Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

Well this week's episode of this was interrupted by a storm driven power outage that lasted hours. I ended up sitting on the porch talking to neighbors and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Whee. And I had just saved all my changes for Like Stone just before the power went out, lucky for a change.

All I was going to talk about was how grateful I am to have fanfiction in my life. Right now I'm so stressed I can't really do my original fiction to any degree but since fanfic just needs me to build on what is already there, I can keep myself writing without much effort.

That said I need to find some readers for my YA werewolf/seer story (I have some but more would be nice, it's now 15 years old and I really need to do SOMETHING with it and I need help building momentum).

So have some links

from Betty Writers Beware of the Legal Pitfalls – Copyright Basics Part 3

20 of the Most Instructive Quotes About Writing

Branding 101: Defining Our Brand

Showing Your Scenes through Your Characters’ Senses

Real vs. Fictitious Settings


5 Ways to Hook Your Readers

Fiction Writing Contests Worth Your Time in Summer 2019


RECENT CHANGES & UPDATES IN WRITING STYLE GUIDES

Seven Ways Writers Sabotage Beta Reading I disagree with some of this. I would MUCH rather get chapter by chapter to read than the whole damn document at once but with many things this is a matter of preference

From around the web

My 20-Step Plan to Writing a Book: Part 1 (Steps 1-10)

A Stellar Book Opening… It’s Not About The Weather

It’s Never Too Early To Start Writing

Body Image as Theme

Endings Are Not Stoppings: On Game Of Thrones, And How We Conclude Our Stories (this does have spoilers)


And I keep forgetting to say belated happy birthday to scribesds!

Comments

[thenewbuzwuzz]

"On the off chance that you do have a beta reader who’s qualified to give content recommendations, you run into another problem: they really should be getting paid. Content editing is a profession, and asking someone to do it for free is no different than asking an electrician to fix your house’s wiring pro bono. It’s always possible you could strike up an exchange – maybe you fix their car and they work on your stories – but in most cases you should be paying in dollars. Not only is the right thing to do, but asking people to work for free creates resentment, and resentful editors do bad work." - from the Seven Ways article.
...Man, I love fandom. (Though I guess fandom qualifies as striking up an infinite series of exchanges, so fair enough.)

[cornerofmadness]

This is why I usually only ask friends and exchange beta for them (which sometimes you have to prod me with a stick to make me remember to do)

[thenewbuzwuzz]

I admit I'm super happy that I've managed to secure a good mutual beta arrangement. <333 The reciprocity is reassuring. But I actually meant that I think it's different and more okay to ask for favors in fandom, where everyone is giving everyone all kinds of stuff for free all the time, compared to the professional publishing sitch that I assume the article is about. As long as the culture of giving people nice things just because we can thrives, it doesn't always have to be giving back the same kind of thing to the same people? I'm thinking of that Tisha Turk article I ran into the other week,

"While fully reciprocal giving does occasionally take place within fandom, the fannish gift economy as a whole more closely resembles what Hyde calls "circular giving": 'when the gift moves in a circle no one ever receives it from the same person he gives it to…When I give to someone from whom I do not receive (and yet I do receive elsewhere), it is as if the gift goes around a corner before it comes back. I have to give blindly…When the gift moves in a circle its motion is beyond the control of the personal ego, and so each bearer must be a part of the group and each donation is an act of social faith' (1979, 16). Fandom's gift economy is not just an accumulation of contiguous reciprocal relationships between individuals but a complex system in which the reciprocation of gifts, and by extension the reward for labor, is distributed across the community rather than concentrated in a single transaction..."

[cornerofmadness]

OMG yes and really that is one of the sweetest parts of fandom and something I've been missing lately.

[enemytosleep]

What does being a reader entail? Just reading and sharing my impressions (not like a thorough edit or that sort of thing)? Things have been hectic here, but I could use an excuse to read something fun for a buddy.

[cornerofmadness]

In this case, actually yes, that's about all I need. I have others doing edits. I'd be interested in big concepts, are the characters interesting, did something contradict an earlier chapter, plot holes etc (one of these days I need to find a way to get Killian to be more Irish which is probably going to entail hiring someone native to Ireland to beta read it for language)

[enemytosleep]

Yeah I could work on that during work weeks. I think you have my email?

[cornerofmadness]

I think so. WOuld you like the whole document or just a few chapters?

And thanks!

Also do you want it as a doc file or pdf?

[enemytosleep]

Whatever's clever I guess? I figure I'll read on my lunch breaks and send big picture notes.

[cornerofmadness]

Okay sounds good thanks again