S> They almost certainly have NO expectations about each person's "SMART" goals, any of which could vaporize in seconds as new priorities slide into place several times throughout the next year. <S> That's why they're not eager to discuss these things. <S> The best thing you can do as an employee is to keep in touch with your boss throughout the year, share goals, discuss performance and expectations frequently-- <S> not just just during annual review. <S> That's what really matters. <S> The annual review is just one of the necessary evils of working in a large org. <S> If your boss cannot shield you from the searing banality of the process, then you'll have to go through motions of it. <S> allow your boss to edit/change as needed and move on with your life and job. <A> Build your goals around the SMART model. <S> Specific, Measurable, Achieveable, Relevant and Tmely. <S> Look for a small number of goals - if you turn up with a list of 10 different goals, you'll miss most of them. <S> Three is good - maybe one Professional, one Company based, and one Personal (oops - I've just seen that they've asked you to do that... <S> I'll carry on anyway). <S> Specific <S> : Make the goal a very specific item that you can tick off; e.g 'Become certified in Blue Widgets'. <S> Measureable: 'Pass the Blue Widgets Advanced Practitioner Exam' Achievable: 'I already have the 'BW Associate certificate', so I can do this with only 40 more hours of studying Relevant: If you work with Blue Widgets, it's relevant. <S> i.e, don't study for the Yellow Widgets exam just because it's there. <S> Timely <S> : Set a date by when you'll have this done - e.g <S> ' <S> In three months'. <S> For a Company based goal, you're looking at skills that will help you get to the next level; e.g 'Take on a project which involves management of three people'. <S> For a personal goal, they don't really want to know that you're good at painting. <S> Look for something which will translate across - e.g take a course on public speaking, and present a talk on painting to a local Women's Institute, or similar - that will show that you can talk to groups, and you have good communication skills. <A> Not sure why your management does not become invested in this rather common process. <S> So perhaps asking a more senior employee who goes through this same routine for their advice would help. <S> Create a file folder and email folder labeled as Kudos or some such. <S> How well you do over the course of a year is something to be recording over the entire year. <S> Don't pencil whip your year in review. <S> Make it as detailed as you can. <S> If they don't read it all, that is on them (leading horse and water issue). <S> If you have a personal review session with your manager, then reference specific items from your detailed review. <S> If your company has sponsored volunteer programs like Habitat for Humanity, then use those programs for your personal development. <S> Oftentimes, upper management also participates. <S> So make those valuable contacts while also contributing to your community and company image. <S> Taking more responsibility rather than waiting for it to be assigned is also something to consider. <S> Rarely will promotions come to those who wait, grab opportunities when they are available. <S> Specifically as a software developer, there are always other skills to learn. <S> Find sources of good "stuff" and share them around. <S> Depending on why your company doesn't value your contributions is very important. <S> If they are more of a sweatshop, polish up your resume (should always do this annually and best if done at review time when it is fresh in you mind). <S> Then see what other opportunities are available. <S> Most large jumps in salary do not take place in your present employment, but rather when changing companies. <A> First and foremost we need to make the goals SMART. <S> In terms of what the goals should be this is very business-specific. <S> In some businesses that are heavily KPI driven this can be quite easy. <S> However, if there is no real KPI other than "be better" you could look at pyramiding the goals. <S> Essentially this requires looking at your own goals, projects, business developments. <S> Then look at what units of work are required to achieve that. <S> You should be looking at using those to form at least 50% of your team's goals. <S> This ensures that individuals goals are contributing toward the department and companies goals and are not just "learn X because I fancy the look of it". <S> For the other half of their goals, usually centred around personal development try and tie it to a deliverable, for example, attend a course to learn a skill and action it in a particular upcoming project.
| In writing performance reviews and performance goals, the general advice I received over the years is to focus on items which improve your value to the company and contribute to the overall company's performance. Just pick sufficiently vague and easy to hit "SMART" goals Save items which document how you have contributed. They should have an explicit completion date and a black and white, yes or no way of measuring if it was achieved.
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How to professionally decline a promotion when I want to quit? I've been offered a promotion as several people have left/will be leaving. I've been looking for other jobs and have asked for some time to think it over. Unfortunately, I'll have to give an answer before the interviews have been completed. Although I like the manager, I can no longer see myself remaining at the company, unless the salary is at £X. How do I professionally decline the promotion? Although I could accept it and continue searching, I find it a tad unprofessional and it triples the notice period, which is unattractive to other companies. <Q> There is no reason you can't request the salary desired and the reduction of the notice period in order to accept the promotion. <S> You don't need to explain or justify your salary request - <S> although obviously if you can show it is in line with industry standards and further support your claim with examples of the work you have done to deserve it, you have a greater chance of success. <S> Equally you don't need to mention you're already on the lookout for a new role - long notice periods can be considered unreasonable even by people who love their job and never intend to leave. <S> If your employer is unable to meet your request you can decline the promotion. <S> There is more to life and work than salary and titles. <S> Its perfectly acceptable to say something like <S> "I appreciate and am honoured by your offer and the faith you have shown in me, however I'm afraid, in this instance, <S> I don't feel this is the right move at the right time for me career-wise". <S> Your boss may read between the lines and see he/she needs to meet your conditions of they want to keep you. <S> Otherwise, everything goes on as normal. <S> Nothing unprofessional or underhand about any aspect of it. <S> This is just business - you need to do what's best for you and get the best deal you can. <A> and have asked for some time to think it over. <S> Unfortunately, I'll have to give an answer before the interviews have been completed. <S> No you don't, you can continue procrastinating indefinitely or until they have someone to take the job. <S> Do not think they're not looking for someone, they would be silly not to. <S> The implication when you asked for time is already that you're looking elsewhere. <A> You say: "I will only be able to accept the promotion if the salary is at <S> £X" <S> The ball is on their side then. <S> Also, they will probably need some time to discuss that, which will give you time to interview at other companies.
| Explain, in a professional manner, that you would require X salary to accept the role and that you find the extended notice period to be unacceptable since it effectively seeks to curtail (or at least hamper), your career and future employment prospects.
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Accepted job offer but did poorly on assessment test I was interviewed by a company and was offered a job. I accepted the job offer and salary and the starting date was also agreed upon. The HR person present during the interview told me that they will take an assessment test before an actual job contract can be signed and that this test was an important part of their recruitment decision. However, the manager who interviewed me implied that the test is just a formality. I don't remember his exact words but he said something on the lines that the test is not that big of a deal and if you do verbally accept the offer, then you will get the job. I just gave the assesment test and i think i did poorly. It was much harder than i expected. What are the chances that they rescind the offer based on my poor performance in the test? Can they do this after the verbal job agreement? <Q> I would wait and see what happens. <S> An offer was made to you, and you don't know yet the outcome of the online test. <A> I just gave the assesment test <S> and i think i did poorly. <S> It was much harder than i expected. <S> What are the chances that they rescind the offer based on my poor performance in the test? <S> We can not know the answer to this question, because we don't know the company you applied at or how their internal recruitment processes work. <S> Anything we could say about this topic is pure speculation based on third hand information. <S> Can they do this after the verbal job agreement? <S> In most jurisdictions, verbal contracts are binding under most conditions. <S> But in practice a verbal agreement is worth as much as the paper it is written on. <S> It is pretty easy to get away with violating a verbal agreement simply by disputing what was actually said. <A> However, the manager who interviewed me implied that the test is just a formality. <S> I don't remember his exact words <S> but he said something on the lines that the test is not that big of a deal <S> and if you do verbally accept the offer, then you will get the job. <S> There's two ways he can have meant that - either that they view the test as generally being easy and people rarely fail it, or that he doesn't particularly care about the results of the test and having you take it is more in the nature of a box-ticking exercise than anything else. <S> Obviously we can't know for sure what they were thinking, but unless you and the potential employer have wildly different ideas about the expected skill level for this role I'd be inclined to think the latter is more likely. <S> What are the chances that they rescind the offer based on my poor performance in the test? <S> Can they do this after the verbal job agreement? <S> Verbal employment contracts are binding in Finland ( <S> well, as much any he-said she-said ever is I suppose) - but the conditional nature of the offer was pretty clear. <S> I'm not completely au fait with Finnish rules around this <S> but I'd be surprised if conditional offers weren't a thing. <S> I just gave the assesment test <S> and i think i did poorly. <S> It was much harder than i expected. <S> I've had ones where I've felt like a complete failure for not finishing only to subsequently discover that no-one is expected to finish <S> and I've actually gotten further than most! <S> So really it doesn't matter how you think you did compared to your own expectations <S> it only matters how you did compared to their expectations - and even then that only applies where they actually care about how well you did. <S> Which in this case it sounds as though they might not really give it that much weight.
| The thing with assessments given before a job is that unlike tests and exams you might encounter in an academic setting you often have no real gauge of what "doing well" means - and that can mean you think you did horribly when the reverse is true.
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Telling my coworker who does the rostering that once again she has put me on a night I can't work I work casual, and I also volunteer once a week on Tuesday nights. I have volunteered longer than I have worked in my current occupation, and everyone I work with knows that I volunteer. I told my coworker, at the workplace where I work causal, who does the rosters that I am able to work Tuesday nights provided she discusses it with me first in case I am in charge of what is happening at my volunteering that night. I tell her this over and over again, and she's good for about a month and then goes back to just rostering me on and I once more have to remind her of my previous commitments. I'm sick of having to tell her. Other casuals have asked for specific nights off, and we're pretty lucky that none of us clash with nights off that we want, but they very rarely are asked to work the nights that they want off so I know it's not just that she is forgetful. Maybe I'm being paranoid or judgmental, but I constantly feel like I'm treated like crap because I'm the youngest on the team by a lot, and also my parents left with bad blood from the same company and they're taking out their frustration for that on me. So what can I say to her that might make it actually stick that I need to be asked prior to working Tuesday nights? <Q> Making your availability dependent on the scheduler talking to you is the sort of thing that can easily be forgotten. <S> You ask for a way to change her behavior. <S> Changing someone else's behavior is often harder than doing something different yourself. <S> One option is to never be available on Tuesday. <S> If most of your colleagues can get the nights off they need, the scheduler probably has some system for tracking those nights, and will be able to apply it to your solid, unchanging Tuesday unavailability. <S> If that is not practical, be proactive rather than asking her to take the initiative. <S> You know roughly when she prepares the roster - it is when she asks those months she does ask. <S> A day or two before then, check your Tuesday night plans, and notify her if you will not be available. <A> I'd suggest you make the default assumption as that you're NOT available on Tuesdays. <S> i.e. rather than "I am able to work Tuesday nights <S> provided she discusses it with me first", communicate it as "I am not able to work Tuesday nights unless ...". <S> They're logically equivalent, but by starting from the position of "not available unless", it perhaps helps to communicate the intent more clearly. <S> That way, if it does cause a problem, you can say "I already told you I'm not available on Tuesday nights". <S> You could also pro-actively communicate when there are Tuesday nights where you can be available. <S> "Although I'm not generally available on Tuesday nights, feel free to schedule me for Tues XX Sept or Tues <S> YY Sept if required", again starting from the position of general unavailability and presenting these cases that don't cause a scheduling conflict as an exception. <S> The gentle reminder each month of your unavailability is then always accompanied by an offer of flexibility. <A> When does she prepare the roster? <S> If you know in advance when she is going to do it <S> (e.g. "every first tuesday of the month"), you can send her a reminder the day before. <S> Dear X, As you'll be preparing the roster for next month tomorrow, I'd like to let you know that I won't be available on the night of Tuesday the Yth. <S> All other dates are fine. <S> Let me know if you have any questions or issues. <S> Put yourself in her shoes: it's time-consuming to start preparing a roster (using whatever rules are in effect), find out that X is scheduled for A and Y for B <S> and they said that maybe there might be an issue, then ask each of those, then when she gets an answer go back to the roster to fix it, then find out that now Z is scheduled for C which may be an issue, and so on. <S> You may not even be available at the time she asks, which means delays in preparing the roster, which may have an impact on operations or everybody else's planning. <S> If she has all the information upfront, she can use it at once and not lose time (neither hers nor yours) with a lot of back-and-forth. <S> Depending on the tools used (even if it's as simple as a sheet of paper!), making an annotation on the relevant dates would probably be the easiest and most practical way for her to do her job and respect your needs. <A> Next time it happens, go back to them and remind them " As they know you are not available to be rostered on those shifts. <S> Please remember that when doing the rosters. <S> " Don't leave the option to be able to be rostered for that shift. <S> Make sure you say this in person and follow up with a email. <S> That way when they try next time, they won't have an excuse. <S> You now have ammo if they try again. <S> Which you can take to your bosses boss. <S> Etc.
| Use whatever is the normal informal but written communication path, such as e-mail or a sticky note on her desk. Or even better, tell her about your unavailabilities for the upcoming roster at that time: You may want to talk to the other staff letting them know that although you normally can't work that shift, if they would like to swap a shift, come and talk to you in person , because you may be able to do it, and want to support the team.
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How to prepare team for layoff? Our team consists of about 15 developers, we basically act as in house dev ops and think tank for our company. Our performance was fine until recently, but slowly it started to decline, and so did our creative resources. Whoever had potential to get promoted or refresh their skills did so a long time ago, when management warned team about our lack of a future. Our team is comprised of senior developers who specialize in technology that is no longer used actively by our company. In other words, this team is no longer required and I've been tasked with laying off the team, this is the first time I got tasked with handling a layoff. How do I prepare the team for lay off? Additional details: Team is not fired because of age, it is just that there is correlation that older devs were more likely to refuse retraining and were less enthusiastic to pursue promotion. Technologies listed are obsolete in company context, our c/c++ and java codebase became so small that it is not worth to maintain in house team. These people are already de-facto fired, "preparing for layoff" is in context of cushioning backlash and negative publicity for company. And also making fired employees less dissatisfied. <Q> Be prepared for an emotional situation. <S> While these people may no longer have value at your company, they do have value -- remember that . <S> I would suggest that you state something like: <S> Sadly your services are not longer required here. <S> We will do whateverwe can to make your transition into the next phase of your career aspainless as possible. <S> Also, be sure to have the following prepared for them: <S> Unemployment benefits Letter of Recommendation <S> Details of their severance package ( if they get one ) <S> Resources for them to get training Appropriate employment resources ( job boards, etc. ) <S> Again, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to be compassionate about this situation . <S> Besides family, a career is typically the most important thing in a person's life. <A> But also – "if you have spent any time at all in this business, you have been laid-off before." <S> (And, you have learned to "bounce.") <S> Me? <S> "Thirty-five years, eight layoffs (so far). <S> " <S> Never a serious problem. <S> ("Hey, it's business ... too bad for you that you screwed-up yours!") <S> "But seriously ..." although there's nothing pleasant about informing someone that, as of today, they no longer have a job due to no fault of their own, the best thing to do is to "cling to professionalism." <S> The circumstances that now face both of you are entirely external(!) <S> to both of you. <S> Try to remember that. <S> And – most likely – "this won't be the first time." <S> For either of you. <A> There's really no way to prepare them that hasn't already been done from the sound of it. <S> Key things are to communicate as quickly as possible and to emphasise this is due to the technology they are working on. <S> Check out company policy on recommendations whether formally or informally <S> e.g. <S> "We're letting you go, the Company will give you a reference <S> and i'll be happy to recommend you on <S> Linked In". <S> Finally give them time and space <S> - don't make the announcement at 0900 and expect a days work from them, even if expected it's still a shock - let them go home once you've told them (and offer them a cab paid by the company!). <S> Good luck!
| I would suggest that you do not go into the specifics as to why they are being laid off -- it simply doesn't matter at this point. Are there still opportunities to retrain, if so you can remind them of that.
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Switching from software developer to infosec/pentester About a week ago I had a chance to observe the workflow and talk with team of incredibly talented and young hackers,they were pentesting our system and dug up 4 security holes within a day.What I saw was nothing less than awe-instilling,their skillset was extremely broad and varied, it included reverse engeneering, packet analysis and what not.I was greatly inspired to set up myself to change my career, however there is one bigproblem, I already am in my mid 20s, and they were no older than 21 with youngest member being 19.At my age is it still possible to make such a dramatic career jump orI should just stick to safer path ?What will be long term development and consequences ? <Q> I would suggest to plan this out throughly. <S> While mid 20s are not old, you are old enough that your career decisions are slowly setting in stone. <S> You will spend a lot of time on training for new stuff and do you really want to spend your precious time on preparing to start from zero instead of furthering your existing career ? <S> By the time you retrain and start getting experience you will also have age playing against you. <S> It may look cool from side (grass is greener i guess) but is fiddling with wireshark sustainable say at 35 ? <S> Pentesting is field with clear experience ceiling, how different is 5 and 10 year experience ? <S> There are diminishing returns at play. <S> Stuff like this is young mans game and <S> if I was you I would leave it like that. <S> This is my honest, objective view. <S> As for infosec, I lean towards Mathews comment, go for middle ground, infosec has larger overlap with coding so you won't be starting from zero. <A> It is entirely possible. <S> That's not to say it's easy. <S> It will take a considerable amount of dedication to pull it off, and depending on your personal circumstances will be easier for some than others. <S> A 30 year old with 2 kids and a spouse, a heavy mortgage and debt is possibly going to find the transition harder than a single person who can tighten the wallet a little bit. <S> What you have to figure about yourself is: Are you ready to put in the work to make it happen? <S> You will be taking on an entirely new skillset, and your ramp-up time will (be necessity) be much shorter than someone expected to be more junior. <S> It is an in-demand skillset, and it's a challenging field to break into. <S> It can also be very rewarding. <S> Your age and current skillset is not in your way. <A> You do not mention in detail the skills you already have, so it is a bit hard to guess what you would need. <S> Nonetheless, and as you noted, the skills of hackers vary greatly. <S> Some people have only have a knowledge of unix systems, other are hardcore .NET <S> Windows programmers, some of them may not even know how to program properly. <S> Some are good doing reverse engineering, others would not do that at all (or maybe could, but would prefer not to). <S> Yes, you could do such move. <S> Your software developer experience would probably help there, and if you have some Comp Science studies that could be useful, too (even though there are also people in that industry without degrees). <S> I would recommend you to get some infosec course, such as one from SANS . <S> Even if you didn't end up completely changing your career, it should be somewhat useful, it wouldn't be a complete wasteful effort. <S> Also note, there are all kinds of people on this industry. <S> Those you met were awe-instilling, <S> some other people/companies have quite-limited skills (although they may sell themselves as semi-gods). <S> Similarly for the courses. <S> I have seen infosec courses with many people, and the expectation that they would be complete hackers as they finished. <S> Which wouldn't be the case. <S> Some people showed a lack of the required skills at the end, even if they passed the different subjects. <S> You can teach packet analysis <S> (in fact, I would expect it as part of Networking 101), but that's quite different than getting people to <S> understand what is being done, or how it can be useful in a more complex setup in the future...
| I would say that the main characteristic is being curious, and investigating how things work, which could then lead to results like those (or not, they might not have found any hole, too). You are not old at all to do that.
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I've given a very simple coding task but I'm not quite getting what asked, how to be more effective/efficient? I'm leading a small subproject in my company, and I've never lead any project before in my career and this miniproject according to my manager is supposed to be an exercise on leadership. I did a task breakdown and assigned them. One of these tasks was of the form Develop a function/API with signature Output functionName(Input1,Input2) , the function should perform TaskX Where TaskX was described pretty much in detail. It was pretty clear and direct and also quite self contained. I got delivered however quite a big class where the requested API was essentially a member function of a class, the class had also data members that are not really useful for sake of the function itself (for example it has a completely useless viewer for sake of the function). I did the code review and I was trying to explain how I would've done it, including code snippets (which were like 20/30 lines of code) this also included the body of the function. For some reason, not quite clear to me, I keep getting delivered a big class whose feature and implementation I don't think are entirely correct, but that's not the point. The point is that if I wanted to use that member function I had to instantiate quite a big object which doesn't make much sense. So to me the goal of the task hasn't be achieved, and I've tried to talk through exactly what I want and why but somehow I still keep getting resistance. Also bear in mind given how short the function was I was expecting this to be done in at most three days (and this was an over-estimate since the function at the end was really short in terms of code) but it's been two weeks now. The reason for taking this long it's because together with the actual meat of the task I'm getting a whole class, as described, and a few scripts and a IDE project which I honestly don't need. The only thing I would physically need is one or two source files. I've already talked about this to my line manager and essentially the only thing I got out of this conversation was that the engineer I'm currently working with has the tendency to overdo things. So my question here is what's the best way to deal with this situation in the future? The only thing I personally thought was to sit next to him and try to walk him through the tasks I assigned to him, but often these conversations drift off to stuff not strictly related to the task (this is probably because I'm too available in giving explanations and this is doing more harm than good). Any advice? (Note: The project is very small it's like three engineers involved, including myself). Update : So despite my code review I was provided again with bloated code. So the technique I have adopted to sort this out was kind of a mixture of a couple of answers I got from here. First of all I explicity asked why I was given so much code given the task. I was given reasons (whether or not I agreed or not it doesn't really matter) but at the end we clarified what was necessary for the task, so at the end I got the 20 lines I thought were necessary. So this sorted out the current task. As an exercise for him however I've assigned to give me some form of design/pseudocode whose implementation would allow to achieve goal the next task. Therefore we had a meeting where we discussed this. The discussion some times tended to drift off to other details (useful to understand but not important from coding point of view), I think this time however I managed to stay on track most of the time. At the end of this meeting I asked the explicit question "how many lines of code do you think you need to implement this?" he explained to me what he had to do in is opinion and this time sounded about right, I've also emphasized many times the minimal code required and I think I was understood this time. <Q> The only thing I personally thought was to sit next to him and try to walk him through the tasks I assigned to him <S> This seems like a good idea to me. <S> It's basically following the principle "Lead by Example" . <S> Of course, the idea is that your team will eventually be able to do things on their own, without you having to sit next to them, but in this case seems that doing this once with this person could help. <S> Try getting with them, and try to do one of the tasks you have assigned them. <S> Share with them your though process, ask them what is their thinking and reasoning, give your feedback, suggestions and corrections, but let them do the coding. <S> After that, let them finish the rest of the tasks on their own, and see how they managed to do so now. <S> Perhaps this person tends to over-complicate things, and what they need is a little bit of guidance to understand and change their ways. <S> but often these conversations drift off to stuff not strictly related to the task (this is probably because I'm too available in giving explanations and this is doing more harm than good). <S> I would not frame this as a conversation ; perhaps that is your mistake and why this deviates. <S> This should be more on the lines of Pair Programming (but, again, let them do the coding and refrain from putting code yourself as much as you can). <S> If you feel this person starts to deviate or to go into details that are not needed, politely put the exercise back on track and refocus on the task at hand. <A> This version does not have to be ready for release, just a correct implementation of the requirements. <S> When that is done, discuss with the engineer what else is needed to make it ready for release. <S> What is the benefit and cost of anything that might be added? <A> This sounds a lot like obfuscation . <S> Obfuscation is a practice, usually employed by developers who are not good at their jobs, whereby they ensure their job security by making their code as hard as possible to understand and work with so that they're the only one who knows how it works. <S> Therefore, if they get fired, the company has to throw out all the work they did and redo it from scratch, because nobody understands what was done. <S> Therefore, they think, they are less likely to get fired, because the overhead cost of replacing them is too high. <S> Here's what you do: If you think a project can be done in 3 days, then you set a deadline of 3 days. <S> That's a KPI for your developer to meet; if they can't get the assignment done in 3 days, then that's a strike against them that you can use on their next performance review. <S> If they don't believe that 3 days is enough time, they can come to you and negotiate the deadline, and at that time you can clarify the requirements with them and make them understand the assignment they are getting is not as big as they think it is, and then if they still try to deliver something really big, you can express to them that their code does not meet specifications. <S> The most important thing to do with a developer who is obfuscating is to not merge their code . <S> The obfuscation scheme fails if their code is prevented from going in production. <S> As a caveat to all of the above : Many languages have "best practices" that look a lot like code obfuscation, <S> e.g. interfaces definitions, lots of configuration overhead, and so on. <S> ; it's possible he is delivering good, clean code up to the standards of the languages/frameworks <S> he's working with, and <S> you're telling him to write bad, hackey code that's hard to maintain, and he's trying to tell you nicely that you're a moron <S> and you're not listening. <S> Keep this in mind with whatever you do. <A> If you have authority, while dealing with this developer, try to implement narrower deadlines and add specific output requirements. <S> Up to the point that you send him a dedicated code editor file, depending on a language you utilize (i.e. *.cs) with structure and "Put code here" in the context <S> This way it would be harder for him to inflate and obfuscate his work. <S> But, if as a result you would get an unacceptable work, you would have something to go to your higher-up with for advice / confirmation of an action required for this developer IMHO, dealing with all kinds of subordinates, is also part of growing in to managerial role where your job is not to do the work, but to distribute assignments and integrate received results in to a final product
| Set your engineer a challenge: Produce the minimal code to meet the requirements. Make sure that you understand the constraints the developer is working under Make sure only clean code goes into production so if this developer leaves the company, you don't get stuck with a ton of tech debt.
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Giving References For New Job I applied for a software developer position and they are asking for references. I finished school not too long ago, and my past experiences are internships, that happened between 1 and 3 years ago. I pretty much lost contact of with all of them, but I'm linked with them on LinkedIn. Do I need to warn my previous employers that I'm using them as references or I can just put their email and phone number that I got from LinkedIn ? <Q> "References" can be a somewhat overloaded term. <S> If they are simply looking for employment verification then you don't need to give anyone a heads up, and they'll be likely talking to a HR person that may not know you anyway. <S> It's not clear if this is the case but <S> kinda sounds like it, if they just want "employer contact information" from all your employers. <S> If they actually want references in the sense of people to talk to about you, then yes you should warn (really, "ask") people you intend to use as references. <S> You also want to choose these people, keeping in mind that people - especially managers - still employed by that company may be constrained from talking about you by HR rules. <S> The best references are those who are prepared and willing to speak positively of you. <S> They don't have to be managers, they could be coworkers... <S> Sometimes the request will specify the kind of references they want (e.g. manager, peer, personal) <S> but if they don't, you get to choose people <S> you think will come across the best. <S> If you're not sure which you need to provide - ask. <A> Do I need to warn my previous employers that I'm using them asreferences <S> or I can just put their email and phone number that I gotfrom LinkedIn ? <S> "Warn" is the wrong term here. <S> Call them and ask their permission to use them as a reference. <S> If they agree to do so, ask then which contact information they wish you to use. <S> Then, if you know, tell them who would be contacting them and when. <A> I can think of no possible scenario in which not contacting someone in advance before using them as a reference is preferable. <S> Remember that someone who is acting as a reference for you is doing you a favour. <S> They are under no obligation to do this for you. <S> This holds true even if they have made a promise in the past to do it. <S> This holds true even if they have given you a blanket permission to use them as your reference at any time you like: in this case you should still contact them in advance to verify their willingness and availability before you put their name down. <S> This has the added advantage of making them aware that someone might be contacting them in the near future so they won't be caught off-guard. <A> If this is in the UK then there are two types of references that companies look for: <S> Personal References Professional References <S> Personal references are when someone tells the company how great a colleague you were and write a small section on what they think things like your strengths and weakness are things like this are done and a personal level and don't really involve the company you worked for. <S> You'll have to personally reach out for these and if there is a refusal there is nothing you can do. <S> In this case it sounds like the company is looking for a professional reference most likely to check that when you say you worked as the CEO of apple then is that actually true. <S> In these cases most companies in the UK will give only a brief and limited reference that states basic stuff like your position, how long you worked, how you left (if you were fired for example) those types of things. <S> I'd check that that's what your company wants and then ask your previous employers if they will allow that. <S> In the UK details of what your rights are for these professional references are detailed here . <S> Note that the company can also refuse to give you a reference and there is nothing you can do about it (unless they are in the financial industry for some reason). <S> If this isn't the UK then then answer is still similar always ask permission first.
| Unless you have already obtained their permission for this specific instance of using them as a reference, you should always contact them to obtain their permission.
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Cost Centre to Profit Centre: How to personally gain I am a Software Engineer in a very Sales focussed company. Software Engineers are Cost Centres, Sales are Profit Centres. A product I built and own now accounts for sizeable chunk of the company's revenue, and by most accounts kept the company running during the initial COVID lockdown. We're talking maybe $1m revenue per month, of which maybe $400k is profit. No Sales people are involved in this product, think of it like something a hedge fund would do. All our Sales people earn bonuses and commissions. Software Engineers do not (higher-up management do get bonuses). How can I argue that I too should be on a bonus/commission scheme (along with all the difficult-to-meet targets that Sales people get). My base salary is quite good but not at FAANG levels. I don't earn 6 figures for example, but not far off. Edit: I'm not asking to get a pay rise, I'm asking to be put on a Bonus scheme. A scheme that no other employees in my group would be on. <Q> How can I argue that I too should be on a bonus/commission scheme(along with all the difficult-to-meet targets that Sales people get). <S> You should come up with targets appropriate to your role, and propose a new (likely much lower) base salary and a commission plan. <S> Make sure that your new scheme is based on future company income that is directly attributable to work you <S> will do in the future, not work you have already done (for which you have already been compensated). <S> Be aware that it is extremely unlikely that you will be granted such a scheme. <S> Companies tend not to create single-person salary and bonus structures. <S> I suspect you are actually looking to be rewarded for your part in creating the existing revenue-producing product. <S> In that case, you would be better off arguing for a one-time bonus, than attempting to change your entire compensation plan. <S> The bonus/reward is far more likely to be achievable. <A> You don't own the product, you created and maintain it for the company, so you have no real leverage except goodwill and what you can do for the company in the future. <S> This is a very normal state of affairs. <S> As Joe said you might be best off asking for a bonus, the company has no incentive to do anything else or even that really. <S> The downside is pushing for extra citing a product the company owns might become a simple business equation that ends with you needing another job. <S> It may come across as blackmail tactics. <S> It's absolutely normal for a company to make money out of their employees work. <A> How to profit from doing excellent work at your job <S> : Ask for a one-time bonus. <S> Leverage the goodwill into a role with higher compensation. <S> Shop around other companies with the accolades pinned on your sleeve. <S> The ambitious usually do all of these. <S> How NOT to profit from the same situation: Extortion. <S> Threats of leaving. <S> Bad mouthing or complaining. <S> I've been where you are. <S> Learn a lesson in how valuable ideas and implementation are and be smart about how you position yourself in similar future situations. <A> Try to manoeuvre yourself into a management position. <S> If your program is as vital to the company as you believe then it may be possible to justify a special layer of management. <S> Ideally this should be functionally similar to your current role but maybe you get put in charge of an intern or something. <S> If you are lucky then you may be asked to write the job description (it happens!) <S> which you should make as specific to yourself as possible. <S> This gives you career progression while also making you eligible for bonuses. <S> Don't talk about bonuses when you negotiate the position... allow them to manifest in due course. <S> I'm not asking to get a pay rise, I'm asking to be put on a Bonus scheme. <S> A scheme that no other employees in my group would be on. <S> This is unrealistic. <S> People are advocating that you try for a pay rise because it doesn't challenge the status quo. <A> It's do able, but it really depends on what you did. <S> If you just wrote the code, or manage the code, but someone else came up with the specifications and idea, then it's not going to work. <S> Engineers think what they do is special, but from a business point of view it is not. <S> Implementing an idea does not make a company money, it is the idea itself that does. <S> Let's say this hedge fund idea is to buy stock at A, and sell at B. <S> That's what makes the money. <S> The actual operations person who puts the various orders in doesn't actually make that much money, the real genius is picking the stock. <S> So. <S> If you're doing engineering work then you're not actually contributing to the money making. <S> You might not be screwing it up - the execution might be sound - <S> but that's just a reason to keep your job. <S> If otoh you are actively seeking out and making improvements /features <S> that themselves make money, then you ARE liable for a bonus. <S> If you are actively bringing in money you can always argue for a cut of it.
| If you came up with the idea, or wrote the specifications that made this product successful, then you can make a strong argument. The easiest way to do this would be to go to a competitor, explain how you can make them money, argue for a bonus scheme, then take that offer back to company
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Is uncertainty about what to work on normal? I work as a Software Engineer. The team has bi-weekly sprints. For the past 2 months sprint planning has been basically impossible to do. The manager himself doesn't know if we're going to start a project the following week or not. I wonder if this is a fairly common occurrence in similar settings or is this a sign of bad management? (the company is medium size - about 300 employees) The manager keeps asking to log our hours... but the engineers don't have much to work on. <Q> Seen it in 4 out of 4 jobs <S> It could be bad management (not necessarily your manager in particular though) or just an uncertain client or an uncertain future for your organization in general. <S> It could also be a general inability to make decisions in your company, so it takes a ton of time to get something done. <S> Humans are finicky and a chain of humans is very unstable and unpredictable. <S> There is uncertainty everywhere. <S> As for the hours, the average office worker workers about 3 hours a day. https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/new-research-most-salaried-employees-only-do-about-3-hours-of-real-work-each-day.html <A> No. <S> You should be told what to do. <S> Your manager is both asking you to work on something ("please log your hours") <S> but you don't know what he expects you to work on. <S> Generally, you would always be doing "something" for the company (otherwise, why is it employing you?). <S> There are cases where there's not much to do (e.g. a helpdesk with no calls), in this case it seems that your company is keeping you awaiting a project which is going to be assigned "shortly". <S> However, the expectation should be clear on what he would like you to do. <S> Some examples include: <S> See if you can help in any way the guys from team B or team C. Watch a conference, read a paper about X Try to learn a new language/technology <S> Do some maintenance on <different project <S> > <S> (e.g. improve the documentation of your previous project, which was not as good as it could have been) <S> Investigate that bug which haunted you on a previous project (like an odd db deadlock) and was worked around badly, since you never figured out why (it may help so that in the future you do not fail for the same trap) <S> Think on a project that could be useful to the company and try developing it (for example, crating a commit hook that checks your internal programming style) <S> As you see, these are things that would give certain value to the company (playing cards with your colleague <S> would probably not make your company too happy). <S> These would generally be short tasks, which don't take much time (given that you may need to stop it whenever you get a new project assigned). <S> I would recommend you to take advantage of this time to do some self-training, which is usually something for which there's never time. <S> Of course, once you figure out what to do, you would then log the hours appropriately, either as specific tasks (e.g. learning Rust, browsing stackoverflow) or generic ones (e.g. trainings). <S> I would recommend you to ask your manager what he expects you to do, and maybe suggest a list of the above possibilities (or make up your mind and actually a specific proposal "since we still don't have a project to do <S> , I thought I could do XYZ which we may find useful later, is it ok?"). <A> I've been in situations like this before, and in various industries. <S> It's a very dangerous place to be in for a worker because you will be judged on what you do with your time. <S> Ensure that what you elect to do with your time is useful to the company (but also make it useful to you in general), and I would run it past your supervisor before embarking on it. <S> As one of the previous posted suggested, there are a number of things you can do. <S> One of the reasons why project teams have senior employees is that they can spot and raise work that needs to be done, get it in to the work queue, and drive the improvement process. <S> It's team work. <S> It's hard to know without full context and knowing your company. <S> Don't forget though, no matter what happens, it's always good to be prepared for the worst. <S> Make sure everything you have is up to date <S> (resume, CV, etc) <S> in case the company is in poor shape, or you decided that being in such a situation just isn't for you. <A> It might be less typical than having too much to do, but it is not unusual in big organizations. <S> It is a bit like standing in the kitchen, giving tasks to two of your kids but not having a sensible task for the third kid at the moment. <S> Just on a corporate level. <S> You might notice the many, many requests about the need to refactor software between the never-ending pressure to produce fancy new features. <S> You are lucky: Now is a good time to do just that. <S> You (and your team) can refactor your previous project(s). <S> So when new feature-requests come in you will be ready to implement them faster than ever before. <S> Your manager might be actually thankful for that suggestion. <S> They can write it down as "necessary maintenance in preparation for further development" and/or cite security aspects of refactoring.
| This could be a sign of a lost product vision, disappointing market sentiment analysis, attempts by the people shaping the work to delay decision making, slow approvals process, lack of priority from the powers that be, or just a slow down.
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How to make a meaningful eye contact with a webcam? Zoom meetings are a new normal in these interesting times. I have been reading on how to make them better. One tip is when you are speaking, to make sure you look into the camera not at your own thumbnail. Trouble is, I find this hard, trying to make a connection with a small round circle in a piece of plastic. However actors do this successfully everyday. Do any SE browsing actors, have any pro tips on making emotional connections with a camera? <Q> Not an actor, but here's what I found useful - making the app window smaller and moving it just below the webcam. <S> My eyes wander less and I can almost trick myself into eye contact with other people's thumbnails. <S> This works best while I'm talking and looking at other participants for reaction. <S> Rest of the time <S> it's still hard to focus on that part of the screen. <S> It gets worse if I'm using laptop and an additional screen, so I tend to turn the additional screen off for important meetings. <A> I got this one from my daughter. <S> tape a couple of fake eyes by the web cam and look at the eyes. <A> I've been working in a remote-friendly environment for about 3 years now & have seen lots of good and bad examples of how to do remote-meetings. <S> When you're in-person for a meeting, eye contact is very important because: If you're the listener, it shows you're paying attention <S> If you're the speaker, it helps you build a connection with your audience <S> Helps <S> you be aware of social nuances (speaker/listeners reactions, interest levels, etc) <S> When you're over Zoom (or any other remote meeting tool), it works a bit different. <S> The goals are the same, but the methods are slightly different. <S> Eye contact is still nice, but it's somewhat expected that you won't be looking directly at your webcam all the time. <S> Instead, here are ways to accomplish the same goals: <S> To show you're paying attention, keep your eyes steady (on the speaker's profile, on the shared screen, etc) and don't aimlessly glance around your screen or at all the attendees. <S> Whenever I'm speaking on online meetings, I can tell who's listening by watching people's eyes. <S> If someone's eyes keep jumping around their screen, they're almost always multi-tasking or simply not paying full attention. <S> To make a connection with your audience/presenter, I'd recommend following @lemon's suggestion of moving the app window to right near the webcam. <S> That will give off the impression that you're truly talking to your audience, rather than simply talking in the general direction of your computer. <S> To be aware of social nuances, DO watch the people who you're talking with. <S> Even remotely, it's surprisingly easy to tell when someone's lips tighten or someone makes an slight facial expression at something you've said. <S> Note that most other suggested answers to this question (such as taping a picture of eyes or a loved one next to your webcam, or a teleprompter) <S> don't allow you to track the social cues from others in the meeting. <S> I think it's EXTRA important to watch for subtle social cues when over Zoom, since it can be harder to see body language. <A> Here's an example of the DIY version , and then there's also lots of commercial stuff like this or that .
| I've seen teleprompters for this use case as well as simple 1-way mirrors that you hang on top of the monitor and covering the webcam, so that you see the person talking on top of the webcam's lens.
