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Joined: 8/20/2015 Posts: 95
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Made a New Years Resolution to write a book? Here's an article that I wrote for the Irish Times that contains a few tips that might help.
Irish Times article
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Joined: 6/7/2011 Posts: 467
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Good advice. Thanks for posting.
Personally, I never have gotten into a rhythm with writing. I have productive times and lean times, but so far always manage to get stuff finished—eventually. I put aside one novel (while working on other stuff) for over four years. When I came back to it, it was like I'd never left, and I think it turned out to be one of my best. And then there are the novels that never quite get off the drawing board. If I can produce a novel a year, I'm pretty happy with my productivity.
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Joined: 11/17/2011 Posts: 1016
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I’m curious why you call Scribophile a ‘slightly more serious
site’. Do you feel that the members are farther along in their development? More
active? More committed? They do offer a great deal of useful information over there.
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Good advice, but some doesn't work for me because of the way I create my story. I call my method 'connect the dots'. As I go, things occur to me, incidents spark new ideas/new takes: oh, 'this' explains 'that' (wow! - of course it does, perfect!) - and I jump over and flesh out the 'that'. My mind doesn't work in an outline-friendly fashion. I take what I can get hold of, when I can get hold of it.
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I also scribble notes all the time. I have been a source of entertainment at several jobs for having my pockets full of either sticky notes or pinched off pieces of plants from having hit a nursery at lunch. The pinches go immediately into water, the notes stay in my pockets until I get home.
--edited by Mimi Speike on 1/2/2016, 2:53 AM--
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Joined: 9/20/2015 Posts: 5
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Thank you. That article was practical and inspiring. Here I go...
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Joined: 8/20/2015 Posts: 95
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Mimi Speike wrote:I’m curious why you call Scribophile a ‘slightly more serious
site’. Do you feel that the members are farther along in their development? More
active? More committed?
Almost by definition they are more committed, since it requires a paying subscription to get the proper use out of the site. I think that leads one to come to the conclusion (borne out by the writing I've seen there while browsing, anyway) that the average standard is perhaps slightly higher than most writer's sites. Whether their success rate in getting published is any higher I have no idea. It would be a very interesting statistic.
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Joined: 8/20/2015 Posts: 95
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Belinda Walker wrote:Thank you. That article was practical and inspiring. Here I go...
Great to hear. Good luck.
D'Estaing
www.editorial.ie/blog/
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Joined: 11/17/2011 Posts: 1016
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I suppose, to most people, commitment means producing work that would be considered conventionally publishable, being willing to take advice in pursuit of that goal, and being disciplined enough to rein in digressions and finish. I suppose I am a hobbyist. I can live with that.
--edited by Mimi Speike on 1/4/2016, 12:26 AM--
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Joined: 6/7/2013 Posts: 1356
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Hi Richard--what a wonderful article and thank you for the Book Country shout-out!
Happy New Year to all!
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Joined: 1/31/2016 Posts: 30
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Did my resolution back at the trun of the century, written a few dozen if mostly crap.
If in doubt write.
Learn to write?
Dravid
P.S> Is a bit of a problem if one goes to another Galaxy is it a bit different & how?
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