Lounge

[neongrey]

I can tell you what I do, which is 'lol writing stuff down is for losers let's just memorize everything between me and my sometime-collaborator and extrapolate on the fly'.

It works for me, but, I, uh, can't say I recommend it. It does help steer me away from what I consider to be some of the big cancers on the genre, ie, over-systemetizing and over-world-building (which is not to say really that it's bad to know where you're coming from, but how much of that needs to be detailed in the work..........) but it's not a great means of data storage, lol.

Edited December 16, 2016 by neongrey

[kais]

4 hours ago, Ernei said:

what if I do some silly mistakes, or use formal language awkwardly?

Most people run their queries through a crit group, similar to their actual manuscripts. You could just sub it here one week and get plenty of feedback!

4 hours ago, Ernei said:

Hell, how do I even write a synopsis?

There are a number of guides online, but I'd say only 25% of agents actually request them. It's another thing you could put through the group, too.

4 hours ago, Ernei said:

disqualify me on the spot

Nope! If your story is salable, it doesn't matter where you live!

1 hour ago, TKWade said:

share tools or tips that they use when world building - organizationally.

I do exploratory writing almost exclusively. When I put in something specific, like a name or description of a character, or a type of ship, or some new term, I add it to a Word document under different headings (like 'characters', or 'weapons', or even 'timeline'). Then I always have the reference to look at it. And those reference docs are so important if you're writing a series. The greatest thing I ever did was make a stable, coherent timeline after writing book one. It is a reference for all things now. Also, maps. Making a simple map of your world or galaxy or whatever before you start writing means far less editing to blocking later!

 

[neongrey]

I will say too, that while something like a query letter is a formal business letter and should be written and polished as such, an agent who'll give you poop for sounding ESL is not an agent you want anyway.

[kais]

42 minutes ago, neongrey said:

an agent who'll give you poop for sounding ESL is not an agent you want anyway.

Agree completely!

[Chaos he/him]

Currently accelerating the progress on a new Reading Excuses mod. I have made contact with Silk and we discussed a few matters. She has generally been very sick and very busy.

I hope to have things sorted out soon. My sincerest apologies for my delays.

[TKWade he/him]

@Chaos Thanks! Hope everything is going okay for @Silk!

[kais]

@Chaos thank you so much for your work and for the update!

[neongrey]

So Evernote backed off on their privacy policy change. Still thinking of changing if only because onenote doesn't paywall being able to access previous versions of files.

Been super tied up this week though, hoping to actually make more progress on this week's reading sometime this evening, lol.

[kais]

Updates for those following along on my publishing journey-- copyeditor comments. First round just finished. I found them... thoroughly enjoyable. That might be strange, but with all the 'big things' gone with the help of the main editor, this was more like moving the fridge only to find a few dust bunnies, instead of moving the fridge to find giant spiders wanting to eat your face (the latter being what I thought it might be like). 

So, everyone, fear not the copyeditor!

(I've definitely had giant spiders fall on my face. This is not pleasant.) 

[neongrey]

When's it coming out again, anyway? I've had a few people asking for recs in a vein that AxD falls very neatly into, but I keep running up against forgetting when exactly people can expect the first one.

[Robinski he/him]

On 15/12/2016 at 11:01 PM, Ernei said:

Doesn't being Polish and living in Poland (with no ability to travel to USA without a visa even for vacation, not to mention the costs that are so damnation above a student's pocket) disqualify me on the spot?

Hey Ernei, there's this place called the UK, it's considerably closer than the US and has publishers and agents too. That's not your main point though, I realise, as a lot can be done virtually. I think in terms of queries and synopses, etc. it's about practice and getting advice from your group (that's us!).

[kais]

11 hours ago, neongrey said:

When's it coming out again, anyway?

Book one comes out February 27th (it got pushed back one month due to freak out over the election). Book two comes out August 7th. 