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Joining a startup. What should I know? I got an offer from a start-up (in Silicon Valley) which I believe has a really bright future. The team I am going to work with are very talented, and most importantly friendly. I believe I am going to learn a lot from them. This was my first offer and because I have not seen other offers from other companies, I do not know what should I expect. And what is the norm out there. I gradaute in 3 months and will get my PhD. What should I expect from the offer from a startup. Thanks. <Q> Joining a startup. <S> What should I know? <S> Mostly because they're funding mines or selling pipe dreams. <S> Find out about the people who run it is always the best bet. <S> If it's their 7th startup, or they had a fancy job and then suddenly left etc,. <A> Most of the startups are ageist, unless you worm your way to management/shareholder position, you will be laid off and replaced by someone fresher before you reach late 20s. <S> Especially if you are in sillicon valley where age discrimination is basically industry standart. <A> By far the most important thing to know about startups is most of themfail. <S> This is another great answer by Kilisi, but I think it's a bit short on practical advice. <S> Most startups <S> do fail (I think the figure is 9 in 10 - too lazy to look for source for this) and working for the one which doesn't will make you very employable and hopefully moderately wealthy/insanely rich. <S> Deal with those circumstance when they happen, but the chances are it won't <S> and you should plan for this. <S> Working for a startup... <S> Will consume your life. <S> You need to make a real effort to regularlytouch base with family and friends. <S> Probably won't offer much in the way of a pension or (m)any otherbenefits. <S> That's probably ok for a few years at at the younger end oflife <S> *. <S> Probably won't offer you a great salary - instead you're working oncool stuff, and are given stock/options <S> Because of the high chance of failure, you need to plan for when they go bust or just stop paying. <S> Keep outgoings to a minimum. <S> They'll probably expect you to keep working anyway, because all those riches are only 2 months away - You'll be at the sharp end; the code. <S> Is it really 2 months to finish? <S> Don't forget you may not have any customers yet. <S> Remember, your primary duty is to yourself and your family and that's where your loyalty lies, not your employer. <S> Not true at all. <S> The first decade or 2 of pension planning/contributions are the most important. <S> But you won't appreciate that until you're in your 50's.
| By far the most important thing to know about startups is most of them fail.
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What if a company contacts you around your recruiter? A few weeks ago, I was working with a recruiter for a role and right before the last interview, the company canceled and told the recruiter that they hired someone else. Two days later, the company contacted me saying that they were unable to afford to hire me with the recruiter costs. I wished them luck with their new hire and we parted ways. Now, the company contacted me asking if I was still looking for work and if I would want to come in for the final interview. I am still working with the recruiter for other roles and she has been super helpful through the process - Is it wrong to entertain this company's offer? I didn't sign anything with the recruiting agency, so I don't think I could get into any legal trouble... but I feel odd that the company went around the recruiter. Do I tell my recruiter about this right away? I would have to tell her if I took the job because she was working to set me up with another company. Plus, we are connected on LinkedIn - the entire situation a bit uncomfortable. <Q> Is it wrong to entertain this company's offer? <S> To my point of view, this company is acting Unethically. <S> You are right to feel uncomfortable with this situation. <S> Perhaps you can't get into legal trouble as you didn't sign anything, but this company may have signed something with the recruiter, and you would be in the middle... best to cover your back... <S> Do I tell my recruiter about this right away? <S> This is up to you. <S> An alternative approach I can suggest is to reply to them something on the lines of "Hello. <S> Yes, I am available. <S> If you wish so, please contact [recruiter] to inform her <S> and so you can sort the details involved with the contract, etc.. <S> We can then surely agree on a date for the final interview." <S> This way you will be able to probe if their intentions are indeed to skip the recruiter, so you can decide if you are willing to continue the process with this company despite their actions. <S> Another option could be to be honest and straight with your recruiter, and tell her about this situation so you can work a solution together (as I guess you need the job and the sooner the better right?). <S> Personally, I suggest you go for the first approach (to probe their intentions) and then, if they are indeed looking to skip the recruiter (and if you are still willing to work with them), tell this to your recruiter to reach a solution. <S> Side note: <S> If I were in your position, and if it were completely up to me, I would decline this offer from the company and continue job-hunting. <S> Why? <S> (1) Because to my point of view this is unethical from their part, and I would not want to work in a company that is Unethical and could then do something to me, and <S> (2) if they really can't afford the cost of hiring you via a recruiter then they are being cheap or they are financially unstable, both red flags to me. <A> saying that they were unable to afford to hire me with the recruiter costs <S> For me this is a red flag. <S> No matter what you think of the whole story in other aspects, I would not join a company that claims they cannot afford the recruiter costs. <S> This is either a plain lie and you will hear about budget problems every time you want a salary increase or they really cannot afford it <S> and you are about to join a company that can barely afford you. <S> Guess who will be fired first if budget gets even more tight... <A> The company is acting in a very, very dodgy way hear. <S> They are trying to cheat the recruiter. <S> If they are trying to cheat the recruiter now, you can be sure that at some point they will be cheating you. <S> And as others said, if they can’t afford paying their recruiter, that’s a very bad sign as well. <S> If you take the job, the recruiter will find out eventually. <S> It’s their job to find out these things. <S> They will most definitely sue your employer and win their case. <S> They might sue you as well. <S> If you go to the recruiter and tell them what happened, I’m sure they will work hard to find you a job with a better company. <S> PS. <S> Someone commented that this could get you blacklisted by the recruiter. <S> Not at all if you inform them and don't take the job. <S> They will sue the company and get their fees paid, and then they find you another job and get paid again. <S> Perfect for the recruiter. <A> Note: I am working off the assumption that the recruiter has been engaged by the candidate and not the employer. <S> This is based on the language of the question. <S> I disagree with the assertions that the company is being unethical. <S> The company has an obligation to act in its own interests. <S> From what I can gather, the recruiter is working for you, presumably with some sort of informal contract between yourself and them. <S> The recruiter doesn't sound like they have some sort of relationship with the business. <S> It's up to you to manage your relationship between yourself and your recruiter. <S> I think it's certainly a justifiable position to feel ethically obliged to keep them in the loop, but it's your recruiter. <S> So it's your decision. <S> People are going to say "what sort of company can't afford recruiter costs". <S> But that's an overly simplistic point of view. <S> If there are two similar candidates, and one candidate has a $10k signing bonus attached to them (for instance), it's completely understandable the business will consider that a factor. <S> It's also nice that the company let you know why you didn't get the role. <S> I personally would let the recruiter know about the situation. <S> It's their job to get on with things. <S> If they get a feel their fee is prohibitive, they may decrease it in order to get this offer across the line.
| Going around a recruiter is not a professional nor ethical thing to do at all for a company.
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Is it ethical and do you bill hours when there is a severe lack of timely access from the client? I have a client with whom my hours are capped at 20 hours a week. This client is not timely at all, neither with giving me access I need nor with responding to emails. Last week, this left me only able to bill 13.5 hours because I was waiting so long for access (and I still don't have all the access I need). I've also been waiting 1.5 days for a crucial email response that is preventing me from starting new tasks. This so far is severely impacting my hours forecasting moving forward. Is it ethical to bill for hours waiting? <Q> Is it ethical to bill for hours waiting? <S> Broadly speaking - no. <S> You can and should bill for the time spent verifying that the access is broken, the communication around trying to get the access, but if you are not doing work for the client, you can't bill for it. <S> There are some exceptions around it, for example if you are physically waiting for someone to come down and open the doors for you (when on client premises) - that would generally count as billable time as you are physically restricted from taking on different tasks and already on client's time. <S> But as this is a remote arrangement you are not facing such issues, and you can easily switch context to another activity after verifying that access is not there. <S> On a side note, and a lesson, beside agreeing to a hourly cap, make sure to also get minimums into your contract. <S> This way they are motivated to get you up and running, as whether they do, or not, you are going to be paid for the minimums. <A> Otherwise, no. <A> It certainly is ethical. <S> When you are billing for work, you are not billing for work performed, you are billing for hours spent. <S> When you are working and waiting for access, those are hours you're not doing something else, like spending time with your family, pursuing hobbies, eating, traveling, etc., things which you want to do. <S> Since you are prevented from doing things you want to do with your time, your time is still being used even if you are not being productive with it. <S> Therefore it is totally ethical to ask the client to pay for that time. <A> If the client didn't agree to it, then it's not ethical to charge them for it. <S> What this comes down to is the client is effectively presenting you with only 13.5 hours of demand. <S> This decrease is due to them making less work possible rather than explicitly telling you that there's less work that they want you to do, but it ends up with the same effect. <S> So ultimately, your complaint comes down to a client not assigning you as much work as you want, and you wanting to bill them for how much you wanted to work for them, rather than <S> how much work they presented you with. <S> You say this affects your ability to forecast revenue, and that raises the question of just who should bear this burden. <S> Variations in demand is a common phenomenon. <S> Just who absorbs that variation depends on the relationship. <S> In an employer-employee relationship, the employer absorbs the variation; if there are times of days where a supermarket has half the customers, they don't pay their employees half the hourly rate. <S> With a customer-vendor relationship, the vendor absorbs the variation; if a hotel has a period of low vacancy, it doesn't send its previous customers a bill for the unused rooms. <S> Relationships between clients and contractors exist on a spectrum between these two extremes, and you need to figure out where you want to be on that spectrum, communicate that to your clients, and get them to agree. <S> There are trade-offs to this decision. <S> Part of the reason that the nominal rates of contractors tend to be greater than those of employees is that the costs of this variation is priced into their rates. <S> In your own words, this client is paying a "fairly lucrative rate". <S> Asking your clients to pay lucrative rates and expecting them to pick up the tab when demand goes down is double dipping. <S> If you want a more regular income stream, you need to work out how to put conditions in your contracts to achieve that, and be prepared for the amount you can charge to decrease.
| In a nutshell... if your waiting prohibits you from performing billable work for other clients or prohibits you from pursuing other activities, whatever they may be, then you should bill for it.
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Is it normal for people to take things personally when rebuked/disagreed upon in a startup environment? I've had experience with two co-founders (from two different startups) name John and Adam . Both of them 'rage quit' the company when I did not agree with them. John got so upset with me (the founder) when I did not vote for him in an issue with regards to office selection. I sided with another board member. Adam got so upset with me when I told him that he is not managing the company expenses properly. I was the CEO of the startup. I seem to have a problem with people getting upset with me. However, most people see me as a nice guy, who agrees all the time and says nice things. Or perhaps maybe this only happens in startups? Back when I was working in a large corporation, disagreements happen all the time, and it was normal. So my question: Do you guys have a somewhat similar experience? Is it normal for people to take things personally when rebuked/disagreed upon in a startup environment? <Q> I think there is a few relevant things which distinguish a startup from a large (established) company in this regard. <S> First, at a large company, the employees are much less passionate[*] about the place - they know that the company was around before they joined, and they know that the company will be there after they have moved on, and that the company is much larger than any one individual. <S> Therefore, they are much more likely to "go with the flow", especially if someone else feels pretty strongly on an issue. <S> At a small startup, the founders/employees all feel that they make up a big chunk of the firm, that the firm will live or die because of their actions, and this environment both attracts folks which want to be passionate about their workplace, and causes an increase in the passion of the employees already there. <S> On the other hand, in my experience, a lot of small companies/startups are populated with people who don't have the necessary personal and political skills to succeed at a big company, folks whose advance up the corporate ladder has halted, and know that if they want to achieve big success they'll need to strike out on their own. <S> This can create an environment in which every disagreement becomes a fight. <S> [*] Using passionate to mean "capable of, affected by, or expressing intense feeling" , rather than "enthusiastic". <A> It seems to be me that your startups are being formed by young adults without a lot of real business experiences. <S> If the reasons for quitting is over office arrangement or how they are performing their job to me is indicative of the above. <S> It would not be the norm for startups. <S> This may be the "norm" for the type of people you are selecting or joining with for these startups. <A> It's perfectly normal for people to be upset when decisions do not go their way or are given critical feedback, regardless of environment. <S> Their reaction is due to some combination of: <S> Their own personal maturity and ability to deal with disappointment/criticism <S> The manner in which you conveyed those decisions/feedback <S> You can't control how other people react to the decisions and feedback you make, but you can significantly improve your chances of a good outcome by practicing the second point. <S> This is a good learning experience you should take advantage of. <S> I seem to have a problem with people getting upset with me. <S> However,most people see me as a nice guy, who agrees all the time and saysnice things. <S> You can't agree with everyone all the time, that's clearly impossible. <S> This suggests to me that you have an opportunity to learn how to deliver critical feedback and convey difficult decisions to others in a way that shows them you've heard them and care about their input. <S> Shift your focus on how to grow as a professional. <S> Books like Radical Candor <S> * by Kim Scott are good resources that can help you understand why your feedback is upsetting others and how to improve. <S> * I am not affiliated in any way with Kim Scott, her publishers, or the Radical Candor company. <S> I personally recommend it as a helpful resource.
| In the startups I've been a part of, I've met some people which seemed to be really wanting in their ability to compromise, or to react proportionally, or pick their battles. It would not be the norm for older mature people.
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How to ask how hard work will be without coming across as lazy in interview? When interviewing for a new job, how can I phrase a question to determine how hard I would be expected to work? For example, how can I find out about things such as unofficial small breaks? I really hate being in the same building all day (or same room all day) and highly value the chance to get outside once in a while. I don't smoke, but notice people who do tend to get extra breaks to go outside. Where I work now everyone is uptight and polices each other. How can I avoid getting into this type of job in the future? Perhaps a related question, how can you learn about how flexible the started and end time of being at the work is? Where I work someone got written up for being 5 minutes late even though it didn't affect him doing his job and he made up the time elsewhere. I would prefer to work in a place that has no issue with +/-5 minutes each day unless there's a reason like a meeting. <Q> First, take into account that sometimes recruiters are not totally transparent answering this type of questions. <S> Having work in consultancy, I wasn't told how many extra hours I was supposed to stay in advance, and they were many in the end. <S> Despite that, in most occasions you can get some ideas about the situation you will face. <S> If recruiters are smart enough, they will look for someone up to deal with the workload ahead. <S> Some workarounds that don't show you as lazy could be: <S> Ask about the official time schedule. <S> If people work more than expected, they will let you know by saying "officially our schedule is from 8am to 5pm, but people usually are very involved with their work and tend to stay longer if there is anything pending" Related with the previous, ask about work flexibility (arriving late, working from home, having longer lunch breaks...) <S> They can disclose aspects as "usually we go out at 11am to discuss things while walking around the area/smoking/going for a coffee" <S> Ask if it is possible to have the contact of a future colleague. <S> Usually they are more transparent and direct, and less prone to judgement. <A> When interviewing for a new job, how can I phrase a question todetermine how hard I would be expected to work? <S> Then you talk with them about what it's really like to work there. <S> Be open and honest. <S> If you specifically value the chance to get outside once in a while, then ask how often they take a break and get outside. <S> Interviewing is a two-way street. <S> You want to find a company that meets your needs as much as you meet theirs. <S> If it comes across as lazy and you aren't hired, then you wouldn't have wanted to work there anyway. <A> Ask: About working time flexibility or remote How a typical day/week/ month looks like <S> How do they organize work <S> What does company expect from the new employee in 1-3-6-12 months <S> Also: <S> Check Glassdoor reviews for similar positions Try to find and talk with people from a company or other who might know
| If you highly value flexibility in the start time, then ask what time folks start their work and what happens if they arrive a bit later. When interviewing, you ask to chat with your future peers. Ask about the work culture and how is it a regular day in the office.
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What is considered the day I “voluntarily leave” the company? The day I give notice or my last day when notice period ends? What is considered the day I “voluntarily leave” the company? The day I give the notice or the day I actually leave the company? Background is I have a payback agreement with my current employer that says: Should you voluntarily leave the company before the completion of 18 months of service from your visa issue date, you shall reimburse the company all visa cost. I have 8-week notice period and, to avoid paying the visa cost, I’m wondering whether: I should give the notice where my last day will be outside of that 18-month notice period, or I should give the notice after the 18-month period ends. Thank you all in advance. <Q> I have 8-week notice period and, to avoid paying the visa cost <S> , I’m wondering whether: I should give the notice where my last day will be outside of that 18-month notice period, or I should give the notice after the 18-month period ends. <S> If you want to be absolutely safe, and if you're not in a hurry, it would make sense go for option #2. <S> That way there's no inconsistency, since both notice day and your last day are beyond the 18-month period. <S> Asking your employer is problematic, because if they find out you are leaving, it's within the realm of possibility that they terminate your employment, so they can make you pay it back. <S> This seems unlikely, but I know of one person who received expensive, in-depth training on being hired, only to be fired shortly thereafter, and required to pay back the cost. <S> I do not know what the specific agreement language was in that case, but this type of action is not unprecedented. <S> Should you voluntarily leave the company before the completion of 18 months of service from your visa issue date, you shall reimburse the company all visa cost. <S> This seems a little vague -- if you give your notice before the 18-month period, and they decide not to enforce the 8-week notice period, you could be asked to leave and technically you are still leaving voluntary, even though you didn't cover the 18-month period. <S> Waiting, of course, would turn your 18-month period into a 20-month period. <S> If you would like to do option #1 I would think your best bet would be to contact a lawyer who specializes in immgration and employment law. <S> Consulting a lawyer could be a reasonable investment if your company acts agressively or with malice. <S> The lawyer will be able to advise what your options under the law, what to expect from your employer, and how to move forward should your company's actions not comply with the law. <A> What is considered the day I “voluntarily leave” the company? <S> The dayI give the notice or the day I actually leave the company? <S> It has nothing to do with when you give your notice. <S> Make sure your last day of work is more than 18 months after your visa issue date. <A> Should you voluntarily leave the company before the completion of 18 months of service from your visa issue date, you shall reimburse the company all visa cost. <S> The time at which you "voluntarily leave" is the time that you leave. <S> If you continue working after delivering your notice, then you haven't left yet. <S> The language is pretty clear, and even if it weren't, any ambiguity would be resolved in your favor (ambiguities are resolved in favor of the party that didn't write the contract, which I assume was you, and if the contract wasn't clear, then there wasn't a meeting of minds, and so it isn't binding).
| For purposes of a payback agreement, it depends on your last day on the job. So give your notice whenever you like.
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How to correctly say, "I know this job is a step down but I'm desperate for a job in the current market so I still want it"? I'm applying for a job which is a step down from my most recent job, which I got made redundant from. The job market is so brutal that I have no choice and I'll take any management job I can get at a FTSE 100 company like this one. How does the following phrasing sound: "I appreciate that this position might be at a slightly lower level than positions I have recently held, but I would be delighted to secure it in the current job market." This doesn't sound right, but I don't know how to better communicate this. Or should I just leave it unaddressed? I'm scared they won't hire me because they will think I'm "too high level" - which is something numerous people have said to me, which is extremely frustrating when you're unemployed and desperate for a job. <Q> Perhaps you could take a slightly different approach and focus on why you want to work at the company itself. <S> If I had a candidate tell me they would be just fine taking this "lower" position in the current job market, I'd be thinking three things: you don't care about the company, you don't care about what we do <S> and you don't want to work here and will leave as soon as something better comes along. <S> None of those things is a positive for you, and will most definitely get you put at the bottom of the pile, even if we otherwise like you. <S> So perhaps focus on why you're excited to work there! <S> What drew you to the company, what are you excited to learn, or to deliver? <S> Talk about what the company do and show some passion for them. <S> They'll start to create their own story about why you want to take a lower level job, that you really just want to work for them. <S> That said, make sure you also have a good answer if asked about the level drop. <S> Do you want to be "more hands on"? <S> Are you just really excited about their company? <S> Is the job title not that important to you as you just like to do really good/interesting things? <S> There are a lot of ways to frame it when you're taking a lower positioned job than before, but I'd just really advise against telling them <S> it's the current job market. <A> "I appreciate that this position might be at a slightly lower level than positions I have recently held, but I would be delighted to secure it in the current job market." <S> - this must be the very definition of obsequiousness ! <S> I wouldn't say a word about it unless you're asked. <S> If you are asked about it, I'd find something positive to say, such as that your previous position was stressful <S> and it's a welcome opportunity to change down a gear, or that it's a shorter commute, or that you look forward to joining a stable company, or something plausible which is suited to your circumstances, even if it's absolute codswallop. <S> Also bear in mind, many firms may be delighted at - or at least ambiguously positive towards - the idea of getting well-qualified candidates at an undervalue in the current market. <S> Even if your tenure is not expected to be as long as they would normally prefer, they may be getting plenty of bang for their buck in the meantime if you stay for say 6 months, especially if there is plenty of knowledge transfer and your own ramp-up time is not too great, and there's always the possibility that you might settle and continue your career with them. <A> You never say that lol. <S> In fact, don't bring it up! <S> Don't mention it unless your interviewer specifically asks Why you are taking a cut in title/pay. <S> If they do ask you point blank you say <S> "Well, I really enjoyed thatcompany and the work I was doing, and I'm really eager to find my nextrole. <S> Sometimes in my old job I did the work of this current positionand I really, really enjoyed it. <S> I'd really like this opportunity todo it fulltime." <S> The above addresses that you were let go for economic reasons, that you are trying to get back to work ASAP, and finally you give a reason why you would be interested in this role even if the position/title/pay doesn't match your previous role. <S> I'd be surprised if an interviewer didn't like the above answer. <A> I looked at the date of this post, and it said "today", so I'm going to assume that means 5 September 2020. <S> We're 6 months into the U.S. response to the SARS- <S> nCov-2 pandemic, otherwise known as the Coronavirus, and the economy has, in a word, tanked. <S> Many, many people are desperate for ANY job. <S> Unfortunately, employers don't want to hear that, because they just don't care. <S> Yes, it's logical that someone would be unemployed because their firm let them go due to COVID-19. <S> If they're not getting callbacks on their resume for jobs where it would NOT be a step down, after a while, a job seeker will start getting anxious. <S> As others have said, focus on why you want the job, and what benefits it will bring you, but focus on the benefits on a professional level, not the money. <S> It's kind of why I, as a taekwondo black belt, still practice the fundamentals and the basic introductory forms... <S> you're solidifying your foundation for the future. <S> It sucks that you can't just say "I'm unemployed, I want to work, I need the money to live", since it is the truth, but employers don't want to hear that, because even if it isn't true, they'll be afraid you'll jump ship at the first opportunity. <S> In this economy, that's not likely, but that's what they'll think. <S> Deflect any questions in that direction, and you should be fine. <S> It worked for me when I was last unemployed, and that was 2013/2014.
| Spend some time doing research on the company, and on the type of position you're going for, and see how it will help you in your long term career path.
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What are some online guides for starting writers? I've always wanted to start writing (in a totally amateur way), but whenever I want to start something I instantly get blocked having a lot of questions and doubts. Are there some resources on how to start becoming a writer? I'm thinking something with tips and easy exercises to get the ball rolling. <Q> When I'm thinking about where I learned most how to write, I think that reading was the most important guide to me. <S> This may sound silly, but by reading good written newspaper articles (facts, opinions, scientific articles and most of all, criticisms of films and music), I learned how others did the job, what works and what doesn't. <S> In my own writing, I try to mimic other people's styles that I liked. <S> Moreover, I learn new things by reading, giving me a broader background that I need when reflecting a certain topic. <S> Every now <S> and then I still read the free, local tabloid and recognize many mistakes I would have made when I would not have read quality material earlier in life. <S> Of course there are books about journalistic writing <S> and I read some (titles will be added later), <S> but I guess that reading forms the best learning school until today. <S> I now see that I didn't answer your actual question about online guides, but I hope it's helpful after all. <A> BeginningWriters.com has some good articles for beginning writers. <S> http://beginningwriters.com/ <A> Have a look at 750words.com , maybe you'll find it useful. <S> At least it's all about writing , not reading . <S> (I agree with @John Smithers' comment) <A> I particularly like <S> The Snowflake Method and most of what Randy writes, including his book. <A> Reading a lot and loving to read are most important of course, but have you tried writing-related podcasts? <S> Writing Excuses got me into writing fiction again. <S> It's a short podcast about how to write fiction well and how to "break in" to the industry, from 3 guys who do and did. <S> (I wrote a bit more about it on my blog ) <A> Writer's Digest has many good articles. <A> I just wanted to add this resource as an answer for this question, even though the question is quite old, because the resource was created exactly for new writers to help them learn the craft of writing while writing their first novel. <S> Disclosure - this is my website. <S> https://www.novel-software.com/novelwritingroadmap <S> This is basically a step-by-step guide to writing a novel, starting with the premise and expanding it into a story skeleton, then synopsis, then full plot, with advice at every stage. <S> I originally created the steps for myself, to keep track of all the theory I'd read and what I'd learned from my own experience, and to have all the right info at my fingertips at just the right point in the novel writing process. <S> Once I'd created the method / process I thought about how much I'd have liked to have had it when I was starting out, so thought other people might like to use it. <A> John Smithers's comment is spot-on. <S> Start writing now, and you can work on being a better writer as you go. <S> It's like running competitively. <S> Professional runners run a lot, every single day. <S> They don't worry too much about if they're reading the right books about running, they just practice. <S> Practice writing, then practice editing what you wrote, again and again. <S> That said, there are a lot of resources out there that can make a fine supplement to your writing practice. <S> A couple of my favorites: <S> Uncle Orson's Writing Class - A series of short essays on various writing topics by Orson Scott Card. <S> Chopsticks <S> - Writing Advice by Mette Ivie Harrison <S> And finally, I would add that the second best way to improve your writing is to join a good critique group. <S> This sounds scary to a lot of new writers, but it doesn't have to be. <S> A good group is supportive and polite, while not being afraid to offer criticism. <S> Getting your work critiqued helps you improve, and it also helps you develop a thick skin. <S> As a writer, you need to be able to accept criticism and use it to your advantage. <S> And critiquing other people's work will probably improve your writing even more than being critiqued. <S> It helps you develop a strong internal editor. <S> There are lots of groups out there. <S> Some meet in person. <S> If you're in a metropolitan area, there's probably one or two nearby. <S> Otherwise, there are many on the web too. <S> Conveniently, Critters is currently in the process of expanding to cover genres other than sci-fi/fantasy/horror, <S> so you may want to check it out . <A> I would say: Just start writing. <S> Any body can write, not everyone can write well. <S> By practicing writing, it will get easier. <S> You will got more comfortable with it. <S> Then, the magic starts to happen. <S> As you write, you will realize what you don't know how to do, which will stick in your mind. <S> Then, as you read, you will start to notice how those sentences are constructed. <S> You'll start to have "Ah-Ha" moments. <S> " <S> Oh, THAT'S how you do that!" <S> The more you write, the better you will be at it. <S> The more diverse literature you read, the more you will learn. <S> They go hand in hand. <A> Before you have attempted your first text, you will have no idea what your individual difficulties might be, and asking a general question as you do here will get you advice that you may not know how to implement and that may even hinder you in your learning. <S> It is much more helpful to begin to write and to experience specific difficulties and then ask for help in overcoming them. <S> Just write your first text in any way that you like, and then look at it and consider what went well and where you struggled <S> , what turned out to your liking and where your test readers got confused. <S> And then go and find answers for how to do better next time. <S> Because the most learning in writing comes from writing the next novel .
| I have found that the best advice for a beginning writer is to just sit down and write . As a spec-fic author, I use Critters , one of the larger online critique groups.
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How do I find an agent? I finished my novel, and everyone I've talked to says I need an agent. How do I find one? <Q> I have to add a few things to Randomman's answer : <S> If you have that list, check if the agents are reputable! <S> Google them. <S> There are a lot of black sheep out there. <S> Go to the homepage of authors of the same category you write in. <S> Some are mentioning their agents. <S> Follow Vatine's advice in his comment to Randomman's answer. <S> If you do not find a guideline, do not send anything to them without asking. <S> First write an email and ask for permission, if they are interested in your stuff. <S> If they have no formatting guidelines, look up the industry standard, how your sample chapter and synopsis should be formatted. <S> (In Germany it's the maximum of 30 lines a page with 60 characters each line in Courier, but that could differ in your country.) <A> Try and find a list of agents who write in your genre. <S> Check out their websites!Find out if they are accepting new clients. <S> If they aren't, then check out another agent. <S> But if they are, try sending them a few chapters from your story, a brief, and a short cover letter asking them to represent you. <S> In the cover letter mention your previous publication credits. <S> If sent via post, then I suggest you give them a means of reply, whether it be an email or a stamped, addressed envelope. <S> Agents will try their best to improve your chances of getting a book published. <A> This may not be an exact answer to your question, but: <S> Don't forget that you don't always need an agent <S> (in fact, depending on the agent and your situation, it can be a lot worse than having no agent ). <S> You need to read a bit about what exactly an agent can do for you and decide what kind of agent you want to hire . <S> Also be aware that some "agents" advertising on line are 100% scam <S> ("hey, I can make you a star, pay me an up-front fee!" <S> then nothing). <S> There is a lot of good info out there from very experienced authors, especially two articles by Dean Wesley Smith: http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=720 (this is the second one, but the other is linked in it) <S> And this Writing Excuses <S> podcast: http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/01/31/ <A> I seem to recall that either Writers Digest or Writers Market keeps a list you can subscribe to of agents, what genres they work in, query guidelines, etc. <A> Do not use lists of agents, especially not the ones you find on the web. <S> You don't know how the agents get on that list and will have a hard time finding out if they are good. <S> That way you will know that those agents are successful – and you want to be the client of an able agent. <S> Only if these agents have rejected you, or if for some reason you cannot find any agents in this way, would I resort to the lists mentioned in some of the other answers.
| Instead look at the published books in your genre, make a list of their authors, and then find out who represents them .
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Lists of Suggested Magazines to Submit To I recently began writing poetry again. I would like to look into submitting my poems to a magazine. Where can I find a list of literary magazines through which I could sort to find a possible fit? <Q> You can find them in most major bookstores. <S> They come out once a year, but there are also listings available on their paid-subscription website: http://www.writersmarket.com/ . <S> It's worthwhile noting that when you buy the book, you get a paid subscription for a year. <S> Generally speaking it focuses on the American/Canadian markets, and I'm not sure if there's something similar for the UK/Australia/New Zealand/Other English Markets. <A> You might want to check out Poets & Writers . <S> It is a bi-monthly magazine. <S> And as it says on their home page: <S> "If you’re looking for writing competitions, or literary magazines and small presses that welcome both new and established writers, begin here." <A> If your work falls into the "genre" category, then the following sites might be useful: <S> Duotrope : has lots of genre entries, but also general/literary markets <S> Ralan's : predominantly SF/F/H markets, but is a great site (not the greatest looking site, but good content)
| Writer's Market publishes a few different books, including one for poets, which include listings of publishers, agents, magazines, contests, anthologies, etc.
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What is a good daily word count goal? As a NaNoWriMo participant, I've been trying to meet a rather ambitious 1667 word/day goal. I've heard that professionals do a lot less, but the first two days of this month, I actually wrote 5000 words/day, so I know it's possible. Quantity over quality? What's a reasonable, sustainable word count? <Q> It varies a lot - and by type of writing. <S> I can do casual non-fiction writing fairly quickly, but more structured or formal work takes me longer (not just in the editing, but in the actual writing process). <S> The professional writers I know point out that burning out is a bad thing (as above: <S> 1000 words each day - or even 250 words a day - is a lot better than 3000 or 5000 or whatever words once every two weeks.) <S> Also that it's much easier to get started if you stop when you know what the next piece is <S> (i.e. don't stop when you run out of stuff: try to stop when you have one thing left that you know. <S> Then, the next time you sit down, you can start with that, and build momentum.) <A> An apocryphal story about Joyce A friend once found him sprawled across his desk, a figure of utter despair. " <S> How many words have you written today?" <S> he asked him. <S> "Seven," the great man answered. <S> "But that’s good for you, isn’t it?" <S> "I suppose so," Joyce answered. <S> "It’s just that I don’t know what order they go in." <S> Copied from here <S> A day with 5,000 is possible, but probably not sustainable for most people. <S> 1,000 every day is better than 5,000 once every two weeks. <A> It depends. <S> Personally, I aim for one to two thousand words a day. <S> I know of one professional writer who goes for three thousand words a day (but, as she pointed out to me, this is her day job). <A> This may be an extremely subjective answer, but i find it easiest to get a chapter or two done, rather than a word count. <S> It means there is a complete section to get a family member to read over, and if there is spare time in my sitting, i can go through and edit it. <S> If you don't finish the chapter, just try finishing it (and the next chapter) the next day! <A> On the extreme side, Lester Dent was able to write a whole Doc Savage novel in about two weeks, perhaps less. <S> We're not talking great literature here, but he is generally considered to have written the best Doc Savage books (all of them were published under the name "Kenneth Robeson", and they came out monthly). <S> They weren't all that long, so figure about thirty-five hundred words a day, sustained, as the high end. <S> Some authors seem to be able to write a novel of maybe eighty thousand words a year, of good quality. <S> That's more like three hundred words a day on the average. <A> No one can answer that question for you. <S> As a 4 time winner of NaNoWriMo, I can honestly say that 1667 words a day for me personally is way too much. <S> It's doable, but if I had to go one more day, I'd go insane. <S> 1667 a day burns me out, even without a day job. <S> On the other hand, I've met a lot of people during NaNoWriMo <S> that do 1667 a day with ease, while others even go for 100k or even 150k. <S> It really depends on the person (and the story, how well planned out it is, how inspiring, how easy it flows...). <S> All in all, I'd advise you rather choose a range than a fixed number, or perhaps a bare minimum. <S> There will be days when writing will not come easily, and it's better to take it slow than to force it. <S> Forcing might be necessary during NaNoWriMo where deadline is tight and quality is not an issue, but I really see no need for it in every day writing, it unnecessarily lowers the quality.
| You need to write every day and find the best wordcount for yourself. I think 1,000 a day is pretty good, if you're consistent.
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How do I write a synopsis? I have to write a synopsis to submit to an agent. Are there any guidelines for writing a good synopsis? <Q> Most important part is, reducing the story to the core plot. <S> Some say you should only need three pages to summarize your story, some say one page should be enough. <S> Impossible? <S> Only three sentences? <S> Imagine a friend asks you to summarize the Lord of the Rings for him. <S> He never read one of the books or saw one of the movies. <S> Do you really need three pages/one page to do it? <S> Or can you do it with only three sentences? <S> See, and LotR are three volumes, so you can condense your story, too. <S> Look at it from the agent's perspective. <S> He gets 30 synopsis a day. <S> He must flip through them and decide, which one is worth it. <S> He cannot delay it, because tomorrow he'll get another 30 synopsis. <S> Look at what you have written and ask yourself: Would I choose this, if I were an agent? <S> If the answer is yes , put your three sentences summary into the cover letter and your one page summary into the synopsis ;) <S> BTW: <S> Randomman159's link says that the editors usually read your sample chapters first. <S> That's not true. <S> They read your cover letter first. <S> Better make it good. <S> And short. <A> A really useful website you might want to look at is <S> https://web.archive.org/web/20100306171618/http://www.essortment.com/all/synopsiswriteb_rqmx.htm <S> Sorry <S> i can't really summarise :P <A> I don't outline before I write <S> so it was kind of after-the-fact to do this, but it helped me <S> so I could just flesh out a little bit when writing my synopsis. <A> The accepted answer is reasonable, but I would add this angle. <S> Don't write a synopsis of the plot, write a synopsis of the conflict. <S> There can be a lot of business in a plot <S> and it you try to summarize it, you may end up either missing the key points or skipping too lightly over too many plot points. <S> The essence of the story is the desire that drives the protagonist, the things that frustrate that desire, and how the desire is achieved or how it is ultimately frustrated. <S> A wants B because C so he tries D and E and F and fails each time until he tries G and ultimately succeeds/fails while in the process realizing that H is really more important to him. <S> Desire -> <S> Frustration -> <S> Triumph/Tragedy -> Realization. <S> Summarize that way <S> and you should capture the essence of your story.
| One thing that helped me was to look at each chapter and write down the big plot elements that happened in that chapter. But if you can reduce its core to three sentences , then you are on the right track.
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Jumping on the Zombie bandwagon Is it too late to jump on the zombie bandwagon? There are loads of stories about the possible popular outcome of an apocalypse, is it possible to squeeze anything more out of it? Or, maybe it would be a good idea to make a parody of the genre after it's all squeezed out dry? <Q> Is it too late to jump on the zombie bandwagon? <S> You just have to make your work stand out. <S> Perhaps it would be better to think of it not as jumping on the zombie bandwagon, but rather claiming your own unique bit of territory in the vast zombie jungle. <S> Or, maybe it would be a good idea to make a parody of the genre after it's all squeezed out dry? <S> The problem with this theory is that modern zombie works are often already a parody of the genre. <S> Would you watch a parody of Scary Movie ? <A> If you've got something original to say involving zombies, write it. <S> A different point of view, maybe a twist like Matheson's "I Am Legend", something unexpected that might follow from an apocalypse. <S> If you don't, try something where you can add something personal. <A> Good horror stories tend to restate the common fears of the times, don't they? <S> Why not pick a fear and restate it with zombies instead? <S> It might make the genre fresh enough to be interesting. <S> For example, terrorism became a concern of society in the US after 9/11. <S> Even though, as JMC says, a zombie apocalypse is unlikely, what about terrorists using zombies rather than suicide bombers? <S> It could be interesting, especially if they received the support of some governments and that support backfired - badly. <A> Just add a twist. <S> For example, let the sympathy of the reader move from the people to the zombies. <S> (They "lived" for centuries undisturbed in the caves until the humans started their mining destroying the source of energy of the zombies and now they have no chance then to feed on the humans). <A> 2 years ago I would have said it's a great idea. <S> Evil Dead was a great movie and the world needed more classic tales. <S> This year Cracked.com shared 7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail (Quickly) and ever since then, Zombies have been dead to me. <A> Put one foot on the zombie wagon, and another one in a completely different field. <S> Combine things that haven't been done before. <S> What would a zombie story be like if it was set in a typical Jane Austen setting? <S> Write 'Brains and Prejudice'. <A> If you can make them genetically modified, armed terrorist superzombies, that might work. <A> To expand on all the previous answers, the genre is NOT dead, just overused. <S> I have seen hundreds of zombie novels and novellas and short stories and a few are good but most are boring and stale. <S> The reason they are boring is because the author is writing a very low quality manuscript with many grammar and spelling mistakes. <S> If I had to bet, I would say most aren't even edited. <S> If you use correct grammar and write a good storyline with believable actions(such as those in Deadlocked by A.R. Wise and For Those in Peril on the Sea by Colin Drysdale) you really can't go wrong with a zombie book as there will always be an audience. <S> Just wait until Vampires and Witches die down before you publish it :)
| It's never too late to jump on the zombie bandwagon.
