All right, it’s time to put out some more important writing advice. Over the years, I’ve made a series of tips (which I then promptly forgot about), critiqued various works of literature, cinema, & video games, created software to make better writing easier, and I frequently beta read at FanFiction.net and Critters. I’ve been published a few times, and I’m working on my second meant-to-be-published novel, which means I’ve got some experience. And I’ve figured out the best thing I can tell you people. Don’t listen to me. Seriously, if you’re looking for tips about the industry, about anything really, don’t listen to me. I’m not a published author, in…
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Another Crying Writer
Waah, waah What’s that sound? Waah, waah Why, it’s the sound of another writer that can’t take criticism. The vast majority of writers, ones who are serious about their craft never say boo anytime they receive a critique, no matter what sort of language is used. If every sentence comes with “I feel” or “Most sources say that you should…” it doesn’t matter. If they’re smart, and they are, they know not to look for how it’s phrased, but what was phrased. That’s why I do at least. I’m looking for the things that more than one persons says. But there are those trolls out there who believe that their…
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RFDR Killed
Well, I did something I never thought I’d do. It took some thought, because it would probably make me come off as an asshole, but there really was no way around it. I prematurely stopped an RFDR of someone. The simple fact was that there was too much wrong with the manuscript. The narrative meandered all over the prairie. It threw character after character after character after character at you. And I never understood who the protagonist was, what her goal was, what was at stake, what she needed to do to accomplish her goal, or who was trying to stop her. Those are fundamental problems that have to be…
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Critters: A Glimpse of What Editors Go Through
Since I read so many books last quarter, I decided to pick a novel to critique on Critters. These usually take longer to read than a normal novel, but A) you improve your own writing by seeing what others do and B) it’s fun to cut other people down help others. But I thought the experience was interesting because I got a glimpse of what editors see. There were ten novels on the Critters queue at the time I was looking. They were all crappy (as first novels should be) so I needed some criteria on which to judge them. First, which ones were actually smart enough to click the…
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Some Updates – Including an insulting critiquer
Well, time for some updates. Working on Black Hole Son 3rd and final draft. I think it’s really improving at this point. Everything feels tighter and faster. I just hope it’s not too fast. I’ve already managed to kill 5,000 words. If I can kill 15,000 more, I’ll be under 120,000, which is my goal. So far, I’m on page 20 or so. I’m just trying to make it as publishable as I can, while still keeping as close to my story as possible. Kaiju Story is up on Critters. Totally forgot about it. When I started getting emails, I was like “What? I have a story? Which one is…
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Beginning of the Year Update
Well, let’s give a little update on where we’re at, here at the start of the new year. I’m on the home stretch on revising Black Hole Son – about 40-30 pages to go. I’m in the exciting climax, which is fun to write. I was making fair progress on eliminating words, until I felt like Character B’s stand-off scene needed something more to it. Otherwise it was over too quick, and the impact would be lost. It’s now ambiguous whether I’m going to get below 140,000 words. C’est la vie. After I’m done, I plan to alternate days between working on my short stories and walking. The holidays were…
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Healing Mage is On Critters
Healing Mage (White Mage Story) is up on Critters. I didn’t even realize it. I was like, that was fast. I’m not ready. I just had my last story critiqued just a few weeks ago. I’m still emotionally fragile, and I’m not even 1/3 through Black Hole Son. I was hoping to be done with BHS by the time my short stories were ready for revising. Fortunately, it seems to have garnered a very positive response so far, just from glancing at the e-mails. One person said they “absolutely loved it”, which makes me think this is still a good candidate for publication. And maybe a novel afterwards.
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Mr. Wheaton and Mr. Critters
One thing I forgot to mention last time is the Ficlets experience I had last week. I logged in one night and found that the mighty Wil Wheaton had the featured story, his first one. Naturally, I couldn’t miss this opportunity to pay homage to one of my favorite bloggers and all-around good guy. So I wrote a prequel, wondering if he would see it, and scared that he would.The next day, I idly checked back, and found about nine comments, one of this was this: How awesome is this?! Wow, praise from Caesar. Actual communication with a celebrity writer, albeit with many layers of separation. I know he commented…
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So Much For Civility
The new results are in – 100% of dicks are dicks. And that’s counting the hanging chads. The one guy who actually apologized rescinded once he found all the new stuff on my blog to criticize and use as evidence to tell me I’m a bad person who eats gruel and sauerkraut juice. What is it with people needling and needling, trying to provoke a reaction. Does he think he’s actually going to change me? Does he think I’m going to lose my cool and get all flustered. What’s he trying to prove? What does he hope to accomplish? He’s not going to kick me off. If he even tries…
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Apology Accepted
Well the guy who wrote me the 4,000 scathing critique did apologize. It was very considerate, and I admitted some errors on my end, because that’s what you do when you’re being friendly. Hack number two is still e-mailing me, despite saying its a waste of his time, and that I should stop bugging him. I fully expect our flame war to stretch into months. Idiot number three hasn’t said a word. No problem with that. So 1/3 of snarky authors are respectful, and know when they’ve made a mistake. 1/3 cut and run. And 1/3 have egos so huge they can’t let anyone even think of indicating that they…
