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Interesting…
It sounds like Habitica, but for writing only. I haven’t tried Habitica, but it might work for writing too. And it’s free…
I’m glad I’m not the only one who agonizes about this!
For short stories, I make the titles up at the last possible moment before I start sending it out. For novels I change the title no less than three or four times. My last project started out as Of Automatons, Monsters, and Men, and then it became The Fragile Spiral (*cough* you can tell I’m a NIN fan *cough*), and finally settled on Blood and Brass. Which I think describes all the themes in it better and is shorter and punchy…and more obviously steampunk.
The only few things I shy away from are: adding made up world-names to the title like The Clash of Varrrrr’rrra or something like that. Titles like that don’t necessarily attract me as a reader because it doesn’t tell me much. I also shy from putting the character’s name in the title, because aside from Harry Potter and Horatio Hornblower, that too doesn’t really intrigue me as a reader. Purely a personal preference.
Welcome!
Snoop around on the boards and don’t be afraid to ask questions, and look for help from all the other painfully creative types ’round here. You’ve come to the right place!
Inspired? No, not necessarily. Thanksgiving is actually my favorite holiday, but it’s not inspirational at all in the fairy-tale movie “let’s learn an important lesson about xyz, because we should be thankful” type nonsense.
But I like spending time with my family, and we’re really low key. Nuthin’ fancy. No one has kids, we’re all adults, and we just make lasagna from scratch (family tradition), watch movies, and BS. I see it as a day I don’t have to go to the Day Job and I get paid to not be there.
Also, my birthday tends to fall either on Thanksgiving day or very near it. Which makes it hard to do anything interesting other than hang out…but I get a lot of writing done!
I go through bad writing slumps every time I finish a novel project. For someone who is so used to writing every day for a bare minimum of least an hour a day, having such a slump where I do nothing is seriously distressing. Sometimes the harder I try to force it, the worse it gets. Then comes the guilt about not writing.
I usually get out of longer slumps by writing small. Flash fiction. Short blog posts. Recently, I wrote a flash fiction that many of my readers said should be a longer story. I took that and ran with it, telling myself it’d be a story story. Then a novella. It’s now novel sized. It’s kinda’ like re-teaching yourself to run 5Ks by starting to run just down the block.
I also try to write in a genre I’m less familiar with, or less comfortable with. Sometimes stretching my brain in other ways helps jog it back into a steadier routine.
I look up submissions themed prompts and see if there’s something that gets the juices flowing. Then if all else fails I have a story I can send somewhere.
Oh, I think you’ve found the right place to talk about our shared writing obsession! Welcome to FM!
Like you, I love the feeling of that first draft rush, the need to just pound out words (sometimes for better or worse) because you can’t stop. I’ve learned over time, well mostly anyway, not to feel resentment toward anything that takes me away from that wonderful feeling (writing highs are great), and to set reasonable goals for writing so I don’t get overwhelmed or start to put off important things like the Day Job/what puts a roof over my head, or exercise/health, or family and friends.
Hey, and we’ll also be here to vent to when you’re on your Nth draft and you want to throw your hands up in defeat and light your entire manuscript on fire (writing lows are not so great, but necessary sometimes. Oh, and don’t burn it).
Have fun!
MarFisk wrote:Two things to note:On the positive side, it specific lists what the period of exclusivity is. Whether or not I intend to re-release my story, it’s important to have that clear.
I have enjoyed the royalty-only anthologies I’ve been in, but they haven’t paid pro rates yet, and many are now out of print (not really an issue with this one because of the non-exclusivity portion to the contract). You have to go into them with reasonable expectations however.
I’ve always been leery of royalty only publications in general, so it’s good to hear that your experience with them have been for the most part positive. Although, I’m also leery of pubs that don’t peg down their pay rates, or don’t state them in clear language. Hopefully, this pub will clear that up in the future.
Interesting. Although I wouldn’t really call a 12,000-25,000 word story in the “short” category.
There were a lot of really great points on book covers. I’d never really noticed the Z pattern thing before, but now that I think about it, it’s absolutely dead on. Lots to think about.
Best of luck! The synopsis was the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to write.
On Submission Grinder a couple of people heard responses in about 100 days. Fingers crossed!
Thanks for the support, everyone! I probably wouldn’t submit as much as I do without ya’.
Now, here’s to more subs in 2016 for all!
Getting that 3 page summary down has been tough!
Best of luck with this! Fingers and toes crossed.
When I wasn’t on WiFi it wouldn’t load for me, but connected to my WiFi it came up fast, no problem. I think it might just be a quirk of my phone…
Thanks for explaining your experiences with other hosting sites.