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Where can subject matter experts volunteer to work on proofing the technical details in fiction? I am not a writer (yet!), but I have been working in the computer field for over 10 years and would love to put in some time volunteering my services as a subject matter expert (SME) for programming and computer related story components. Is there a central place that such SMEs can peddle their knowledge? Is anyone in need here? <Q> Short answer: <S> No. <S> For better or for worse, writers that need fact checking generally do their own research (or ask a friend). <S> This may have to do with the fact that writers don't like "outsiders" meddling in the creative process. <S> But...people who have access to a unique cultural context or deep understanding in a specific area of knowledge often have compelling and insightful perspectives to volunteer. <S> Don't wait for others to come to you, find your literary voice and produce your narrative! <A> I seem to be repeating myself a lot, but I would recommend creating an account at CritiqueCircle . <S> This is a web site where people volunteer to read each other's work and offer feedback and critiques on the story as well as the writing in general. <S> Your expertise might be handy for some writers, and this would be a good place for you to let people know about it. <S> You can also take advantage of the site to find other folks who can read your work and help you out as you develop your story. <S> The site is free and they offer a number of handy tools to help writers. <A> I'm only going to mention two here for the sake of brevity. <S> Become an alpha or beta reader for someone you respect. <S> It can be both enjoyable and rewarding to be a reader for a good writer. <S> The other way I have in mind might be outside the scope of what you have in mind, but if you want to become a writer yourself there are few better ways than to become a writer's personal assistant . <S> It's probably not given as much attention as it should be, but many writers at the very top of the food chain use one or more research assistants. <S> Obviously, this is a much harder situation to get yourself into, but much like young photographers who find a mentor and simply follow them around incessantly until they let you work for them, <S> this or an equally persistent approach may be what it takes to get you that edge into the writing industry. <S> It probably sound obnoxious, and it is, but sometimes a writer's got to do what a writer's got to do.
| I'll have to agree with the simple, "No," regarding the existence of a one-stop experts forum for consulting work, but depending on how well rounded your skills are across some specific disciplines there are a few very satisfying ways you might be able to volunteer your services.
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What are the most common style manuals? From Wikipedia: A style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field. The implementation of a style guide provides uniformity in style and formatting of a document. What are the most popular such manuals? Which are considered "standards" for writers to follow? Are they used by specific professions, industries, etc.? <Q> When writing for the web, the Yahoo! <S> Style Guide is often used. <A> The style manual or guide depends on the audience. <S> Journalists will use the AP Stylebook. <S> Academic writers have a few more options depending on their field. <S> Most English or Literature focused writing will use MLA and social science writing will likely use APA . <S> For other kinds of writing, especially for an academic journal, check what style they prefer. <S> They may have their own style ( ACS ) or use something like Chicago . <A> My experience indicates that the "big three" are: The MLA Style Manual , Strunk and White , and The Chicago Manual of Style . <A> MLA (Modern Language Association) is the style guide used in the academic world in essays and term papers. <S> It's generally used in English, History, Literature, and similar classes. <S> APA (American Psychological Association) is the style guide used in the academic world for Psychology and Science type courses. <S> Most houses also have their own style guide that takes its information from the CMOS and shows only the relevant information. <A> Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2010, APA Press. <S> Very accessible style guide, probably the easiest style guide to get into for scientific writing. <S> New Hart's Rules, 2005, Oxford University Press. <S> The OUP house style, good overview of book publication. <S> Popular in Britain. <S> Butcher's Copy-editing, 2006 <S> (4. ed.), Cambridge University Press. <S> Well-respected by editors, not really known outside of publishing. <S> Style guides such as these, Chicago , the AP stylebook, and the MLA handbook explain the structure that documents should have, and provide detailed instructions about such things as capitalisation of titles. <S> They are much less widely read than usage guides such as Strunk & White's Elements of Style or Fowler's , which are references for writing effectively, but which don't care about the purpose of the writing, or whether it will ever be published. <A> Not a style guide, but for adding nuance to this discussion I'd like to suggest the talk <S> "Linguistics, Style and Writing in the 21st Century" by Steven Pinker, held at the Royal Institution . <S> Summary: <S> Does writing well matter in an age of instant communication? <S> Drawing on the latest research in linguistics and cognitive science, Steven Pinker replaces the recycled dogma of style guides with reason and evidence. <S> [...] Steven argues that style still matters: in communicating effectively, in enhancing the spread of ideas, in earning a reader’s trust and, not least, in adding beauty to the world. <S> Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and one of the world’s foremost writers on language, mind, and human nature. <S> He is Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and conducts research on language and cognition but also writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time, and is the author of many books, including The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works. <A> They were formerly available easily on the websites, but have become harder to find. <S> Maybe someone has archived these? <S> Search around in MSDN and you'll find the current Microsoft UI documentation guidelines. <S> They were THE definitive guides for whether "double-click" has a hyphen (it does), what to call an interface thingy that you click to select one of several options (MS calls it an "option button", Apply calls it a "radio button" and that sort of thing).
| To add on to TML's answer: Journalists generally use the AP Stylebook . CMOS (Chicaco Manual of Style) is the style guide used by 90% of publishing houses. The House style of CUP and the Society for Editors and Proofreaders . The Apple and the Microsoft style manuals (do not have the exact names with me to provide) are valuable for as style guides for software documentation and any writing about computers.
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How do I involve my audience with my story? I am writing for a video game, and I have noticed that there is a gap between plot and gameplay. Most times there is a plot to a story, but it takes place either only in cutscenes or in reminders of your objectives. The gameplay is separate from the story, thus the player feels detached from the game, and has no emotional stake in the plot. Are there any ways to involve your audience to the point where they stop feeling detached from the game that they are playing? <Q> The short answer: give the user a chance to affect the outcome of the story (or at least give them the impression that they have this power). <S> It depends a lot of the game genre. <S> I wrote my master's thesis on immersion in computer games, and gave an analysis of Knights of the Old Republic (an excellent game with a great story by the way). <S> Therein I found some evidence that giving people the option to choose within constraints, will give the player a deeper involvement in the story, but at the same time let you craft a story that is somewhat coherent. <S> This was a RPG, which is probably the most suited genre for conveying rich stories that involves the user. <S> Games like Starcraft (both I and II), also have a great story, but I don't feel involved in the story while actually playing. <S> I never get the feeling that I am Raynor" running around in the battlefield. <S> The game keeps me immersed because of damn good gameplay, and the cutscenes keeps me in because of a great story and good animations, but I never feel that my actions brings the story forward, other than that they "unlock" the next scene. <A> If the game is developed well, the player should have a strong attachment to their character. <S> The story should somehow outline what the player is to do in the next section of gameplay, rather than simply showing a video. <S> This message could be communicated through a character (voice or actions) or simply describing an obvious problem. <S> Sorry <S> i can't explain better, but it greatly depends on the gameplay, and what type of game it is. <A> Videogame audience attracting effectiveness may be based on many things that are game-development issues. <S> But there is one question that should be mulled over by all media industry manufacturers. <S> I'll sound it: Does your product attracts customers by its "mechanical" part or by its "art" part? <S> Now I'll explain: that mechanical part of mine can be illustrated by movie industry. <S> There are kaboom movies, with bangs and booms on the whole screen and detailed explosions sended to your three-dimensioned eye. <S> That's your Avatar . <S> Let's be serious, this movie is supposed to produce emotions through great visuals, and not by a plot. <S> But without a plot, it's just a series of explosions, maybe even more boring than a documentary about maize cultivating. <S> So, the plot is needed, but not so much, and it can just be adapted from another media-product . <S> The plot is just a glue here. <S> But remember another movie from the same director. <S> It contained much "explosion" part, but that part was not the leader. <S> It just supported the big love story. <S> The story . <S> And I can call both movies work of art. <S> That's not I can say about myriads of less-talented genre films. <S> The game will retain the same rule. <S> If you're doing something like Crysis , you'd better forget about plot. <S> But if you're doing Silent Hill 2 or Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) you'd better sharpen your story. <A> Tell your story through gameplay, not just through cutscenes. <S> Examples: <S> In an RPG, make a character's battle abilities match well with their personality. <S> For example, a helpful, caring character might have healing abilities. <S> Or, use this in a deeper way, allowing a character's abilities to foreshadow their eventual development. <S> Include characters' personalities in your gameplay animations. <S> If someone's clumsy and unsure, don't make them suddenly epic in battle. <S> A picture's worth a thousand words: awkward-looking sword swinging can define a character almost instantly. <S> Most importantly, though: Lay out levels in a way that forces, for the sake of solving the puzzle, a character to do something. <S> Bonus points if the "something" is traumatic and the player feels the necessity. <S> Check out Ico ; they integrate of story and gameplay very well. <A> Amazing story + amazing graphics + amazing engine = <S> Perfect game. <S> The story is truly amazing and really well written, starting on from the 2nd game. <S> The first one was more like a tech demo, but it introduced the dual sided story and the sci-fi part of it, along with the historical story.
| Include as much of the character development as you can in the gameplay animations and mechanics. You could try looking at and playing the Assassin's Creed series by Ubisoft Montreal.
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Third-person objective in action scene I'm telling a story in third-person objective, the first part being basically an objective description of events around a certain character. I got to a brief action scene, and it fell flat. What the character does is of interest to the progression of the story, but the more interesting stuff (I think) is her decision-making and brief thinking and emotions. Only the first part of the story will be about this character. There will be later scenes where she is not present, including one where the characters involved will be dead at the end of the scene. So, how do I present thoughts and emotions in an action scene in third-person objective? Or should I switch to a more personal third-person viewpoint (I'm not above rewriting everything I've written in another viewpoint)? <Q> One way to look at it: how do people in real life present thoughts and emotions? <S> Either through their actions (facial expressions, body language) or they say something. <S> You could get across emotions by describing these things (something like the "universal expressions" in the TV show Lie to Me come to mind). <S> I think objective third is pretty difficult to do this though, especially for "ironic" emotions, where the character does something but the means something different to what that action normally implies. <S> As per @Voyagerfan's answer, you can duck into a "close" third for particular thoughts, but move back to the camera view for pure action/description. <S> The book Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card has a good section on moving in and out between "hot" close third person thoughts/details and "cooler" more external/descriptive stuff. <A> It should be pretty simple to write her decisions if they are truly brief. <S> For example: Vala whirled to face her attacker, checking him over for potential weaknesses. <S> She noted a gap in his armor just above his waist. <S> Gotcha! <S> she thought. <S> A quick jab with her dagger tore a scream from his throat. <S> Emotions and thinking should be just as easy: <S> Jane arrived home to find her computer beeping, announcing the arrival of an urgent message. <S> She mused that she was almost busier on the weekends than when she was on call during the week. <S> or: Facing the enormous ogre at last, Sular felt a tiny spark of anger growing in his chest. <S> What gave this beast the right to come barging in at this time of night? <S> Obviously the content of these examples is nil (I came up with all three of them just now), but I hope I've given you ideas for introducing a character's thinking into a third-person narrative. <A> Third person objective works best for screen plays. <S> Are you writing for print or film? <S> I've read in a number of places that experimenting with perspective, or using anything other than first person or third omniscient/limited for print, as an unpublished writer, is a quick path to an editors trash can. <A> It allows both pure action without thought and then action accompanied by thought. <S> 3rd person limited does not limit you to only thought or only action; it can do both. <S> Example: John picked up the book. <S> He read it. <S> He turned the pages. <S> He stopped on a page and read for a while. <S> His sister came into the room and picked up the newspaper and placed it on the kitchen table. <S> John looked at her. <S> He wondered what she would do today. <S> See? <S> You can go from pure action to thought. <S> Hope this helps. <A> Assuming for a moment you can't use third person limited or omniscient for whatever reason*, I think the best thing to do is start studying tv shows, films, plays, etc. <S> They're storytelling mediums which are faced with a similar problem yet manage to be effective, and there's lots of analogies that can be made <S> Shot angle - what viewpoint you choose to describe. <S> Music - sentence length, pace, language used, etc. <S> Lighting, shot composition, symbolism - exactly the same! <S> and so on. <S> This stuff is all important in writing in general, of course. <S> But when you can't reveal what a character is thinking, and so lose a (often major) way to communicate with the reader, you have to work them harder. <S> * <S> I'm currently writing a short dit in third person objective. <S> I tried several drafts in subjective and omniscient, but it just didn't seem to work. <S> There are several pieces of data the reader can't know up front, and it's very difficult to relay any character's thoughts/feelings about events without revealing them in a way that is pleasant to read - <S> the snippets I could reveal felt abrupt, while the 'big reveals' when they came felt like a cheat. <S> Switching to objective has been difficult but a breath of fresh air, and probably a very useful exercise in how to convey mood/emotions/ <S> etc via other means.
| If you need the character's thoughts but want only action in the first part, there is no reason not to use 3rd person limited.
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Are there any places to have community story development? Are there any places or ways a group (general public or individually invited) of people can individually contribute to a communally developed story? For example, a website or collaboration tool (besides Word files emailed back and forth). <Q> The largest communities I found are Storymash and Protagonize . <S> The Wikipedia article on collaborative fiction mentions some other sites, too. <A> You could start your own wiki - if you need hosting, there are plenty of resources available for cheap/free wiki hosting ( PBWorks comes to mind.); you could use any of the browser-based shared document editing tools (Google Docs, Zimbra , Zoho ); collaborative editing software ( see this Wikipedia article for some examples ). <A> I'm currently collaborating on a screenplay with a writer in another country. <S> We're doing the research, outline and treatment in Google Drive . <S> It's easy, and you don't have to pass documents back and forth: <S> log onto https://drive.google.com <S> create a folder and share it create a Docs word processor document create a Drawings document add comments to share notes collaboratively edit in real time <A> There's a Yahoo group, now apparently inactive, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rr-storybook/ <S> that was set up for round robin stories. <S> The last hint of activity seems to be around 2006. <S> If nothing else, you can look at what we wrote, and how it seemed to work. <S> The files seem to be outside the members-only area. <S> I don't know if there's any group administrator who could get it going again. <A> Since it hasn't been mentioned as an answer to this relatively old question: Pan Historia is a casual and fun place to collaborate on writing. <S> The community is quite supportive, although the turnover seems high. <A> So far I believe they have about seven chapters completed in a fantasy novel. <S> One person will write a chapter and then it gets handed off to the next person to write the next chapter. <S> Last I saw they were looking for people to help contribute to this. <A> I am the lead programmer for a project called Fablelane where people contribute small segments to a story. <S> One segment can have multiple outcomes, so a tree of choices is formed. <S> People so far think it's quite fun. <S> You may enjoy it too!
| There is a Facebook group called Indie Writers Unite which has an ongoing thread that is attempting to do this.
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Should I start writing on paper first or start directly on the computer? If I have an excellent idea for a story, would it be wiser to write on paper first or start directly on the computer? There are many different reasons for beginning stories on paper as well as on the computer and I'd like to know about the different advantages of each side. <Q> I would recommend to just go with what you find most productive for yourself, but since you wanted a list: Paper: <S> Pros: Can be used almost anywhere Cheap, simple, reliable Easy to arrange how you want it <S> No sudden data loss ( <S> unless actually lost) <S> Lets you draw a little sketch on the side <S> Won't die on you if it gets a bit wet <S> Probably wont get stolen Cons: Can cramp your hands faster Harder to edit <S> Often doesn't leave room for inserting new things in the middle Increases in bulk over time Digital: <S> Pros: Insert, update, rearrange (or the dreaded delete) at any place in the document <S> Quick access to spell check, dictionary, thesaurus <S> When combined with something like Dropbox , all your internet-enabled devices can be used Also works as a backup <S> Instant word count Can format it right then and there (if you're into that) <S> Instantly sharable over the internet <S> When combined with a Version Control System ( Git is a favourite of mine), it's easy to branch/fork/draft a story in multiple directions. <S> Also lets you share and edit with multiple authors easier <S> Cons: <S> Need to keep a device on you and charged up Distractions said device can bring along with it <S> Can sometimes be a little too helpful (red squiggle invasion!) <S> Gives you too many formatting options to waste time on When it's gone, it's gone! <S> Backups might not always be there Inadvisable to use in wet environments <S> Could get stolen Microsoft Word is a terrible file format (don't use it!) <S> I myself prefer digital ( Dropbox + iPhone!), but YMMV. <A> For me, the advantage of using paper is that I often make rash editing decisions early in the process, and lose things I may have wanted to hang on to. <S> Using some sort of version control might be an interesting solution to that particular problem though. <S> I suspect a more professional writer than I would be doing that a few times anyway, regardless of which medium he or she started on. <A> For writing fiction I always start on paper (with the unfortunate disadvantage of typing it later). <S> The reason for using paper is because the computer is a distraction and it's harder to become fully engrossed in the story I'm spinning. <S> The temptation to jump on the internet is far too great. <S> The importance of getting into a zone of creativity while writing far outweighs the negative of retyping later. <A> Depends on you. <S> What are you more comfortable with writing? <S> Which way you can avoid distractions better? <S> Or which gives you enough distraction to get inspiration or overcome writing block if needed (if it helps)? <S> I think you should try it out, if paper or computer, or a mix of both works best for you. <S> Sorry, that I cannot give a simpler answer here. <A> I always write on the comuter because frankly, I can type about as fast as I think. <S> The same cannot be said for writing with a pen. <S> If you can type, there's no reason to start on paper unless you're just jotting down random notes etc.. which are easier to scratch out or just doodle. <A> I like to write on paper first because it's more difficult to edit. <S> I write on paper when I'm away from my computer (and the most significant advantage of paper, of course, is that it's possible to bring it pretty much anywhere <S> - I've even been known to write in the bath, on occassion, which I'd never dare do with a laptop, but I digress...). <S> In-between writing on the paper and getting a chance to type it up, I have a period of reflection <S> , wherein it's not really practical to make any major changes to what I've written. <S> Sometimes I consider what I've written from memory <S> , sometimes I have to re-read it, sometimes a little of both, but the end result is the same. <S> By the time I come to type it up, I already have a fair idea what's wrong with it and where, and what I type up is almost always a significantly improved version. <S> Whether or not this approach will work for you, of course, is a different matter. <S> As can be seen from the other answers, this is a very personal thing, and you'll find the normal workflow from one person to the next may differ drastically. <A> I think you can use paper just to point some ideas. <S> I mean, PC is usefull today, especially in writing. <S> Ex: you can fix something without effort.
| The other reason I use paper is that it forces me to go over the text at least once in order to find major problems while entering it into a computer.
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How do I go about finding a writing group? Any websites that list writing groups by geographic location, or genre? Should I try libraries or something? Fan forums of a favourite author? Are there "virtual" writing groups (by email or chat or whatever, as opposed to in person)? <Q> I've heard about "virtual" writing groups; I have no experience with them. <S> For meeting other writers in your area: <S> Meetup.com Just search for your location and your interest (in this case writing). <A> I second The Meetup.com recommendation, but would like to add that participating in <S> NaNoWriMo has always seemed a great way to meet up with other writers in your area and online. <A> You can go to <S> critiquecircle.com and find reading groups there. <S> You can find people there who will read your manuscript, either complete or in parts, and offer feedback and suggestions to help improve your work. <S> You can also go to Facebook and ask to join a group there called "Indie Writers Unite". <S> I belong to that group and there are a lot of active writers who offer advice and volunteer to be sounding boards for other writers. <S> I know several who have formed their own reading groups as well out of that group. <A> If you live in or close to a big city, especially one with a big writing scene (theatre or novel), there should be many writing groups. <S> Besides Meetup as has already been mentioned, there may be online local forums (Chicago used to have ChicagoImprov.com which was a forum for improvisers and sketch writers/actors). <S> Taking a writing class would also help you meet other writers and join a group or create your own. <A> Checking with your local library is a good option. <S> They may sponsor a writers' group; even if they don't, the reference librarians should be able to help you find a local group. <S> They often work with local writers, and many library employees are writers themselves.
| Libraries and other community spaces often offer writing workshops so it might be a good idea to look there too.
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Best Way to Develop a Daily Writing Routine? I would like to go about making a habit of writing to a journal or blog on a daily basis. What techniques or patterns have been the most useful in accomplishing this task? <Q> Start a Seinfeld calendar. <S> Basically, you have a calendar set up somewhere that you see everyday. <S> Each day you write, fill the date with a big red X, or another distinguishing mark. <S> After a few days you'll have a chain. <S> The chain just keeps getting longer and longer. <S> Dont break that chain. <S> Thats the way to keep pushing yourself to write as frequently as you can. <S> You won't want to break that chain no matter what. <A> Inspired by a news post about ohlife <S> I set up a small script that sends me an e-mail message each day asking me about my day. <S> I just reply to that message with my daily journal if I have something interesting to say. <S> This trick (or mind hack) works great for me because: I'm in a position to write my journal when I get the reminder to do it. <S> My journals are collected in one folder with a simple filter rule. <S> My e-mail is backed-up regularly <S> so I don't have to worry about loosing my journal. <S> My journal is portable (I can write it on my laptop, phone or in my webmail interface). <A> I used to write a minimum of three pages of freewriting every morning (from The Artists Way) which allows the removal of cruft from our brains and eventually promotes more creativity and more writing. <A> Schedule it! <S> For me it is usually the first hour in the morning after I wake, or the last hour of the day before going to bed. <S> If I can't do it in the morning, then I use the evening as my backup plan. <S> Either way, I know that I am going to have at least an hour a day to write, whether it's working on my blog, working on a story, or answering questions here! <A> I have been using OhLife previously for my daily piece of my writing. <S> I followed it religiously for about 2 months. <S> But my life journals were either too short or large and I had no way of tracking how much I write. <S> That coupled with an absence of sense of accomplishment my writing graph went down steeply. <S> Luckily for me I came across 750words.com <S> which is everything I wished for. <S> I have set it to send me reminder emails at 7.30 in the morning. <S> My day begins after writing it. <S> I found 3 pages or 750 words the right amount of words to get my creative juices running. <S> Writing whatever comes in my mind helps to clear the clutter in my mind and gets me ready for the day ahead. <A> I started my daily writing routine at the beginning of NaNoWriMo to have a set goal and community pushing me to write every day. <S> After, I was able to kept to that schedule, even if I was only writing small amounts, because I had formed the habit of sitting down to write each day in a positive and motivational environment.
| Find a window of time that you can block out and that is convenient for you to use, and then schedule that time to write.
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Using slang as a narrator - pros and cons Is it advisable to use slang and euphemisms as a narrator, in addition to the main characters who use it? Are there arguments for and against it? For example, if I were to write about street thugs and their exploits, would using slang in the narration bring the reader closer to the characters? Or would it be considered inappropriate and distracting? <Q> It depends on the narrator. <S> Is the narrator a character in the story or not? <S> If he's not: If you're trying to foster the idea of an unreliable narrator, it helps to use slang. <S> If he's more of a classical narrator, don't. <S> If he IS a character, then just write how he'd talk. <S> Done and done. <A> Agreed that it all depends on who the narrator's supposed to be, and, frankly, what tone you're trying to bring across to the reader. <S> Two of my favorite opening paragraphs of all time: <S> When age fell upon the world, andwonder went out of the minds of men;when grey cities reared to smoky skiestall towers grim and ugly, in whoseshadow none might dream of the sun orof Spring's flowering meads; whenlearning stripped the Earth of hermantle of beauty and poets sang nomore of twisted phantoms seen withbleared and inward looking eyes; whenthese things had come to pass, andchildish hopes had gone forever, therewas a man who traveled out of life ona quest into spaces whither theworld's dreams had fled. <S> H.P. Lovecraft, "Azathoth" <S> Contrast with... this: <S> Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, afterthat Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouthand saying, the first step to eternallife is you have to die. <S> For a longtime, though, Tyler and I were bestfriends. <S> People are always asking, didI know about Tyler Durden. <S> Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club <S> Perhaps not a lot of slang in either, but talk about different tones. <S> Lovecraft famously wrote of stuffy, deliberate intellect clashing with cosmic horror, and his narration is somewhere between sonnet and scientific-journal entry. <S> Palahniuk, meanwhile, reads like a wild-eyed young man, slightly out-of-breath, who's just flung an arm around your shoulder and started telling you a story. <S> Think about how you want your story to sound - like the confession of a learned man, or like the antics your buddy related to you at the bar, and let that guide the way your narrator speaks . <S> And the emphasis on sound and speech brings us to a classic tip: <S> read your narration out loud. <S> Nothing else will make the awkward bits quite so obvious quite so quickly. <A> Who is the narrator? <S> Was he a street thug? <S> If he was, then it wouldn't make much sense to have him narrating using the Queen's English. <S> The narrator should talk in their voice, not yours. <S> Don't distract from the story though. <S> As in don't spell words in weird ways or go overboard with things the reader might not understand without referring to urbandictionary.com. <S> That would distract the reader from the main points of the story. <S> Use just enough to setup the character, then pull back <S> so we can understand what you're talking about. <A> I think using slang in the narration can be quite a powerful tool. <S> One example is Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. <S> In it, he has a number of core characters. <S> A group of 5 to 6 people who are key to the development of the storyline throughout the three books. <S> Depending on from which perspective each chapter is written, the narration changes. <S> It is a clever and difficult technique. <S> It helps the reader to attach themselves to the perspective, and adds more atmosphere to the character. <A> For a good, modern example, see The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao . <S> The entire story is told by a narrator who speaks, not only with slang, but with impenetrable, culturally specific slang, largely in Spanish. <S> It gives the whole book an immediacy, and you feel almost as if you're sitting on the steps with a beer, listening to this crazy dominicano telling you the story as he paces back and forth on the sidewalk, making big hand gestures. <S> Quality book, won a lot of awards, sold a lot of copies. <S> So the answer is absolutely, with the caveat that, if it's not done well, it's better not to do it at all. <S> And it should (imho) only be done in the first or second. <S> Even if you're using some Gatsby-esque first-person-pretending-to-be-third-person device, that's fine, but impersonal narrators speaking in slang is a little weird, again, in my opinion. <A> (Mark Twain is the only example I can think of where it was done well.) <S> Slang is another matter, with some of the same pitfalls. <S> Having characters using slang and the narrator not , that might be distracting. <S> I'd suggest writing a chapter or three, putting them aside for a bit, then reading them to see how it worked. <A> For example in Wuthering Heights, there are two narrative voices; the first is a gentleman and written accordingly while the second is a housekeeper and she speaks in a more common, local dialect with different characterisation than the first voice. <S> If the narrative point of view is the omnipotent, anonymous voice then it shoukd generally be more standard, more formal.
| It depends on who the narrator is. If the narrator is of a particular rank or class the writing should reflect that (but beware of overdoing it.) Using dialect or slang can work very well, but it usually doesn't.
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How deeply should I study the background of a community before writing about it? By "background", I mean the dialects, habits and culture of the community. Also, I wonder if it is even possible to write about a community without being a part of it? I am only asking this in terms of writing fiction. <Q> Two suggestions: Explain something in detail on Writing Excuses, they recommended that in this situation you take one thing and explain the heck out of it, then take another and don't explain it at all . <S> For cultures, you can put in one or two things from your study of the culture, and really go into detail to the point where it looks like <S> you know what you're taking about. <S> Then you won't have to go into as much detail for other aspects, but you'll still (hopefully) have a very authentic feel. <S> The result is that it looks like you could have described everything in more detail, but, like any good fiction author, you're focusing on the action/characters/story. <S> For example: In a fight scene set in ancient Japan, study up on some etiquette and weapons, describe those in detail ("Yojimbo drew his sword and dropped into a fighting stance, waiting mutely for his opponent to acknowledge the challenge by doing the same" and "the sword was his grandfather's katana , forged from fine steel folded a hundred times for tensile strength"), and then leave out explanations for the other details. <S> (Note: <S> I haven't actually studied ancient Japanese etiquette and weapons for these examples, but hopefully I've illustrated the point). <S> Expert alpha reader <S> It's pretty important ( <S> if a significant portion of your audience knows as much or more about the subject than you do) to have an alpha reader who is an expert in the subject matter proof-read it when it's "done" and correct any glaring problems. <A> Be very careful with dialect. <S> It's difficult to do well (if it's even possible). <S> It's easy to offend. <S> And, most importantly in my mind, it's very annoying to read. <S> Word choice is going to show your character just fine -- if you want ignorant or affected, rich or poor -- as opposed to actual dialect. <A> If it's broad strokes, background characterisation, or local colour, then a more general level of knowledge is acceptable. <S> In either case, you cannot give the same level of insight as a member of that community but you should be truthful, avoid lazy stereotypes, and if your research shows that your initial ideas about that community or culture was inaccurate you should rethink your approach. <S> Also, while you cannot describe it as an "insider" you can give an objective point of view that is just as valuable and interesting if you try. <A> It depends on your own goals and priorities. <S> Maybe it is even impossible to write about community without being part of it? <S> Definitely. <S> Think about your own community. <S> Imagine someone from a completely foreign culture reading up on it for a few weeks and then attempting to write a novel based on it. <S> No matter how hard they studied, they would inevitably get things wrong -- some of them being plain old mistakes, and others being subtle things that can't really be explained but have to be experienced to understand why they're wrong. <S> But it might not matter. <S> Stephanie Meyer knows sweet fuck-all about Native Americans, but that didn't stop her from exploiting them ruthlessly in her novels and she's doing alright. <A> Depends on what you are writing I guess. <S> If you are writing an article on that specific subject, I would dive pretty deep into the matter. <S> You usually get to a point where you feel confident about what you are saying is right. <S> Don't throw out assumptions. <S> If someone later came and told you "that's wrong", and you have no way of defending it, you obviously haven't dug deep enough. <S> If on the other hand you just need it to emphasize a character or a specific environment in a bigger story, I would talk to someone who really knows the field and get them to come up with a few typical examples of behavior/descriptions/word that only someone really into it would know, that at the same time comes as a natural extension of some preconception that most people have about the subject/area/culture/thing. <A> If you write a documentation about this community you should naturally investigate deeply into the topic. <S> But I think you mean using characters or elements from this culture in your fictional story. <S> In that case you must see, that most of your readers possibly don't know more about the community than you does. <S> Members of this community on the other hand, will always know more than you, even if you investigate strongly. <S> It happens all the time in novels or movies, that a community is shown partly wrong. <S> It doesn't matter, if the main story is good enough. <S> But one thing you should consider: you may don't want to offend members of the community. <S> So you might learn about offending stereotypes you should avoid. <A> You should investigate to the point that you have a good grasp of what's important to the community members and what's not important, especially on the topic of how that community is depicted. <S> The Golden Rule applies here. <S> Would you want someone writing about you to leave out details that put what you've done in a different light?
| It depends on your intent; if your work be it fictional or factual, hangs on details about this community, its customs and practices,then you need to research scrupulously. So you don't need too much investigation, in the end it should suffice, that you know a little more than most of your readers.
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How to share the work, if writing fiction in a team? How should one split up the work between two people? Should one write the even-numbered chapters and the other the odd-numbered? Does each person tell the story from the point of view of a different character or write different story-subarcs? In general, how do one organise the work in a team? <Q> I've written a few short stories with friends via email, with each person chipping in a section. <S> It yields some interesting and fun results, but not what you'd call a particularly coherent story. <S> For an example of how one pair of pros did it, take a look at this interview with Sean Williams and Shane Dix . <S> Basically, they worked on a story outline together, Sean did the first draft, Shane rewrote/edited, and Sean did one last pass. <S> Getting together for the outlining or vision at the start seems like a really important step. <S> I could see something like odd/even chapters by different writers ending up with a conflict in styles...which might work really well in some cases. <A> Another option that doesn't seem to have been mentioned, which might work if you are writing multiple-POV-character fiction, is to switch viewpoint characters between chapters and let each writer "own" one or more of the viewpoint characters. <S> This works best if the characters don't partake in each others' activities too much, but with a shared reasonably solid understanding of the characters among all authors and some editing it may very well work well enough even if the characters intermingle. <S> Viewpoint character switches can get confusing if done wrong, but of the books I've read, I believe the ones that switch viewpoint character at chapter boundaries have all worked well. <S> Of course you may need a solid round of editing at the end to bring everything together and make sure the story is consistent, but that is probably a good idea <S> anyway <S> so all things considered is probably not a huge drawback. <A> They way my last few collaborations worked <S> was a bit like this, though these were all for short stories. <S> Together we would come up with the story and work out the plot points for the story, the main character beats and the over all plot and events. <S> After that was all settled one of us would sit down and write the draft (we would trade off of this each story). <S> Then give to the other who would review and clean up the story a bit more. <S> The back and fourth until we were both happy with that, after that it was posted for the online group. <S> Usually you can tell who did the heavy lifting on the writing as they got top billing. <A> I think it depends on the people, what they're good at, and who came up with what. <S> I've been co-writing as a hobby for the last six years, and in the last year started co-writing seriously. <S> My writing partner isn't great with prose, and his characters can be a little flat, but he's got the most amazing ability to grab interesting ideas out of the air, and he has an instinctive ability to throw in really effective plot hooks. <S> I tend to focus heavily on twisting existing elements into complications and intrigue, and I love character development and plot structure. <S> We'll write the first draft together on google docs, while chatting about the work on Skype. <S> He'll do about two thirds of the brain-storming and solution-fetching. <S> Some characters are 'mine' (he can't write them), some are his, some are shared. <S> I tend to write a few paragraphs where my characters are acting or talking, then he'll do the same, with some liberties for simultaneous action. <S> Sometimes one of us writes a few pages alone. <S> The POV sometimes gets wonky, and there are style changes, and the prose isn't great. <S> The point of this stage is to get a nicely proportioned skeleton in place. <S> Then I go in for the rewrite, rewrite everything alone, give his characters more depth, fill in scenes I feel need to be in the story, and occasionally cry to my cowriter to get me out of plot-holes. <S> Once I finish, I'll polish excessively until I'm dragged away, and he'll go through the manuscript and pick out prose problems. <S> (Along with a slew of other people making edits.) <S> This is a self-published venture, so once that's done with I'll use my multimedia degree to lay out the book in InDesign, then convert into HTML with regular expressions for the e-book version. <S> I also paint the covers, though I may step down from that eventually. <S> We split the proceeds unevenly in my favor, with a written contract saying that if our duties shift, we'll renegotiate.
| As long as you have a reasonably firm outline, this allows each author to work relatively freely, and in such a case the differences in style may actually add to the flavor of the overall story.
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Is there an accepted (or 'correct') way to write translations/subtitles for different materials (videos, articles, books, etc)? There are many ways to go about translating various materials. For example, while subtitling videos from a different language into english, is it better to (or more acceptable) to do a literal translation of what is said, or to change it and write it in a way that is more appropriate for english? Or is this usually subjective to the person writing the translation? <Q> There are two special issues regarding subtitles: space limitations, i.e. you cannot put enough letters in a row (or two) to cover everything that's said; time limitations, i.e. you cannot translate everything literally as you have to expect that viewers can't read fast enough to read all those words, especially not when someone is talking fast. <S> Most of the times, you'll have to summarize a bit when writing subtitles, without losing the meaning and emotion of what's been said. <S> There's a classic example of a Dutch subtitle that went wrong: in an episode of The Bold and the Beautiful someone said over the phone: <S> After all he put you through. <S> In Dutch, this was translated as Hij heeft je tenslotte doorverbonden. <S> That is, someone connects someone to somebody else on the phone. <S> Of course, it was about an emotional affair <S> (don't know what) and someone helped her to cope with it. <A> It's 3 years since the question was posted, but I just stumbled across it. <S> I read something by Martin Luther many years ago where he discussed his efforts to translate the Bible into German. <S> He said that he first made a word-for-word translation. <S> Then he made a free translation that he felt conveyed the sense of the original. <S> Then he took the two translation and tried to reconcile them, in an effort to convey the intended meaning while retaining as much of the original phrasing as possible. <S> Okay, the translations you're talking about probably bring less of a sense of weighty responsibility than Luther likely felt about translating scripture. <S> But any translation has to balance a word-for-word translation to rigorously preserve the original writer's words with a free translation to capture the sense and avoid confusing the reader with idioms from another language. <S> If the work is scholarly or technical, I'd lean more toward the word-for-word to avoid losing potentially important technical distinctions. <S> Likewise if it's political, religious, or controversial, I'd lean toward the word-for-word to avoid putting your words and ideas in someone else's mouth. <S> But if it's more light and popular -- like the title of a video of a comedy -- I'd lean more toward capturing the sense. <S> No one is going to be carefully studying these words and critiquing them. <S> They just want to know what the movie is about. <S> A particular problem with titles is that they often involve word-play or other poetic elements, which are notoriously difficult to translate. <S> Some of these don't even make it between two different cultures that speak (theoretically) the same language. <S> I recall that when the British movie "The Madness of George V" was released in the US, they changed the title to "The Madness of King George", out of fear that an American audience might not recognize "George V" as the name of a monarch, and think that this was the fifth installment in a "Madness of George" series. <S> (Like "Fast and Furious 2", etc.) <S> Or even within a single nation, when I first heard the song title, "It's All About the Benjamins, Baby", <S> I had no idea what a "Benjamin" was. <A> I would always go the way of changing it and writing it in a way that is more appropriate for English. <S> And a clever translation of a saying or an idiom will delight viewer who understands both languages (spoken and subtitled). <A> I believe that what was done for Princess Mononoke is what should be done more, hire a author (Neil Gaiman in that case) to re-interpret the story rather than a translator to translate the text. <S> Having an interpreted version as the primary and a secondary literal translation version of subtitles and an would satisfy both the purist and the average viewer.
| Literal translation could confuse the viewer.
