• NANOWRIMO, anyone?

    From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to All on Sat Oct 31 11:40:00 2020
    Is anyone doing National Novel Writing Month this year?

    For those who don't know, check out nanowrimo.org; it's a challenge
    to write a novel in November. 50,000 words by November 30th. 1,667
    words per day.

    It's OK to suck. Just get the first draft done, and worry about
    polishing it later.

    It's a lot of fun. I finished in 2017, and have a book mostly ready to
    go; I added another 10,000 words and cleaned it up the following year.

    I'm debating about doing it again this year, or taking the time I'd
    take on a novel to come up with a business idea I had that needs
    content.



    ... The exception also declares the rule
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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Nov 1 14:55:05 2020
    Re: NANOWRIMO, anyone?
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to All on Sat Oct 31 2020 07:40 am

    Is anyone doing National Novel Writing Month this year?

    For those who don't know, check out nanowrimo.org; it's a challenge
    to write a novel in November. 50,000 words by November 30th. 1,667
    words per day.

    It's OK to suck. Just get the first draft done, and worry about
    polishing it later.

    It's a lot of fun. I finished in 2017, and have a book mostly ready to
    go; I added another 10,000 words and cleaned it up the following year.

    I'm debating about doing it again this year, or taking the time I'd
    take on a novel to come up with a business idea I had that needs
    content.



    ... The exception also declares the rule

    I have some friend who _tries_ every now and then.

    I prefer to take my time and not work on a deadline. Linux Magazine already places enough deadlines on my writing.

    1700 words don't look so bad until you realize you need to gather a proofreading team and reiterate over what you have writen once and again and again. Writing is the easy part, then you have to do enough quality control to ensure the end product is close to professional.

    I have short stories that took two days to write and months to get edited to their final form. Go figure.

    Speaking of which, I have just launched a shameless self-promotiononal website for my write-stuff.

    SPAM AHEAD

    http://www.richardfalken.com


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  • From August Abolins@21:2/101 to Arelor on Sun Nov 1 17:11:03 2020
    On 01/11/2020 10:55 a.m., Arelor wrote:

    Speaking of which, I have just launched a shameless self-promotiononal website
    for my write-stuff.

    SPAM AHEAD

    http://www.richardfalken.com

    " dares stepping through the boundaries of our dimension in order to
    find which stories lay beyond our boring reality. "

    You have a way with words, that's for sure! ;)
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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to August Abolins on Sun Nov 1 19:12:59 2020
    Re: just launched a shameless self-promotiononal website
    By: August Abolins to Arelor on Sun Nov 01 2020 12:11 pm

    On 01/11/2020 10:55 a.m., Arelor wrote:

    Speaking of which, I have just launched a shameless self-promotiononal website
    for my write-stuff.

    SPAM AHEAD

    http://www.richardfalken.com

    " dares stepping through the boundaries of our dimension in order to
    find which stories lay beyond our boring reality. "

    You have a way with words, that's for sure! ;)

    Thanks, man.

    Glad to see you still have the time to pop up here :-)

    Do you like the website layout?

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  • From August Abolins@21:2/101 to Arelor on Sun Nov 1 20:38:15 2020
    On 01/11/2020 3:12 p.m., Arelor wrote:

    http://www.richardfalken.com

    " dares stepping through the boundaries of our dimension
    in order to find which stories lay beyond our boring
    reality. "

    You have a way with words, that's for sure!

    Thanks, man.

    Glad to see you still have the time to pop up here


    Time, I have. But the preferred pc, I don't have. I am either
    allowing myself to be distracted from work at the shop and using
    Thunderbird directly, or I use remote access to reach the pc at work
    so that I can use Thunderbird for these echos.


    Do you like the website layout?

    The site is very minimalist. Looks good for a writer's page.
    If/when you get proposed artwork for your line of stories, it would
    look good to add that for visual dressing.

    Maybe you can find an artist that could produce a simple
    line-drawing icon/sketch for each story segment.
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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to August Abolins on Sun Nov 1 23:14:46 2020
    Re: Re: just launched a shameless self-promotiononal website
    By: August Abolins to Arelor on Sun Nov 01 2020 03:38 pm

    The site is very minimalist. Looks good for a writer's page.
    If/when you get proposed artwork for your line of stories, it would
    look good to add that for visual dressing.

