Please come and talk to me. Just for some general writing chat and support...

[BiglyBadgers]

I am about a third of the way through editing my stupidly long book (this'll teach me for writing epic fantasy) and need some chat!

I really loved the chat and support on the nano thread, but now novel writing month is long gone and I am alone! There must be other people out there bumbling along needing a friend to chat to...surely....I can provide coffee, cake and excellent free WiFi

I agree with Tippety on your critter generic. I think fancy pants writer is getting a bit too big for their boots. It's one thing for someone to say 'if I was writing this I'd probably consider making it longer and include more on these areas,' quite another to say 'you must...'. It's like I was saying before abut crits, it's always subjective and whether something works depends a lot on the context and what you are trying to do. If you're aiming to write a flash piece then telling you to make 5k is not in the least helpful.

I hadn't planned on making m PI non-gendered, but now I've got this far and it's just sort of happened I think I will go with it and see how it pans out.

Gosh yes, unnecessary rape and female violence in stuff is a pet hate of mine. I have developed a particular loathing for when you then discover that the woman was also pregnant, because apparently just having a dead woman isn't enough for anyone to bother caring.

I found when I was writing my epic I had to be really careful not to fall into these cliches though as they are so prevalent in epic fantasy. I rewrote a whole storyline after I read it back and realised it was a bit flipping rapey. It's so easy to just go with these tropes without challenging them as in so many genre's it's just become how it's done and sort of expected I think. The rewritten storyline is honestly so much better and more interesting though and made me realise how much of it is just laziness on the part of the writer.

oh me! i did nano 2017! and very late to this party too. Are you still writing your epic fantasy? i pretty much finished mine in the month but it's sat in the drawer now because i can't face editing it
i'm saving it for this coming nano i think, edit a chunk a day.

Hey loop! I finally finished the first draft at a suitably chunky 170k or there abouts. It's now sitting in the to be edited pile as I need a break before I can face it again. I was planning on doing the fantasy noir for this year's nanowrimo, but I've only gone and started it already.

I found out today that due to missing so much uni I'll probably have to stay off until June so I can go back with the year below, basically defer a whole year. So I am now planning a lot of writing over the next ten months. I'm thinking of doing a non-fiction book, which I think might be super fun.

What topic for non-fiction?
170k! Kudos!! 80k was my last count with some desperate need for rewriting and all the bits that say [add a scene about his mom here]
You had anything published yet?

Nothing published yet, but it is my aim for the year to get something out. I just need to get brave enough to actually submit some stuff to some places.

I'm sort of mulling over an idea around exploring the experience of altered perceptions (so basically symptoms of psychosis) through depictions of sensory or visual distortions in film. It's kind of vague at the moment and I need to pin it down more, but I've done a lot of film study and have personal experience in the altered perceptions front, so I'm pretty sure there is something fun to write about there.

Have you got anything in progress at the moment or are you between works?

Just submit Badgers. Life is short, and rejections, read the first line them delete. Work on something else, it helps psychologically when you get rejections. Gin helps X

Oh wow that sounds interesting!
I have 2x60k first drafts in a drawer and I've started another because the idea won't go away(!) It's exploring the idea of beauty, and it's about a painter who struggles to relate to people. Lots of art theory to read up on and I'm setting it in Italy so may need a holiday there next year for research, you understand 😁
Also editing a 10k to get ready as a competition entry next year! I'm ahead of the game 😂

You are absolutely right butty I just need to pull up my big lady pants and get on with it.

A trip to Italy for research sounds like it's almost certainly going to be essential loopaloo.

I had a coffee with someone I made friends with during nanowrimo last year and we were talking about maybe setting up a little writing group locally mainly so we can find some like minded people to share work with. We are thinking we could aim to start November and do a couple of write ins for nano (or not nano if people want to come along and write something else) and see how it goes from there. Gives us a couple of months to sort out what we want, find a venue and put some word around. Might be fun.

