Writing, personal work

[nightflameauto]

You got to be careful with that stuff man. Literature has this weird thing because you, the writer, know there is an audience and its OK to play to them a bit, but the character is supposed to act like no-one is watching.

I hear ya. I typically restrict those sorts of things to either him being drunk and goofy, which isn't that often, or little one-offs that he explains to the captain when they're alone together. No more than one or two per "book." It's mostly just who he is, carrying things things with him as a coping mechanism during his hard years. So they don't just disappear once he finds happiness, but they aren't an ever present and persistent thing either.

 

[Bevo]

Some great info from your updates.

‘The erotica your right, like porn, massive money making buisiness that no one uses. Some comments I got from my book was around the sex scenes, pretty funny I thought but now I get it.
I should make my next one in that category lol!

Getting paid for this work is not a goal but I do know some that are doing well. A friend does fantasy at 3-4 books annually. He is making over $100k a year but churns them out, his return readers are the core of his income.

My new one is done just editing, takes forever.

I think some sex stuff may just be a nice distraction. Different kind of body count!

 

[nightflameauto]

Man alive, since I last posted here I've had SO MANY WORDS come spilling out of my keyboard. And have headed back to book 1 to tighten things up and add in some relevant stuff that came up later on.

I'm thinking I'm about two weeks out from handing off copies of book 1 to my beta readers. The wife counts as alpha reader and beta reader. She's cracking up at some of the antics in book three's rough draft, so I at least have an audience of one for it. LOL.

The line that threw her off the deep end was a twelve year old girl telling one of her two moms, "Do I have to sign you up for sexual awareness class again, mom?"

The word "again" was what threw wifey off the deep end.

She was lecturing her mom about hitting on off-worlders in let's say a less than relaxed way and she (daughter) caught her and started ripping her a new one because she likes these people as friends. According to the wife, it's the most comedic moment I've ever played straight in anything I've ever written. Firing on all cylinders for that moment I guess. LOL.

 

[Bevo]

Awesome, if you want me to read and provide edit help I would be happy to.

I have been using an app called Papyrus to help pre edit then to edit after.
My method is just write and not worry about anything, next clean it up then a last time to perfect it.
Not easy!

 

[nightflameauto]

Awesome, if you want me to read and provide edit help I would be happy to.

I have been using an app called Papyrus to help pre edit then to edit after.
My method is just write and not worry about anything, next clean it up then a last time to perfect it.
Not easy!

Pretty close to my method.

Step 1 - brain dump, whatever happens happens.
Step 2 - re-read sections and start laying down foreshadowing in snippets
Step 3 - full re-write taking the good from the first draft along for the ride
Step 4 - re-read for spelling/grammar fixes

After that it's my beta group. Right now that's five people and they usually do a pretty decent job of it. Dunno if I'll want anyone else after that or if I'll just start tossing it out there. I'm thinking real seriously I may serialize it and post it somewhere on a weekly or monthly basis once I get a big enough backlog of "episodes" to be sure I have some cushion for forward momentum.

 

[Bevo]

Nice, you have it sorted out.

I looked into professional editing and damn, $6000Cdn for 300 pages of my e book..
My take is to learn this craft, get better, keep releasing. Once I have a good series I will edit the first through last and re- release. If no one really reads your not giving away anything.

 

[nightflameauto]

Nice, you have it sorted out.

I looked into professional editing and damn, $6000Cdn for 300 pages of my e book..
My take is to learn this craft, get better, keep releasing. Once I have a good series I will edit the first through last and re- release. If no one really reads your not giving away anything.

Yeah, I looked at pro editing and typesetting and for my first in the series, around 175 pages, it was going to be nearly twelve grand from my draft to printed copies, with a minimum order of twenty-five. Or I can learn to do that crap myself and get a single copy for $99 with diminishing prices as you order more. $600 to set up print on demand.

I'm thinking the chances of having a bound copy are right out the window unless I find a way to make money from electronic copies. I ain't got the money to do this professionally, and no traditional publisher is gonna touch my gore fest, cram everything together, references from everywhere stories. So I write it for me and my buds, and if I find a way to make a few bucks later, cool. If not, at least it's written.

 

[Bevo]

Agree 100%!

takes longer and has a learning curve but worth it!

 

[nightflameauto]

Book One has gone through two re-writes and two full editing passes. Plus a re-read to make sure I have my tenses and proper titles used correctly. Then another day setting up my "compile" (in Scrivener) to put my headings in the right places for chapters/sections.

And it's off to beta land as of last night.

All this as I'm writing three more books (separate plot lines that eventually re-converge) in rough draft shape and have started the re-write / edit process on book two. I need every day to have double the hours it has.