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When and how often edit the style and content of a story? An early story I did I edited again and again to make it better. But in the end, I got the feeling the result was worse than before. Recently I tried to write (short-stories) in one go and only check for wrong spelling and grammar. What is a good amount of editing? How should I know when to stop and simply publish the result? <Q> It's easy to get that feeling, but it doesn't necessarily mean the story is worse (or that it's better). <S> For this reason, I keep all my work under revision control (I prefer git , but there are others). <S> That way, I can actually compare any revision that has ever existed to any other (to see if it's really worse or if I'm just tired of it), I can roll back to a previous revision (if a set of changes was actually a bad idea), and most of all see what is going on with my changes (to keep from going through cycle after cycle of editing over just a few phrases, which either means other parts of the work are being ignored, or I'm "done" and just didn't feel it). <A> There's no single answer for this. <S> I recently was working on a short story that I was happy with in its first incarnation. <S> I asked a former teacher to look over it, and he suggested a change in the style; I went with it for the sake of editing. <S> After three days of hopelessly hacking at the story, I realized that all of the changes I made were making it worse , and what I really wanted all along was the first draft. <S> Moral is: don't be afraid to stick with your first draft if your edits aren't working for you. <A> If you feel that your story needs to be edited more because something was left out, or you don't like the direction that the story is taking, or whatever the reason, then edit it. <S> If you're happy with the story, then don't edit it. <S> After all, it's your story!
| Edit it until you're comfortable with the result.
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How to keep the reader engaged throughout the novel? Some authors (a la Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code) use an expected twist and unanswered question at the end of every chapter. Some (a la Stephen King) build deep characters that simply draw you in. What ways (besides just telling a genuinely good story) are there to keep a reader engaged throughout the story? <Q> Unexpected twists can work in plot driven novels where the readers are expecting to move quickly - but without a lot of mental effort or interest in the characters - through a story. <S> Your example author Dan Brown writes pretty much the same characters in every novel. <S> He also spins absolutely fascinating mysteries that people must know the end of. <S> Plot twists can also feel cheap to the reader. <S> For example, O. Henry's short stories seem a little less than serious because as a reader you go along through the story until you get to a plot twist at the very end that you didn't see coming at all. <S> Instead of being able to see yourself as clever for anticipating this twist you feel like the author held important pieces of information from you. <S> If you do a plot twist, you have to give the readers clues along the way to the twist that it is coming, dropping hints of what it will be. <S> This keeps your reader engaged. <S> Edith Wharton does this in an absolutely stunning way in her short story " Roman Fever . <S> " <S> There is a twist at the end, but if you are paying attention she hints at what it might be all throughout the story. <S> Most of my writing professors during college preferred that we turn in character-driven fiction. <S> What do your characters want? <S> What keeps them from getting it? <S> What do they fear? <S> What is making their fears realized? <S> Write a compelling character. <S> Make your readers care about him or her. <S> Take one of his or her deepest desires and thwart it. <S> Bring it all to a conclusion where the character changes - his or her desires change, he or she breaks from the hope deferred, whatever you like. <S> You'll have engaged readers. <A> Don't tell the readers too much. <S> Have them wanting to learn more. <S> The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a great example of this. <S> The story switches with each chapter from following the girl, Lisbeth, and the other main character. <S> Lisbeth is an incredibly interesting character, and you want the pages following her to keep going. <S> This gets you through reading the perspectives of the other characters, which helps build the plot. <A> I've noticed that short chapters keep me moving along, even if I'm only somewhat interested in the story. <S> Sometimes it's enough to keep me there until something really hooks me. <S> Probably not useful in all genres or writing styles, but a suggestion. <S> Un Lun Dun by China Meiville is one example. <S> Possibly The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry, too, <S> but I didn't finish that one <S> and it was a while ago <S> so I don't remember clearly.
| In character-driven fiction, the thing that draws the reader in is the protagonist's wants, needs, fears, dreams, hopes, and loves. The trick is to not let them wait for too long, or they'll get bored or uninterested.
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Spelling style in academic papers When an article is submitted to a conference or journal, is it better to use British or American spelling? Does it have to be according to the conference or journal's style (based on where it is being held or who hold it) or is it up to the writer to choose and stick to one style? <Q> I've seen both styles in the same journal before, so I'd suggest writing at your comfort level. <A> When I write papers, I usually try to write in American English. <S> I say try because not being a native speaker (I'm Belgian), i have a natural tendency to mix up stuff. <S> So when I'm not sure, I take a dictionary and look up the possible spellings and will settle for a consistent choice, which is most of the time American English. <S> The most important is to be consistent. <A> The only time you'd have to choose is if you're submitting to a journal or publication that has a list of writing standards to which applications must adhere, and one of their standards is preferred spelling.
| I'd think that the writer wouldn't be expected to change his or her writing style based on the style of a particular publication.
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When the second person *view* is not an uninvited guest? It is very strange to read the narrative from second person, but there are examples! Maybe there are a number of situations which are good for using second-person view? <Q> "You're reading the advertisement: an offer like this isn't made every day. <S> You read and reread it. <S> It seems to be addressed to you and nobody else..." <S> These are the opening words of Carlos Fuentes' Aura , the only example of second person narration I've read. <S> In Fuentes' case, I think the second person narration contributes to an impression that the protagonist's actions (your actions) are happening in the context of a hypnotic or dream-like state. <S> In Fuentes' story, the technique is effective and compelling. <A> Text Adventure games use a second-person narrative, as do many games that have been inspired by them, including some first person shooters. <S> You are in a dark room. <S> You might be eaten by a grue. <A> <A> Self-help books come to mind. <S> And thanks to random internet people, we have a list of notable second person narratives <A> Junot Diaz's "The Cheater's Guide to Love" is a nice short-story and a brilliant contemporary example of the second person's use in fiction. <S> Second-person is obviously not implicating the reader herself—it's always clearly about the protagonist—the PoV just serves to further, maybe more intimately, familiarize the reader with the protagonist. <S> Bring her even closer into the protagonist's mind, thoughts, feelings. <S> If mishandled it can be awkward and an instant turn-off, but it has its unique benefits. <S> Good luck!
| Choose your own adventure books often use the second person.
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How can I get started screenwriting/playwriting? I have some experience writing stories, but would like to beginning screenwriting. Are there any online guides to show how to get started and transition into writing for the stage, where ideas need to be presented through dialogue and props, rather than narration. <Q> Screenwriting: http://www.screenwriting.info/ <S> The Complete Idiot's Guide to Screenwriting Playwriting: http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/introtoplaywriting Writing for the Stage: A Practical Playwriting Guide <A> You need to see the style they have, and the best thing you can do (other than start writing yourself) is to read the work of successful writers. <S> You can learn how to write good scenes, and, in the case of screenplays, you can watch the movie as well to see how it all looks once done. <S> The Daily Script is a great website to read screenplays for both TV shows and movies. <S> I'm sure there are similar sites for plays. <S> Good luck and have fun! <A> The following applies more to playwriting than screenwriting. <S> It's practical and accessible but not dumbed-down, and built from his own experiences in the theater world. <S> On top of reading books and studying plays, I would say start going to the theater regularly. <S> Plays are meant to be experienced, not read. <S> To go even further, donate your time to a local small theater group. <S> This might mean setting up and tearing down sets, lighting, even acting, but that's part of the deal. <S> Not only will you see how theater "works", you'll also make contacts with the very people who produce the work of young playwrights. <A> A book I really like (and full of useful tips) is " How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes <S> Most Screenwriters Make " by Denny Martin Flinn. <S> He goes over examples of bad screenplay writing compared to bits from screenplays of some big films like Braveheart and Bladerunner. <A> I was on the same quest, and thought this book was gold: How to Write a Movie 21 Days <S> It really throws you in there, and teaches you the typing structure in a brilliant way. <S> Not the most comprehensive book on the subject, but the best I have read for people who are just starting out. <S> I would also highly recommend a good writing tool, like Scrivener . <S> Screenplays rely heavily on formatting, and with the right tool, you won't spend much time hitting the tab and shift keys.
| I would say start by reading some scripts. Stuart Spencer's The Playwright's Guidebook is the best book I've seen on the subject.
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What can one do to get the most from limited writing time? I do make an effort to write every day, and usually succeed, but I just have too much going on in my life right now to give my writing the time it would like to have. When I do have time, blog posts, tech papers, etc. try very hard to crowd out the fiction I do for fun (not that I'd mind publishing it some day, I just don't have the time to put in to pursue that goal in earnest right now). I can't always take "just" a half hour or an hour or two more to get to a stopping point. I hate stopping when I'm on a roll, but it's just a fact of life. How do you grab what you had when you left off and lose as little of the "juice" as possible when you sit back down to write? How can one shorten the time from "sitting down to write" to "oh, yeah, that's where we were..." and productive writing? Are there any productivity tools you recommend to make the planning process less disjointed? I'm happy with my editor; however I'm using mindmapping software for general notes, and paper index cards for rearranging timeline, and would like to replace the index cards, or possibly both, with something better suited to the task. (I'm not interested in an IDE-like all-in-one such as WritersCafe.) Any other tips re: productivity despite limited writing time would be appreciated, too. <Q> In college I had a writing professor who was a published novelist, mother, and had worked in web design while getting her Masters of Fine Arts and writing. <S> She told a story of another novelist who did most of her "writing" while doing chores. <S> This novelist had a great memory and would come up with the next stage of her plot while folding laundry, on walks, in the shower, etc. <S> When she got a moment, she wrote it all down. <S> Because she was so immersed in her story, it stuck with her. <S> This won't work if you don't have that kind of memory. <S> It is, however, how very some prolific authors get books written. <S> They write in their heads until they can write on paper/the computer/the typewriter. <A> When I'm on a roll writing, I always make sure I stop before the roll ends. <S> In other words, if my "writing time" is almost up, and I have a great idea <S> and I know what I want to say, I will often stop before I'm done, take a few notes on how I want to complete the idea, then stop for the day. <S> While on one hand it may be stupid to ignore the flow, this approach allows me to get started quickly the next day - I scan where I left off, and have little problem getting right back to the pace of the previous day. <S> I can't do it every day, but I do it when I can because it has never failed to get me into the "writers zone" quickly. <A> I don't always plan ahead a lot in my writing, but I've taken to adding something at the end of my word document to let me know where I'm heading. <S> It might be plot, it might be an emotion or a line of dialogue <S> I don't want to forget <S> but I'm not ready to include yet. <S> One might call it an outline, but it's very rough. <S> I don't always end up using everything I write there. <S> Sometimes the plot turns unexpectedly as I'm writing, but it gives me a direction I'm heading to. <S> Then I delete as I reach. <S> Typing a quick sentence to let you know what you were going to do next might help you get back to where you were and get writing NOW. <A> That will not be the advice for every writer, but if you have limited time, you could spend it for polishing your work. <S> Every single literary fiction act is polished to crystal clearness. <A> @justkt - I think your writing professor had the right idea. <S> I find that the mental work done when not writing is just as important as the work done in front of the computer.
| If you do a little mental prep before you sit down--thinking about where you left off and what you're going to write when you start, then you can maybe use your bits of writing time more effectively.
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Is there a Market for Poetry with a Fixed Verse Form I find that when I structure my poetry according to an accepted form such as a villanelle , sestina , or sonnet I am able to think more clearly because of the boundaries of the form, and believe my best poetry is in fixed verse form. I'm concerned that fixed verse form poetry seems old fashioned (especially given the number of people who think writing a sonnet gives them license to torture the English language). Are there readers for this type of poetry? Are their editors or magazines who would welcome it? Should I work on perfecting my un-structured poetry instead? <Q> I've always preferred well-executed structured poetry to free verse, and it should be welcomed by open-minded editors. <S> The real question is, are you really willing to change your style in order to capture more of a market that's not very large to begin with? <A> Duotrope also lists poetry markets; that might be the best place to start looking. <A> I think the real question should be whether or not there is a market for poetry in general. <S> The structure is really up to the poet, but you need to keep in mind that the reader has to be able to understand it. <S> If you do it just to be different, you risk putting off some people. <S> However, as it was stated already, if you have a reason for it and the reader can discern that reason, then you may end up with a larger fan base. <S> Having said that, I have published eight books of poetry, and while I don't sell a whole lot, I have managed to sell some of each. <S> in addition to that, I have gotten lots of favorable feedback and excellent reviews. <S> I don't follow a consistent structure in any of my books. <S> Instead, I have a wide mixture of different poetry forms. <S> Some are rhymed, some are not. <S> I think that by having a variety I have a better chance of reaching more people. <S> Even if they don't like some, there is a greater chance they will like others. <A> The New Formalist seems to be another publisher of formal poetry. <S> (The wikipedia article on New Formalism might be of interest.)
| The Lyric , "the oldest magazine in North America in continuous publication devoted to traditional poetry", is one periodical that accepts formal verse.
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What linguistic tools do you use? I've got a Flip Dictionary , a Thesaurus, my trusty Strunk&White, and I use the almighty GOOG(le) should I ever be unsure of the definition of a word. What does everyone else use? Is there some handy reference that I'm missing? I'm not really concerned with style books...I see we've got two threads on those already. I want to know about word references and such. <Q> I like to use the book "The Synonym Finder," though it is rather bulky to have lying around. <A> I like Wordnik , dictionary.com , Urban Dictionary , Google Dictionary. <S> And Google search as well. <A> It tells you which verbs tend to be used with a specific noun, which adverbs tend to be used with a verb, etc. <S> For non-native speakers this a real treasure which is unfortunately little known. <S> Collocations are the kind of intuitions about a language which are very difficult to fully acquire, and they are hard to fathom from a normal dictionary. <S> I believe - though it's not really for me to say - that it also has a value for native speakers, both as useful form of a thesaurus - and, for creative writes, as a sort of dictionary of cliches to be used with care. <A> I admit, I mostly stick to dictionary.com (and the app version from my iPod) for most of my look ups. <S> I also use Google for any words my spellchecker chokes on. <S> 9 times out of 10 it will suggest the correct spelling, even if I give it something a bit off the wall. <A> My window manager, Xfce, has a handy little taskbar app that will query a configurable list of dictionaries, thesauri, and other references -- everything from the Jargon File (a hacker lexicon) to Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary to Moby's Thesaurus, The CIA World Factbook, a legal dictionary, and dozens of other sources (you can also add custom ones). <S> It doesn't seem to have a name, just "Dictionary" <A> Dictionary on Mac. <S> Has a dictionary, thesaurus, and built-in formatted Wikipedia browser. <S> I can switch between the definition of a word, the thesaurus, and the wikipedia entry for the word within immediately using keyboard-shortcuts. <A> I just started using Visual Dictionaries. <S> These are good ones <S> I'm familiar with DK Illustrated Oxford Dictionary and Facts on File , thanks to Writers SE, see https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/4639/2358 <S> Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary , online and books, see https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/4623/2358 .
| I find the Oxford Collocations Dictionary very useful.
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Switching POV: Should it ever be done at all? When I started, I had a nasty habit of hopping from perspective to perspective to perspective. I forced myself down to one perspective per chapter, but I still wonder if it's acceptable to do it at all . There are plenty of good authors who never switch and plenty who do, and it seems to me that those who don't do a much better job of character development, and those who do are really more plot focused. I guess I'm wondering if that's what it boils down to...Is switching perspective killing your character development in the name of plot development? Or are you doomed to character driven plots if you lock the perspective? Is it worth it? Is there some way to get both? <Q> Well, the simple answer is yes, <S> if your story needs it you should switch POV as often as needed. <S> Naturally of course it's more complicated then that. <S> The point of view is are windows into the story, we see it through those eyes and learn all that happens via it. <S> If the story is small, where one character can see and interact with most events, it makes sense to stay with one POV. <S> Many mystery novels are written like this, we see everything from the detectives POV and rarely, if ever, move out of it. <S> On the other hand if the story is a large sprawling epic, it becomes much harder for one person to be involved with everything. <S> This sort of thing will naturally lead you to having more then one main character and more then one POV. <S> Think of Lord of the Rings, or the Honor Harrington series both use multiple POV. <S> Really, it goes back to one of the core rules of story telling, does having this advance the story. <S> If having more then one POV makes the story better and your characters more interesting people, it maybe worth doing. <A> Have you ever read Trainspotting ? <S> That, IMO, is an example of tons of perspective changes executed perfectly . <S> Really though it depends on the kind of story you're trying to tell, because lots of perspective changes definitely changes the tone. <S> A more nonlinear story favors perspective changes, for example. <S> Also, don't assume you're going to be losing character development. <S> If you're telling from a first-person or non-omniscient narrator's point of view, then that character might be distorting the facts about himself, and it can be good to see them from multiple points of view to get the full picture of them. <A> There are obvious times when it should be done, for instance, when you have more than one main character. <S> Asking, should it ever be done at all (current question title) is more subjective than answerable since published authors do it effectively on a regular basis. <S> Taking a shot at summarizing your last paragraph into one question, "How can I lock character perspective without sacrificing plot development? <S> " <S> Is that what you want to discuss? <S> That's difficult to answer in the stackexchange format, but it's a thought provoking question. <A> I find it fascinating when a story swaps between 3rd and 1st person. <S> In 3rd person it is a mainly Objective writing. <S> When 1st person, it becomes an extremely subjective writing. <S> It brings along the facts, as well as letting you feel the characters emotions. <S> In the first person chapters, you get shocked when the character does. <S> In the third person chapters, you have all the dramatic irony. <S> When put together, you can get a really interesting story. <S> I mean, ever wondered why that character did that? <S> Or what was happening while the character was thinking about his girlfriend?
| Having multiple perspectives to the story give you a range of views, and therefore a better understanding of the story and it's characters.
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A rhyming dictionary worth bookmarking online or purchasing? Has anyone come across any really good rhyming dictionaries? If so, what makes it worth having/bookmarking? (eg. completeness/ease of use/absence of really sketchy suggestions) <Q> http://www.rhymezone.com/ <S> You just type in a word, then select one of the following. <S> Then you have a full list of things to use! <S> Rhymes Near Rhymes Synonyms Antonyms Definition Related words <S> Similar sounding Homophones Match consonants <S> only Match these letters Check <S> spelling of a word Search for pictures <S> Search in Shakespeare Search for quotes <A> Webster's New World Rhyming Dictionary: <S> Clement Wood's Updated <S> This is the rhyming dictionary I turn to first. <S> It's an update to Clement Wood's classic 1943 reference . <S> The phonetic distribution of words took me a while to learn, but it's a great, fast system once you get a feel for it. <S> My only complaint about this update is that it's too large to fit in a guitar case. <S> (I'm comparing it to my paperback of the original Clement Wood.) <S> Part <S> I of this book is the rhyming dictionary itself. <S> Part II is titled "Guidelines for Effective Rhyme", and the first chapter is the closest I've seen to an Elements of Style for poets and lyricists. <S> Later chapters are a little dry, but they covers the history of rhyme forms, and definitions of stanza forms. <S> Clement Wood could have learned to "omit needless words" here, but it is a good reference. <A> The Song-Writer's Rhyming Dictionary , by Sammy Cahn <S> Out of print, worth looking for. <S> The introduction alone, an essay by the author about the process of lyric writing, is worth the purchase price. <S> The dictionary itself feels like it was hand=picked, and I suspect it was whittled down from a longer list. <A> I see someone recommends Rhymezone. <S> I've been using it since my copy of Wood's fell apart <S> and it's no substitute: it has multipe repetitions, vast numbers of words that sound as though they were invented by a desperate rhyming dictionary editor, and their idea of what rhymes with what is plain weird. <S> In what variety of English does "what" rhyme with "butt"? <S> It's ugly to look at too. <A> http://www.rhymedesk.com is quite good. <S> It has more extensive list of near rhymes than on other sites. <S> Also you can conveniently write your texts and search for words on the same page. <A> <A> WikiRhymer --- operated by songwriter <S> and it's user-editable. <S> It has pure rhymes, end rhymes, near rhymes, rhyming phrases.
| http://rhymebrain.com works well for most words, and also provides near-rhymes.
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What are the best authors to read if you want to get better at humor and comedy in writing? I’ve read humor like Three Men in a Boat and PG Woodhouse, but those comes nowhere close to folks like Dave Barry or Rory Blyth. What are some sources, blogs, books, articles, authors, etc. that you should be reading if you wanted to add humor in your writing? <Q> Off the cuff I would've said Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and Dave Barry. <S> Though to be honest, I have to say I truly believe that true humour is more a talent than a skill - it is possible to learn the rudiments, but to excel at it you have to be born with and to it. <S> And if you listen to the sage advice of those in the industry and succeeding at it, you will hear them say time and time again: "write what you know". <S> Surely that applies equally to humour? <A> It really depends on your sense of humor, whether you have one, and who your audience is. <S> If you're aiming your writing at adults, Terry Pratchet is a great read. <S> If you're aiming at children (around 8) then Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton might help. <S> But DO NOT use the jokes in your stories, just read them for the laughs. <S> Find out what about the jokes makes you laugh, and what doesn't. <S> Try Checking out <S> http://writetodone.com/2008/07/30/how-to-write-funny/ <S> And just remember, absurd characters, settings and plot can be just as funny (if not funnier) <S> then a well said joke. <A> If I had to name only one source, it would be M. Helitzer - Comedy <S> Writing Secrets - the best book on comedy writing <S> I've ever read. <S> It explains why certain things are funny, describes techniques for brainstorming and writing jokes, and it's also a pretty funny book. <S> Books <S> My favourite humorists are P.G. Wodehouse (Jeeves or Castle Blandings novels and short stories), David Lodge (The British Museum Is Falling Down, Changing Places) and Woody Allen (short stories). <S> Personally I consider T. Wolfe a very funny author, especially his latest novel I Am Charlotte Simmons. <S> Audio <S> I'd also recommend listening to some stand-up comedy: <A> Harry Harrison with the Stainless Steel Rat series and Robert Asprin with Myth Adventures are two others that would be good. <S> It would also probably be worth watching Charlie Chaplin movies, the studied simplicity of his comedy is brilliant. <A> Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) published a blog post on writing humor that could help. <S> There he covers topics, word-choice, analogies, and more. <A> Garrison Keillor and his Prarie Home Companion. <S> Although a radio show, much of the humor could translate to writing. <S> How information is revealed during a story, small detail by small detail, in what order, is very important for humor, and he's a master at that. <S> Choice of words. <S> Some of his show won't translate at all into writing - the excellent sound effects, tone of voice of the actors, though these things too are worthy of study in learning humor techniques. <S> He has books, too. <A> Try these classic writers: <S> Jerome K. Jerome, James Thurber, H. H. Munro, Mark Twain, Somerset Maugham and Thackeray. <S> The last few are pretty good at satire. <S> The last few have been writing for several media including television. <S> Hope <S> it helps <A> Listen to old radio clips of the following-- <S> The Opie & Anthony Show <S> The Phil Hendrie Show <S> Stern was exceptionally funny too...until somewhere around the turn of the millenia he simply stopped trying (or showing up to work that much... hoo-hoo ) <S> OnA were especially on fire comedically when they added li'l Jimmy Norton and gave him '3rd chair,' (which was also done by Stern in the form of Jackie Martling and later Artie Fine, who are NOT as funny as li'l jimmy... hoo-hoo). <S> fill-ins on the 3rd chair (and/or guests) on the OnA show is a who's who of guys that can bring the funny. <S> There were absolutely no constraints on the content and Greg Hughes created an environment where funny-guys could snap out of the usual "plug my next show at this radio station" and create priceless moments - almost always improvised. <S> guys like Louis CK, Bill Burr, Anthony Jeselnik, Bob Levy and Patrice O'Neal. <S> (RIP Patrice!) <S> Hendrie is bit more abstract than all of them -- you have to REALLY be thinking to get (and keep track of) how many levels and in how many ways his improv is hysterical. <S> Best if you can get ahold of his KFI/Clear Channel recordings when he was doing syndicated drive-time and took live calls.
| I also recommend you read joke books. If you want modern writers, try Terry Pratchett, Simon Rich, Allison Silverman, Woody Allen, Steve Martin and Billy Kimball. George Carlin (he's the best), Eddie Murphy, David Cross, Bill Hicks, Dane Cook...
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Should I translate my own writings into a second language I also know well? Nabokov was very discouraged when he translated his Lolita into Russian. And he spent half a year on it. So should I try the translation myself? <Q> I would always seek help from a professional translator, no matter how proficient I deem myself in the target language. <S> A professional translator has studied the intricacies of both languages (and probably a few more); he has linguistic tools at his disposal <S> I might not even imagine existed; he can look back at years of professional experience; and he is getting paid to get it right <S> , it's his entire job . <S> He will deliver a better result much faster. <S> Most importantly, though, you can always talk to him. <S> In fact, a professional translator will always be proactive about talking to you should he have any questions. <S> And even if he's totally happy with his output, you can still say, "nope, that's not quite what I had in mind. <S> You've translated the name X as Y where I would have preferred Z, and in this sentence here you are actually implying something that is not true to my original". <S> Now, I'm not saying that you should never even think of translating any works of yours yourself. <S> If you feel like trying, by all means do. <S> It's a fascinating experience. <S> However, the thing is that if you do the translation yourself, you will still need to show it to a professional editor afterwards, or at the very least have it proofread by a few native speakers of the target language (one is never enough). <S> So you will still have to work together with another person of five, except that it will be much more cumbersome and take forever. <S> Lastly, even if you invest a few years and achieve true mastery in translation, it will still be a trade-off: never forget that you could be spending all that time writing new works instead. <A> If you have the time to do so, and there is a want for the translation, I say it wouldn't be a bad idea. <S> Though in the end, it's also about time. <S> If you don't have the time to do the work it might be better to supervise it instead of doing it yourself. <A> I think that translation is an art in itself, not unlike writing in that it's also a creative endeavor. <S> But if you just want your work out there, I'd recommend someone who is a translator because they won't be emotionally tied to the work like you are. <A> I usually translate my work for these reasons: <S> It gives me a good reason to read it again (and you always find something if you read your own work). <S> When I translate, I often find better ways to express myself in the original language. <A> I think languages are very different in a lot of subtle things, so I wouldn't trust a third party to translate my thoughts, the way I write, and my subtle hints and intentions into another language <S> I know well. <S> I'd really try hard to translate it myself as to not lose any of those traits upon doing it. <S> If it's a language you don't really know well, you'd have no choice though. <A> Your English writing skills could use a little smoothing out, if the question above is representative. <S> However, that will improve in time with practice and the help of a good editor. <S> If you have the ability, it'd be a shame not to use it. <A> I doubt anyone knows what you wanted to say better than yourself. <S> Even the most skilled translator can miss some fine points you wanted to express. <S> As someone who has seen quite a number of bad translations, I'd never let anyone translate it into a language I know well enough to translate myself. <S> To help, maybe, to edit and give a hand with some subtler points of language, yes, but the whole translation, no. <S> I'm reading a book right now in English and was surprised to find it in the bookstore translated into Croatian, so I flipped through it <S> and I literally shuddered. <S> It wasn't that it was badly translated, per se, but since it's written in first person, the voice was completely different. <S> It wasn't the same character anymore. <S> I know some things get lost in translation, but this felt like a completely different character was telling the same story. <S> Not to mention that some names were Croationized while most didn't. <S> You just don't do that, you either do it all or none at all. <S> There are just as much of bad translators out there as there are good ones, it's a lottery which one you would ran into. <S> The ones that have actually lived in a foreign country and are truly fluent in that foreign language are really rare. <S> Translator also needs to have a flair for writing, because it's not all literal translation, sometimes you need to be creative to translate phrases and sentence structures that don't even exist in the other language, and still keep the original meaning in the original voice and style. <S> It's not straightforward. <S> So who better to do it than the original author? <A> I was instructed by multiple Princeton professors that one's native language is the only acceptable target for a self-produced literary translation. <S> (Of course, not everyone obeys these rules--but even the Nabokovs suffered for it.) <S> If the "second language" is your native language, I'd say go for it. <A> I would say yes because the more people can read it, the more feedback you can get that could help you with writing.
| By being able to do the first translation yourself you can be sure all the little things that make it through, that way some important piece of characterization doesn't get lost. If you want to do it because you think you'll get something out of the creative experience, I'd recommend you go for it--with help from a professional translator.
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How much sex is allowed in a non-romance novel? Exactly how much sex would would most publishers allow to be in a today's novel? Does it vary from publisher to a publisher? I'm not talking about romance novels where apparently everything goes. I think explicit scenes could be cut if needed by a publisher, because I don't think they can advance the storyline in most cases. But say, for example, that a thug character in a crime novel goes on to solicit services of a prostitute - how much detail can go into the act to be considered publishable? <Q> Why not just write the story the way the story needs to be written, and then worry (if at all) about if it's palatable to some hypothetical publisher? <A> Honestly, outside of romance novels, things like this are best left to the reader's imagination. <S> There are exceptions (a traumatic rape being one that I can think of, and even then you would want to focus on the emotions rather than the actions), but for the most part, the scene will come out better having left it vague than being explicit. <A> For specific publishers, you can use: What they say in their guidelines <S> Look at the level of sex (or profanity, or violence, say) in other titles from that publisher <S> For the general case, it depends on the novel. <S> If you take Chuck Palahniuk's Choke as an example, you can have lots of descriptions of (often weird) sex - <S> and it's definitely not a romance novel. <S> But the characters are recovering (or not!) <S> sex addicts, <S> so in this case having details fit with the characters. <A> How much detail can go into the act to be considered publishable? <S> How much of the detail is relevant to the plot? <S> If the answer is all of it <S> you probably have a romance novel. <A> It's all about the story, my friend. <S> The level of detail in your sex scenes doesn't matter. <S> Just write the scenes how you need to write them. <S> The story is the only thing that matters. <A> Taking your example: <S> But say, for example, that a thug character in a crime novel goes on to solicit services of a prostitute - how much detail can go into the act to be considered publishable? <S> I would expect the important parts for story development would be the initial solicitation and the aftermath of the sexual act (the payoff, the brushoff, the sendoff) rather than the actual sex unless there is something revealing about the manner in which the thug goes about it that develops the thug character or the plot. <S> End a chapter at the door and start another when they are getting dressed. <A> I would also add to the advice above ; most unpublished or unsigned authors send their manuscripts to agents trying to get taken on. <S> One agent will not baulk at heavily graphic sex while another will consider it crass or gauche. <S> The same is true of publishing houses. <S> By making the novel extremely graphic you risk marginalizing yourself especially unless the rest of the elements of your novel from characterisation to originality are excellent. <A> There are many factors to this question. <S> Does the sex enhance the novel? <S> If it does, most likely it will be kept. <S> If it doesn't, it'll be up to each individual publisher. <S> Some don't mind explicit scenes, others would rather not have them. <S> If you're writing YA, Middle Grade or Children's books, it'll be nixed right off the bat. <S> While sex may occur in these books, it is 99% of the time fade-to-black. <S> Similarly, if you're targeting old ladies or heavily religious people, it'll most likely get nixed. <S> If you're targeting adults, however, you have much more leeway. <S> Your best bet is to check each publisher's submission guidelines. <S> If their guidelines don't mention anything or are unclear, don't hesitate to send them an email and ask. <S> 99% of the time they won't have any problems answering questions from authors who are considering their house. <S> And as far as I know, unless the book is extremely heavy on sex, they most likely won't reject it just for that. <S> If they do have a problem with explicit scenes, they'll work with you on that in the editing phase of things. <A> It's a hard question to answer, it will vary based on your genre. <S> Young teen fiction, probably none or very vague scenes left mostly up to the imagination, there have been many answers to this effect already though. <S> Are you asking for the maximum amount? <S> but there's a reasonable ceiling to this. <S> As far as your circumstance goes I would say it depends on how important it is to the story. <S> Is it necessary to say how the sex went down between the thug and the prostitute or is it enough that he went to a prostitute. <S> In the second case, gloss over details, in the first case I can still recommend vagueness, but if your story calls for explicit sex then that is what you have to write. <S> It all comes down to the story and what you want to achieve with this scene. <A> If you want to put it in there, then put it in there. <S> Writing is an art form, its YOUR work- <S> I'm not happy with people giving answers about "well only if the actual details are integral to your plot... <S> if you put sex in it then it must be a romance novel anyway...". <S> You can't create boundaries like this for somebody else's work, healthy suggestions are okay but asserting that certain aspects of someones work may be unneccessary in terms of their own "plot" is confusing to me. <S> It's subjective, if it's part of your vision for your writing then leave it in- <S> don't censor yourself, your work, to fit the mould of some imaginary publisher. <S> Your main concern should be your own integrity as a writer (and don't spit at me with that SHOW DON'T TELL b.s.- <S> its thrown around too much and it reeks).
| It's also going to depend on the genre of the book and who you're targeting. I know this doesn't answer your question as to how much different publishers allow, but as far as the actual content of your writing, it will be stronger if you only hint at it than if you go over the sexual acts in great detail. If you can cut the whole thing out and have the same novel, it probably isn't necessary. Well it varies, with adult fiction as much as is necessary
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What techniques do you use to invent snappy turns of phrase? We all know clichés are bad[1] and that fresh, inventive and "fitting" phrases will delight and entertain our readers. What techniques can be used to invent such phrases? Sometimes they just "fall out" while you're writing, but other times require intense effort. You could do things like throw random words or direct opposites together and see if that inspires something, but I suspect this has a relatively low return on investment (time wise). What successful techniques have you used? (Here's a link to a site with a great colour scheme that talks about types of clichés ). [1] Unless you want one of your bad guys[2] to spout clichés as a character trait [2] Because good guys are never clichéd... <Q> I actually spent quite a while thinking about what possible phrases could exist in various areas of my current fantasy world. <S> Try to imagine how the idiom you are trying to create could have come about in the setting. <S> Include imagery that would be important to the people involved. <S> For example, someone who lives in a society with an evil necromancer overlord might say "to work like the dead" meaning to work tirelessly. <S> Obviously, if your story doesn't have necromancers, you can't use that example, but the point is to think about the society you're working with and make the idioms make sense. <A> The random word approach is not as bad as you think <S> Write adjectives into the third column (same amount as nouns) <S> Phrase a sentence which each row Write ten sentences each day of one week and you will be surprised about the return on investment. <S> If you're an "adjective killer" you can skip that column ;) <A> ...angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night <S> I listen to readings of Allen Ginsberg poetry. <S> Howl Supermarket in California
| If you're writing in your own original world, try to think of the kinds of things that are present in that world. : Divide a piece of paper into three columns Write nouns randomly in the first column and cover it Write verbs into the second and cover it (same amount as nouns)
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Are "morning pages" useful? I've found an interesting private online journaling website: 750words.com From "About" section of the website: I've long been inspired by an idea I first learned about in The Artist's Way called morning pages. Morning pages are three pages of writing done every day, typically encouraged to be in "long hand", typically done in the morning, that can be about anything and everything that comes into your head. It's about getting it all out of your head, and is not supposed to be edited or censored in any way. The idea is that if you can get in the habit of writing three pages a day, that it will help clear your mind and get the ideas flowing for the rest of the day. I've tried it for about a month or so, but still unsure whether such an exercise is useful or I should better spend this time on writing something, that is supposed to be edited or censored. Can writing down everything out of the head without editing (or maybe even rereading) be useful for developing creative writing skills? <Q> This is a subjective question as its usefulness as an exercise will vary from person to person. <S> Fwiw <S> I'd say that there is some value in doing this exercise, more so for novice writers than experienced ones. <S> It is better to write something than nothing, so to speak, and it can serve as an aid to those unsure where to start or what to write. <S> However without some editing and revision there is a danger of not learning from what you wrote and improving. <S> There is an exercise I do most years <S> -Nanowrimo.com - <S> where you attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. <S> Because of time constraint one writes without immediate revision or editing and the work takes shape. <S> However once finished one is supposed to revisit it and edit etc it can be illuminating when reading back over it to see the unconscious mistakes one makes and the errors to which one is prone. <S> I find that more useful than morning pages, personally. <A> (But for that, I don't think you have to do them in the morning.) <S> What you learn with this approach is the essential "write, don't edit" principle. <S> Most people learn to write and edit at the same time. <S> That was maybe helpful in school, writing a test, but it is not helpful in life. <S> Have you ever started to write a paragraph, found a spelling/grammar error in the beginning, corrected it <S> and you've totally forgot what you wanted to write in the next sentences? <S> Well, that does not happen, if you teach yourself to write things without editing them. <S> You have plenty of time doing that, after you've written down everything what was in your head. <S> It needs practice to kick your personal editor out of your head. <S> Then you can concentrate on what you want to do: that's writing, not editing. <A> Most definitely. <S> I actually read the Artist's Way a number of years ago, and wrote morning pages for a while until I got sidetracked by other things. <S> My journal still sits on my coffee table wanting to get written in again. <S> The idea behind morning pages is more than just freewriting. <S> When the author explains it, and what to do, it's: First <S> , yes, freewrite at least three pages of what's in your head, but more importantly, don't reread what you write for at least one year after you write it. <S> When we wake up in the morning, there's enough cruft in our heads (either from dreams, good or bad things that are happening in our lives) and we continue to dwell on that cruft throughout the day. <S> Having that cruft prevents us from performing as well as we should, and as writer's prevents our creativity from being pure as it should. <S> If we reread what we wrote, we simply reinforce the cruft. <S> However, by writing our thoughts down and getting them out, we clear are heads to be able to do the things we really want it to do. <S> Personally, morning pages seemed more like early morning meditation than freewriting for an idea. <S> However, and she goes into this in the book as well ... <S> If every morning yo clear your head <S> so you don't have any cruft, you'll wake up one morning, and you'll realize that your mind just feels free, and then when you write, it'll be coming from your imagination. <S> The author goes on to give an example of a fiction writer who had had writer's block for months, and had been so caught up on personal issues she had been having that she couldn't focus enough on just being creative. <S> After a few months of writing morning pages and removing that cruft, she realized that what she was writing was becoming a new character, and, essentially, a new story. <S> So, yes, I have definitely found morning pages to be beneficial to my creativity, but more importantly, my life in general. <A> Everyone is different. <S> So how could a single rule apply to all? <S> If you come across something that seems to make sense, try it. <S> If it works out, keep the habit. <S> If it doesn't work out, drop it. <S> Since we're not you and you give no reasons to keep/drop it, you must make that decision yourself. <S> Also note that no decision in life is final. <S> If you find after half a year that it did help, nothing is stopping you from trying it again. <S> Or doing it with your personal twist like playing loud music while you write.
| Besides what you can learn for life from morning pages, this habit is very useful for developing creative writing skills.