    Maybe you can find an artist that could produce a simple
    line-drawing icon/sketch for each story segment.

    I was thinking in getting my cousin to do it. He is going bankrupt with all the virus crisis so I bet he would welcome a bunch of euro.

    The problem is I am not sure I can afford it either.

    I have a year worth of stories already. Then I plan to build the platform, which should be fast enough. The dressing I am saving for the end. I am more concerned for the covers for the stories, though. It is one thing to pay 150 usd for a book cover. If you have to pay that for a story per month, it quickly adds up.

    I have thought some ideas to get by... I will have you informed :-)


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  • From August Abolins@21:2/101 to Arelor on Mon Nov 2 01:29:57 2020
    On 01/11/2020 7:14 p.m., Arelor wrote:

    Maybe you can find an artist that could produce a simple
    line-drawing icon/sketch for each story segment.

    I was thinking in getting my cousin to do it. He is going
    bankrupt with all the virus crisis so I bet he would
    welcome a bunch of euro.

    The problem is I am not sure I can afford it either.

    I have connections in my local artist community. I could ask one
    fellow in mind (Estonian background) who is quite well respected,
    has produced quite a bit of art work in his 80+ years. I'll try do
    dig up a few links to some of his art that gives an idea of his
    styles. I'll ask him what he would generally ask for such
    commission work.


    I have a year worth of stories already. Then I plan to
    build the platform, which should be fast enough. The
    dressing I am saving for the end. I am more concerned for
    the covers for the stories, though. It is one thing to pay
    150 usd for a book cover. If you have to pay that for a
    story per month, it quickly adds up.

    How many stories in the tale are you talking about? If it a long
    running series, you could have something that has similar design for
    a bunch of them (then just change the title) and then have a new but
    related design for another bunch.

    It can probably be something you can do yourself - or the baseline
    idea for it that you can then pass to an artist.

    It doesn't have to be as detailed or coloured like this:

    https://bookmanager.com/i/b?b=lGxcd5Ki7IjTIa7BDLxO2A&cache=1587323200

    But it could be as simple as this:

    https://bookmanager.com/i/b?b=dWDJv4bAnX-Kpm9rkbA91w&cache=1558380573


    I have thought some ideas to get by... I will have you
    informed

    Looking forward to that.

    Although it is said "do not judge a book by its cover", many people
    still do. Until a story becomes a classic (eg. Animal Farm,
    Nineteen Eighty Four, Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye,
    Dracula..) ..a cover can make a big difference to get a buyer's
    attention.
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  • From August Abolins@21:2/101 to Arelor on Mon Nov 2 01:36:27 2020

    I was thinking in getting my cousin to do it. He is going bankrupt with all the
    virus crisis so I bet he would welcome a bunch of euro.

    Here are larger samples of the covers I mentioned in a previous message.

    Sample of too complex (more expensive?):

    https://bookmanager.com/i/m.php?b=lGxcd5Ki7IjTIa7BDLxO2A


    Something much simpler:

    https://bookmanager.com/i/m.php?b=dWDJv4bAnX-Kpm9rkbA91w
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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to August Abolins on Mon Nov 2 09:37:10 2020
    Re: Re: just launched a shameless self-promotiononal website
    By: August Abolins to Arelor on Sun Nov 01 2020 08:29 pm

    How many stories in the tale are you talking about? If it a long
    running series, you could have something that has similar design for
    a bunch of them (then just change the title) and then have a new but
    related design for another bunch.

    It can probably be something you can do yourself - or the baseline
    idea for it that you can then pass to an artist.

    Thanks for your involvement!

    That's what I was thinking about: coming with a simple design, like the logo of the
    series over a background image, and switching the background from cover to cover. Or
    applying a color filter on the background.

    It is going to be a long running series. I have a year worth of stories already and I
    am not halfway where I want to take it to.