Bigly count me in for nano meetups - i can join remotely or locally (i'm in the sw north of Bristol)

That would be lovely loopaloo. I'm all the way down in Winchester, but maybe we could Skype you in.

Ahaha yeah, just the way it goes - skype is good for me too

This is the problem with the internet. You meet awesome people and then realise they love miles away!

Love = live...

I like your idea about the painter loopaloo, sounds interesting! And your non-fiction idea bigly! I'd quite like to read both of them

Had to take a bit of a break from editing etc. Got a bit knackered - been working until 11-12 the last month or so and going to bed far too late. Normally go to bed about 9.30 to cope with baby that wakes up 3 times a night and both dc always up by 6.30 at the latest! Quite enjoying the editing on the whole although having occasional moments of massive self-doubt. Just trying to motor through them on the principle that finishing a crap book is still more of an achievement than giving up on one?!

My ds was telling me that Winchester had to be a confusion for Wintershall (he acted there this year) when he came across it in in a book last night. I had to show him on Google maps to convince him it was real.

I'm not sure whether I'd do Nano again. I have a strange way that I find it difficult to write in weather other than what is outside, and I want to do a more summery one, so I don't really want to put it off till November.

That's funny witchend, mine always start in whatever season it is when I start writing them. Though I don't manage to keep pace after that!

BiglyBadgers yes Reckon we could set something up though - discourse app has a group DM facility. Be great to share!
TippetyTapWriter thankyou! Maybe we could get a few beta readers thing going, swapping a couple of chapters or something?

Not only real but the old capital of England no less!

My fantasy world has a permanent storm off its coast so is basically dark and rainy all the time (guess how I was feeling when I wrote that), hence why I figured it was perfect for a good noir. My noir is chugging a long very well now. I have a homme fatale and everything. It's super fun to write!

I started up an account on Medium the other day so I can post some of my more esoteric essays and poems under a name not at all connected with any of my other stuff. Nobody is reading any of it of course, but I'm enjoying having somewhere to put it that's not just sitting in my Google drive. I find I am less lazy about my writing when I know it's going out there even if it's not really likely to be read, so it's good practice for improving things and experimenting a bit.

I could be up for a small writers circle sort of thing if we think about how we would manage members and reading and feedback and stuff. Could be fun.

Permanent storm sounds like a cool bit of world building. Almost a sci-fi feel.

I'd definitely be up for some sort of mutual reviewing/beta reading thing, though lack of time is an issue. But once I've done this round of editing I'll probably take a couple of weeks break from it, so that could be a good time to do some.

I've not heard of Medium. Off to take a look.

Sounds great. I use Medium but never posted. Some kind of joint blog/wordpress or private fb page?
Loving the permanent storm idea.

I'll have more time once dd is back at school in September, so maybe we could set something up then for sharing. A closed Facebook group seems like the obvious option and then we can pop up Google drive links or whatever and give feedback in the comments. I've only used scrib before which has its own set up, not sure how other similar groups do it. I know there are some with complicated emailing procedures, but that seems a right faff. Any other ideas?

Someone gave one of my articles on medium a clap yesterday which was exciting as it was a bit...well...odd, perhaps. I'm currently writing an essay on corridors to go on it. I'm definitely using it as a bit of a repository for my stranger content right now.

Congrats for the clap Bigly! Fb and google docs sounds good. Not heard of the scribe one - does it allow comments?
Can set this up so we only post a page or two or a 1000 words or something, so we're don't feel overwhelmed!
When kids are back is better for me too 👍

Scribophile is a site where you can post work and people can crit it. I've used it in the past and I know a couple of others in here use it. You have to do a certain amount of crits before you can post work though, so not sure if it'd work for us. Also you have to pay a monthly fee after you've put up a couple of pieces of you want to keep them there. Though feedback set up is really rather good and you can do closed groups.
Anyone else got views?

I just submitted a few poems for consideration for a themed anthology. I'm getting braver.

Thought I'd pop back onto this thread. I am finally writing again (I only write fanfiction - I harbour secret dreams of an original novel, but it never seems to go anywhere), and it feels good.