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What helpful writing exercises do you use? The two I do most are dialog and description related. When I meet a person or I'm just sitting people watching, I try to write their description in my head as if I was describing a character in a novel. I focus on the physical - tall, short, weak chin, high cheek bones, etc, etc. The other one I do is I try and couch conversations I am party to as dialog. I focus on how words are spoken, nuances of expression, tone, word choice, etc. I then try to convey the natural language in text as close to how it was spoken as possible. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback since I started this. What other exercises or techniques do other writers have that they use to improve their style? <Q> Take the opening sentence from a short story that you have not yet read (this likely won't work as well if you have read it). <S> Find a painting, post card, or photograph. <S> Describe it with as much "showing" as possible. <S> Try to incorporate all five senses. <S> Pick a relative whom you don't know very much about. <S> Starting with what you do know and common traits in your family, create a character portrait. <S> Focus more on motivation questions (loves, hates, wants, desires, fears, needs) <S> than on facts (job, age, sex, location). <S> Take a scene from a work of fiction that you admire. <S> Try re-writing from a different point of view, from a different character's perspective, or against a different back drop. <A> Ask a friend or someone for a random word. <S> Write it down on the top of a sheet of paper. <S> Then with a one minute time limit, try writing down as many related words as you can. <S> I find that fun, and it gets you thinking! <A> Set a stopwatch. <S> I usually do 10, 20, or 30 minutes; don't do less than 5. <S> Take a pen and some paper, or a computer, and start writing. <S> Don't stop until the stopwatch hits zero. <S> Write whatever you have to write to keep writing, even if it's mindless filler. <S> By the time you finish writing "I don't know what to write" you'll have another idea. <S> I find that this really gets my brain working, and the ideas are usually flowing afterwards. <S> A less extreme alternative is the above, but you can stop writing. <S> (However, don't go back and edit anything.) <S> This is an interesting way to write a short story; the ideas can start to chain up pretty wildly. <S> I find it less effective than the first exercise, but it is more fun. <A> Pick a city that you've never been to and do some research about it. <S> Then write about going there and try to describe what you see, hear, smell, etc. <S> Take a piece of your writing, go through it and look for non-descript words, such as 'nice', 'beautiful' and 'wonderful'. <S> List these words, and detail what they are actually supposed to be describing. <S> On the left side of the page, list tangible nouns. <S> On the right side of the page, list intangible nouns. <S> Combine them in a phrase. <S> I like to go to public places and listed to conversations. <S> Then, I write down some bits of dialogue that I hear and try to "guess" what that person is really like by writing down what I think they're like. <A> Here's one I do. <S> I find this works well if there is some dialog to go along with it. <S> Now, start with that sentence and start writing from it for about twenty minutes. <S> Don't follow the story that it came from,see what you can come up with. <S> I find this works really well if you're feel like you can't come up with new and interesting ideas. <A> Keep a diary. <S> Try to make it more fun. <S> I, for example, use OhLife.com for it. <A> One thing I've seen a few people do on Twitter is post 3 words, ask for a sentence. <S> You get some silly ones, but it actually makes you think and exercise your mind. <S> Someone took that further and asked for a page of writing that incorporated 3 ideas. <S> I would <S> it was an interesting way to force yourself to be creative while at the same time incorporating constraints. <S> Just as you might have in a story you're writing. <S> You can move in new directions, but you're constrained somewhat by what has already happened in the story.
| Grab a random book, flip to a random page and pick a single sentence from it (assuming that it makes sense). Write a story starting with the opening sentence. Try writing a piece of extremely short fiction in which you manage to convey an interesting character in 55 words or less Write your dreams down.
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Is there a rule of thumb about the number of pages a work of fiction should have? To be considered a "real" book, is there a rule of thumb about the number of pages one should have? If it has too few then people call it a short story (e.g., Fahrenheit 451) and if it has too many then it's either a Magnum Opus or split into multiple volumes/books (War & Peace, Lord of the Rings). Is there such a rule of thumb? <Q> I've seen a lot of discussion about this in a couple of different writer's forums I belong to, and I made a point of writing down a consensus that many of them seemed to reach. <S> While the actual word counts will vary and everybody will have different opinions on what the count should be, this should help to serve as a general guide. <S> Short story - under 10,000 words <S> Novelette - 10k-20k words Novella - 20k-50k <S> Novel - 50k-100k <S> Epic Novel - over 100k <A> It's hard to say; length is usually measured by word count and not page count or thickness. <S> That being said, I believe 50,000 words is still the minimum to scratch by as a novel, though most run between 75k and 100k words of late, though it used to be shorter. <S> You can go longer than that <S> but it's harder to sell unless you are established. <A> A quick look at Baen <S> and I found their Manuscript Submission Guidelines : <S> Preferred length: <S> 100,000 - 130,000 words <S> Generally we are uncomfortable with manuscripts under 100,000 words, <S> but if your novel is really wonderful send it along regardless of length. <A> Word counts offered by publishers are guide lines. <S> Enough -good words- to tell the story and keep the attention of the audience. <S> Some folks want to pronounce some magic word count/page count and will will bemoan my answer as wrong. <S> So it goes. <S> How many manuscript pages/word count are in Joyce's Ulysses? <S> Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow? <S> Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49? <S> Lot's of authors can hit the word count exactly and never get published.... <A> Technically, 50k and up is a novel, but in most genres for adults, 80k is the minimum. <S> Novellas (20k-50k) tend to be very hard to sell because there aren't many markets that even look at them-- <S> they're too short to be books and too long to fit in a magazine. <S> However, with ebooks, length restrictions are being relaxed by some publishers, and novellas can be published as standalone books. <S> (For example, Samhain Publishing publishes ebooks from 12k to 100k, though only those 50k and up will have print versions.) <A> It depends on the genre or audience, I believe. <S> I've seen lists all over the place. <S> Googling will give you some answers. <S> I've seen 80-110,000 for an adult novel, but sci-fi, for example, often goes longer. <S> Young adult will be less, children's even less. <A> No there isn't. <S> If you are contributing stories to a magazine, paper or a collection of short stories the editor might have an upper limit and you can ask him or her about it. <S> If you are writing a novel, there is no preset limit. <S> Most classics we read today were originally published in bits on newspapers of those days. <S> You can follow one JKR did with Harry Potter books. <S> The first book was relatively short, and as the series became more popular the length of the books increased. <A> "Guardians of Ga'Hoole" series is relatively short but the series as a whole is quite long. <S> (The stories span over 12-13 books.) <S> Depends though. <A> Personally, my work is over 73k so far, but I still have far to go before I'm satisfied. <S> I won't even consider publishing under 100k.
| Layout and font choice can change the number of pages a book has without changing the length of it.
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How do you track random thoughts and ideas? If you're like me, you get story ideas anywhere and everywhere. If I'm at a computer, I'll write down the idea in onenote or outlook or scrivener (depending what's open). If I just have my phone, I'll send an email to myself, or use the voice recorder app to spew some thoughts. If neither are handy, I'll write down ideas on the back of business cards or on whatever paper I can find. As you'd expect, I find myself losing track of these little ideas. I find most of them eventually (I think), but would like to hear some ideas on how others keep track of random story ideas. <Q> I keep a good old fashion Moleskin notebook with me, one that is hard back so it can survive in my pocket (as well as a pen). <S> It's useful not only for writes notes but for everything else I need to jot down while away from the computer. <S> It also comes with a band to hold it closed, which is useful <S> so I can keep cards in it and the like. <S> There's also something satisfying about being about to pull the notebook out and open/close it with the snap of the elastic. <A> I use OneNote <S> and I think it's the best computer program ever happened. <S> You can track your ideas and thoughts in the most easier way I've seen. <S> As much as I love paper, I should really own oneself with the paper beaten over the person with this beautiful little soft gem. <S> As a mathematician I organized my notebooks strongly, and I will to publish it, if I suddenly will become a celebrity. <S> But, to tell the truth, this program just forces you to organize, and does this by imperceptible way. <S> Chaos in my head is productive at last. <S> There are also other electronic notebooks presented, and most imminent for ON is Evernote <A> I always have a notebook with me. <S> -- I have a branch set aside just for "unsorted" notes which I clean out on occasion the same way I do my notebook. <A> I simply have a google doc, and I can almost always access it since it's stored a server. <A> When I was in college/grad school I kept a bunch of index cards to write poems or ideas on. <S> I had the problem of having scribbled ideas in the middle of my school notes. <S> Keeping them all in one place worked (and grabbing an index card in the middle of a lecture looks like I'm paying attention). <S> They have little index cards kept on a ring that could easily fit in a pocket. <A> It sounds as if you're well prepared to take a note at any time. <S> For that, I use the same tools you do: Scrivener, Moleskine, and digital recorder. <S> So our tools are the same, but I add two bits of process: <S> First, I always transcribe notes from the Moleskine and recorder into my idea file in Scrivener. <S> All of my notes quickly end up in one place. <S> I've been experimenting with iPhone/iPad apps instead of my Moleskine notebook. <S> Yesterday I was on an airplane and had an idea. <S> I fired up PlainText (which synchronizes across devices and computers via Dropbox). <S> But because I was not connected to a network, PlainText spit up some kind of warning or error, which I dismissed. <S> I was able to create a document to take my note, but by that time I'd forgotten the idea. <S> So for now I'm likely to forego newer technology in favor of paper. <S> A second bit of process: In Scrivener, I often tag my ideas. <S> For non-fiction, I tag them with topics. <S> Over time, this scheme alerts me to some interesting patterns, e.g. that most of my ideas about about situations, some are about themes, and very few are about characters. <S> By always transcribing notes to one place, and by tagging my ideas (when the tags are obvious), I give myself the best chance of finding ideas when I need them. <A> Some people need a water proof notepad for recording ideas in the shower. <S> I needed something for recording ideas in the car. <S> A digital audio recorder is something I carry around now because I get a lot of ideas in the car while commuting or running errands. <S> The phone had too many buttons to push before being able to record, a dedicated recorder is simpler and is much safer. <S> and I can transfer to the computer via USB. <A> I'm not a fan of carrying a notebook, because when I really need it, I have forgotten to take it with me anyway. <S> Therefore I solve the issue the other way round. <S> I keep a pencil and small pieces of paper on my desk (home and office), in my bedside table, the kitchen, the bathroom and my car. <A> I use a Mac/iPhone app called TaskPaper to track most of my ideas. <S> It can sync between the phone and multiple Macs, which I find useful when moving between home and work. <A> Since I'm a digital person, I tend to use Evernote. <S> It can capture audio, pictures, video, or text. <S> I can enter something on my phone or iPad, have it sync with the service <S> and it's available on my laptop or desktop almost immediately. <S> Since I use multiple devices this is nice. <A> I really like the idea of a small notebook, and I'd recommend that. <S> However, this one might be more convenient, and it's what I do. <S> If you have a phone that you're comfortable with typing on, send yourself a text, email, make a reminder for when you get home, whatever works best for you. <S> In that message, type up whatever details you need to remember. <S> Again: it's not the best option, but it's very convenient if you have a phone (which, as a generalization, you probably do).
| When the notebook is full, I go through it page by page, digitizing the ideas that are "keepers" (and transferring those I want to mull some more into my new notebook). Of course, if I happen to be at the computer, I will often just throw things right into my notes file Pen/paper is nice, and if you use that, I'd recommend that after you take some notes, you take a picture of the page with your phone as a backup. For fiction, I tag them using the CLOSAT scheme (Character, Location, Object, Situation, Action, Theme).
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How to go about breaking up a looooong YA story? A while ago, I played around with a short story idea in a genre I don't normally write (Young Adult fiction). The story took on a life of its own, growing quickly to a novella, and now is definitely a novel, trying to stretch itself to a series. The story itself is going great, I'm just not sure where/how to break it up for a YA audience. Specifically, I expect the content to be most appealing to the pre/young-teen crowd (12-14). So far (it's still not completely mapped out) there are seven 'parts' -- that is, major plot arcs secondary only to the main series-long arc. Were I writing for adults, I'd combine parts 1-3 into Book I, parts 4-5 into Book II, and parts 6-7 into Book III. However, this might be too long for a YA audience, putting each book at 500+ pages with the longest at about 700 (guesstimated, of course, all but the first part are mostly notes). It probably seems a bit early to try breaking things up, but one of my New Year's resolutions will be to make real time for my writing. To set goals, I'd like some idea of at which point in the plot Book I is "done". <Q> This is kinda obvious but it does definitely affect breaking up the story, so I think it deserves emphasis. <S> (thanks Fox Cutter). <S> Nothing got me and my friends wanting a sequel more than a blatantly overdone shocker ending. <A> The first thing I would do is see what the normal length for a YA book is. <S> It seems to me they are around 50k to 60k words. <S> They can be much longer, but you have to be established. <S> Even the first Harry Potter book was a fairly normal length of the genre. <A> The Tomorrow When the War Began series is probably very similar to what you are describing. <S> It's seven (brilliant) novels, following one major story arc. <S> What the author, John Marsden, did was to give each story its own resolution, but still leave the reader wanting to know more. <S> This was usually done by leaving something about a character unanswered, so that the next novel was still appealing. <S> The major arc could then unfold throughout. <A> Just like how people have mentioned "cliffhangers" (very important), it's also imporant to shorten it in ways that are necessary. <S> What I would suggest writing the whole thing out first (since you have the whole thing planned out already), and then find good places to shorten it. <S> If you can't find good places, find the best you can and change it up a little, if you can, to give it a cliffhanger. <S> If it changes the whole story, either go for it or do a different part. <S> That's all I really have to say. <S> Good luck!
| Once you know the normal length you can shoot for the first book to hit around that mark, then go from there. Being a recent graduate from the Young Adult market, I strongly recommend that you divide it in such a way that each standalone book ends on some kind of incredibly surprising cliffhanger, or an ending that has the reader ferociously needing to know what happens next
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Where is the best place to "twist" a series? I have plans for a fantasy trilogy in which the main characters defeating the threat in each book simply makes way for the new threat of the next book. This way, the main characters can continue to grow and take on more powerful threats as the story progresses. The way I have laid out the story so far ends with each book having a resolution. For example, the characters defeat the evil cult and celebrate. I plan on having this play into a twist, however, when they find out the cult actually was trying to prevent a catastrophic event from occurring that now the characters have to deal with personally. The question is, where would it be ideal to reveal a twist of this nature? Should I reveal it at the end of the book where they destroy the cult so that the reader is more likely to pick up the next book? Or should I reveal it towards the beginning of the successive book where they are going to actually have to clean up after the mess? Essentially, I am not sure whether leaving such a gaping cliff-hanger between novels is a good idea, because it could lessen the sense of accomplishment from the recent resolution. <Q> That is a tricky question, there is a good reason for a cliffhanger at the end of the first book to increase the interest in the second one, but that might be hard if it's your first book sale. <S> Both through out the book and at the end, leaving the readers wondering what's really going on, then have the big twist in first chapter or two of the second book. <S> That way, if the worst happens and the second book gets cut, you still have a whole story. <S> On the other hand, I would go the other way with the second book. <S> End that one with the direct twist to that leads into the third book. <S> Of course even that may not be what it seems. <A> Put it at the end of book one. <S> If there is no book 2, it becomes an open-ended story. <S> If there is a book 2, you can continue as planned. <S> As usual, keep the 3 act structure in each book and in each chapter: Exposition, rising action, climax. <S> [EDIT] Try to come up with something different for the second book; readers will think you try to trick them into buying book 3 if you reuse the idea. <S> Like "I can't believe they fell for the same trap again ." <A> I think your idea is perfect as the end of the first book. <S> There are bad cliffhangers, which do not end the story satisfyingly, because they have no real end. <S> That's what disappoint your readers. <S> But if you have a real ending for the plot (defeating the cult) and show the reader "Oops, maybe what they did was not that bad and now someone has to clean up the mess", then the twisting end satisfies, surprises and makes the reader curious for the next book. <S> If you mention from the beginning, that it is a trilogy/series (what not all books do) <S> , I do not see any problem putting the twist at the end of the book.
| I think the best way to go about it, at least in the case of your first book, is to hint that there is something bigger in the background.
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What to do about readers reading into things? I have certain people in my life who insist on reading way too much into my writing. As it is, I do my best to avoid giving my characters initials or names or appearances that coincide even a little with anyone I know. Still I get "clearly $character was modeled after $person" or "so-and-so said you modeled $character after me...I'm nothing like that!" These meddlers are driving me nuts. What do you do with such people? I don't care what they think per se, but they occasionally stir up trouble with others. <Q> Look at all the dissections of Shakespeare saying his plays are all about supporting the royal family, or making fun of them. <S> The same thing is true about Moby-Dick, Catcher in the Rye and any other popular book. <S> Even Harry Potter has been subjected to this, both for support witchcraft, and as an attacking on the previous government. <S> Even worse there is a group of thought that these things are still there even if the writer didn't intend for them, or actively tried not to put them there in the first place. <S> The idea that the intent of the author doesn't matter personally bothers me. <S> Personally, I would take them aside and tell them that wasn't the case at all, that you didn't base anyone on anybody, and the fact that they acted 'wrong' <S> helps prove this. <S> And that, in the end, it's just a story. <S> In the end though, all you can do is tell them that they are wrong, and then try to ignore them. <A> I once sat in on a class on Tolkien, where the professor extrapolated everything into an extended metaphor on World War 2. <S> Now, I'm pretty much equally geeky on Tolkien and World War 2, and I had a number of objections to this. <S> Sure you can draw parallels, but he wrote the books during WWII, of course it affected the writing. <S> That doesn't mean that he drew from one to create the other. <S> What I eventually realized was that, as an artist, you have no control of what the reader/viewer/whatever will draw from your work. <S> When they work it into their worldview, anything can come out. <S> And will. <S> They'll draw inferences that you never intended, they'll see similarities that you didn't create. <S> The best thing that you can do is keep your mouth shut, and smile a little smile. <S> If you produced a truly enduring work, people will still be agruing over what you meant long after you're dead, and if you let on that <S> really <S> you were thinking about the hot barrista at your favorite coffee shop... <S> That'll ruin the whole thing. <A> Politely point out that the noticed facet is just a fraction of the character. <S> People like to simplify things. <S> No matter how hard you try, they will always believe that some facet of your character is modeled after real person X -- even if all other facets don't fit at all. <S> In a way, they are right; no author can make up something from nothing, especially not when it comes to characters. <S> We only ever combine our experience and memories in new ways. <S> But that doesn't mean character <S> Y is person X.
| If they have a sense of humor about it, tell them it's all wrong and given them the craziest explanation you can think of, but from the sound of it that wouldn't work for these people. That's hard to say, there are always going to be people reading more into things then you intended.
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How do you track submissions to publishers/markets? What tools (software or otherwise) or procedures do you use to track the progress of submissions to publishers or other markets? How do you reduce the chance of accidentally (and embarrassingly) submitting the same thing twice to the same market? <Q> For tracking short stories and direct submissions to publishers, use Duotrope , a free online tool that contains every market you've ever heard of and a multitude that you haven't, complete with submission history, links to websites, etc. <S> Also, be sure to donate to them, because they deserve it. <S> For tracking agent queries, use Query Tracker , which has a similar feature set but is geared towards literary agents (which Duotrope doesn't cover). <S> They also have a premium subscription for 25$ that gives you a bunch of additional nice features. <A> For each story I have a spreadsheet set up that not only has the usual information about a story (Word count, summery and the like) but also information about all my submissions, including: <S> What magazine it was sent to <S> The editor at the time <S> When it was sent out When it came back <S> What the results were Any notes about the submission <S> It's not fancy, but it does the job pretty well <S> and it's easy to set up/move around. <S> I make a point of keeping the editors name because it can change how I submit a story. <S> If an editor rejects a story saying that they liked it, but it's not right for that magazine <S> and then they move to a magazine that's a better fit, it's worth sending it in. <A> Each submission links a story to the market it was sent to, records responses from editors, acceptances/rejections, and allows some filtering of stories. <S> Subversion is a version control tool generally used in software development. <S> It stores all my documents in a single central repository, and allows any particular revision of a file to be retrieved exactly as it was. <S> (It works well enough <S> but I'll be moving to <S> Mercurial as soon as I work out some "issues" with my current repository). <S> There is an existing question that has more details on version control tools . <A> Em. <S> Could be an agent taken as a tool? <S> If so, I guess you can use them. <A> Spreadsheet. <S> Easy to configure to meet my needs. <S> Easy to update. <S> Screen shows info at a glance. <S> Cost? <S> Free. <S> I use OpenOffice. <A> I use Bento , a personal database program from the people who make Filemaker. <S> I have one "library" for stories, one for markets, and one for submissions. <S> Each submission gets logged, and then I relate the market and the story to that entry. <S> (This is where Bento falls down--a full database program would do it automatically.) <S> Now I can scan my submissions log, or I can open a story's entry and see everywhere it's been, or I can open a market's entry and see what's been sent there. <S> Each story also has a field for "future markets", listed in priority order. <S> When one comes back it takes about 10 seconds to log the rejection, look up the next market, and make sure nothing else is currently submitted there. <S> The submissions log includes date sent, date returned (or lost, withdrawn, or sold), word count (which can change if I revised between submissions), and notes. <S> I also use Duotrope because it tells me when I can expect to hear back based on others' reported response times, but I keep the Bento database because it's faster and more customizable. <A> I use a database that I built using Filemaker Pro. <S> It's far from perfect, but I'd like to share my notes about submission tracking in case they help you to decide how you would like to track your submission. <S> p.s. <S> this same question is being asked in a few places on here: <S> What's a good program for tracking submissions? <S> How do you track submissions to publishers/markets?
| I use a combination of: Sonar 3 (a submission tracking tool); and Tagging submitted files in a Subversion repository Sonar 3 is a nice little desktop app that let's you define stories, markets, and create "submissions".
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Should I avoid modern words/phrases in fantasy writing? When writing, I tend to want to use words or phrases that have meaning in the real world, but wouldn't necessarily have meaning in the world in which I'm writing. For example, in a fantasy world, a character can't (metaphorically) "rocket across the room" because there is no such thing as a rocket. One example that came up recently with someone reviewing my writing was "tug of war". "Do they have tug of war in your setting?" he asked. I was using it as an example of the effect made when one person let go of something another was trying to grab. The main question here, I think, is this: Should I write as if the story is being translated from some unknown language into English (i.e. I can use words like rocket and tug of war without issue)? Or should I write in the language that the actual characters would be using in the story? The answer would be clear if the story were in first person, but since I'm writing in third person it's a little hazy. <Q> Look at Stephen Brust's Taltos series. <S> All fantasy, written in a modern voice. <S> I think as long as you're not using obvious modern idioms, it's fine to write in a modern voice. <S> If you want to put in the time and effort to use a vernacular, that's fine, but it's more often done poorly than well. <S> Think about it this way <S> : when you're trying to write idiomatically in a dialect from another period, you're trying to make your reader read it from the perspective of a modern reader. <S> It's not how the people of the time hear the language. <A> One of the most compelling things about fantasy is that reading a work of fantasy transports you to a different world. <S> Not only are you the reader seeing life through another perspective, you are seeing a completely different possibility for what life might be like. <S> Because the change in possibility is part of what makes fantasy a compelling genre, I would write what would exist in that world (unless you are in the first person of a character from 21st century Earth). <A> I think you should avoid using these expressions in dialogue, but it's fine to use them as a narrator. <S> Moreover, if you don't use "rocket across the room", you would end up with a somewhat plain narration, or you'd have to invent equivalent expressions in "ancient" English, in which case your reader could have a hard time interpreting your made-up sayings. <S> A good compromise would be to substitute more neutral expressions, such as "flew across the room" as Maulrus suggested. <A> As an omniscient third person narrator, I think it's fine to use common English idioms such as "rocket across the room", because it's so common that it doesn't sound any more idiomatic than "flew across the room" or "scrambled across the room". <A> If you don't want to invent a whole language up from scratch or go and study ancient English or something like that, you can always write in modern English but let it be implied that the characters are really speaking in their own language, the modern English being just there for the conveniency of the readers. <S> Depending on your public, it will either not care or avoid your texts. <S> People who are deeply into fantasy might want more "realism" in the sense of more detail about the languages of the fantasy world. <S> People who are casual readers just care about a good story, regardless of the genre. <A> Using modern terms generally isn't an issue in fantasy, because people don't want to have to spend their time translating in their head from whatever ancient English or colloquial dialect you made up for your story. <S> However, there are a few things to be avoided. <S> Religious terms, for example, should be avoided unless you're setting your story on Earth. <S> A person in a fantasy world isn't going to say "Jesus Christ" as an exclamation unless they're Christian or live in a world where Christianity is predominant. <S> They wouldn't use proper nouns from our history that we might take for granted unless they lived on earth. <S> A suspect wouldn't be Mirandized unless they lived in America. <S> This can still work, though, and be understandable. <S> In Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, they say "Crows" instead of "God" as an exclamation. <S> Terms that have a clear historical basis should probably be avoided, but otherwise, there shouldn't be much of an issue. <A> That said, many words are not as modern as you might think. <S> "Rockets for military and recreational uses date back to at least 13th century China," so they can exist in medieval-themed fantasy world. <S> Tug of war "was practiced in ancient Egypt and China."
| Characters wouldn't say "rocket across the room" but you can; instead of thinking you're translating from ancient English, treat it as your contemporary telling of an ancient story. Yes, you should avoid using modern words in fantasy because they can break the immersion which readers are experiencing.
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What makes a great writer's space? If you have a usual or favorite place to write at home, what makes it so good? I like having multiple places to write -- sometimes I find a change of scenery helps break a block -- but my most-used space is my desk at home. Big, clicky ergonomic keyboard, a good spot for my tea, and the office adjoins my little one's playroom so I don't feel like I have to abandon him to write. :P There's also plenty of room on the desk for my typewriter when the mood to go analog strikes. <Q> I think undisturbable place to write is not an option — it is a precondition. <S> Once you have it, you can begin to write and at least be sure that you'll finish your work. <S> But there are also some modifications that could help even more. <S> 1. <S> Dual monitors. <S> The most powerful boost for everybody who's writing or drawing something with help of the computer. <S> I contrive a new usage for them every week or two for all fringes of my doings. <S> Here are some examples that I just invented or used before: Drawing a fantasy map based on text or back to front; Looking to wikipedia while writing about tough subjects (i.e medical drugs); Modifying text from one screen on another; ... 2. <S> Cup of a drink. <S> You've already knew it before :) <S> But I'll add my pair of cents. <S> I think people underestimate smells. <S> There are not so many people working in a smell or taste art, but this is art. <S> And changing taste of a drink lying in front of you will often reflect good on your creativity. <S> So go and buy that new sort of black, green, red, white, {put your colour here} tea or learn how to make a mocha at last. <S> 3. <S> Use the notebooks. <S> Oh, what a disappointment that ideas only come to you when you've already gone to bed, and not in your writers space. <S> Not anymore! <S> Check this great question for details. <S> And using of software notebooks is another option for the first point of this list. <S> 4. <S> Adorn your space. <S> The world is built the way that new ideas are coming from some set of previous. <S> The more your place is yourselfish, the better. <S> Some people are wild about junk collections and some can spend hours on looking into details of some large painting. <S> Just don't let your place look vacuous for yourself. <S> P.S. <S> As I remember, Stephen King wrote some good advices about writers space building in his book " On Writing ". <A> I like to keep away from my usual computer, as well as away from the games or other such distractions. <S> Usually I also have a cup of coffee to drink and either music or a DVD to fill in as white noise. <S> The upshot is that the whole mess is portable if I need to move. <S> Lack of distractions is also key for me, or at least distractions I can filter out, so if my roommate is at home, headphones are a must. <S> The big thing though is that it's not the same computer as I use for everything else. <S> Just the fact that I'm able to move away from my usual day to day computer usage helps me to focus on the task at hand instead of, not to put to fine a point on it, goofing off. <A> I like my computer, a notepad, a pencil and something to fiddle with (usually my magnetic ball, a compass (which is now facing west because the magnet stuffed it up) or a toy car :D ) <S> Basically paper for ideas, computer for writing, and something to do <S> while im thinking (that isn't too distractive) <A> No interruptions: <S> No phone Door can be locked Sign on door: <S> Disturb at your own peril . <A> I prefer to write in a notebook first and then type everything up (doing minor edits during typing). <S> My favorite place to write is my favorite comfortable couch , either in the notebook or while typing on a laptop. <S> Some day I'd like to have a place with a big comfortable chair and an inspiration board of the type designers use to tack pictures on to, but that will have to wait until I have more living space. <A> I write while lying on my stomach my bed, with all the covers shoved to one side. <S> I have Christmas lights hanging on the wall it's up against, which is really nice. <S> It's like when one of those expensively-done iPad commercials comes on and the girl in the commercial, who is rich enough to afford an iPad, is also apparently rich enough to have a patio with a bunch of string lights and a hammock. <S> And, for some reason, she goes out there to use her iPad in the evenings and manages not to freeze to death. <S> Well... okay. <S> Whatever. <S> I prefer to be sitting at my desk for art, but I like to be lying down when I'm writing.
| I also prefer to be comfortable when writing and am not the type of person to fall asleep just because I'm reclining on a couch. Well, even without studying some dubious horoscopic sciences as feng shui, everybody at least feels that having your own work place for each kind of work you're doing is a significant efficiency boost.
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Tools for generating characters' names I found this name generator: http://www.fakenamegenerator.com And I'm wondering if maybe there are others? Has anybody found this kind of tool useful? What about tools for fantasy names? Should I think up names in a creative way, as answers for this question are mentioning? <Q> Seventh Sanctum is an excellent one. <S> Wizards of the Coast also has one on their own site as well. <S> (Could be an invaluable resource for people who play Dungeons & Dragons and other roleplaying board games that require names. <S> RinkWorks also has some interesting name generations. <S> TheForge has one as well. <A> For US names, particularly if you are needing a historically accurate name for a specific time frame, I use the Social Security name database: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/decades/century.html to make sure a name is not too unusual for the time of the story. <S> For example, "Lisa" is a great name to use for a story about someone born between 1960-1975 or so, but would be somewhat unusual for a person born in 1950 or 2010 to have the name. <S> Similarly, while "Jayden" has been popular these past couple of years, it wouldn't be a common name in a story set in the 1980's or for an adult to have in a story set in our current time. <A> A quick google search would probably find you a few. <S> For fantasy town names, you could use: RPG Tools: Random Towns <S> Or there's this one or this one as well. <A> A few years ago I created a tool called The Gibberizer: http://code.google.com/p/gibberizer/ <S> You give it a bunch of words, and it invents new words that sound somewhat similar. <S> If you give it a bunch of words/names from a given culture, it will invent new words/names that sound like they come from that culture. <S> For documentation, see the Wiki tab at the link I posted above. <S> Especially the WaysToPlay page. <S> (I'd paste the link myself, StackExchange limits new users like me to only one link per post.) <A> Your own imagination, in collaboration with your memories and, perhaps, communication with others. <A> I, personally, use the Character <S> When it comes to fantasy names, though, I've never found a generator that worked as well as taking a real name and altering it. <S> It especially helps if you have a general idea of how names in your world should sound. <S> Read through lists of names from Ireland, China, India, Zimbabwe, and other locations around the world. <S> You'll come to identify patterns, and it will help you to create your own names with similar patterns or sounds, while still being unique and appropriate for a fantasy setting. <S> It can also be a helpful skill to have when creating names for different locations in your world. <S> It emphasizes their differences - not only in culture, but in speech, as well. <S> And it adds to the realism of the world. <S> That's something that a generator simply cannot do. <S> Not well, in any case. <A> There's also a somewhat basic name generator called Behind The Name that will let you select several different national heritages to choose from, as well as Biblical and other mythical origins. <S> There's also a similar app for your iDevice called Name Shake , if you're into that sort of thing. <A> Springhole.net has a whole collection of generators depending on your genre. <S> I usually don't use the ones for character names, but the ones for country names, item names, plant names--those are great. <S> I find it really difficult to come up with spellwords that don't sound stupid, but that site can be a really helpful one. <A> http://fantasynamegenerators.com/ <S> This is a cool tool to help a writer create fantasy names, races, plots worlds etc.
| Serendipity also does good names for fantasy stories. I just use the wiki list's most popular names database: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_popular_given_names which gives you a breakdown of names by Region and country. Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon, as well as BabyNamesWorld .
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Would it be plagiarism if you use a changed scene? If I read someone else's scene that describes a situation in my own work if adapted to fit my characters and plot, would it constitute plagiarism if I so use it? <Q> Plagiarism : <S> The act of plagiarizing: the copying of another person's ideas, text or other creative work, and presenting it as one's own, especially without permission. <S> However, as another old adage goes, "There's nothing new under the sun." <S> Everything you ever write is going to be influenced by other things you've read in the past. <S> Just make sure that the story you're telling is your own, and not somebody else's. <S> Let yourself be inspired by other writers and what they do, but don't go stealing their work wholesale and trying to claim that it's yours. <A> During college, with my professor's permission, I re-adapted a short story that I'd read to be from the point of view of another character, changing elements of the story. <S> It was a great exercise for my writing skills and proved to be one of the best things I've ever written. <S> Without substantially changing the story so that the original author couldn't recognize it, I wouldn't submit the story to a magazine or journal. <S> While I'd added characters and modified many pieces, the original story was still recognizable. <S> It was a good exercise, but too close for comfort. <S> If you feel the original author of your scene would not recognize it, you have probably "owned" the idea enough to make it your own idea. <S> If, however, you have not been able to change it substantially, I would shy away from using it. <A> You are evidently aware of plagiarism and seem to consider it something that isn't right. <S> In that case, to a certain extent, I would go with my gut feeling. <S> Is what I wrote too much of the original text for my own comfort? <S> Then I have probably stepped over the line. <S> Am I not sure? <S> Well, why not? <S> I should probably reexamine my text. <S> Do I feel that the source text was more inspiration than anything? <S> Probably fine. <S> Of course, you shouldn't take this rule as an excuse to steal, but generally speaking, I find it applicable most of the time. <S> You will be affected and inspired by books you read, films you see and everything else you take in, whether you like it or not. <S> Probably the best recommendation would be to give credit where credit is due. <A> My understanding is that it (in most cases) it is not ideas that are subject to plagiarism, but rather the EXPRESSION of ideas. <S> If that's the case, then the old grade school saying, "tell it in your own words" is the best guide. <A> You should decide if you're worried about plagiarism or copyright infringement. <S> The first is an ethical concept, the second a legal one. <S> In copyright, you are protecting your rights to the expression of an idea; you can't copyright the idea itself. <S> So I can write a sci-fi story about a rebellious group of pseudo-druidic soldiers taking arms against an evil empire without George Lucas breathing down my neck. <S> I start naming characters Luke and Leia <S> and I'm going to run into trouble. <S> Plagiarism is an ethical concept, so the boundaries are squishier. <S> Basically, if you think it's plagiarism and can make a decent argument, it's possibly true to a degree, even if that degree is vanishingly small. <S> "My God, your zombie/robot novel has characters ! <S> And they do stuff ? <S> That's obviously stolen from Agatha Christie!" <S> Unless it's actually copyright infringement, there's also nothing anyone can do about it legally. <S> The only harm will be to your reputation. <S> Take the Hunger Games / Battle Royale dust-up. <S> Both stories are differing expressions of a similar idea. <S> Even the accusation harmed Suzanne Collins' reputation, but there wasn't a legal redress.
| Technically, stealing an idea is plagiarism just as much as stealing their words.
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Writing for an Audio book. What are specifics? What are specific requirements, a writer should follow, when writing something that is going to be (or just can possibly be) not only read but listened as well? <Q> When you write a book, you're writing for the eye. <S> When you write an audio piece, you're writing for the ear. <S> If it doesn't sound good when you read aloud, then it won't sound good to the reader. <S> We're listening,not reading so we've got tocomprehend quick and fast. <S> Write the way you speak. <S> Write <S> as though you're communicating with one person at a time, that's how people will listen after all. <S> Use more present participles than you would for a book or text-on-paper kind of piece. <S> For a book, it's good to avoid the verb "to be" -- but for an audio piece, it works because we use "to be" in speech constantly. <A> Well you will probably want to avoid very long place or character names. <S> A lot of the names used for fantasy novels don't really lend themselves to spoken expression. <A> Straightforward sentence structure will help. <S> Try listening to some radio drama or the BBC Radio 4 "Book at Bedtime" (a slightly abridged version of a existing novel). <A> An interesting story. <S> I've heard both fiction and non-fiction audiobooks. <S> The only thing that's really required is interest. <S> The reader can add a lot, but if there's nothing worth knowing or experiencing then people aren't going to want to listen. <A> When listening, it's not a simple matter to flip back ten pages when you've forgotten who the heck Character X is again. <S> One thing that may help is to remind the reader of a trait or profession or other identifying sign once in a while, especially if the character hasn't been seen much yet/lately. <S> (Everything in moderation, of course — doing this too often can result in so-called "Burly Detective" Syndrome .) <S> I used to be big on very naturalistic dialogue, complete with ums and ers and half-finished sentences. <S> After several years of listening to audiobooks, however, I'm starting to lean the other way. <S> Having characters stammer and constantly interrupt one another can be tough for a reader to pull off well. <S> So yes, write sentences that people might actually say, but also let them get their thoughts out, at least most of the time. <S> Similarly, snatches of dialogue, as some authors use to capture crowd scenes ( "It's her!" "...hasn't been seen in seven months..." "...swore up and down she was dead!" ) or dialogue that's only half-audible to the viewpoint character, can sound silly even in the hands of a good narrator. <S> And it probably goes without saying that very visual devices like online chat or computer code, while they may provide some nice flavour in print, don't translate well to audio. <S> Addendum: <S> Text that's only set off typographically is tricky too. <S> There have been a couple of books where I've been confused by a paragraph-long flashback that was set in italics, or by a stream-of-consciousness passage without attributions. <S> (The audio versions of several of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels used reverb on the voice of Death, whose dialogue was always set in small caps, but this sort of thing is rare.) <A> You might want to first listen to a few audiobooks yourself, not just the great stuff like Jim Dale's Harry Potter, but head over to LibriVox and listen to some of those volunteer audiobooks, some are good, some less so. <S> You'll learn a lot from other's mistakes. <S> Remember to let the narrator breathe. <S> You can write really long sentences in a book, but real people need to breathe. <S> Shorter sentences and judicious use of commas is handy. <S> Narrators can figure out places to breathe but make their lives easier and do that work for them. <S> A simple way to hear how your story sounds is to let the computer do text-to-speach for you. <S> It doesn't sound great but it will help you catch the big problems early. <S> If you have any unusual names, a pronunciation guide would be handy.
| The best advice I can give: read aloud what you've written. Some specific tips Be concise and keep sentence structure simple.
