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Writing your own novel?

Have you ever tried writing a novel  

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You have a character named Garrett, too? That's neat. Garrett is the name of one of my major characters in the novel I've been writing with my two friends.

 

We've been writing this story together for more than six months, but it seems to be slowing down. One of my friends has started getting really lazy, and it's hard to get her to reply to something when her characters aren't in the spotlight. It's very frustrating. We've got most of the entire plot established, but now we need to flesh out the bits in between and fill in the gaps we left.

xd.png never knew Garret was a fav. chose for main characters. LOL

 

if its slowing down and you close to half way done with it try throwing in a minor character to see if you can get it going again, even if its for a page or two worth of writing. or place a few random actions in a hat and drawing one, though drawing one only half way helps me.

 

hopefully you guys can get it figured out with the bits and pieces, though's always seem easy at first though they become a pain over time.

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I usually write a large scheme about everything. Characters, plot, the world, etc. It can take somewhere between 80 and 100 pages.

 

Then I write EVERYTHING down.

 

Once that is done, I start taking things out, leaving only the things I want to show. This usually means a good 100 pages of pointless, useless info that can be easily told in a couple of sentences, as well as some essential info that I don't want to reveal too soon to keep the mystery factor.

 

Then comes the polishing and tweaking. Mostly style and gramma, and maybe taking off a paragraph here and there that's mostly filler with no essence.

 

That's how I usually works, which means a good year and half to 2 years of work.

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So many writers! smile.gif I finished my first novel (well, to be honest, draft 1) nicknamed "The Monstrosity" (375 pgs is a tad long...) last April and have finally started working on another. Did NaNo the past 3 years and can't wait for NaNo '12!

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I have tried so man times to get a novel done~ I have one on a fan fiction site.

 

I'm currently working on one that I can't seem to get down on paper. It's taking forever and every day I have another idea for another story pop in my head. ._.

 

But I love writing <3

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I finished a first draft of my novel... but it isn't very long and its a total mess so I'm trying to fix that up. The length is just under the length for the first Harry Potter book, but I'm aming for something about 150,000 words.

 

People! Keep in mind that pages and chapters are not what matters... its the word count. A novella is usually about 40,000 words while a adult novel can begina at about 70,000 words. The highest word count in a book is about 2,100,000, Artamène by Madeleine and Georges de Scudéry.

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I was writing a novel, it got to 94 pages and then I decided the plot was weak. Now all I wrote is short stories unsure.gif

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I write glacially. >>''' 4 years, 3 verses and only about 30k written all told. -headdesk- I get random scenes in mind that I just get out but this can happen only once every few months xd.png Some documents can literally be not updated for a year. So what I have are mostly just a collection of scenes and rarely do they even have links to one another |D I have been writing more of late though! In re-editing my old scenes to fit my current writing standards, I actually ended up writing much more as I got caught up in the flow again x3

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I was writing a novel based on a dream I had.. Until It got too fast-paced and I had to start again. dry.gif

 

Now I'm planning on writing a fan fiction.. I'm still brainstorming by drawing characters and coming up with who and what they are and what they do.. tongue.gif

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i'm working on eight books right now four of them are part of a single series funny thing is i've been working on those four for eight years i have all the characters planned out i know how i want the story to go but i can't get past the first twenty pages before i end up changing something xd.png .

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I'm trying to get my book published and... this is crazy!

 

First I need to register it in intellectual property. I'll call tomorrow and ask what steps I have to take.

 

Then I need to get an agent, because I've read from published authors that this is the easiest way to do it, as most editorials will simply reject it due to the flood of manuscripts they have to read. They won't bother with a newby.

I've been looking at some lists of agents, but most don't have web pages and the ones that do, either are agencies with way too high standards, or the page has vanished and they never bothered to replace it. How should I know which agent is the "good one" that'll know how to sell my work?

 

There is the option of "self publishing", but I would like that to be my very, very last. I found a good page, which is highly renowned in my country, as they get publicity in the most important newspapers and such, but distribution and publicity of the book falls in the hands of the author. I'm not a good sales person, I'm just a driver, how will I know how to sell my books?

Not to mention, only 4 of their books reached 8000 sales. 8000? That's a ridiculous number! Most of their books have scarcely surpassed 500 sales, which is pretty heartbreaking.

 

I'm so lost. I really don't know where to start. And I look at my manuscripts and find them so... wrong. I'm not sure people are going to like them, or buy them, or anything. I feel a little depressed right now.

 

I only want to publish. I don't care if I don't see a penny. I just want people to read me.

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I only want to publish. I don't care if I don't see a penny. I just want people to read me.

There are writing communities everywhere in the internet, maybe you would like to show your manuscript to these people first, posting bits of it and look how they think about it (the only hard thing about this is to find a forum with decent people ... I found one, but it's German)? Or you could publish it as e-document (but do not ask me how to do this ^^ I just knew someone who did it ...).

 

I am myself writing novels, mostly fantasy. The current one got around 80 pages and is not yet finished wink.gif But it is not my aim to publish, it is just a hobby or ... passion.

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I'm currently writing two stories which I hope will both be published someday.

