Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

I need to start a spread sheet of where I keep submission dates. As it turns out I DO NOT have to turn in my ghost story by tuesday. No, I have to the 31st. I could even try to find a beta for it. Ah...

And I was thinking about the gothic romance open call, was going to ask for location suggestions until the story half formed in my head (down to the first not really romantic 'romantic' dinner at Hillbilly HotDog) so let me move on to the planned talk. Prequels.

Let me ask you, how do YOU feel about prequels? How do you generate tension in them? I ask because I look at Netgalley and Goodreads a lot for book review giveaways and more and more I'm seeing prequels to series (often ones I've not read so...) and I just finished watching the last of the Endeavour series which is a prequel to Inspector Morse.

And while I enjoyed it that was a problem for me over the years with that series. Oh look, Young!Morse is in interrogation for a crime he didn't commit. Oh look, Young!Morse might be killed. And they have zero tension because I know that he doesn't die and doesn't go to jail and that he is in fact a detective in oxford. So I was left thinking, why bother? Is this for the people who don't know it's a prequel?

So that leads me to wonder what kind of conflict would be effective then in a prequel? Knowing the main character has to live does present a problem. I suppose we can kill off lovers/friends/clients whatever. I've never really wanted to write a prequel (probably because my fool self can't finish a series) but it was something worth thinking about


OPEN CALLS



Screams From The Ocean Floor

Rattus Futura: An Anthology of Future Rodents Theme: stories about the future which feature rodents


The Crow’s Quill October 2023 Issue Theme: Historical Horror


Uncanny & Unearthly Tales (Vol 2) – The Midnight Labyrinth Theme: A tale delivered from a character who stepped through a door and found themselves someplace unexpected


Y’all Ain’t Right Theme: A reckoning of southern extreme horror


Haven Speculative 2023 Limited Submissions Call #5


Sam Asher, and The Cosmic Background A New Pro-Pay Home for Strange Flash


Nightmare Diaries I need to send to this one!


The First Line – Winter 2023 I found this one to be encouraging in the past.

Monarch Educational Services: Now Accepting Manuscript Queries


The Colored Lens: Now Seeking Speculative Fiction Submissions


Opportunities for Historically Underrepresented Writers this August

U30 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for August 2023 This has PLENTY of good ones


From Around the Web

It’s Time to Stop Reading and Start Writing


FORGIVE THE WRITERS, FOR WE ARE SO TIRED


How to Write a Prologue That Draws Readers In


Do I Need a Book Publicist?


Tips For Writing Interesting Chapter Titles



From Betty

Five Problems Caused by Tone Mishaps and How to Fix Them


Five Mistakes That Reverse Social Justice Messages


Being Hacked Made Me Realize the Importance of Newsletters


Just. Write. The Thing.

Words of Wisdom for the Muddle in the Middle


Writers, have you fired “Chekhov’s Gun”? (I'm being bad about this in my 80s era monster hunter thing. Geez)


The Secret to Writing Your First Book Faster


Powering Through the Un-Fun Parts of the Job I wish I could get someone to do my un-fun parts like the edits


Character Type and Trope Thesaurus: Mad Scientist

Iconic Characters: Made Not Born

Follow the Energy of Denial

Don’t over-explain default objects and gestures

Comments

[goddess47]

I have a spreadsheet with *all* my deadlines... Big, little, it all goes on the spreadsheet... I'm only doing fan fiction but I have a handful of regular prompt things Iike to do, as well as fests I sign up for. So it all goes on the sheet... mostly the name of the fest, the fandom, the due date and, only sometimes, more info. Although I've taken to adding the prompt for single-word prompts, rather than having to hunt around... and sometimes it gives me an idea or pushes me to work on something when I see a deadline coming up.

The spreadsheet is a to-do list and I give myself permission to write 'pass' on things I think I want to do at some point and then reality comes crashing down... or I highlight a row with vacation time where I know writing time will be at a premium, so I don't sign up for anything that have deadlines during that time...

Everyone is different but works well for me.

[cornerofmadness]

It sounds like a good idea what you've got going on. I have never been that organized in my hobbies (I think as a side effect of how very organized my professional life must be) But since this is technically a second job I need to get myself right because I muff up deadlines all the damn time.

I know I started a spreadsheet earlier in the year and then who knows what happened. Maybe I need to just put the table in my submission file and keep them in one place just on different pages.

[sanguinity]

In a prequel, the tension isn't about the what; the tension is about the how. It's no different from a well-executed tragedy (that everyone knows is a tragedy), or romances with their guaranteed Happily Ever Afters, or any of the literary classics that everyone already knows the plot of. Every reader/viewer knows how it's going to come out, but you're still invested in the how of it, what the costs and emotions are along the way, etc.