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Is discovery or outline writing connected to personality type (e.g. MBTI)? I'm on a bit of a Myers-Briggs spree at the moment (which is dangerous, because it is so easy to read way more into it than you are supposed to). For those of you who are not familiar with it, it is a personality test based on theories by Carl Jung, to determine how you are "wired", and find your preferences within work, relationships etc. A free test for those of you who are curious is found here: MBTI Test . This question popped into my mind while listening to an episode of Writing Excuses , where they discussed their different approaches to writing: two of the guys were discovery writers, that just started writing and then let the story go wherever the characters and their minds took them. The third guy was an outliner who had to have the whole story planned up front; all the structure laid out before he filled in the meat on the story. This got me thinking about a correlation with the MBTI, where the last of the four letters (J or P) indicate whether you are more of a "happy-go-lucky" person (P) or in need of more plans and structure (J). Being a strong P myself, and a discovery writer to boot (not in the start-your-computer sense), I feel there might be a connection here, but have no evidence to support it. Does anyone know more about this, or may share their personality/writing style combo to give the theory some data? (MBTI may also be a good place to look for inspiration and for finding specific traits when creating characters.) <Q> Personality is also known to be strongly related to creativity (Wolfradt & Pretz, 2001). <S> Some aspects of personality (neuroticism, extraversion) can be accurately judged from writing (Argamon, Dhawle, Koppel & Pennebaker, 2005). <S> So in a way personality influences writing style quite a bit. <S> The problem you face is that MBTI is a rather old test (so be careful with judging too much from it ;) and is not used in research anymore. <S> People tend to use the NEO-PI more these days. <S> There are correlations with extraversion (pretty much <S> the E/I scale on MBTI). <S> But otherwise people tend to find relationships with traits that have no direct equivalent in MBTI. <A> Tests like that can only be effective up to a certain extent. <S> The problem is, in a room of 10 writers you would probably have 10 different writing styles. <S> Tests like the one you mention cannot hope to be able to categorise people that effectively, so it is very variable. <S> How someone writes could be due to any number of things. <A> As any part of cognitive process, writing just can not be based only on the authors personality type. <S> So, even if you know what certain type in some specific test one person is and he wrote a book, you can be sure of that another person of this type may write completely another thing, in another genre, style, whatever. <S> The equation of thinking has just so many variables that human mind will never know them all. <S> To begin I can mention experience, ability to dream up, knowledge, feelings at moment of writing, another art components surrounding you at the moment of writing, etc., etc. <A> On the test, I'm in the "slight" category on three out of the four axes, which includes the judging - perceiving one that you're concerned with. <S> I tend to work with outlines, but if the story takes me elsewhere, I don't force it. <S> I usually find myself in the wild west when I'm getting near the end of a project. <S> (I write song lyrics.) <S> This may support your theory. <S> Contact me privately if you'd like numbers.
| Psychological research suggests that personality type is correlated to word patterns (Pennebaker & Graybeal, 2001).
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Fictional diary for a novel When it is appropriate to use the diary form for a novel? Which are the most effective published examples? (I mean fictional diaries, so not Anne Frank's diary). <Q> Diary form is used when a deep immersion of reader is wanted. <S> Yeah, we all want to immerse readers into our universes, but it comes with a price, and not a small one. <S> So, I guess, this is the rule: You should use diary as a narrator, when you want to bring more realism, but ready to neglect different viewpoints on your story. <S> (it's really ok) <S> Poor Folk <S> (letters used instead of diary, but a very good example) Survivor Type (a very good example, and a short story though, so read it just now) <A> I would investigate The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigg by Rainer Maria Rilke. <S> It is a proto-Modernist text that deals with the interiority of the narrator, and his gradual retreat from the social sphere into the mental sphere. <S> In my experience, the diary form is a device used to foreground the unreliability of the narrator's perspective. <S> It does not necessarily have to be used with unreliability in mind; however, it is a way to emphasize the inherent subjectivity in narrative perspective. <S> Remember, though, that diary and epistolary devices serve different purposes: the diary speaks often to the self, or a fictional audience; the epistolary speaks to a specific, definite audience. <S> Dracula is pre-dominantly epistolary, insofar as many passages are intended to relate information to particular individuals. <S> As is the case with Shelley's Frankenstein . <S> I very much hope that no one strikes Stoker's masterpiece from their Reading List, as it is a fantastic read. <A> For an example Alberto Moravia, L'attenzione (Attention) <S> It tells the story of a man who wants to write a novel and decides to start a diary to rework it later into novel form. <S> He ends up writing about his own life and his seeming lack of attention for what is happening around him. <A> You could also consider having a diary-form be only part of your novel. <S> Lately I've read fiction that changes point of view from first to third person as the book moves forward. <S> At first I found it a little disconcerting. <S> But if the changes have their own rhythm to them, and they are somewhat predictable, then I think it can work well. <A> Here are some good ones: <S> One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn - not really a diary <S> but you really get inside the protagonists <S> head <S> and it is tremendously moving. <S> Enjoy <A> As neilfein pointed out, Flowers for Algernon . <S> I think what makes it particularly effective is that the very viewpoint of the narrator is itself a major plot point, so the diary form is a logical choice. <S> I'm not sure this counts as a diary, but The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is also told from a single (and very interesting) perspective. <A> " Dangerous Liaisons " is originally told through the letters that the various characters send to each other (mainly Valmont and The Marquise). <S> This makes it possible to mix several points of view (as opposed to with single diary, as mentioned by Daniel Excinsky's answer), but it makes it also more difficult to read for some people. <S> Not sure if it fits what you're looking for ("diary as a novel") <S> but it sure fits the more general " epistolary novel " category that you may want to look into for more options and storytelling techniques. <A> <A> The Autobiography of Special Agent Dale Cooper: <S> My Life, My Tapes is one of my favourite novels in this form. <S> It's a spin off from the Twin Peaks television series and highlights the idiosyncrasies of one of the series's most idiosyncratic characters. <S> One of the features of this type of form is that you can cover a lot of time in a single novel in a relatively short period. <A> A classic example of the diary form is Henry Reed's Journey by Keith Robertson. <S> When it is appropriate to use the diary form for a novel? <S> When you feel like it. <S> When you, for reasons even you don't fully understand feel like writing your story, or some part of it, in the form of a journal. <S> If that's how you feel, then you have no other option but to use the journal form. <S> To use another form would be an act of self-betrayal. <S> If you don't feel like it, then you must not it because in that case to doing so would be phony and pretentious. <S> More to the point, you're going to have to live with this thing until you finish it, <S> so you'd best write it in the form <S> you find most interesting, regardless of whether it's journal, third person omniscient, "close third," epistolary, ePistolary, tweets, or something you just made up.
| With diary form you can reveal only one point of view: of character who keeps a diary. To answer your question about published examples, some of Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole series are deceptively clever and very funny all in diary form Examples are: Bridget Jones diary Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Dracula by Bram Stoker As for appropriateness, that depends entirely on the author, and the tone they wish to achieve.
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How do you vary dialogue within stories? How do you vary dialogue within stories? I often find myself writing "'sentence/dialogue' said character", and it sometimes gets really repetitive. How is this managed? These are the only words that I can think of that can be used alternatively, but I don't find this problem when reading books. said replied agreed <Q> I agree with @JMC: try to avoid the said-bookism . <S> As an alternative to "said", you can always insert a physical action by (or thoughts of) the speaker. <S> For example: "Let's see here. <S> " <S> Jimmy flicked through the survival guide. " <S> Damn. <S> I could havesworn there was an entry on how to outrun a greased Scotsman." <S> On the topic of dialogue, I have a great memory of reading the novella Memorare by Gene Wolf. <S> At some point through it I thought: this is some great dialogue . <S> He often has characters, while having a conversation, talk to each other about different topics or on different wavelengths, yet it is all perfectly understandable to the reader. <S> Worth checking out. <A> Be repetitive and stay with "said", but don't overuse it. <S> Write in a way so it is implied who is speaking. <S> You normally don't have to identify the character that said the last speaking line. <S> Try to keep your conversation between two people whenever possible to keep the dialog interesting and simple for the reader to follow. <S> "Said" is read automatically by the mind and ignored, which is a good thing. <S> Changing forms constantly to keep out redundancy jars the reader. <S> Try going through your dialog scenes and remove all unnecessary character identifiers after the actual speaking and you'll notice the person talking is usually obvious. <A> Obviously name the character who starts speaking, and the second character when they reply, but after that you shouldn't need to explain who it is (especially if there's only two people speaking), just have each part of dialogue on a new line. <S> Don't make the mistake of trying to vary it so much you end up with 'he expostulated' and 'she inferred'. <A> It's best if the dialogue can convey what needs to be expressed rather than relying on dialogue tags. <S> It's a variation of show-don't-tell. <S> Let me hear what the character wants, feels, or is thinking, rather than telling me. <S> If the dialogue tells me the character is upset, there's no reason to add more information: <S> "I can't stand the way he treated me," she said. <S> "I can't stand the way he treated me," she complained. <S> "I can't stand the way he treated me," she complained bitterly. <S> It gets worse as you go down the list. <S> Even the first "she said" is unnecessary if the reader already knows who's speaking. <S> One writer who practiced effective dialogue was James Cain. <S> His dialogue is spare and direct, often with no "she said" or "he asked" at all. <S> Because he could set up a scene well and get his characters to express themselves in vivid and powerful language, they could do all the talking.
| Try to get to a point where the reader can understand who is speaking at which time, and avoid the use of 'said' after the first couple of lines.
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How do you map out your storyline? There are various ways for mapping out the storyline that you will use for a story. One of them is to create a bullet-point outline, which would theoretically be useful because of the hierarchy system that you can make, but as it goes along you can't really visualise how the story goes along. Another system would be to use mindmaps to map out the storyline, because subsets of one idea could be branched off. What ways do you use to map out your storyline/content? <Q> One technique that I've used has been a simple spreadsheet. <S> I make a number of columns, one for every major thread of the novel, and I color each column differently to make them stand out. <S> Then I write a one-sentence summary of each scene and put it in the appropriate column, in chronological order from top to bottom, so that it looks like this: X <S> Y <S> Z <S> * <S> * <S> * <S> ** <S> * Imagine that X, Y, and Z are characters or subplots, and the asterisks are short scene summaries. <S> In this outline, the action starts with X, moves to Y for two scenes, then to Z, then X and Z are in a scene together. <S> That way, I can read the chronological sequence of events by reading down all the columns, but I can also which threads aren't getting enough attention, and how the action moves from thread to thread. <A> I still do this analog... <S> plot points go on index cards, different plot lines are in different colors, cards get laid out on the carpet until I'm happy with the arrangement. <A> It's full-featured writing software that organizes a larger manuscript as a set of documents, each representing a chunk of text. <S> Scrivener is great for plotting. <S> You can view your chunks as index cards on a corkboard. <S> Each index card shows the title and summary of a document. <S> I tend to chunk my manuscripts into scenes. <S> This allows me to try out different sequences of action, notice plot holes, and generate new ideas from the juxtapositions. <S> You can also group documents into folders, view the folders as index cards, and drag those around on the corkboard. <S> I use one folder per chapter. <S> Scrivener gives me exactly the kind of flexibility and organization I want. <S> It used to be Mac only, but Literature and Latte has a beta version for Windows. <S> Search for scrivenerforwindows. <A> Often called a "beat sheet. <S> " Lists the "beats" of the storyline. <S> Excel is a good way to do this. <S> From the bare outline of JSBangs above, you can start adding columns with the time (date), main character in the scene, how that scene will move the story along, etc. <S> Just don't drop them. <S> I've done that a couple times with computer punch cards (late 1960s). <S> It's not fun.
| Lots easier to do it electronically; index cards, etc., are okay. I create create a document for each plot point/scene, view them on the corkboard, and drag the cards around around. My favorite tool is Scrivener .
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Are there any good magazines about writing? As in all other fields I'm interested in, I love to have a subscribtion that makes sure some hugely inspirational material gets dropped into my mailbox once in a while. I'm not looking for magazines that prints stories submitted by users, but rather one that focuses on the process of writing and writing technique. Are there any such out there, or is online the only place to be in these matters? <Q> There is always the classic, Writers Digest . <A> I would also recommend magazines that include writing you consider "good" that can be inspiring; Inc. Magazine (http://www.inc.com/ ) comes to mind. <S> You can generally get a subscription for Inc. for $10/USD per year if you shop around, and most of the website is free. <S> Another place to look is /podcasts/ - the "Writing Excuses" podcast is a 15-minute free weekly audio-show treasure trove - http://www.writingexcuses.com/ Good luck! <A> If you know German: http://www.textartmagazin.de/ <A> I personally usually collect different articles that I find on the web about writing techniques etc. and create a page turning pdf for myself, but if you prefer an actual magazine I really liked The Writer . <S> Also just looked it up and found this post about different magazines for writers including a description - might also be something you want to check out. <A> Poets & Writers Magazine is published in print six times a year. <S> http://www.pw.org/magazine <S> The magazine focuses more on writing process and publishing process than on point-by-point writing technique, but its articles explore many angles of writing and the writing life. <S> Typical topics include: inspiration; creativity; writer's block; effective writing habits; interviews with authors; Q&As with editors and agents; social media strategies; small presses; ebooks; self-publishing; crowdfunding; grants and awards; and more. <S> Their website has many features, including additional online-only articles and resources such as searchable databases for contests, residencies and conferences. <S> They also started a digital format of the magazine in 2010 ( <S> though I can't speak personally to that; I subscribe to the print version).
| Writers Digest is a fine magazine; another to consider is "the writer" - http://www.writermag.com/
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When to accept an editor's rewrite request? So there's an editor who has accepted a story of mine for publication... but he wants me to change the ending. Normally I'm pretty open to editorial changes, but in this case the proposed changes alter the timbre of the piece by changing the ending from a "downer" ending to something more upbeat. Is this a reasonable request from an editor? What are the pros and cons of accepting this request? <Q> I can't say if it's reasonable or not, but it's not unheard of. <S> There is also the fact that the editor does like your story. <S> The biggest pro of going through with this is that you get your story published, but is it worth it? <S> As you said, you are changing the timbre of the piece, and if it makes it something you're not happy with it might not be worth doing the work. <S> Here's what I would suggest, ask the editor why he thinks the ending needs to be changed. <S> There is always the possibly that he has a very good reason why he think the upbeat ending is better, maybe there is something in the story that he believes leads to the happier ending. <S> Once you know why he wants it you can try to sell him on your original ending or work out what needs to be tweaked in the story to make the downer ending work for him. <S> Working with an editor is a two way street, and it's always better to work with them for this sort of thing to find something that works for both of you. <A> I'm both an author and an editor. <S> As a writer, I would be uncomfortable changing the ending to my story if it seemed wrong to me. <S> Sure, the editor has the right to make that suggestion, but if it doesn't sit well with you, I would rethink it. <S> It depends on your degree of opposition. <S> Does the new ending sound terrible to you or does it sound like a reasonable alternative? <S> As you said, you've already approved the new change, but as an editor, I'm concerned that your editor wanted to make the ending more positive. <S> IMO, that's changing the direction and the tone of your story. <S> It's not something that I would do. <S> Sigrid <A> This isn't a binary choice. <S> And you don't need to choose between your ending and your editor's proposed ending - you can write a third ending, a fourth, a fifth, a sixteenth if need be. <S> Odds are, <S> both you and your editor have valid concerns about each other's preferred endings. <S> They'll be a lot more complicated than "upbeat vs. depressing," involving lots of factors and considerations, and once you understand why the editor isn't satisfied with your ending - odds <S> are that you can come up with a new one that will satisfy both of you. <S> (In this case, I think the two guiding principles are: how likely am I to be able to sell this to somebody else? <S> And how do I feel about having my name signed to the revised story?.) <S> But the situation you're at right now is one where you disagree with the editor's proposal - not necessarily with his criticism. <S> That's really not a problem, if you can incorporate those concerns and that criticism into something of your own, something that works with your story. <A> You can always shop it to someone else. <S> The bottom line is, are they going to pick up your story without that change? <S> If they are, then you can ignore the request, and if they're not, you have to decide if you need the money more than you want the ending.
| Of course, there are cases where an editor's view of a story differs vastly from the author's; sometimes you might disagree with an editor's concerns entirely, and then you'll need to decide whether publishing the work is worth the harm you feel is done to the story. You don't need to view this as a "take it or leave it" decision - this is something you can talk to your editor about.
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What are some good instruction manuals for writing short stories? I'm looking to learn how to write good short stories, what are some good instruction manuals I should use to learn from? <Q> I like the Modern Library Writer's Workshop by Stephen Koch. <S> It's not limited to Short Stories, it covers fiction in general. <S> But it's small and approachable and full of helpful ideas. <A> For writing short stories try this one: Writing Fiction: <S> A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway <S> I also found it really helpful to read a lot of short stories. <S> Two anthologies I really liked were: Points of View edited by James Moffett and Kenneth R. McElheny <S> The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, Shorter 7th Edition by Richard Bausch and R. V. Cassill <S> A couple of authors whose short stories I found inspirational were: Anton Chekov <S> Leo Tolstoy (his novellas e.g "Kruetzer Sonata" and "Death of Ivan Illyich" O' Henry Guy DeMaupassant Edgar Allan Poe <A> You Dream <S> : The Process of Writing Fiction . <S> Rather than old-fashioned, technique-based instruction, Butler really encourages you to go to your "dream space" (almost becoming the character) to the point where you are walking around in your fictional world. <S> You will soon "discover", he says, what is supposed to naturally happen next. <S> Another excellent one, which is more practical and down-to-earth: <S> Ron Carlson Writes a Story. <S> I love this one not just because it's a short read, but because Carlson actually takes you through pretty much the exact thought process he used to write one of his most popular stories. <S> He pauses and tells you what he was thinking at each moment of the story-writing process, and tells you where he added content, debated about character choices, etc. <S> One of the most unique elements of this book though, is that he also gives tips about your external environment, not just the story itself. <S> He tells you how he got rid of distractions, set himself up in a good place to begin writing, and importantly, when he let himself take a break. <A> Two more suggestions: Rick DiMarinis -- The Art & Craft of the Short Story Rust Hills -- Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular
| For more recent short stories you can pick up the last couple years of "Best American Short Stories" - which collects the best short stories by year. This one's kind of "out there", but unbeatable if you'd like to take the organic, from-the-heart, not-the-head kind of approach: Robert Olen Butler's From Where
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What are the most appropriate types of degrees (or kinds of schooling) that a would-be successful writer should aim to obtain? What kinds of schooling should a teenager, trying to decide on a college, consider, if she is looking to grow to become a successful writer? <Q> There are about 1,000 times more English majors in the US than there are jobs in anything such a degree could prepare you for. <S> If you are one of the few who will make a living from writing, you are talented enough that you can afford to major in something else and pursue your writing as a minor, or through electives, or outside university altogether. <S> If you are one of the many who will not make a living from writing, you must have more in-demand skills so that you can work a 9-5 (or less) and leave time for your writing, instead of working two jobs trying to scrape by on a burger-flipping salary and never having time to write. <S> In other words, unless you are going to teach, don't be an English major. <S> It's probably not best for you or for your writing career. <A> From talking to people in the classes I took the following 3 creative writing programs came up repeatedly: Sarah Lawrence College University of Iowa Columbia University <S> I never had the money or time to go back for an creative writing degree <S> but I found a lot of good teachers at the Gotham Writers Workshop . <S> They also have online classes. <S> From experience the two things that have helped improve my writing the most <S> were: <S> Write a lot (one of my teachers recommendation <S> was write 10 pages a week no matter what) - probably the single best piece of writing advice I ever got. <S> Find a workshop <S> where every member is required to give feedback and it should be in the form of: One good aspect about your work. <S> On aspect that needs improvement. <S> They can only judge your work - not you. <S> Hope that helps. <A> Look at it in another way. <S> Don't let your desire to write choose what your education will be. <S> Let your education define what your writings will look like. <S> Just remember that every single person has a different knowledge, and the more specific or broad this knowledge will be, the better his writings will be covered with interesting details. <S> I am a master of mathematics and the logical consequence of the field <S> helped me a lot. <S> No. <S> A lot. <S> In the art of writing. <S> You should choose whatever you've always wanted, it is really hard to gain useless knowledge. <S> Even the meanest sociology has its beauty and could be adopted manywhere. <S> Get a great knowledge in the one field, let it bring money to you, and then write . <S> And then begin to study other fields. <S> You can start with reading the wikipedia's "did you know" list every couple of days (they even had a feed for the topic once, but now it's gone somewhere). <S> If you'll find the power of knowledge exciting, you'll finish with the academic books in your hands. <A> I don't think it matters what degree you have. <S> What matters is whether you know how to write and can give editors what they need. <S> My only degree, a BBA, is in accounting. <S> My writing career began after 8 years as an auditor and financial analyst. <S> I took two creative writing courses in college -- that's the only formal training in writing that I ever got. <S> Yet I still managed to build a very good career as a writer. <S> Degrees don't matter. <S> Skills do. <A> If this particular teenager is looking to be educated in writing, a bachelors of arts in creative writing, or English with a writing concentration, or something along those lines (different schools call the major different things) would teach her many of those skills. <S> A major in English literature on the other hand would give her even more time to read lots of great writers. <S> The writing part of a literature degree focuses more on criticism than on creative writing, however. <S> A writing degree will have some reading to it, but less than a literature degree. <S> For even further schooling, this aspiring writer could get a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in writing. <S> As far as I know, there is no PhD in writing. <S> An important thing to consider is that a master's degree in a liberal arts subject such as writing is often of dubious value economically - whatever the value to her writing. <S> It is improbable that the MFA program will pay for itself by giving her a better salary from her writing. <S> However it may provide opportunities that she would not otherwise have had. <S> It's just not likely. <S> A writing degree is of course not necessary to being a successful writer. <S> Since many writers do not support themselves from their writing, this young teenager may look to gain skills from her college education that can allow her to have a day job while she finds her feet as a writer. <S> The more knowledge this young woman can draw on, the richer her imagery and metaphors will be. <S> The tasks of a liberal arts education will also help to broaden and stretch her mind to give her a richer mental life from which to write.
| Even if she does not want to do this, in general the aspiring writer should focus on the liberal arts in the oldest sense - a focus on getting a broad education and seeing how different disciplines interact.
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Can someone explain set pieces? I was using a book in a writing group that talked about set pieces, but I never really got a clear idea of what it is or how they're supposed to appear in writing. My impression was that you have a few major scenes that you work up to and away from. Would this be accurate? How much space do they require? Is it something you would have one for each chapter or so, or is it something that would build over a few chapters? <Q> and it has a large effect on the plot. <S> You'll see it a lot in video games and movies. <S> For example, the lobby sequence in The Matrix is a well know set piece. <S> Set pieces are usually large and memorable and often the plot pivots around them. <S> You can write a story by connecting two or three set pieces, but it might feel a bit hollow unless you can create a good plot connection between each one. <S> I think they are less common in books, or at least less obvious, but I'm sure you can find them. <S> I wouldn't have one each chapter or so in a book, usually you need time to build up to them so they have the full impact that you want. <S> There would probably only be three or four in a book, and I suspect they would herald act changes as well. <A> A set-piece is a big scene the reader can see coming and look forward to in fear or hope, which contain small moments of climax and temporary resolution. <S> Short-to-long novels typically have 6-to-12 set-pieces. <S> Notes on set-pieces (from Ansen Dibell 's Plot: Elements of Fiction Writing <S> ): <S> Must be a natural outcome and not staged. <S> As scenes build on scenes, set-pieces build on set-pieces - each should be set in motion by what happened in the previous. <S> Can be bad (i.e. where protagonist is defeated). <S> Should reveal a central truth of the story (concealed at the beginning and demonstrated in the final crisis). <S> Let the readers know the set-piece is coming. <S> After the set-piece, the story must change and characters must be affected. <S> Arise out of what happened, and affects what will follow. <S> Must be emotional. <S> Should be mentioned before it happens and indicated through character words or actions why it is climactic. <A> I think the plot of Mission Impossible 3 is a good example. <S> It's like the author thought of a list of exciting locations for scenes (sets) <S> (A weapons factory in Berlin! <S> A kidnapping in the Vatican! <S> An attack on a long bridge! <S> A heist in Hong Kong!) <S> and figured out a way to tie them together in a coherent story.
| A set piece is a big moment in a story, usually quiet a bit of the story builds up to it
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How much time do you spend writing one page on average? I'm writing a technical book about one programming technology and would like to compare how much time other authors spend on one page (on average). I rarely write a page and am done with it, quite usually there is a lot of restructuring, refining and formatting going on after that. I'd say I spend about 1.5 - 2 hours on every page, that time being roughly divided this way: ~1 hour writing (creating the original rough content) ~0.5h refining and improving style ~0.25h formatting (applying styles, creating screenshots etc.) What are your usual times? EDIT : I feel that the question has been misunderstood or possibly not very well written so I'm adding these points: I'm interested in your experience , not estimates. I'm interested in the average time - a single number, hopefully with some insights into how that time is split. You've written a book with 300 pages and it took you e.g. 1000 hours - that's what I'm after. Where I live, the page is defined as 1800 characters with spaces but it doesn't matter. See the point above. Thanks for all who answered so far, although this question has quite a few downvotes I am still interested in your experience. <Q> Sorry, but about all I can say is: it varies. <S> Is there a particular publisher/series this is for? <S> That would help me give a general estimate. <S> For instance, it should take less time to (imo) write a page for a Dummies book than a Head First book. <S> In addition to your list, I really tend to burn up hours in two other areas: <S> Research <S> What do people commonly want to know about this particular topic? <S> Tasks/Examples For programming books, I need code to demonstrate usage and syntax—so add on time to invent examples, and then code and debug them. <S> I've found that these can take up as much time again as all the actual writing parts put together. <S> And of course, what's one page in a word processor <S> will only occasionally translate into one printed book page. <A> I don't work in pages, and don't know many technical writers that do. <S> They work in sections, which can vary. <S> I think that on average I probably spend an hour or hour and a half on a page writing/rewriting. <S> After that, post copy/tech edit, it can be higher. <S> This excludes research/ screen shots. <A> Billing by time for technical writers is an important aspect of the work. <S> At IBM we used the following guidelines: 1 page is 250 words (this reflects the fact that "page" is an outmoded concept but is still widely used for billing) 1 person-day is 8 hours <S> 1 person-week is 40 hours <S> 1 person-year is 2000 hours (useful for salaried employees being billed out or paying contractors; this includes an assumption of 2 weeks vacation) <S> We then determined writing stage (research-only, new content, rewrite, update) and assigned a number of pages per work day based on that. <S> (Again, "page" was used as a generic term describing sections of online help or other output.) <S> In most projects that I was involved with, we were doing new content for an existing product, and we ended up with an average of 2 pages per day. <S> That's essentially 4 hours per page, which seems incredibly unproductive, but if you take into account research, testing, editing, and production, it's not as crazy as it sounds. <S> Also, it is not all the same person's time (editors, testers, and production assistants are often separate from the writer). <S> I think the environment in which most tech writers work would: be more productive due to fewer policies and procedures <S> reflect a solo effort where the writer is doing all the tasks (leading to greater efficiency but perhaps a need for more downtime in the calculation) <A> What is a page? <S> These days, unless you're doing layout, too, a manuscript page can be any length. <S> I agree with Dori in that creating and documenting examples <S> is probably the most time-consuming part of the writing process. <S> (It's killing me on a book I'm working on now.) <A> 1 page = 1 hour
| On books that are strictly how-to, without having to provide tutorial-style exercises, I can run through a printed page of a Visual QuickStart Guide (with layout) in about an hour.
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What are the usual methods for getting a daily word count? Do, normally, only words which are eventually to be kept count, or do you also count rewrites? For example, if I rewrite a 50 word paragraph 10 times, is my daily count up to 50 or up to 500? <Q> Why does it matter, if your word count is 50 or 500 after a rewrite? <S> You should ask yourself, why do you want to count your words. <S> If you use the number to motivate yourself ("Look, I wrote 100 words. <S> What a good day!"), then count the rewrites. <S> If you need the number to show someone your progress (like your publisher who pays you to finish the book), then he is probably not interested in the rewrite-count, but that's a thing you should clarify with your publisher. <S> If it is only for you. <S> I would say, it does not really matter. <S> Keep (re)writing. <S> Every word, rewritten or not, takes you one step further to your main goal. <S> I do not count my daily words. <S> I only count all words of the finished novel, because I put that info into my cover letters/synopsis. <A> The reason why: It's generally more productive to write without going back to edit, keeping all self-criticism held in until you're done with the session. <S> Even better, wait a day or two before revising at all. <S> You'll come at it fresh and be able to see problems you wouldn't have noticed right away. <A> Normally I base my word count on what's in the file when I finish my session. <S> I don't count any minor tweaks or changes. <S> If I spent the day rewriting a single paragraph I would end up only counting the final result. <S> On the other hand if I'm doing a big rewrite, like a full scene or a whole chapter I will usually count those changes. <S> There's no hard and fast rule for this, but usually if I'm cutting out enough to save <S> it's enough to be worth counting. <A> It all depends on your goal. <S> If you're trying to hit a deadline by doing x words per day, then you have to compare the word count of your written work before the edit and after. <S> Some people use pages for this rather than words. <S> I don't think there's a hard-and-fast rule on this, it really is up to you and what you're trying to achieve by knowing the word count.
| If you want to see how much effort you're putting in or you have a goal for each individual writing session to say "this was a successful session" or "okay, this session is done", count the words you typed. To answer to your question, I personally count only the initial revision.
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What should be in a cover letter for short story submission to a magazine? It's been about five years since I last submitted any of my work for publication, and my memory of what I was taught then to put in my cover letter is getting rusty. What kind of information should I provide when sending a short story to a small literary magazine? <Q> It depends on the magazine. <S> Many publications have submission guidelines, and you might check those for what anything required in the cover letter. <S> I found an interesting variety of requests with a few minutes of googling. <S> Asimov's Science-Fiction is clear on what they want: <S> Your cover letter should contain the length of your story, your publishing history and any other relevant information (e.g., if you send us a story about a medical disaster and you happen to be an emergency room nurse, mention that.). <S> The Briar Cliff Review is a little vaguer: Please send a cover letter and short biographical note with all submissions. <S> McSweeny's is nearly as vague, but more interesting: <S> Please keep [your cover letter] brief, though we do like to hear from people who read and like the magazine. <S> We're not concerned about writing degrees or past publications, though, so don't be daunted if you don't have an MFA or much in the way of previously published work. <S> In short, make certain to read the submission guidelines. <S> (Online and print requirements may differ, even within the same publication.) <S> A manuscript in the wrong format is not going to be read quickly, if at all. <S> I don't know if the tone of the cover letter matters or not, although if I were submitting to <S> McSweeny's I'd spend more time on that letter. <A> Two tips for submissions (no matter how short the story is): <S> Write just a letter/email and ask for permission to send them your story. <S> Why is it fantastic? <S> Why do people really want to read it? <S> What's different from all these other boring 50 submissions they got? <S> Yeah, I know, the second one is harder than the first ... <S> Edit: <S> To be more specific about describing your story : <S> It's not about: "It's a crime story about incest. <S> " It's about: "It's about a woman killing her ex-husband to conceal that she has married her own son." <A> For magazine writing, it's not so much a "cover letter" you're sending but more of a pitch . <S> This is important because you're not introducing yourself (even though you need to convince the editor that you're THE person to go with for the story), you're trying to sell the story. <S> Hook the editor. <S> Make the person so curious and unsatisfied <S> they s/ <S> he must contact you to find out more. <S> Most magazine editors have told me they see your pitch as a writing sample - can I trust this person to execute? <S> Give them the gist of the story in the first 2-3 paragraphs. <S> Then answer the question, "why should I care?" <S> Add what else is in your story (if you have already finished writing it, I'm not sure whether you should say this or not. <S> Some editors say they don't mind. <S> Others have told me they prefer an unfinished piece because editors love to dig their fingers in and shape the piece). <S> Wrap up with your credentials (like a website where they can find your clips). <S> This doesn't necessarily mean your degrees or awards. <S> But something like "I'm a science writer who has covered X and Y and has published in A and B."Then why you should care/hire me. <S> And that's it. <S> Shorter is better, but use as many words as you need to nail it.
| In this letter (like in every cover letter) you should describe your story and yourself shortly and you should put in there, why they should publish your story.
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Do you always revise your stories or do you sometimes move on? When you finish a story, say a short story, not really intending to publish. Do you go back and revise it or let it be, starting on another story? <Q> It is almost always worth editing. <S> Even if it's Murder She Wrote / Star Wars crossover fanfiction that there will never be a market to publish, it's still worth practicing the art of editing. <S> You took the time to write the story in the first place. <S> Why not craft the best story you can? <S> I think something that's often overlooked by inexperienced writers is that there are very different skill sets involved with writing a first draft, vs. repeatedly editing that draft into a tight, well-constructed story. <S> It took me years of writing before I really began to see how vital editing is. <S> It's important to be more than a "first-draft writer". <S> If you find yourself frequently writing a single draft of a story, then tossing it aside, you're missing out on half of the writing experience. <S> I believe that developing skill at editing your work is considerably harder than getting good at writing first drafts. <S> Don't miss an opportunity to practice. <A> I'll throw out the need for some space. <S> I might not go right back to something, <S> so, yes, I'd move on to another story. <S> But that doesn't mean you abandon it completely. <S> There's a balance you must strike. <S> If you get stuck revising something to the point you can't work on something else, I don't see that as helpful. <S> Revisit the story later. <S> You never know what you might find with a fresh eye. <A> There are some stories that are just there to get thoughts out of your head. <S> For me, if it's a complete story and something that I have the slightest interest in after I have finished a draft, I'll revise it. <S> It may not happen right away, but give it a while and go back for a revision. <S> My reasoning behind this is it helps with the stories you ARE intending to publish. <S> If you can learn to cut out the stuff you don't need and find what is missing in every story you write, even ones you don't necessarily care about, the ones you do care about will be that much better. <A> I edit everything I write. <S> But this is because if I can't bring myself to care enough about sitting and nursing it after the first draft then I don't care enough to write it in the first place.
| Furthermore, if there is a market out there for your story, you may realize that after a few revisions, it's worth trying to publish after all.
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Do you use the word "that" too much? I find myself using the word "that" too much. How do you really know when you need that "that" word there? Like just now. I don't think I need "that" there. Do you have words you overuse? <Q> Plenty of writers have little tics like this. <S> You may find a turn of phrase that you just fall in love with, or it may be something that carries over from the way you speak. <S> At various points in my life I've found myself overusing parataxis, 'although' and 'however', and probably a few others I can't think of off the top of my head. <S> To a certain extent, this is a matter of style. <S> Only if a particular phrase or word is heavily overused, to the point where it becomes noticeable to the reader, is it a bad thing. <S> However, there's no obvious line that you cross where style stops and bad writing begins. <S> It's something you just have to keep your eye on. <S> You've already taken the first step by noticing that you frequently use a particular word. <S> In some cases, you may not realize it until someone points it out. <S> My advice would be to not worry about it too much while you're writing. <S> It's already in the back of your head. <S> If you notice that you're really abusing it while you're in the process of writing, feel free to make some adjustments, but don't pause for half an hour just to decide if "this" is really necessary. <S> The best time to work on these tics is after you've written a chunk of prose. <S> Go back through what you've written and look for the tic. <S> All modern word processors have a Find feature (usually ctrl-F or command-F) that you can use to quickly find all examples of a particular word or phrase. <S> As you edit, you can double-check each spot by trying to rewrite it without the word, and comparing it to the original. <S> If you really have a hard time deciding, it pays to have a few trusted readers who can take a look as well. <A> In editing hundreds (maybe thousands) of articles, I've found all authors have some kind of authorial tic: expressions that they use a lot, a tendency to use one verb tense over another, etc. <S> Sometimes this is part of their personal voice; other times it's too much. <S> When you're writing, don't worry about it. <S> Just get your thoughts written down on the page. <S> Nearly always I have to take out the word "really" from my own essays; that's the word <S> I'm most likely to overuse. <A> Have you ever come across a website called autocrit.com into whose web forms you surrender your latest draft so that the site may return a list of excessivenesses from your prose: <S> things like, “You used six initial ing words. <S> Try to remove at least four”? <S> Or “You had only two instances of that and four of was/were . <S> Good job!” <S> In one writing forum, the algorithm got reviews along the lines of “don’t believe what it tells you” and “AutoCrit will ruin your writing!” <S> I never purchased the large-scale AutoCrit service, but I feel okay surmising that it was less a prose killer than a tool that took care of CTRL+F for you and offered a statistical reminder of the line that @sjohnston was talking about in an earlier answer, an indistinct line separating style from unmindful recurrences. <S> I think it’s a good thing you do, watching out for that the pronoun, <S> that the conjunction, <S> even that the adjective and adverb. <S> With so many uses for the little tyke, it in particular needs an eye (or an ear) on its lookout (or soundout). <A> If you want to know, if you use particular words too much, count them. <S> I gave one answer where I explain a revision process from Andreas Eschbach. <S> At point four (marking filler words) you also can mark words like "that" or other suspicious candidates. <S> When you have done that, count them and put that info into an Excel sheet. <S> Over time you will see which word you use how often, especially compared to the other words. <S> If you find out, that you use "maybe" 1000 times when you used in the same text "perhaps" 10 times, then maybe <S> you use "maybe" too often. <S> You can decide , if you want to replace it with alternatives (like "perhaps" if appropriate) or just remove it.
| The time to remove your Needless Words is during the edit process.