 

One is a vampire story set in a future dystopian society after World War III.

 

The other is a more realistic story. It's about the relationship between two teenage girls living in a big, modern city.

 

My biggest problem with writing is actually writing good beginnings. I can come up with good endings and I enjoy writing the middle parts, but the beginnings are surprisingly hard. tongue.gif

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i'm not very good at keeping up with novels. i've tried so many times, but i'm really lazy and lose motivation quickly. sad.gif any tips to keep me going?

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I did Nano for the first time last year and wrote about 35,000 words, but never managed to edit it, and have lots of ideas

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My biggest problem with writing is actually writing good beginnings. I can come up with good endings and I enjoy writing the middle parts, but the beginnings are surprisingly hard. tongue.gif

Ditto. It's so annoying!

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I've done NaNoWriMo a few times and YEESH do those poor novels need editing. tongue.gif

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I have been wanting to write a novel. I mean the story would make a great novel but due to simularities to animes and a few video games I wouldn't be able to write it. I do write a lot of fanfictions the only ones that I can think of that ihave a good storie would be my hellsinh one and my vincent valentine one.

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I've tried writing so many times...but I'm only good at coming up with ideas, not any of the stuff that fills a story and makes it awesome. I've never managed to get past a chapter or two before throwing in the towel. Usually because I've come up with better ideas and lost interest or because I loose motivation.

But I have an idea now that I'd honestly like to try and write for real. I'm going to try and get my cousin to help keep me writing, because I think it would make a really cool story.

For the most part, though, I stick to poetry.

Edited by ranbow129

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I am working on a full blown novel, and currently working on plot and characters. It will be heavily illustrated with my pictures, and basically follows the story of a war between a very powerful dragon and his sidekick who have been capturing land, and another army defending their land. A pair of dragon brothers and their guardian are selected to be amongst the finest soldiers to take on the opposing king directly, but they are quickly defeated by his sidekicks. Most are slaughtered, except for the brothers and their guardian, who escape. That is the story so far, subject to change.

Edited by rampaging wyvern

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I've attempted several novels, never finished one. I think my issue is that I come up with an idea, love it, plan it and when I write it I suddenly feel as though my idea has fallen flat and it's lacking. This is fairly consistent, so it's why I edit other people's stories now instead xd.png I don't fall flat on my face for that!

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When I was about sixteen I started writing one that featured dragons as characters. I got about 90 pages (in Word, I mean) into it, then scrapped it. So many things I had come up with and felt so clever about ended up showing up in other works - like Eragon and the Spyro games. The plot itself was kind of like Eragon, as well. The villain's name, turned out that it's a last name in the area (though not one I'd heard before, I didn't even spell it the same way or anything). And now the worst/most hilarious name in hindsight - my main character's name was Celestia. Then My Little Pony Friendship is Magic came out....

 

I'd really like to try writing another one sometime; I know I could write one well if I just had the right idea. The idea would need to be a really fresh one though, and I would need to have enough depth for my fictional world.

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I'm trying to get my book published and... this is crazy!

 

First I need to register it in intellectual property. I'll call tomorrow and ask what steps I have to take.

 

Then I need to get an agent, because I've read from published authors that this is the easiest way to do it, as most editorials will simply reject it due to the flood of manuscripts they have to read. They won't bother with a newby.

I've been looking at some lists of agents, but most don't have web pages and the ones that do, either are agencies with way too high standards, or the page has vanished and they never bothered to replace it. How should I know which agent is the "good one" that'll know how to sell my work?

 

There is the option of "self publishing", but I would like that to be my very, very last. I found a good page, which is highly renowned in my country, as they get publicity in the most important newspapers and such, but distribution and publicity of the book falls in the hands of the author. I'm not a good sales person, I'm just a driver, how will I know how to sell my books?

Not to mention, only 4 of their books reached 8000 sales. 8000? That's a ridiculous number! Most of their books have scarcely surpassed 500 sales, which is pretty heartbreaking.

 

I'm so lost. I really don't know where to start. And I look at my manuscripts and find them so... wrong. I'm not sure people are going to like them, or buy them, or anything. I feel a little depressed right now.

 

I only want to publish. I don't care if I don't see a penny. I just want people to read me.

Yep, I've heard trying to get published is a nightmare these days. It's even harder to reach the bestseller list, but if you're dream is to be published, than I say go for it no matter what others say or how many rejections you get! Most of the best writers are the ones that had to go through the most trouble just to get their books in print. Some died long before their books were ever published. Btw, the saying, "we can be our own worst critics" is true.xd.png

Writers have a tough life, it's not easy to write and edit and polish a manuscript for years only to have it rejected over and over and over again. Aside from the fact that writing just doesn't bring in a whole lot of money. sad.gif I guess people just have to write because they love it, not to get rich and famous.

That being said, I'm attempting to write a novel, though I can't seem to ever get past the first few pages (too much of a perfectionist ). I don't know what genre it is, though I'm thinking maybe historical fantasy? It's set in the dark ages in a fictional land with a culture similar to medieval England. However, I don't have any magic or fantastical creatures in it, so I don't know...

Edited by Zephyrgirl

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