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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to August Abolins on Mon Nov 2 09:42:59 2020
    Re: Re: just launched a shameless self-promotiononal website
    By: August Abolins to Arelor on Sun Nov 01 2020 08:36 pm


    I was thinking in getting my cousin to do it. He is going bankrupt with all the
    virus crisis so I bet he would welcome a bunch of euro.

    Here are larger samples of the covers I mentioned in a previous message.

    Sample of too complex (more expensive?):

    https://bookmanager.com/i/m.php?b=lGxcd5Ki7IjTIa7BDLxO2A


    Something much simpler:

    https://bookmanager.com/i/m.php?b=dWDJv4bAnX-Kpm9rkbA91w

    The first one would work for grimdark with some adjustments. The second one is not
    what I am looking for.

    Ideally I'd have Larry Elmore or Matt Stiwinsky draw the cover :-) I would represent
    the Necromancer sitting on his throne, with his symbol (the rearing white horse)
    somewhere in the background, and two of his horse-headed android guards on each side.
    But it would hurt my pockets tooooooo much :-)

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Arelor on Mon Nov 2 11:18:00 2020
    Arelor wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    1700 words don't look so bad until you realize you need to gather a proofreading team and reiterate over what you have writen once and
    again and again. Writing is the easy part, then you have to do enough quality control to ensure the end product is close to professional.

    I have short stories that took two days to write and months to get
    edited to their final form. Go figure.

    Keep in mind the idea is that if it sucks, it's OK. Just get the
    draft done, and tune it afterwards. I added net 10K words to mine,
    probably took out 3-4K in the process.


    ... Abandon desire
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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Nov 2 20:08:08 2020
    Re: Re: NANOWRIMO, anyone?
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Arelor on Mon Nov 02 2020 06:18 am

    I have short stories that took two days to write and months to get edited to their final form. Go figure.

    Keep in mind the idea is that if it sucks, it's OK. Just get the
    draft done, and tune it afterwards. I added net 10K words to mine,
    probably took out 3-4K in the process.


    ... Abandon desire

    I just cannot work on something and feel OK if it sucks. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right.

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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to poindexter FORTRAN on Tue Nov 3 07:55:10 2020
    Re: Re: NANOWRIMO, anyone?
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Arelor on Mon Nov 02 2020 06:18 am

    By the way, thanks for visiting my site and leaving a comment. At least now I know the comment engine works.

    I have been working on a cover for one of the stories. Nothing fancy, but I think it is quite appealing. If no respectable magazine picks the story I made it for, I will most likely build an epub with it.

    Cheers!

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Arelor on Tue Nov 3 12:09:00 2020
    Arelor wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    I just cannot work on something and feel OK if it sucks. If something
    is worth doing, it is worth doing right.

    True, and I agree. The intention is to get a draft *done*, since a lot
    of people are concerned about the quality of the product and don't
    start. Once the draft is done, you're not done - as you know! :)



    ... Accretion
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  • From Gryphon@21:2/110 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Jan 15 14:48:24 2022
    On 31 Oct 2020, poindexter FORTRAN inked down this thought...

    Is anyone doing National Novel Writing Month this year?

    Yes! Exactly this. I did NANOWRIMO the last two years but never finished. This year I managed to finish 50K words.

    I had been wanting to pursue writing as a hobby and thats why I had fallen
    out of BBSing and Sysoping. I felt that was taking up too much of my time.
    Now that I've written a small novel, I can come up for air and do the BBSing thing again for awhile.

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  • From Gryphon@21:2/110 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Jan 15 14:55:27 2022
    On 03 Nov 2020, poindexter FORTRAN inked down this thought...

    Arelor wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    I just cannot work on something and feel OK if it sucks. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right.

    True, and I agree. The intention is to get a draft *done*, since a lot
    of people are concerned about the quality of the product and don't
    start. Once the draft is done, you're not done - as you know! :)

    That's what PrepTober is for. You need to prepare before writing. How
    many marathon runners take their first step at the starting bell?
    Exactly none. They all train before running the race. Before I did NANOWRIMO,
    I created an outline of my story. That way I knew what I was doing and didn't waste any time or words that were not going towards my finished story. I also knew that my story was worth writing.

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