General Non-Comics Writing Discussion

[Lady Festina]

[Emp edit: I think there is room for a thread on non-comics writing. Remember to check the stickied posts on the General Forum for the forum short story competition.

Now back to the scheduled program]

In case anyone has some time on their hands, November is National Novel Writing Month, which comes with its very own challenge - to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

The website has abundant detail:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano

Time to flex some muscle?

[strontium_dog_90]

In case anyone has some time on their hands, November is National Novel Writing Month, which comes with its very own challenge - to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

The website has abundant detail:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano

Time to flex some muscle?

I'm up for that challenge, like! Anyone else signed up?

[Richmond Clements]

In case anyone has some time on their hands, November is National Novel Writing Month, which comes with its very own challenge - to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

The website has abundant detail:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano

Time to flex some muscle?

I'm up for that challenge, like! Anyone else signed up?

I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand it's good if it gets people writing, but on the other, if you want to write, you really should be writing anyway.
By cosmic coincidence, I started writing a novel on Sunday evening, but that was because I'd just finished another one on Sunday morning.

[strontium_dog_90]

In case anyone has some time on their hands, November is National Novel Writing Month, which comes with its very own challenge - to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

The website has abundant detail:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano

Time to flex some muscle?

I'm up for that challenge, like! Anyone else signed up?

I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand it's good if it gets people writing, but on the other, if you want to write, you really should be writing anyway.
By cosmic coincidence, I started writing a novel on Sunday evening, but that was because I'd just finished another one on Sunday morning.

I agree with that, but just finished a full length book and want to tackle something a bit smaller before launching myself back into another one. Plus had some ideas simmering away for a while that I 50,000 words is just the right amount of space to tackle.

[Mardroid]

I agree with that, but just finished a full length book and want to tackle something a bit smaller before launching myself back into another one. Plus had some ideas simmering away for a while that I 50,000 words is just the right amount of space to tackle.

Also, some of us find it a bit difficult to motivate ourselves. Sometimes a bit of a kick up the bum (so to speak) is a good thing.

That's no excuse, and Richmond's not wrong though.

Not that I'm going to do this specifically, but I don't really have an idea for a full novel at the moment. I do have story ideas (more than ideas in some cases. I've written a few things but nearly not as much as I should) but they're mainly short stories* and comic scripts.

*Although they could end up as novels. These things have a tendency to grow.

[locustsofdeath!]

50,000 words is SMALL!  !

I've got a massive novel waiting to be revised. Richmond wrote me an email today that's sort of made me want to finally get to it.

[Richmond Clements]

50,000 words is SMALL!  !

I've got a massive novel waiting to be revised. Richmond wrote me an email today that's sort of made me want to finally get to it.

I'm the Jiminy Cricket of the writing world!

[strontium_dog_90]

50,000 words is SMALL!  !

I've got a massive novel waiting to be revised. Richmond wrote me an email today that's sort of made me want to finally get to it.

I thought that, too . . .but according to one of my student friends, it's longer than his dissertation. And hopefully more fun, too.

On a note related to that, anyone else tried to mix writing essays for further education with writing fiction for fun? This has been my first week of having to combine the two (just started a college course) and I've found the essays helpful in some ways, not so much in others. Anybody else been in a similar boat?

[Richmond Clements]

And yeah, 50,000 is small- it's the minimum length you'd be expect from a YA novel, to give you an idea of length.

[strontium_dog_90]

I was shocked to read somewhere that the word count on the old Black Flame 2000ad novels was only 75,000 words - it always seemed like so much more when I was reading them.

[locustsofdeath!]

Personally I like the old lean sci-fi and fantasy novels, where 185-200 pages were simply packed with essential story. I wonder why everything got so bloated...

I suppose 50,000 words is only about 200-250 pages so it's not so bad. With my wife in Afghanistan my writing time has been cut in half for the next few months so there's no way I could get a novel done this month. Unless anyone wants to take the kids for a month...?

[Van Dom]

That 50000 word novel thing is very interesting and something I would be keen to have a go at...unfortunately, at the moment, my work load is so hectic that I'm struggling to find time to post on this forum let alone write a novel! I cant even finish a 500 word entry for the short story comp for Heavens sakes!!!! Think i will have to leave it til next year when - hopefully - things are a little more settled in my work life.

[Emperor]

So I thought we have enough interest for a general fiction writing thread - if anyone has any general tips or good places to get short stories published then post them here.

For starters there is Weaponizer, where you can upload short stories:

www.weaponizer.co.uk

There is also their blog which often links to other short story opportunities:

http://weaponizer.blogspot.com/

Like the following, deadline December 11th, word count: 3,000-5,000:

We can't prevent environmental disasters without preparing for them. That's why io9 is going to pay $2000 each to two people who write the best stories about environmental disaster. It's io9's Environmental Writing Contest - for science fiction and non-fiction.

http://io9.com/5681230/

[Emperor]

Steampunk flash fiction contest - deadline November 28, 500 words, the choice of 5 starting sentences and a book or item of jewellery as a prize (just keep this in mind an push the envelope ):

www.rikkidonovan.com/index.php/steampunk-challenge-2/steampunk-flash-fiction-writing-contest/

[Emperor]

Apex magazine short story submission guidelines:

www.apexbookcompany.com/submissions/

Permuted Press novel submission guidelines (and we have at least one Permuted Press author around these parts):

www.permutedpress.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=66