[kais]

@Ernei I believe you call it the beginnings of a world war. The same thing is happening all across the globe. It's happening here in the USA. One of our states, North Carolina, managed to strip another party (the governor, who belongs to another political party) of all their meaningful power because they don't like it that a different party won an election. Fascism is on the rise globally, and in the USA we are also falling into white nationalism (yes, Nazis. Really.). 

It is a very concerning time, but know that you are not alone. Many of us are experiencing the same thing. We have each other, yes?

[neongrey]

3 hours ago, kaisa said:

Book one comes out February 27th (it got pushed back one month due to freak out over the election). Book two comes out August 7th. 

Boo on the delays, but hey, close enough to my birthday for me to count it~

The state of things these days though... geez. Like I am hopelessly cynical at the best of times and these are not the best of times.

[Silk she/her]

Time to sneak in and make some profuse apologies...

So sorry, everyone. As Chaos mentioned up there, I was pretty much out of comission for a while (nothing serious, just a nasty cold that nonetheless completely wiped me out for weeks - I have pretty much only been working and sleeping for the last month and a half). I'm going to spend a few minutes now catching up on requests, and I think I've figured out how to add another admin to the email list in Google Groups so that we can have more than one person with access...

[neongrey]

Boo, hope you get well soon, if you're not yet.

Unrelatedly, here's a good post-- it does have spoilers for Rogue One, if you're planning on seeing that, but it's also nothing you wouldn't know if you know the premise of the film as to how it relates to the rest of the series.

[kais]

@Silk welcome back!!! I have a few new people that PMed me and I've been forwarding them e-mails. I'll PM you now with their e-mails so you can get them added to the list proper.

So glad you are back! I hope you make a full recovery soon!

[Silk she/her]

Thanks, @kaisa and @neongrey! I'm just about back to baseline now, although my voice still gives out on me at odd moments and this cough may never die. (Both of which are a little concerning when one is a semi-pro musician, but I got through last night's show without making an idiot of myself and have nothing else scheduled to February, so at least there's that.) But yes, I should be present on the forums again going forward.

Edited December 18, 2016 by Silk

[Mandamon he/him]

6 hours ago, kaisa said:

One of our states, North Carolina, managed to strip another party (the governor, who belongs to another political party) of all their meaningful power

Ugh. Yeah. I live in NC, and have been trying to figure out what I can to do fight back against this sort of thing. There are a lot of angry people here.

On a happier note, welcome back @Silk and hope you continue recovering!

[Vreeah]

Welcome back, Silk! Glad to see that you're okay.

[TKWade he/him]

This was such a good listen for me that I thought I would share it -
 

 

[neongrey]

In other news, I think I've finally cracked the nut that is the Savae problem. Without dropping them. Yay!

e: the trick here is that Savae's half of the story has long struggled with two big things. a) not actually having a plot, like, at all, and b ) most solutions I have ever been able to come up with have been Profoundly Unsatisfying, treading way too close on things like authorially marginalizing them (which no) or falling prey to one of the viler media trends when dealing with the marginalized, respectability politics. Which I do not much truck with. Finally got something that feels satisfying to me that avoids most of this BS.

Edited December 31, 2016 by neongrey

[Robinski he/him]

On 29/12/2016 at 4:04 PM, TKWade said:

This was such a good listen for me that I thought I would share it

Very interesting, thanks for that.

[Robinski he/him]

So, ahem, since we're into apologies on this page of the thread, I must render mine for being absent for so long. I blame Nanowrimo, but since then I've been working on finishing my Nano (-winning, booyah!) novel and alpha-reading @kaisa's ATD, which I'm really enjoying btw (see how I blamed her for some of my absence then sugar-coated it at the end? Man, I'm good ).

Anyway, I hope to be back in proper action in a week or so, not least in order that I can subject you to 'TMM' ('L' ^100) in about 20 easy-to-digest installments.

Sooo anyway, Happy New Year to everyone. Hope y'all have a great 2017!

Edited March 6, 2017 by Robinski

[Mandamon he/him]

Good to see you back, @Robinski!