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How long can a writer expect to write before publishing his/her first novel? By "How long" I'm assuming from the time they actually start trying to actively publish to the time they finally get published. For example, I've been writing since I was 10 years old - but if I ever (finally) publish a book one of these days, I'm certainly not going to tell people that it took me 20 years. I realize that the time frames will also vary, but I am wondering if there are any general patterns. I've known far too many people who have churned out a book in six months and expected to become a famous, published author right away. I don't expect that - I've been trying for three years. But it can become discouraging sometimes. I'm not interested in self-publishing, by the way. This is a question specifically addressing the 'traditional' publishing industry. I would especially be interested in hearing from people who have actually gotten a book published - how long it took them to get to that point. EDIT: Edited the title question for clarity's sake. <Q> This depends highly on the genre. <S> @Way0utwest has responded with a technical non-fiction article. <S> For novelists, the numbers are a lot longer, and the number I hear tossed around a lot is "ten years". <S> Here's a detailed post that surveys a wide variety of published novelists and asks them that question, with an extremely informative breakdown of the responses. <A> I would encourage you to not compare yourself to other authors. <S> I understand you're just trying to get a ballpark estimate, but in this case, the ballpark is gigantic. <S> The figures aren't really useful. <S> How long you've been writing, in terms of days, weeks, months and years, is just not a very useful figure for comparison. <S> How much have you been reading? <S> Do you write every day? <S> How much do you write per day? <S> Do you write short stories in addition to novels? <S> Do you get critiqued regularly? <S> What genre are you writing? <S> How much do you edit each page? <S> Even two people who have the exact same answers to these questions could have wildly different outcomes. <S> You might have a harder time getting your book in front of the right publisher. <S> Your book may have a smaller or larger market, and thus be easier to sell. <S> We all get discouraged. <S> It's just what happens in a profession as variable as writing, with people as unstable as writers. <S> Buck up. <S> You're not alone, not by a long shot. <S> When professional writers are asked about the most important trait for a new writer to develop, almost all of them say the same thing: persistence. <S> Keep writing, editing and submitting. <S> Once you submit something, get to work on the next project. <S> And the next. <S> If you care enough to try to improve and you keep sending things out, you will eventually succeed. <S> Don't get hung up on numbers. <S> It would be a shame to decide that it will take three years (or somesuch) to get published, and then give up if you don't hit that mark. <A> I published my first book after about 11 months. <S> This was a technical book, I was approached by a publisher after I had written a number of articles in different places. <S> I spent a hard 7-8 months writing and then 3 months later it was published and released. <S> The computer/technical industry operates on a fairly tight schedule, they typically approach authors, a schedule is agreed to, they often need to find replacement authors, and you have a bounded subject. <S> I think for fiction and other types of non-fiction, schedules/timelines may be much different. <A> I'm inclined to invoke the Niven rule (named for well-known science fiction author Larry Niven): "You have to write about a million words of crap before you get to the good stuff." <S> Niven was on record as counting himself lucky, in that he inherited money and was able to write full time, hence getting through his "million words" in a year or so <S> (BTW, that isn't a bad figure for words per year at full time; my partner writes romance, and produces approximately a million words of published work a year). <S> Of course, if you have to work for a living, it'll take a lot longer -- maybe even much more than the ten year figure from another answer -- to get through your million words. <S> I've been writing when I could for most of forty years, and I'm just now approaching the point where I'm confident I can finish a novel of publication quality -- and even once finished and published, I expect to need to write half a dozen more before my sales get good enough to live on (which will coincide nicely with starting to collect Social Security). <S> And, of course, some writers will require fewer words, or more (the more attention you pay to the quality of your writing, and the more help you have in the form of editing and critiques, the lower your own figure likely to be). <S> Beyond that, there's no real guarantee you'll "get to the good stuff" after your million words -- it also depends on working at your craft. <S> If you just pump out a million random words, you're unlikely to learn anything about writing in the process -- <S> but if you spend that time comparing your work to work you respect, trying to make your writing read better, carry the story better, portray the characters better, build the world better, a million words is just about right to learn enough to be able to produce work that will sell.
| The variables are endless, and each difference can change the equation by years.
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How do you convince your publisher that your story is good? Any suggestions on how to convince your publisher that your story is good, and that it would be a good idea to publish it? <Q> If the publisher does not want to publish your story, then at least one of these is true: <S> The goodness isn't in the text. <S> The text is good, and the publisher doesn't recognize it. <S> The publisher's idea of "good" differs from yours in ways that matter. <S> I'd focus on #1. <S> To convince the publisher, you'd have to say something that isn't in the text. <S> If there's something relevant to say that isn't in the text, that is a sign that the text does not yet sufficiently convey the goodness. <S> My advice for #1 <S> : Improve the story. <S> As for #2, proceeding under the assumption that the publisher doesn't recognize the goodness of your story is fraught with peril. <S> If the assumption is true, that means they don't know what they're doing. <S> If they do know what they're doing, then your attempt to persuade will be at best a waste of time, and at worst insulting. <S> My advice for #2: Whenever you catch yourself imagining that a publisher just can't see the goodness in your story, try to find another interpretation. <S> If you can't find another interpretation, reconsider whether you really want to publish with a publisher who doesn't know what they are doing. <S> And make note of how often you insist on this interpretation. <S> As for #3 and #4, those are all signs that this is not the right publisher for this story at this time. <S> If a story comes close to meeting a publisher's needs, they'll usually tell you that, and clearly. <S> Otherwise the story probably is not within range of persuasion. <S> My advice for #3 and #4 <S> : Seek publishers whose current skills, preferences, and business model match your story more closely. <A> There are many ways to impress a publisher. <S> The most obvious and effective way is to show them that you're a professional. <S> Make sure your manuscript and cover letter has been proofread and edited. <S> Make sure there aren't any typos or glaring editing problems, those are sure signs that you're not a professional. <S> Make sure you have a neutral third party go over your manuscript and give opinions and look for errors. <S> Your close family and friend don't count, they're going to tell you the love it <S> and that's not what you need. <S> Never /ever/ send them a first draft. <S> You should go through at least a half dozen drafts before you even consider sending it to a publisher. <S> The next step is to make sure you do your homework about the publisher. <S> Make sure they accept the genre of manuscript you have. <S> Don't send a mystery publisher your romance novel. <S> Some publishes only accept new submissions at certain times of the year. <S> If the publisher does reject your manuscript, move on. <S> Don't try and argue with them, you're not going to win and you'll be making sure that they never want to publish anything of yours. <S> And publisher do speak to each other. <S> Especially in the smaller houses, at lot of staff work for multiple publishers. <S> So if you make an ass out of yourself to Publisher A, and they happen to work for Publisher B and C as well, you can bet they've passed along the memo to them not to consider you. <S> A lot of editors and publishers have blogs and Facebooks, and you can bet there will probably be a post saying "Guess what this jackass just said to me..." <S> In general, acquisitions editors know what they're doing. <S> If they reject your manuscript, it most likely means they don't think it will sell very well with them. <S> Most of the time (unless you make a jackass out of yourself like I mentioned earlier) rejections aren't personal. <S> Publishers are in it to make as much money as they can and if they don't feel they can make money off of your manuscript, they won't try. <S> And don't let that discourage you. <S> 99% of writers have tons of rejections under their belt before they finally get an acceptance. <A> For nonfiction, write a good proposal. <S> I searched the web for an explanation of what publishers would expect in a proposal and created mine from what I found. <S> Basically I used a one page explanation of my idea and why I was the best person to write it. <S> To that, I added a ten page chapter-by-chapter description of the entire manuscript, and then three sample chapters. <S> This was my proposal. <S> I started sending it out with a one page cover letter where I tried to offer a short reason why I was sending to the particular editor/agent. <S> Use a spreadsheet to track who you send it to and when you sent it. <S> If you don't hear back in 6-12 weeks, assume the worst. <S> Always try to keep it out to at least two or three at a time. <S> If someone rejects your work (or the time to live on the proposal expires), have a few places in mind where you can send it next. <S> Look for similar works from small publishers and query them. <S> This is what worked for me. <S> A small publisher who had published a similar title picked up my book on the basis of the proposal. <S> I'm almost finished writing the first draft. <S> It's tentatively titled Dopefiend (apologies to Mr. Goines) and forthcoming from CRP in Sept 2011. <A> Do some minor promotion but don't go overboard. <S> Gather thousands of readers for your blog who post comments like, "I'm really into this story. <S> Hurry up and post the next installment!" <S> Then go to the publisher and show them a Google Analytics report of your blog's traffic and say, "Here's hard proof that people will respond to this story. <S> Look at all these readers and comments."
| Also make sure that they are accepting manuscripts. The publisher has reasons that outweigh the goodness of your story (e.g. more than enough stories that better fit their needs). Start a blog and post an excerpt from your story in serial form on the blog.
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Using a world created by someone else for your own fiction What is the procedure if you want to set a story in a world created by someone else? If, after reading someone else's novel I came up with some neat plot that would fit into that novel's world, but would be a separate story from the original, with maybe some peripheral contact with some of the originals characters; is it allowed? Can I do it without explicit permission (I think doing this would at the very least be extremely discourteous)? My gut-feel is that it involves some kind of IP that requires permission/deal of some kind. <Q> I promise you, if you do it without permission and get published nonetheless, they will sue the shit out of you. <S> So, if you have a name and are already published, you maybe have a chance, if you are a nobody, then I suggest finding your own world. <S> On the other hand, there are Universes which are written by several authors (e.g. Shadowrun). <S> If you want to write for one of these worlds, contact the organization owning the rights to this Universe. <S> They can tell you what they expect and what you have to do. <A> If you are writing it to make money: don't. <S> It's your mind, and you can write whatever you want as long as it's not published. <S> Let people/editors/whoever read it, and if the feedback tells you it is really, really good, the you can contact the author/publisher of the original story and let them read it. <S> Maybe they are willing to cut you a deal. <S> They probably won't though, but hey, you got inspiration enough to write a whole story. <S> Your skill and experience as a writer probably got knocked up several notches. <A> Most books have this page with small-print at the front or back which usually goes like (example from the book nearest to my bed): © <S> Dan Simmons 2004 <S> Hyperion <S> copyright © 1989; <S> All rights reserved <S> This means that the book has specific copyright claimed to it. <S> In most countries (I am not a lawyer, don't blame/believe me, yada...) <S> copyright is implicit so <S> the fact that a book doesn't have such a page doesn't mean there is no copyright. <S> Now a book may be in the public domain and these are either very old books - 200 years to be on the safe side or books that have been explicitly released to the public domain (with something like "I, Jakub Hampl, author of this post, hereby release it to the public domain.") <S> Then you may use the characters, the world, hell even the storyline anyway you wish. <S> So if you were greatly inspired by the Diamond Sutra <S> you can freely use a world with Subhūti chatting of with Budha all you like. <S> Alas the Hyperion of Dan Simmons will stay forbidden for quite a while. <A> Generally, if based on popular copyrighted works written in the past 90 years, it's FanFiction, and must be totally non-profit, unless the owner of the original work gives you a contract. <S> If your FanFic is wildly popular, then do what E. L. James did -- write a new book, the same thing really, but change the names, and set them in a different world -- <S> her Twilight FanFic became Fifty Shades of Grey . <A> I liked this post which is a similar question. <S> There's no reason not to go with your idea, see how it turns out. <S> You could always edit things later, even core elements. <S> If you have a story in you, get it out there :)
| You have to ask for permission, there will be legal contracts, because the world's "owner" wants money, your story must really fit and must not disrupt anything the owner wants to do in the future. If the world created gives you inspiration and makes you sit down and write for hours, then go ahead and do it.
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Good books on writing for comics? Me and a friend of mine has been thinking about joining forces and make a comic. She is an excellent drawer/illustrator while I perform better in the story/character/writing part of things. I guess the best way to start would be to throw ourselves into it, but I like to read about things first, to get some inspiration and hints about common pitfalls. So, are there any good books (or online resources) about making commics? Would be particularly interesting if they focus on collaboration between writer and drawer. <Q> The book itself is written as a comic, so it can illustrate the techniques it discusses. <S> One of the topics covered is word-picture dynamics, which seems pretty close to what you're looking for. <A> Scott McCloud is a good starting point in terms of understanding the potential of what comics as a hybrid medium can accomplish. <S> That being said, in response to your interest in writing, as opposed to drawing or inking, I would recommend: The DC Comics Guide to Writing - Dennis O'Neil Alan Moore's Writing for Comics - Alan Moore <S> Both provide interesting insight into the work habits and philosophies of two very successful (and very different) comics writers. <S> I would also suggest: The Ten-Cent Plague - David Hajdu Do Anything - Warren Ellis <S> Comic Book Culture - Matthew J. Pustz <S> These three provide some fascinating context for the history and culture of comics; they have helped make me aware of the tradition in which I am writing, an awareness I believe to be invaluable to any person interested in writing comics. <S> Best of luck to you and to your friend! <A> As with any other application of "writing", it's recommended to read voraciously. <S> The more I think about it, the more I think that reading is at least as important as practice. <S> So... you do love comics? <S> Have a large comic collection? <S> Or at least read lots and lots of (different style/genre preferably) comics? <S> Know whatever genre you want to do in your comic inside and out (or at least pretty well)? <S> If you answered "yes" to all of these, then jump right in. <S> If not, then, well, I think you know what to do. <S> Hope <S> this wasn't too harsh... <A> If you're looking for a book on writing comics and graphic novels, this is the one to get: The Working Writer's Guide to Comics and Graphic Novels <A> The Eisner books, while excellent, are written for the artist, talking about structure of panels, anatomy, etc. <S> The Graphic Novels and Sequential Art book has the most information which would be of use to writers, since it deals with story. <S> That said, I am sure that any writer in the genre would do well to read them, since they must collaborate with artists. <S> The advice given before to read like crazy, especially comics, is very sound, I would add to this, "Write like crazy!" <S> also. <S> Take a page from storyboard artists: nothing is precious, do not be afraid to throw work out and start anew. <S> Keep a file of ideas (see the BlueBook Screenwriting series), make mood boards to inspire you, along with art, joke and writing morgues for more inspiration. <S> Observe life, it is stranger than anything you could dream up.
| One of the best books you can read on the subject is Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics .
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What genre is my writing? I'm working on a couple pieces that take place in imaginary worlds. They involve made-up cities, countries, rivers, history, etc. However, the level of technology and the social structures in the made-up world are similar to our own contemporary world. The characters drive around in cars and make phone calls. The settings and technological level are sort of like our world of the 1950's. There are supernatural elements in the stories. In one of them there are witches, and in the other the devil intrudes into the world. So what the genre does all that amount to? Could it be fantasy? Urban fantasy? Maybe urban fantasy/supernatural horror? It matters to me because when I interact with other writers and people involved with publishing I want to be able to say something coherent about what I've written without two hours of explanation. I want to be able to talk about my writing without being all weird and confusing. <Q> There is significant overlap in genres, and nowhere more so than speculative fiction. <S> There are few hard and fast rules to identifying genre, and one man's Urban Fantasy is another man's Supernatural Horror. <S> To a certain extent, you can choose the genre you want to claim for your story. <S> What aspects of this story do you consider to be the most important? <S> If it's designed to scare or be troubling, call it Horror. <S> If it's fantasy emphasizing a gritty urban setting, call it Urban Fantasy. <S> As long as you're in the ballpark (i.e. not advertising your serial-killer police procedural as romance), you're not going to annoy agents or editors. <S> They'll decide for themselves what genre they think it fits, anyway. <S> Finally, you might also try your hand at writing a back-cover summary or synopsis. <S> There are many guides <S> online <S> that you can use. <S> Forcing yourself to consolidate your story like this will make it easier for you to pick out the vital points, and hopefully make it easier to describe in conversation. <A> Considering your comment "the level of technology and the social structures in the made-up world are similar to our own contemporary world. <S> The characters drive around in cars and make phone calls. <S> The settings and technological level are sort of like our world of the 1950's" <S> And Taking that into account and the fact that both supernatural entities you have specified i.e. witches / devil fit into the Horror theme more specifically <S> - I probably would lean more towards "Horror" <A> This technology level is somewhere north of Dieselpunk (see this year's Captain America movie for many wonderful examples of a Dieselpunk aesthetic). <S> I guess, bearing in mind that the convention seems to be to take the prevailing technological marvel of the era and put "punk" on the end of it, that you would probably define this as "Plastipunk" or possibly "Tupperpunk". <A> Fantasy based on the technology of the 1950s. <S> That's precise enough to have an idea what you do, and vague enough to make them curious and ask more questions. <S> If it is for a cover letter, add two more sentences to explain witches and stuff.
| If supernatural elements are paramount to the story, call it Supernatural Horror.
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What should I do to promote my books? My publisher currently does a lot to advertise my books, but what can I do to help spread the word? ETA: Here's what my publisher said they do to promote their books: "Dreamspinner invests 10% of our income on marketing and promotion. We have tables at events one to two times per month. In 2009 we distributed more than 15,000 promotional CDs with excerpts of all of our titles. We actively keep a Facebook and Twitter presence as well as our own blog and yahoo group. We currently have banner and cover ads running on 42 internet sites (review sites, fan fiction sites, romance and gay lifestyle sites). Our titles are carried by six international distributors, including one that serves the North American public library system for both print and digital titles. We sponsor events like Saints & Sinners in New Orleans and the Rainbow Book Fair in New York. We have a stipend that our authors can use toward vendor fees at local Pride events and festivals if they wish to promote their work and Dreamspinner Press." <Q> These types of events let potential readers meet you, and people who might otherwise pass over your book may decide to pick it up. <S> (I have purchased books due to reading/signing events that I would never have purchased otherwise.) <S> Additionally, the bookstore may order more of your book than they otherwise would have, in preparation for the event. <S> If you do decide to try this, don't limit yourself to the big stores. <S> There are still a few independent bookstores in most metropolitan areas, and they may be more open to hosting an event, especially by a local author. <A> Do you have a good short story? <S> Get it published somewhere that has an audience that might like your stuff. <S> For example, my master plan is: Finish my first good-enough-to-be-publishable novel <S> Really polish <S> my best one or two short stories Get one onto Escape Pod or Podcastle <S> (podcasts with very large audiences of sci-fi - 10k+ subscribers - and fantasy fiction, respectively. <S> This may involve having it featured in another respectable publication first) Ask them to mention my new book (as well as my website etc) in the brief author bio that they read out just before the story. <S> Something like that should get some attention for your stuff from a group likely to buy it. <A> You could start a blog. <S> A lot of writers do that, I've noticed. <S> But the blog has to be interesting or it won't help. <S> You can also go on Twitter and FaceBook. <S> Same story. <S> The first rule of promotion is that you have to define your target audience. <S> Who do you think will want to read your book? <S> Picture that person clearly in your mind. <S> Then design your promotional campaign around that specific person. <S> Metaphorically speaking, go to where he or she hangs out, get right up in his or her face, and say, "Hey! <S> You! <S> Read this book!" <A> How about links in your profile to where members of this group can buy copies of your book or even to your own website. <S> You're talking to people who have an interest in books and reading (or should) and are community minded. <S> So why make them work to find copies of your work to buy? <S> Admittedly they can Google the pen name in your bio <S> but still if there's a rulebook for successful selling one of them must surely be: Don't put obstacles in the way of a potential customer. <A> Network, network, network. <S> Go to places like kindleboards <S> and you will find lots of people with great advice willing to help you out. <S> Even though the site is primarily about helping self-published authors trying to sell e-books, the tips and information is relevant to any author trying to promote a book. <S> Some of the things that are available there are threads to help tag your book(s) on Amazon to increase the relevance in certain searches. <S> There are also a number of threads from other authors offering to post interviews on their sites or blogs to help you get more exposure. <S> You will also find lists of book review sites that are currently accepting books, and they are usually listed by genre. <S> To tie into the network idea, you will find threads where authors "Like" each other's authors Facebook page. <S> Don't have one? <S> There's a thread to show you how and explains the relevance of having one. <S> There are also threads on how and why to set up a blog. <S> If you don't have a Twitter account, then create one and join one of the threads to obtain followers. <S> You will be surprised how many people will retweet your information for you. <S> Just as an example, I posted an interview on my blog with an indie writer and then tweeted it. <S> That message got retweeted 14 times by my followers, and 27 times by the other author's followers! <S> Create an account at LibraryThing and do a book giveaway in exchange for reviews. <S> I did this and found good success with it. <S> I spent a lot of time following all of these steps for a series of books I wrote under a pen name, and they are all doing surprisingly well. <S> Once I finish writing my next series of books, I will start doing the same thing with the books I've published under my own name. <S> Now if only I could find a few more hours in the day to do the REST of the stuff I need/want to get done! <A> Seems like a no brainer but have you tried contacting genre reviewers and have them review your book? <A> All the things that help raise your profile as an author (going to events related to your topic/genre, blogging, etc.) <S> help promote your books, too. <S> Also, coordinate with your publisher: they may have ideas, too.
| You might consider approaching local bookstores to do readings and/or signings.
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Is it so bad to end up with a "done before" plot? I'm not delusional about the nature of the science fiction novel I'm (very) slowly working on. A brief run down might be as follows: Set 10's of millennia in Human's future but in a neighbouring galaxy Discovery of ancient artifact Artifact turns violent on the discoverers More discoveries by different people Non-human race who built them come back to claim ownership of the galaxy from inhabitants (through violence, they believed they "owned" it and placed beacons when they left due to their own reasons) Seriously technologically advanced Benevolent race who lived around the same time appear to aid humans as they foresaw this happening Bilbo Baggins lives happily ever after to the end of his days. This isn't a review of my particular story/plot, but I was wondering if it's really so bad to end up (by accident, you might say) with a plot that, while unique, has been done similarly before? Even though I feel I could do my particular idea justice, I can't help but notice it becoming more and more generic as I think about it. Should I try to differentiate it as much as possible to the "generic" or just get on with it ? <Q> Seriously. <S> I've taken two Ancient Literature courses and it's amazing <S> how many plots are basically recycled versions of older plots. <S> Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Twilight, Harry Potter - <S> their plots all model older books and plays from hundreds of years ago. <S> Even parts of the Bible are found in manuscripts that predate Christianity by many many years. <S> As long as the plot isn't a carbon copy of another book, you're pretty much good to go. <A> There are no new plots. <S> You can't be original. <S> You wouldn't want to be. <S> True originality, if it existed, would be nearly unbearable. <S> The thing is to take an old story that's been told a million times, and tell it again. <S> But tell it so brilliantly that it seems like an entirely new story that no one has ever heard before. <S> In your case, don't just make your story sort of like 2001. <S> Actually retell 2001, but so imaginatively that it's unrecognizable. <S> People say about a book or movie, Oh it was crap because it was just a ripoff of this or that. <S> That is such a weak and lazy criticism and it amounts to nothing. <S> Of course it's a ripoff. <S> What isn't? <A> Take a look at Joseph Cambell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces , and you will see that most myths and most religions are basically the same story told with small variations. <S> The same applies for a lot of epic modern stories already mentioned here <S> (LOTR, Star Wars, Harry Potter). <S> Good stories a driven by characters, and if the reader gets involved in the characters, they won't even notice (or at least mind) <S> that they are being told the same story one more time. <A> Take Disney. <S> They make a bunch of wonderful stories, but a great deal of their old (and in my opinion, best) movies were based on mythological stories and old fairy tales. <S> The Beauty and the Beast was based off of Eros and Psyche. <S> The little mermaid was based off of a Hans Christian Anderson story of the same name. <S> And there are many others. <S> They're presented differently, though, and that is the key. <S> Change motivations, characters, and delivery. <S> Make something to give it a new feel. <S> Think about it this way <S> , they make movies and stories all the time based on real events. <S> Do you think that just because you heard about what happened in the news would make a story or movie about it less interesting? <S> You know the story. <S> You've heard of that plot before. <S> But your receiving something completely different. <S> That's what you need to make sure you're doing. <A> As many other people have said, it's all be done before, what really matters is HOW you do it. <S> Find some interesting ways to put the pieces together and interesting characters to go along with it. <S> In the end, sit down and get it written. <S> Once you have it down you can see how the story flows and what might need to be changed or rewritten to make it stand out as more then just the same as whats come before. <A> You will find, if you look over all the novels you have ever read, there are key similarities. <S> These will not be in the specifics in the individual plots, but in the paths they take. <S> How many movies do you think encorporate 'Boy meets girl. <S> Something bad happens and it looks like it isn't to be. <S> They reconcile. <S> Cue credits'. <S> The reason this happens is because that is how plots tend to lend themselves to concluding. <S> It's only natural, really. <S> There can be either a happy ending, or a sad ending, and anything too far removed does seem out of place. <S> I'm not suggesting you have to stick to cliche storylines, but if that is how your plot unfolds, let it happen. <A> Maybe what you feel is "story is unrealistic." <S> If a race is so advanced, why would it need war? <S> If they can build robots, they can build a self-replicating plant on some planet and wait until the robots have overwhelmed the enemy be sheer number. <S> A million can't do it? <S> You can build billions from the material of a single planet and that number is so low because you don't mine for every speck of ore. <S> And if one planet isn't enough, take ten. <S> Or a hundred. <S> I've always felt that "advanced" means "can't be forced to kill/harm/hurt." <S> So how about this twist: Artifact appears friendly but starts to corrupt humans. <S> Old race comes back to fix its mistake but the humans (dumb as they are) try to stop them, supported by the sentient artifact that doesn't want to "die." <A> Just do it. <S> If you always top to focus on the negative aspects, you never get anything done. <S> Chances are some random person will always find some random correlation between your story and the Queen of Mar's wedding ceremony... <S> you get the point.
| To make something that is essentially the same feel so new and different by the subtle ways you change it. Everything has been done before. Oh no, it's not bad at all. If you ask me, so long as you trust your own story to be worth the read, go for it.
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What genre is a book in an imaginary world but no other fantasy element? I'm trying to figure out what genre the following is, if any. (I asked a similar question, but this is different now, and more detailed.) The story takes place in an imaginary world. It's more or less like our own mid-century world, except the countries, names, history, and geography are all made up. For example, some of the action takes place near the "River Shanga." As far as I know there is no such river. (So that makes it some type of fantasy, right?) The events take place in a rural area, mostly. A city is mentioned here and there, but it isn't the main setting. The story is pretty dark. The point of view is grim and pessimistic. There's a fair amount of action and violence, and it's integral to the story. The protagonist is not likable. You don't necessarily root for him or want to be like him. There are some elements of "thriller" type horror (as opposed to supernatural horror). I mean thriller like Misery or Cujo, not supernatural like Carrie or Salem's Lot. I'm wondering what existing genre that is closest to? I'm thinking probably urban fantasy, but that's just a guess. I've never really read anything in that genre. (By the way, what are some great urban fantasy books I should read?) What novels fit that description? Made-up world, but similar to the real world. It seems like there have to be some, but for some reason I can't think of any. <Q> What happens in your story seems, from your description, to be action/thriller. <S> Where your story is set is an imaginary world, bearing some resemblance to the real world in the 1950-ish era. <S> The question remaining is how central the setting is to the book. <S> Fantasy is a broad category, to such extent that it's seldom crucial to narrow it down further by event-genre (e.g. fantasy-romance; fantasy-thriller, etc). <S> "Dark fantasy" sounds like a safe bet. <S> If you want significant deviations from real-world history, but nothing else important, that could be an "alternate history" or an "alternate earth. <S> " I'm kind of assuming it's not, because it sounds like you're not referencing real-world events, which is a staple of the genre. <S> If you think this might be appropriate, by all means read up on the genre. <S> If it isn't , then your story is less fantasy, and more "this could have happened, but didn't. <S> " That doesn't define a particular genre; indeed, it raises the question why you're tossing the reader into an imaginary world in the first place. <S> Consider: could you plausibly claim that the story took place in the real world, but be vague on precisely where and when? <S> (Like the Simpson's "Springfield"... which is hardly in the "fantasy" genre). <S> If there isn't a reason <S> the world can't be the real world, it probably should be. <S> Lastly, if your story relies very heavily on a setting remniscant of mid-century earth, it might be "historical" or a period piece. <S> (I find that unlikely, though, if you're describing the world as "imaginary"). <S> "Historical," I think, does combine with other genres, so it might be a "historical thriller". <S> Hope <S> this is helpful :) <A> Just because a setting is made up doesn't mean it's fantasy. <S> For example, Ed McBain set his series of police procedurals in the city of "Isola", a thinly-disguised New York. <S> The subject matter of the story itself should determine the determine the genre, especially if the fictional setting can be fixed in general terms ("the American south", "19th century Russia", etc.). <A> I have to disagree with most the other answers here and say that this is not fantasy at all. <S> If the time frame was set in the past it would be considered historical fiction, but given that you say it's contemporary this isn't the case, so it is simply Fiction . <S> You know, the genre that comprises about 50% of the novels at any given book store? <S> Generic maybe but sorry, substituting names is not fantasy. <A> It's "fantasy." <S> Note that genre is mostly useful as a tool for book sellers to know where to shelve your work and for the marketing campaign. <S> For authors, it's not as important. <S> In fact, there are lots of examples which don't really fit into their genre - the books just ended up there because they have to have one. <S> " <S> The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (D. Adams) is a parody or maybe fantasy, not science fiction (since it's not based on hard scientific facts, theories or findings). <S> Yet most people think "space ship == science fiction." <S> More genres: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Literary_genres <A> Low fantasy is a label that's somewhat commonly used for stories set in secondary worlds, where the tone of the story is dark and the worldbuilding leans towards realism. <S> Frequently these stories will involve worlds populated entirely by humans (meaning absence of nonhuman sapients like elves or whatnot), no obviously metaphysical or arcane element (although they may contain astrology, alchemy or other such "historical" magical analogues), and focus on characters from the criminal element, or who are otherwise amoral or morally gray. <S> The bottom line is, the readers of books that self-style as low fantasy will probably find your story satisfying. <S> At least potentially. <S> To give an example of books that might fit the genre you're looking for, maybe try Cynthia Voigt's Jackaroo cycle. <S> That's the only example that pops to mind off-hand. <S> At your own peril, you may find TV Tropes' article on the subject interesting. <A> Dark-fantasy fiction is my guess. <S> You're book is made up, so it's fiction.
| You're story does have some fantasy elements, but is dark as in the way of thriller and horror. If the world is clearly, inherantly imaginary, blatantly contradicting real-world history or metaphysics, and the story relies on these deviations, then that's inescapably fantasy. When trying to pin a story's genre, that's my usual rule of thumb: who would want to read this and what they already read.
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How can multiple viewpoints be used without breaking the flow of the story? I'm currently writing a story in first-person that has a connection to a series of external events - things that the main character has no way of knowing but are vital to the progression of the overall storyline. I've been toying with two ideas. Put a brief third-person snippet at the beginning of each chapter, kind of like a teaser. This short narrative would make sense by the end of the chapter, or several chapters later. Some happen concurrently, some happen in the past but have thematic ties to the current chapter. Benefit: The reader will become familiar with this regular change in viewpoint. Drawback: some of the third-person narratives are longer than a 'snippet' should be. Create separate chapters for each third-person narrative. This alternate point of view would make it clear that the character focus has changed, and would allow me to advance a parallel story. Benefit: The reader will be able to see two complete stories develop in parallel (until they meet near the end) I wouldn't have to provide a third-person chapter on ever other chapter, just as needed. Drawback: some of these third-person chapters are quite short, especially early on when they are more teaser-like than a fully-developed chapter should be. Is it reasonable to create a three-paragraph chapter? One thing I'm not fond of is a combination of the two. I tried this out when I was writing the early chapters, but the result was not what I was looking for. Also, with the change in viewpoint comes a change in perspective as well. The third-person narrative is darker. I don't want the reader to understand the character motivations early on (like I would for the first-person sections). <Q> Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card did something like this, although they weren't quite integral to the plot. <S> The entire story was told from Ender's point of view, but the beginning of each chapter had a radio transmission or other news-type broadcast that was talking about the current events in the rest of the world, outside his secluded space station. <S> But it seems like you actually need to have developed characters and narrative in your brief sections. <S> There's nothing wrong with a short chapter, but if you're going to get more detailed than a quote or two you probably shouldn't stick it at the beginning of another chapter. <S> From the options you're toying with, I like number 2 because it doesn't force you to come up with some kind of snippet every chapter when there really shouldn't be one. <S> I once wrote a novel with a similar forced format to your first option, and it resulted in a lot of fluff and a lot less tension. <S> That's probably a lot because I was a terrible writer at the time, but it is also partially because of the restriction. <A> A real-time description of an event can use something inherent to the event itself that moves on and touches on each involved character: a simplistic example: a rolling wheel from an accident - a character involved in the accident sees the wheel role away; another doing something else needs to dodge the wheel; and so on, with at a later time <S> yet another character encounters the same wheel where it finally came to rest. <A> Have you considered doing away with chapters? <S> See my more recent question about chapters, or rather the lack thereof. <S> That way, you at least don't have to worry about "short chapters" anymore. <A> Take a look at The Martian by Andy Weir. <S> It's told mainly as first-person log entries of the main character, but also with third-person narratives following other people, and even some secondary out-of-band snippets following inanimate objects that become important later (e.g. the manufacturing and shipping process of a part that fails in a big way for the main character later on). <S> I'm currently writing a story in first-person that has a connection to a series of external events - things that the main character has no way of knowing but are vital to the progression of the overall storyline. <S> This short narrative would make sense by the end of the chapter, or several chapters later. <S> Some happen concurrently, some happen in the past but have thematic ties to the current chapter. <S> Honestly I wrote the first part of this answer before reading the question closely, but having read what I quoted above from your question, I think even more so that The Martian might be helpful to you as an example, at least as something to skim. <S> As an aside, it's a great book; I highly recommend it. <S> This thinking about it has me considering adding it to my re-read list (again). <A> Is there a way to frame the first person narrative within the third person narrative? <S> For instance, Person A is in prison. <S> He can write outgoing letters, but not receive them. <S> So the frame story is the third person narrative on the outside, and the first-person narrative is contained within the letters. <S> Or, the whole story is being told, after the fact, by Person A, who now has access to the information he didn't know at the time, and can fill it in as needed. <S> Another strategy is to have events take place that Person A experiences but doesn't understand . <S> This is tricky to pull off, but was done effectively in the novel Room , which features a lot of events understandable to the adult reader, but not to the child narrator. <S> A final thing to consider is whether the reader really needs to know things the POV character doesn't know. <S> It might be a more compelling story if much of what goes on in it is a mystery. <S> Try dropping the 3rd person sections entirely, and then asking yourself, honestly, if you're really missing them. <S> Many of my favorite books ( Dhalgren, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, The Raw Shark Texts , Zelazny's Amber sequence) are filled with mysterious circumstances that the main character understands only at the end --or <S> maybe never really understands. <S> This may feel like a cheat or a betrayal if the reader comes to feel there's no real answer, and the events are just random, but can make for a lot of genuine suspense when there are actual (inaccessible) answers to the questions.
| The idea is to have a flowing description of a situation/event that naturally moves into the different characters experience, giving the opportunity to add their vital bits to the plot. An idea: instead of re-hashing the same scene(s) from different viewpoints, let them feed progressively off each other. Put a brief third-person snippet at the beginning of each chapter, kind of like a teaser.
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Examples for books that don't use (traditional) chapters? I'm a big fan of Terry Pratchett, and he doesn't use chapters (mostly). Are there any other authors who tend to not use traditional chapters or chapters at all in novels? <Q> I read an interesting novel by Lionel Shriver called <S> We Need to Talk About Kevin . <S> This book didn't have any paragraphs at all, it was a series of letters written from the main character to her husband. <S> Although this sort of technique doesn't work for the vast majority of novels, it can be a good way to keep your readers reading. <S> Short blurbs of information (like letters or journal entries or even just short paragraphs) are a good way to make you lose track of time when you're nose deep in a good book. <S> It also makes it easy to stop reading when need be, without the pressure of getting to the end of the chapter in a hurry. <A> Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald consists of a handful of paragraphs, each of 50 or so pages. <S> Many sentences are several pages long. <S> This suits well the fluid and urgent first-person relation of the story. <A> Gilead by Marilynne Robinson does not use chapters. <S> Sections are broken with an additional line or two of whitespace. <S> The entire pace of Gilead is intentionally slow, inviting you in to the mind of an aging, dying man. <S> The lack of chapters helps to keep this slow pace along with the beautiful description. <S> Home by Marilynne Robinson uses the same technique, but in the last case the lack of chapter breaks encourages you to continue moving through the story because of the use of more dramatic tension. <S> It has been variously described as a first person poem in novel form as well as harrowing. <S> The story of a white man's escape from Japan in WWII. <S> The effect of not having chapters on a novel can, as the three books above show, be various. <S> In some cases it will slow the book down. <S> In other cases it will grip the reader and keep them turning the pages. <A> David Gerrold has always shied away from numbering chapters; he just puts in a section break and keeps writing. <S> Of particular note are his books <S> When HARLIE Was One , <S> The Man Who Folded Himself and The Flying Sorcerers , his collaboration with Larry Niven; all of these have no numbered or named chapters, just chunks of text. <A> Another is Alternatives to Sex . <S> It has chapters, but they're not what you'd consider traditional chapters -- much shorter and they broken by the shape and pace of the narrative. <A> Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion has a very interesting use of chapters, some only one paragraph in length. <S> It is laid out with lots of white space. <S> It's a great book, too.
| To the White Sea by James Dickey has no chapters. As long as your prose, plot, and characters fit your reasoning for the unique pacing a book without chapters provides, it can be a great decision.
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How would a source be referenced in the typical paper/book? Let's say I have at my disposal some kind of searchable content with all the references from many books and papers. How would a source reference would be typically written/formatted? Is it dependent of the subject? If yes, how? Some clarification: I want to know what kind of format I should expect so it would make my search for a particular reference easier. <Q> As others have mentioned, various institutions prefer different formats. <S> On a broader scale, a particular style is often favored by specific disciplines or groups. <S> (For example, APA is popular in the social sciences, while CSE is used in the physical sciences.) <S> Modern Language Association (MLA) in-text parenthetical citations <S> Turabian Footnotes American Psychological Association (APA) <S> in-text parenthetical citations <S> (Social Sciences) <S> Chicago Manual of Style (see "author-date" tab) Council of Science Editors <S> (CSE) Manual (Physical Sciences) <S> For more numerous citations, an in-text marker is typically used, which references a bibliography at the end of the work. <S> Chicago Manual of Style American Psychological Association (APA) (Social Sciences) American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) <S> (Legal) <S> Council of Science Editors <S> (CSE) Manual (Physical Sciences) Modern Language Association (MLA) - basic , book , periodical , electronic , other <A> It depends on what you are referencing, and quite importantly, where as well. <S> There are several different systems (APA, MLA...) for quotations and references. <S> If it is a paper you are writing, find out which of these does your university, college, institution etc. <S> recommend or require. <S> If you are writing a book, it can be worth checking whether your publisher uses one specific referencing system or if you can choose one at your own leisure (or create your own). <S> Most of these systems have extensive guidelines (when to use a footnote, as opposed to an end note, how to format these etc.) <S> that can be found online. <A> Depends how many sources we are talking about. <S> The most standard procedure is to have an alphabetical list at the end of the book, possibly organized per chapter with letter tags or number tags for each source. <S> These tags are then placed in the text whenever it is needed to refer to the source material. <S> If you don't have too many source references and it doesn't disrupt the page lay-out too much, you can place the sources in footnotes. <A> Just take a look at any book that cites references in the manner you want to study--that is, just open the book and observe how the author has done it and copy the format. <S> Otherwise, you can purchase a style manual that will give you loads of examples and answer all your questions.
| In general, if there are only a few sources to cite, it's done in footnotes or parenthetical citations.