[cornerofmadness]

that's a very good point, thank you. I wish some of the ones I've read or watched remembered that.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Let me ask you, how do YOU feel about prequels? How do you generate tension in them? <<

My fans generate the tension for me. They ask about things they want to see. Quite commonly they ask for things out of chronological order. That is fine because the consensus spacetime continuum has a feeble grip on me at best, which is worse when I am looking into some other universe to write about it, so I'm lucky if I can get things in order at all. Prequel, no problem. I look at the other stuff I've written so I don't scramble the details, then backtrack from there.

>> So that leads me to wonder what kind of conflict would be effective then in a prequel? <<

Internal conflict. My readers are usually most interested in how a character felt about what happened and/or how they came to the solution of a problem, or sometimes, how they solved the problem when the only part mentioned was that it got solved but not how.

Re: Thoughts

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks for the input. I never thought about the fans dictating anything (I'm trying to think of any author I have ever made a suggestion to unasked and no I don't think I have. Not sure why really).

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I have done writing in many different ways. After trying lots of things, I've discovered that I love crowdfunding. It has high audience interaction, which I enjoy and find useful. It has much faster throughput than conventional publishing. For me, it's more lucrative. It cuts out a lot of middlemen.

I set a theme, my fans tell me what they want, I write the things, I post thumbnail descriptions and prices, then people sponsor what they want to see published. So if they wonder about a particular bit of backstory that's just a line or two in a posted piece, we can go there and explore that. Crowdfunding gives use the power to do that together. We don't have to get anyone else's approval; we can just go do it.

Re: Thoughts

[cornerofmadness]

Yes you are definitely one of the people I know who have done well crowdfunding. Other friends experiences put me off it for a long time but I've been watching you. It's something I'd consider but I have little time for marketing or getting the word out which seems like it would be key in this

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

There are many different ways to do crowdfunding, and different platforms or processes work for different people.

In my case, I didn't do regular marketing. I just reached out to my blog audience and set up the fishbowl project, which was partly inspired by other things I'd seen or done in the past. It wasn't something I built wholly by myself -- many of the best innovations came from my audience. We created it together. It gave us a way to make stuff that the mainstream doesn't really support, and that benefits all of us.

So, do you know people who are interested in the same kinds of things you are? Especially things that aren't very popular in the mainstream, thus can be difficult to find? That makes a good base, and from there you think about what kind of project you'd like to try and which platform might support that.

Re: Thoughts

[cornerofmadness]

It's something I'd have to think about. I'm dealing with the fact friends I've been close to for 30 + years couldn't even be bothered to even take 30 seconds to address me in the group chat. I'm not in a mind set to think about if they'd support my writing (though the past suggests no not really, not even with the people I share interests with because I've tried that)

eta- ignore me, I'm busy feeling very sorry for myself this weekend

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Much depends on the nature of the relationship, the commonality of interests, and the type of content itself. For some reason, my fans on Dreamwidth adore poetry and are only casually interested in my fiction, whereas my fans on AO3 are the opposite.

I also like to watch for people complaining about things they can't find, or that are always done badly, and point to where I've done those. My penchant for writing about less-known orientations means I regularly get readers telling me that they discovered their orientation through my writing.

Re: Thoughts

[cornerofmadness]

That's actually interesting how your patrons on DW vs AO3 differ in their tastes (I do tend toward prose vs poetry myself, that said I have two friends trying to make a go of poetry that I should support more than I have)

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> That's actually interesting how your patrons on DW vs AO3 differ in their tastes <<

I also get a lot of people saying they don't like poetry but do like mine.

>> (I do tend toward prose vs poetry myself, <<

Well, most modern poetry is awful. There's good stuff out there, but it's not easy to find, and most people get told in school that wretched poetry is "good" so they assume they have no taste and quit looking. :/

>> that said I have two friends trying to make a go of poetry that I should support more than I have) <<

Yeah, at least give them verbal encouragement, and word of mouth if they're looking for that. The internet is a good place to share and find poetry, because anyone can post anything they want. But actually finding good stuff can be challenging, so we rely a lot on word of mouth.

Re: Thoughts

[cornerofmadness]

I do try my best to get the word out for my friends. One hasn't let me see theirs. The other, I need to find the link to her stuff (oddly enough she's moving about an hour from my parents so we might actually get to visit now). She has lost her sight and does self pub her poetry. She seems to be doing well with it. Hers I've like. Yours I have as well though I don't always get enough time to read it

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I do try my best to get the word out for my friends. One hasn't let me see theirs. The other, I need to find the link to her stuff (oddly enough she's moving about an hour from my parents so we might actually get to visit now).<<

Good luck with that.

>> She has lost her sight and does self pub her poetry. She seems to be doing well with it. Hers I've like. <<

Cool.

>> Yours I have as well though I don't always get enough time to read it <<

Can't say I blame you, given that people describe mine as "flypaper for eyeballs" and have lost whole weekends down that rabbithole. I do "short forms" as a January theme though.