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What makes first person plural a tricky narrative voice? I absolutely loved Joshua Ferris's debut novel Then We Came to the End . Critics highly praised his use for the first person plural as a narrator. The work is set in an office and the "we" used represents the group of employees. I can think of several ideas that seem like they would be candidates for a first person plural narrator - a group of neighbors, students in a high school class, soldiers in a battle unit, any sort of cohesive group you can think of. What are the pitfalls that I have to look out for when writing in the first person plural? What will jolt the reader out of his or her enjoyment of my story and characters and make him or her focus too much on the narrative voice? What can the first person plural voice not realistically convey? If I were to use the first person plural to write about a group of characters, when should I consider breaking out of it? <Q> A group very rarely feels the same things and thinks the same things. <S> So it's not going to be easy to accurately portray what the characters are thinking and feeling throughout the piece in a way a real person can relate to it. <S> One of the benefits of First Person is the chances to really get into the character's head, see things as they do, and relate to how they're feeling. <S> I don't think you really get that same chance for First Person Plural. <S> Some authors can pull this off, most cannot. <S> It's a very tricky POV <S> and it's very easy to screw up. <A> I haven't read <S> Then We Came to the End , but other successful works that used first-person plural are The Virgin Suicides and "Watch the Animals" by Alice Elliot Dark. <S> What I take away from these stories is that the first-person plural is similar to the first-person peripheral: although the story is told by an "I" (or a "we"), the true subject of the story is an individual outside of the group, and their words and actions are filtered through the narrator. <S> (For examples of first-person peripheral, think of <S> The Great Gatsby or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ). <S> My feeling about first-person plural is that because there's no individual "I" telling the story, it's difficult to write a story about the group as a whole (without relying on generalizations or sweeping declarations, which is often unsatisfying). <S> But if the "we" are focused on an external individual, there is room for real exploration, development, and change. <A> I think Ralph highlighted the biggest challenge of first person plural in particular. <S> In a more general sense, because 99% of the books we read are in "standard" first person or third person singular form, anything else will stand out to the reader. <S> An unusual point of view is similar to a narrator with an accent or strange mode of speech <S> (Everything is Illuminated, Fight Club). <S> It draws the reader's attention to the words, and away from the story. <S> As an author, you now have an additional burden. <S> The narration has to be so seamless that the reader gets used to it quickly and can then be sucked in by the story. <S> Any little oddity in the narration risks bringing them "back out", reminding them of the unusual format. <S> Granted, you always have to work hard to achieve smooth narration, but I would argue that an unusual tense or other affectation puts you at an additional handicap. <A> Most powerfull example of that for me in Quran Narrator change suddenly POV from third person omniscient to first person plural... "we" are focused on an external individual <A> I have seen some excellent non-fiction written in the first person plural. <S> However, right now I can only recall a few. <S> Travel writers <S> Hugh & Colleen Gantzer have been doing this for a long time and with great success. <S> There is one thing I suspect with regard to the first person plural. <S> Do people start thinking in the first person singular somewhat later in life? <S> It's very common for school children to talk in 'we' terms and past their teens, they are mostly about 'I'. <S> Just a curiosity. <S> So, firstly, it is about a suitable genre where the fpp can fit well. <S> And secondly, the age of the readership. <S> Any empirical data relevant to this? <A> Personally, I'd never break out of it, since that would probably jolt the reader the most. <S> Individual thought would have to be avoided, or self-interest, or anything that would separate an individual out of that group. <S> Which could be rather tricky and limiting to the plot. <S> Of course it's harder writing in first-person plural, just as it's hard writing in second-person, but that doesn't mean it should be avoided at all cost. <S> I've read some pretty good stories in second-person (stories that won Nebulas and similar prizes). <S> It's much easier to mess it up though, you really need to know what you are doing. <S> I'd recommend not attempting it before you can do first-person singular well.
| I think it's hard because it's hard for readers to relate with a group of people. The biggest problem is the same as with first-person singular: just as you can't have scenes in which the first-person singular character is not present, you can't have scenes where the whole group, or at least most of it is not present.
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What book review sites allow authors to send a copy of their books for reviews? Since I'm published with smaller publications, getting reviews is often one of the best ways to make sales. But what professional book review sites out there will write a review in exchange for a copy of the book? I don't want ones that'll give you a good review just because you gave them the book, but ones that give honest reviews. <Q> You might not get the publicity you're looking for from these kinds of sites. <S> Many don't have focus or the eyeballs that make giving away your product a good financial decision. <S> Genre sites for genre books, are a good exception to that though. <S> This article spells it out better and has some advice on getting some real reviews in real publications. <A> LibraryThing is a good source for this. <S> They have regular book giveaways where authors can specifically request a review in exchange of the book itself. <S> This will work with a print copy or an e-book. <S> With Goodreads, they only do giveaways with print copies. <S> The consensus seems to be that you can usually expect 1 review for every ten copies you give away (at least with e-books). <S> The ratio may be better with print books, but you are taking a bit more of a risk because you have to pay for shipping (plus the cost of the actual book). <S> With either type of giveaway they (LibraryThing) will give you the e-mail addresses and mailing addresses of the people that ultimately get selected to receive your book. <S> Just make sure you follow up with the recipients with a polite thank-you/reminder for taking the time to read and review your book. <S> If they haven't gotten around to it yet, it may help to encourage them to do so. <S> BTW - With my first book, I gave away 100 e-books and received 15 reviews at LibraryThing, 11 at Smashwords, 8 at Goodreads, and 6 at Amazon. <S> With my second book I gave away 75 e-books and got 12 reviews at LibraryThing, 9 at Smashwords, 8 at Goodreads, and 6 at Amazon. <A> Goodreads.com does that -- even better, you can get attention from as many individuals as you give out copies. <A> I'm not an official journalist or professional reviewer, but I give great feedback and honest reviews. <S> I've recently found out that I can receive a free book in exchange for a review. <S> While I am an average person (new mom, non-celebrity), my professional background and large social network make me a great candidate for something like this. <S> I am a business owner/ marketing professional with previous published articles. <S> I enjoy promoting products through event marketing as well. <S> One of the many services my company provides is web design and SEO, <S> so when I post something on my website (like say a review in my blog), people in that audience will see it. <S> I'm all over Google. <S> If anyone is interested in me reviewing your book, please send me additional information. <S> (Certain genres don't interest me so that wouldn't be fair to you if you fell under that category.)
| I have used LibraryThing with both of my fantasy novels and gotten some reviews as a result.
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How much should I describe things or persons, that are not important for the story? I discussed a book with a friend, and he disliked that the author described a person who is dying shortly after and has no further effect on the story over a page or more. The same would go for things; if I describe a room, should I include things that have no importance for the story? How many of these story-irrelevant descriptions are too much? Would they annoy the reader? And if I completely avoid this, would the story have to less 'flesh'? <Q> Your friend is right. <S> However, keep in mind that things can be important for a variety of different reasons. <S> You may want to describe to establish: Setting. <S> This is obvious, and it's what most people think of. <S> Character: <S> Peter's apartment was full of empty pizza boxes crusted with dried cheese. <S> Neither the boxes nor the cheese are important to the story per se, but this detail tells us that Peter is a slob. <S> Mood <S> : Think of the opening chapter of Dracula , where Bram Stoker describes the approach to the Count's castle. <S> Most of the things described are not important in themselves, but they establish the mood of mystery and menace. <S> Theme: <S> In a war story, you might not need to describe the bullet-riddled body your protag finds in the field. <S> On the other hand, doing that might be crucial to illustrating that War Is Hell. <A> Strunk, White, King and the editor on the paper King interned at all agree, the key to successful writing is: Omit Needless Words <S> As a further note Chekhov pointed out that if you place a loaded gun over the mantelpiece and nobody fires it before the end of the story it shouldn't ever even have been there. <S> He was talking about plays but the principle is valid in all storytelling. <A> should I include things that have no importance for the story? <S> Everything you include in your text is by definition part of the story and will affect the reading of every other part: Every part is automatically important whether you want it to be or not. <S> The factors to take into account when considering whether to include something are: is it interesting? <S> is it relevant/consistent? <S> Consider two extreme cases: <S> An unrelated character who is about to die is described at length. <S> The reader's mind may now be seeded with thoughts of death, mortality, futility, tranquility, etc. <S> (depending on the nature of the description) while they read the next part of the text, and their interpretation of it will be coloured by these themes. <S> A book that consists of a slim plot, riddled with tangential and meandering asides. <S> This has the effect of exposing the reader to a vast field of disparate subjects. <S> They are free to draw their own connections between topics and become very active in their interpretation of the text. <S> They will judge the action of the main plot within the context of the wider world. <S> In fact, the plot can even be so slim as to appear non-existent: The best example I can give of this is the film Koyaanisqatsi, but The Instruction Manual by Julio Cortázar and Life A User's Manual by Georges Perec are good examples in literature. <S> You may not even have to try to make the deviations relevant to each other: the human mind will find stories in the most minimal stimulus, as shown by the experiments of Lev Kuleshev . <S> These illustrate that relevance is a complex and sometimes unintuitive issue. <S> Further, relevance trumps interestingness. <S> Consider The Princess Bride by William Goldman, ostensibly a rewriting of another book in which "tedious" parts of <S> the "original" text form a sub-plot about its author. <A> Most of these things are relevent to the plot and some of them are relevent to the character. <S> Dean Koontz on the other hand, has a tendency to describe things about characters that you either dont care about or are way too unnesissary, try reading the last Brother Odd book or By The Light of the Moon and really observe the way he discribes his characters, thier actions, thier history etc <A> Personal opinion; description is meant to place the reader in the same room with the character. <S> They -- the reader -- need to be able to see, hear, smell, feel the same things as the character. <S> If the character enters a new location the reader needs to be aware of their surroundings as well.
| Don't describe things that aren't important for the story. Think, Stephen King vs Dean Koontz; Stephen King is big on describing things in deep detail in all his stories.
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Do multimedia-objects work well in electronical publishings of fictional writing? Electronical publishings could include multimedia, like videos or music/soundsnippets. How well does that go together with fictional writing? Could that add something to the atmosphere? Or would it distract the reader too much and should be avoided? <Q> Your goal as an author is to absorb the author into your world and make them forget about anything going on around them. <S> If a reader has to stop reading to watch your video or listen to a sound snippet, you're not accomplishing that goal. <S> Instead, you'll annoy your reader and they won't want to finish reading your book or read any more. <S> Electronic publication is also still new and with a lot of glitches still. <S> If you throw in multimedia, you're just asking for more trouble. <A> "Multimedia" can include illustrations, which have been used to accompany text for centuries. <S> In that sense, using multimedia for fiction is well-established. <S> Using music or video to accompany a story is a very interesting idea, and personally I'd encourage you to experiment, as it could be extremely effective. <S> At the same time, doing this sort of experiment severely limits the ways in which you can present your story, as you need online storage, and a place where people can access your story and its accompanying materials. <A> The question is if you are going to write a book (intended to be read as a book on some book-style device, eg. <S> e-book reader or tablet), or a transmedia story for the internet. <S> In first case it would be better to limit multimedia to minimum (make them rather illustrations than content itself). <S> On the other hand if you are writing for readers who are in a mood for browsing internet, switching tabs etc., rather than to read your work from beginning to the end without distractions, it would be better to split the book into smaller parts (lexias) to be read on its own, which could be multimedia but do not require one attention span for both paragraph text and videos or audios. <S> This way the model reader reads one or two lexias, leaves for distractors (Facebook, other websites, lol-cats etc.), and then returns to reads next one, and the distractions should not degrade the reading process. <S> I suggest two main factors to be taken in account when writing such texts: <S> Read should be able to pause reading. <S> Pausing videos is obvious. <S> On the other hand paragraph text (with long paragraphs) does not allow user/reader to pause it. <S> When (s)he loses focus the place where (s)he stopped reading is lost. <S> To solve it I split my works into smaller parts (one screen) to be read at once, and instead of writing scrollable block of text I add hyperlinks or buttons (Next/Back or intertextual links depending on layout of website I designed for publishing the story). <S> It is step toward hyperfiction but it does not stop you from making the story itself still linear. <S> Distractions should not break text comprehension. <S> Parts requiring reading them at once should be one lexia (one screen, one part, whatchamacallit), and if part bigger than several paragraphs / one screen requires to be read at once to remain comprehensible, it should be rewritten to allow distractions. <S> For above reasons in my (hyper)texts lexias containing multimedia do not contain more than one (or two short) paragraphs of text.
| Readers also get frustrated if things don't work properly, so insert multimedia and having it break, will lose you readers. If it's going to make the reader stop reading, don't do it.
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Should freelance writers keep their online business separate from offline? Freelance writers have a lot of opportunity to write online, but in some cases the rates are less than the same writing project might command offline. Assuming that there are enough advantages in taking online writing gigs to offset the disadvantage of a lower rate, should a freelance writer attempt to keep their online writing business separate from their offline writing business? How far should something like this be taken? Multiple business names? Pseudonyms? Or, is it unnecessary, and a professional writer can just move back and forth between two worlds without much difficulty? Update: In response to some of the answers, I am attempting to make what I am getting at more clear, which unfortunately, makes the question much longer. Generally speaking, freelance writing relationships with local businesses involve a certain amount of overhead that does not exist in a similar online relationship. For example, most of my local clients call on the phone, some require occasional meetings, and a handful require some work to be done on-site. All of these things increase the time to accomplish writing the actual words. Whereas, many online clients communicate via email, assignments can be found/claimed without meetings, and I never have to work on-site. As such, for my business at least, it would not be worthwhile to take on writing a 500 word press release for a local client who wants to meet before the project and after to review it without charging perhaps double what I would charge to write a 500 word press release for an online client who just posts a job on a freelance writing website. If, the local client were to discover that that discrepancy, would they want the lower rate in the future, or worse, be upset at what they were charged in the past? I know that it should not matter and that clients should understand. What I wanted to know is do they understand . The catalyst for asking this question was that I realized that on some online venues there is a way to look at the history in such a way that someone could notice that ArcticLlama Freelance Writing had written a technical white paper for a certain amount (actually for a certain range). If that someone was a new local client doing research before contacting me, would that amount color their perception of what I would/should charge them. For existing clients with whom I have a relationship, this is a non-issue because they would talk with me about it and I could explain. For prospective clients, they might make some assumptions and decide not to work with me without ever saying what the issue was. I left the question more open than that because I had never thought of this before, and I was wondering if other freelancers had come across other factors that I hadn't considered that might arise in this situation. The point of the question is asking if other freelance writers in similar situations had dealt with this issue and, if so, how they had made it work out, or if I was making a mountain out of a molehill. <Q> This question appears to have an implied assumption that there are two types of freelance writing: Print : <S> High profile literary work that's difficult to get (aka “real writing”) <S> Example: writing for the New Yorker Online : low paying and low respect, but work <S> that's easy to do <S> /get Example: <S> blogging for other people for pennies/post <S> If those were the only two options, then yes, it might make sense to keep the two separate—you wouldn't want the low-paying gigs to damage your reputation and keep you from getting the "real writing. <S> " <S> Of course, that's a false dichotomy, which makes the question as-is somewhat meaningless. <A> This is only a problem if you advertise rates, such as $160 per 1000 words for print work but $120 for online work, so that the two sets of rates stand out and demand awkward justification. <S> I recommend instead linking to some society's fee advice page and saying that your rates are in keeping with their recommendations. <S> This has some advantages: there is a lot of looseness in such pages; the rates tend to be slightly highball, making them a good starting point for negotiation; and they have collective credibility. <S> The risk is that price uncertainty will deter clients who you would be happy to have. <S> I use the offer of free editing samples with quotes, which involves some wasted work, but allows me to talk to potential clients about what I offer before they feel they have to make a commitment. <S> I'm not sure how this would work for freelance writing; I think that portfolios are an awkward place to hand a fee structure from, and rub against any assurance of confidentiality you might wish to portray. <S> In general, the whole question of how to communicate your fee structure is hard, and it is worth joining an appropriate professional organisation — <S> be it only a mailing list— and participate in discussions. <S> I think the problems of a freelancer with multiple marketing disorder are worse than these, though. <S> Example fee advice pages: Editorial Freelancers Association British National Union of Journalists <S> Verband der <S> Freien Lektor(inn)en - (German, my reference fee structure for editing work) <S> Freelanceswitch survey <A> A person can easily work for physical print magazines and website publication without any problems. <S> Most magazines and the like want all online submissions, they're easier for them to go through and to work with writers. <S> Email is a lot easier than trying to do business through snail mail or over the phone. <S> Edit <S> Your best bet is to either not put your prices on your webpage or to only give a general amount. <S> If you're going to be doing more work, then you deserve to be paid more. <S> Clients generally understand that. <S> A 500 word opinion or basic research piece is going to cost a lot less than a 500 word research intensive piece. <S> Plus, what you charge is between you and your client. <S> No one else, including other clients or future clients, needs to know what you charged them. <S> There are quite a few reasons you'd charge two different prices - perhaps you know the one client personally and gave him a deal, perhaps you do a lot of work for him <S> so you cut him a deal.
| I don't see why a freelance writer would need an online/offline business. And in today's market, it's extremely hard to work as a freelance writer without an online presence unless you live in a big city - Seattle, New York, Chicago, etc. - where there are a lot of publications based.
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If you get an advance do you ever have to give it back? Do publishers give you an advance as some sort of earnest money for your manuscript? If your work doesn't sell very well do you have to give the advance back to them? Do they ever just buy your work and you get some money plus royalties? thanks. <Q> No. <S> That's the meaning of the word "advance": these are monies that the publisher is willing to give you up-front with the belief that your work will sell enough copies to cover the advance. <S> Keep in mind that the advance is not "free money": it's a portion of the royalties for your book that you receive ahead of time. <S> You won't receive any further royalties for your book until it's sold enough copies that the royalties you would have earned cover the advance. <S> If your book fails to "earn out" the advance (sell enough copies to cover the advance), you can expect to have a hard time getting another contract with that publisher, and possibly with other publishers as well. <A> Maybe . <S> For instance, it might happen if the first half of the book is amazing, but the second half is a complete turkey. <S> Or if the second half never gets submitted at all. <S> Or a million other reasons. <S> But the contract should say what happens, or at least what the publisher is allowed to ask for and when. <A> It really, really depends on your contract . <S> There may be some situations, such as you refuse to edit the book or make requested changes and the publisher cancels the contract. <S> The best idea? <S> Negotiate with your publisher so that the advance (against royalties) is yours. <S> If you're contract isn't clear enough about this, press for it to be made more clear. <A> Generally speaking, if a pubisher gives you an advance against royalties, and then publishes your book, and the book doesn't sell well, you don't have to refund the advance. <S> This is the normal understanding of an "advance" in the world of trade publishing. <S> But read your contract carefully before you sign it. <A> As someone else stated, it depends on your contract. <S> I had a situation where I received an advance for a book proposal, but personal issues and family matters caused me to miss my deadline, and the publisher requested the money back. <S> I hadn't spent any of it and felt it was the right thing to do because I hadn't delivered as promised. <S> (I was aware beforehand that if I wasn't able to finish the book within a certain time range I would have to refund the advance, which is why I still had it!) <S> In general, though, once the publisher has accepted the book and you have delivered, the advance is yours to keep. <S> If the book doesn't sell well enough, then the publisher takes a loss. <S> That's one of the reasons why new writers get smaller advances: they are a bigger risk. <S> By the same token, you don't receive another penny from the publisher until the book makes enough money to pay the advance back to the publisher. <S> Only then do you start collecting royalties.
| If, for some unforeseen reason, the book is cancelled between the time the contract is signed and the publication date, the publisher may request that any paid-out portion of the advance be repaid.
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Will e-books prevent books from going out of print (and rights from reverting)? In the old days, books went out of print shortly after it stopped being profitable for the publisher to print new runs. My understanding is that good contracts had clauses that caused the rights to the book to revert to the author once it had been out of print for a certain length of time. Nowadays, e-books seem to be a standard part of contracts. E-books essentially put all the publisher's costs up-front, and make it very inexpensive to keep the electronic version of a book in print indefinitely. Does this allow publishers to keep books "in print" forever and prevent the rights from reverting to the author, even when the book isn't selling? Is it common for modern contracts to include language that allows the rights to revert if sales drop below a certain threshold? <Q> Definition of terms is always crucial. <S> As Ralph Gallagher says, books go out of print when the contract is ended. <S> That point may be defined differently with different authors and publishers, perhaps 'one print run' or 'when sales drop to <S> less than X dollars per annum' or even ' <S> until there's been no interest for one full year'. <S> I believe an author I know of received a ten-year term in her contract, and when it was up she renegotiated for some other deal with an omnibus edition of several works. <S> I'll have to see if I can dig up the details. <S> This question though is Exhibit A on why you need an agent when dealing with a publisher. <S> An agent will be able to advise you on this and will negotiate an effective ending date of the contract in the age of e-books. <S> A good agent will protect your interests (and your profits) from publishers who will claim (correctly, as it happens) that nothing is out of print and try to hang on to rights forever. <A> Books go out of print when the contract runs up <S> an either the author or the publisher doesn't opt to renew it. <S> Books don't get pulled just because they're not making the sales, but if the books aren't making the sales, the contract most likely won't be renewed. <S> Contracts can last anywhere from 2-7 years or longer, depending on negotiations. <S> When a contract runs out, there are two options. <S> It can either be renewed, or it can end. <S> If it ends, all rights revert back to the author and the publisher has to stop selling all books. <S> They are allowed to sell off any remaining print books, but they're not allowed to print any more. <S> Ebook sales stop immediately. <S> If for some reason an author is unhappy with their publisher and wants their rights back, it is possible to cancel a contract earlier if the publisher is agreeable. <S> But, if the publisher is making money off the books, they're most likely not going to agree unless the author has a lot of pull or they're on very good terms. <S> That means the author is stuck with them until the contract expires. <S> Publishers don't own the rights to books indefinitely. <A> I've never seen an expiration date on a tech book contract. <S> For instance, here are the O'Reilly standard book contract terms : <S> You grant us the exclusive right to print, publish, distribute, and sell copies of the book, and works derived from the book, in printed form and in electronic media such as CD-ROM, and to license others to do so, for the duration of the copyright in the book, in all languages, throughout the world. <S> Your name will appear on the title page of the book as its author, but we'll obtain copyright for the book in our name. <S> And just like you mention above: between ebooks and POD, publishers now say that nothing's ever out of print, so rights never revert. <A> On the contacts that I've signed (granted, they were for short stories in anthologies), rights reverted to me after a specific period of time (one year, five years, etc). <A> The contract says what the contract says. <S> I've had some shown to me that were amazingly bad; all rights in perpetuity, all media. <S> Nowadays, if you die, your heirs can break one of those. <S> A lot of editors will show you a default contract in their favor -- and change terms instantly as soon as they know you caught'em. <S> If you're concerned, write in a reversion clause, but remember with technical books especially the lifetime of a book is relatively short. <S> If it reverts after 5 years, it may not make any difference.
| Most of the contracts I've signed say my rights will revert back to me when the book goes out of print.
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How to sell novel excerpts as short stories Occasionally I've seen novel excerpts published in short story venues. They're usually sections of a recent or forthcoming novel that also hold together as a self-contained story. Alternately, sometimes an author starts with the short story, which is later expanded into a novel and sold. (I believe Ender's Game is one such example). How are these typically handled between the author, the novel publisher, and the short story publisher? Do novel publishers seek out these deals? Do the authors seek them out and then have to "OK" them with the novel publisher? If I sold an excerpt as a short story, how would that complicate trying to sell the whole novel? If I've already sold the novel, how does that complicate selling the excerpt? EDIT for clarification (hopefully): If I sell rights to the short story/chapter/excerpt, then go on to try and sell the whole novel (which contains that same bit), are those short story rights likely to conflict with the whole novel rights that the publisher is going to want? If, for example, I sell First North American Serial Rights for the short story, does that also exercise the same rights for the novel containing it? <Q> Well, in the case of a short story that is expanded into a novel everything works pretty much the same as before. <S> This is simply because you have written a self contained short story and would sell it as such. <S> As for an excerpt... <S> well that depends on the editor and the magazine. <S> I'm pretty sure you can't sell an excerpt with the promise that it will be a full novel soon or that it may come out someday. <S> For an editor, publishing an excerpt with nothing attached to it really isn't a way to attract readers. <S> In that case then this is probably something your publisher or agent would set up, the publisher might even have a deal with a magazine for this sort of thing. <S> That being said, if you want to see an excerpt in print you should check with your agent (if you have one) to see if it's okay, and make sure your contract allows for it as well. <S> If you have an agent they might be able to do all the leg work to get it print without it getting lost in a slush pile. <S> Also, it's possible that running an excerpt might not count a sale, and you might not get much money from it as such. <S> There might also be restrictions in your contract about how you can publish the excerpt. <S> Back when I was an editor, if we had decided to publish an excerpt we would have made a different deal then for a normal story. <S> Note, this is mostly from my view of having both made a few sales and having been a publisher on a small magazine, so take it with a bit more salt then usual. <A> When you sale a book, the publisher usually asks for something like world rights, or north american rights or world-english rights. <S> The right to publish part of a novel before publication in a magazine or journal is called first serial rights (the term applies to any time a story first appears in a periodical, not just excerpts from forthcoming novels, ie -- magazines also buy first serial rights for stand alone short stories). <S> Once you've sold your first serial rights, they're gone. <S> No one else can buy them from you. <S> Should it affect the sale of a novel if the first serial rights to a portion are already gone? <S> Not really. <S> It will depend on the publisher and you should be as clear as possible about the history of the piece. <S> Who sells the rights? <S> If you're under contract with a publisher, it depends. <S> Your contract should specify who can sell which serial rights and when under the heading of subsidiary rights. <S> If the publisher has claimed that right, then it's up to them to sell and collect the proceeds and then split them with you according to the contract. <S> If serial rights aren't mentioned, then they are yours to sell. <S> It'd be nice to at least give the publisher a heads-up, even if they didn't claim the right to sale them themselves because timing can be important. <S> If you can get a magazine to publish an excerpt, you want to maximize the potential exposure so you can turn it into sales of your novel. <A> With the increase in popularity of electronic book readers, there are more and more people choosing to self-publish their short stories as individual works, and then combining them to sell as a complete collection. <S> The most common practice I have seen is to sell short stories at .99 and then combine five or more into a collection to sell at 2.99 or higher, depending on the number of stories. <S> The idea is to use the indiviual stories as loss leaders in order to encourage people to take the plunge for the collection. <S> Using Kindle as an example, you only get 35% royalties for the .99 stories, but you get 70% for anything that sells at 2.99 or up. <S> I personally am in the process of writing three separate suspense novellas of at least 20k words each which I will sell individually at .99, <S> and then I will merge them together to sell as a collection for 2.99. <S> Once I have finished them, I plan to do the same with three contemporary fantasy novellas. <S> I believe a lot of people are willing to buy a small story at 99 cents (look at the popularity of iTunes). <S> If you have multiple titles out there then you'll find that if someone likes one of your stories they will go back and look for more, and conveniently enough, you'll have some waiting for them!
| In this case I would say that you pretty much have to have the book sold before you can even think about getting at excerpt published in a magazine.
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What are the advantages of incorporation for a writer? I have heard of some (rather successful) writers incorporating - that is, creating a corporation of which they are the sole member. What are the potential advantages (or disadvantages) of doing this? As this probably varies a bit by location, I am specifically interested in how this applies in the United States. Also, I know this veers rather close to being a legal question, but I am not asking for legal advice, nor am I asking if I should incorporate. I am merely wondering why people consider this option. Obviously someone seriously considering this would want to consult a lawyer and/or accountant. If people still think this is "too legal", we can talk on meta or chat. <Q> Officially, the reason to incorporate is to protect your personal assets if someone decides to sue you over your writing. <S> If you're incorporated, they would instead have to sue the corporation, and your personal property can't be touched. <S> My own reason for incorporating was to get access to only-somewhat-ridiculously-priced health insurance. <S> Buying health insurance is a pita if you're self-employed. <S> In California, though, corporations (with two or more employees) are what's called “guaranteed issue”—i.e., insurance companies have to offer you a plan. <S> The two employees of the corporation just happen to be my husband & myself, allowing us access to insurance options we couldn't otherwise get. <S> There are also some advantages in terms of non-fiction writing opportunities. <S> Corporations these days are very leery of hiring freelancers who might appear to be employees, and they're more likely to hire you if they can pay a corporation. <S> For an individual who writes fiction and doesn't have serious assets? <S> I'm not sure what advantages there would be, if any. <A> Not sure how much the insurance thing applies outside of California, although that would be an important consideration there. <S> Otherwise, keep in mind that corporations are subject to a different tax structure and are harder to setup than other forms of incorporation including limited liability companies, or LLCs, which offer the same liability protection as a corporation. <S> Also, you will want to have some form of business organization, even if it is just a sole proprietorship, so that you can use a tax ID number for reporting purposes. <S> Otherwise, you have to give out your social security number to everyone you earn more than $400 from. <S> I wrote up a thing about it in more detail on one of my sites a while back. <S> (Hopefully linking via the word "thing" keeps anyone from freaking out about it being some sneaky SEO trick.) <A> It's usually about taxes and protecting your assets. <S> A corporation is a person under the law, so it can be sued and can defend itself and pays it's own taxes. <S> If you set up a corporation, you become an employee of your corporation and it pays you a salary. <S> It also pays the gov't a share of your employment taxes. <S> One way to get the benefit of asset protection, without the hassles of paperwork requirements that come with corporations, is to form an LLC, or limited liability company. <S> The IRS will, also, at your request, treat the LLC more like a corporation.
| The IRS will, if you tell it to, treat your LLC as a "disregarded entity" -- which means you are taxed as though you're a sole proprietor, report your business income and expense on schedule C but still get the legal protections that come with having an LLC.
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How do you meet a writing quota? As a parent with a full-time job, I usually have a limited amount of time to write each day. What are some tricks I can try to reach a specific word count in a specific time (e.g. 500 words in an hour). I know I've seen some things like this posted on NaNoWriMo forums, but it seems like those folks tend to offer ideas that increase word count at the expense of quality, like writing out your character's grocery list or having characters mishear one another, requiring them to repeat themselves. <Q> While I don't think those NanoWriMo tricks are good -- just trying to increase word counts <S> -- I think there is something you can take away from NaNoWriMo: just write. <S> Don't stop to edit yourself. <S> Sit down with a kitchen timer, or the timer on your iPhone and set it for say, 20 minutes. <S> Start writing and don't stop until that timer dings. <S> Will this first draft be Pulitzer Prize material? <S> Probably not. <S> But good writing comes from rewriting anyway. <S> Getting that first draft down is half of that battle. <A> Your best bet is going to be to try and improve your typing speed. <S> Also, you can try carrying a small notebook and pen with you during the day. <S> Then you can write a bit during small bouts of free time - waiting in line at the grocery store, stuck in traffic, etc. <S> Another way to get more "written" might be to carry a voice recorder or a voice recording app on a smart phone and dictate writing when your hands are busy and transcribe the recordings in your free time. <A> Have you tried tracking your progress? <S> Setting up a spreadsheet that graphs how many words you do each day, shows you averages, etc.? <S> It's an awesome way to motivate yourself, as you see those numbers and totals going up. <A> One of the things I had to do was to start scheduling time to write. <S> It sounds a bit extreme, but it really started to work for me. <S> My problem was figuring when I could realistically make time to write. <S> I ended up getting up an hour earlier each day and using that time. <S> Make a date with yourself, and eventually you'll find that you don't want to miss those dates! <A> Read about it here . <S> It motivates you to keep writing at a steady pace by turning red, playing an obnoxious noise, or even starting to delete your words if you stop writing for a certain amount of time.
| The fast you can type, the more you can write in a short amount of time. If I wasn't able to do that, then I would try to add an hour at night after everyone else went to bed. One of the tools that I have used for NaNoWriMo is Write or Die .
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What are the benefits of being a slush reader? I've heard a few people recommend doing time volunteering as a slush reader (for a small press magazine, say), as the experience can be helpful for your own writing. What benefits do you get out of the experience of being a slushy? Are there any cons (other than that you have to give up some time to do it)? <Q> There are a lot of pros and cons to doing this Pros: <S> You'll be exposed to a lot of bad writing and you'll know what not to do in your own work. <S> You'll have a chance to learn insider tricks about what to do and what not to do during submission. <S> You have a chance to network in the publishing world and find connections that could help down the road. <S> Cons: <S> You'll most likely be working for free. <S> Unless you've got experience in the publishing world, they're most likely not going to hire you to read through their slush pile. <S> You'll be reading a lot of bad writings. <S> Too many writers don't put the necessary work into a manuscript before submitting it. <S> It's going to be long and tiring. <S> You'll most likely have to meet a quota and it can be time consuming to read through manuscripts and queries. <A> The pros- <S> You get a sense, really fast -- of what works and <S> Reading a lot just makes you a better writer in the long run <S> The cons- <S> It can be laborious. <S> It's fun to read a really great submission. <S> It's hell to slog through a 50,000 word piece of trash. <S> You have to be careful about reading when you're also actively writing and developing. <S> Any publisher that accepts on spec should make it clear that the submitter is waiving the right to sue over copyright, but you don't want to get slapped with a suit somewhere down the road because you wrote something similar to something someone once submitted and you read. <A> I don't read slush for anyone, I read self-published stuff and other submissions to locations considered above and beyond the "writer's circle" for fun. <S> What I get out of it is full perspective on the actually unspectacular nature of what someone might call "their killer idea". <S> I should point out I read a lot of SF/Fantasy/Horror and thrillers. <S> In these books you want what Stewie from Family Guy once called a "compelling protagonist" and you also want some kind of hook idea which the protagonist encounters. <S> A large number of authors have a serviceable hook idea but <S> the wisdom and perception of the human condition one might expect from a breeze block. <S> This has served to remind me since then that I'm not ready for even the small time until people like the people I write no matter how great my pontificating gets.
| You'll be exposed to some good writing as well and know what you should do in your work. what doesn't You see all the stupid mistakes writers make when they submit and get a pretty clear idea of what not to do
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What tools do you use for your writing journal? I usually keep a notepad and pen with me at all times. So, if I'm out thinking about a story and a scene or a bit of dialogue comes to mind, I write it down for recall later. I also keep a list of things that need to be added or changed in the story in other places. Say, I'm working on chapter five -- writing or rewriting -- and I realize that what's happening there requires a change in chapter one, I write down the change in a list in my notebook to make later. Lately, though, I've been using Evernote as sort of a digital journal for my writing. There are iPad and iPhone versions, too. I'm kind of torn, because I love having the handwritten notes to look at later. So, my question, is do you keep a writing journal to help organize thoughts and ideas and -- what do you use? A Word file, a paper notebook or something like Evernote? Are there any apps out there specifically for writers? <Q> Applications: I cannot say enough good things about Scrivener , from Literature & Latte (for Mac). <S> It's not a word-processing program, it's a writing program. <S> You can organize notes, drag "notecards" and folders around, block out the rest of your screen, paste in photos and movie clips, and use a virtual corkboard to rearrange thoughts. <S> It was THE main tool which got me unblocked and writing again, because it just made the entire process so easy. <S> Paper: I love the old-fashioned black-and-white-marbled bound notebooks. <A> You know, the cheaper than dirt, back to school sale, 10 for a dollar kind. <S> I love that I can use one per project or destroy them with a latte and not feel bad about it. <S> I end up importing images of the pages into OneNote if I want to keep what I've written. <S> I have the free 20GB skydrive account that MS offers and my OneNote notebooks are all in that. <S> The web based OneNote works pretty well on my phone and any computer I've tried too. <S> It's not amazing, but it works. <S> Lately I have actually been using a wordpress blog that I have set to private. <S> By setting up one category per project I get a lot of space out of it. <S> I can upload sketches or ideas I've written down. <S> I can access it from anything with a net connection. <S> Tags have been amazingly useful for lateral organization. <S> The biggest thing that has made this so nice for me is the ability to search through mountains of information amazingly quickly. <S> The fact that it comes with a built in versioning system with a compare feature makes it pretty nice too. <A> As FoxCutter has said elsewhere , for many of us <S> Moleskine is hard to beat. <S> You can pick a size that works for you to carry anywhere, ranging from just smaller than an iPad to one that fits in a pocket and clutch. <S> The fact that it is a notebook lets you keep everything in one place. <S> The fact that you can get it in a "to-go" size means you can have it with you whenever an idea strikes. <S> And personally I find that I seem to think better with a pen on paper than in any other medium. <S> It's just a personal quirk. <S> If you work better with a screen and typing, this won't work so well for you. <A> I've been using Springpad as an alternative to Evernote lately. <S> I also use a simple to do list program on my Mac called Things that lets me organize the todos into projects. <S> Works really well for keeping lists of edits that need to be made on any given writing project, especially long ones. <A> For my writing journal I use a regular notebook that I write in when I'm away from my computer or when I'm just tired of typing. <S> I take it if I'm going on a trip or to school or to a friends house so I can always write in it. <S> For actually writing the story I use either MS Word or Scrivener depending on my mood. <S> Shorter pieces I tend to use Word because I don't need most of the Scrivener functions. <S> But if I'm writing a novel or something with a lot of planning or research <S> I'll use Scrivener. <S> For notes I use MS OneNote. <S> I use it to write down plot idea for later, character/setting sketches, deadlines, etc. <S> I also use it for writing down notes for things I need to remember - books <S> I wanna check out, movies I wanna watch, <S> songs I liked, etc. <S> It's also what I use for taking notes in my classes. <S> I have an HP Tablet PC <S> so I can write or type my notes in it <S> and it works for everything from English and History to Math and Sciences. <S> For editing I use MS Word. <S> I haven't found anything that's as clean and straight forward as Word for editing. <S> Also, when I'm editing for work and not my own manuscripts, it has Track Changes features and allows for comments. <S> Each user's edits and comments also come up as different colors to make it easier to differentiate. <A> I use a combination of tools to not only accomplish this, but also to do periodic updates on any work in progress I might have. <S> I store my primary versions of my files in a Dropbox folder, and then I use the DocsToGo app on my iPhone or iPad to access the documents. <S> I don't have all the formatting tools I might need, but the primary goal is to update the content. <S> I can always finalize the formatting later on my desktop PC.
| I collect ideas on paper and often do my first drafts there. I love using OneNote for a quick cache of ideas. I personally love spiral notebooks when I'm out and about.
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