Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Caz]

Why is editing so time-consuming and brainnumbing?!

[Willfor]

Whoa, I'd missed that you'd gotten your first draft done.

Congrats!

[Caz]

Note: Don't leave all your recent files on Google server then get your net cut off for 10 days. Total nightmare.

Edit: Thanks Willfor, and zazazack for the PM. :)

[Caz]

Right. I'm not going to obsess over perfectionism any more.

I've set a deadline of a month from now, for when I stop editing and just let people read it. I've been holding myself to a ridiculous expectation.

This book will not be perfect. The books that come after it will be better, as my skill improves. This is alright. The world will not end.

I've been outlining other things in the series. I think it will come out to around 6 or maybe 7 books. I've roughly outlined the plots for the first 4 books. It will be an interesting ride.

Thanks to this forum for giving me a place to think. I edited the first post also.

[Caz]

Huh... long time since I posted here though every time I see my forum sig it taunts me.

Book 1 is completely drafted, but I've hit a wall on the editing front. Getting really sick of the book tbh. 1/6th of it has been edited to the final stage and I've let several people read it. They all comment that it's interesting plot-wise and very imaginative. That's something I guess, but the remaining 5/6ths are still messy. It's readable as a story, but patchy in dialogue and plot, a bit clunky. It needs smoothed out.

But I just seem to procrastinate. I'm going to use NaNo2012 to write the second book - Maelstrom. It's less of a mammoth tale and doesn't have so many important characters and plot points to weave together. Simple, honest fun. With pirates. Hopefully getting out of the editing rut will help me in the long run. I've been doing a lot of worldbuilding and sorting out the series arc. The middle is still wobbly as hell but at least I have an idea of where I'm going. The geography and factions are starting to make sense. Fantasy books require so much pre-preparation. :/

I procrastinate by drawing maps and imagined book covers. Not 'useless' but not quite 'useful' either.  

[bretsky]

This book sounds really awesome just stumbled upon it while looking for a map generator. What age and demographic is it targeted for? And is there anyway you could possible put a link to your draft somewhere? I really hope you finish this, it sounds so cool. I love fantasy! If you can get it done, I would so buy this book. What's the price for the first copy??? Just kidding, I'm broke.

[Immortal]

I've seen this thread pop up a few times and always been interested. I'm on co-op now so I have lots of free time and would be happy to give this a read.

[dwarfhoplite]

"Rebublicum caelum" I lolled.

[Caz]

This book sounds really awesome just stumbled upon it while looking for a map generator. What age and demographic is it targeted for? And is there anyway you could possible put a link to your draft somewhere? I really hope you finish this, it sounds so cool. I love fantasy! If you can get it done, I would so buy this book. What's the price for the first copy??? Just kidding, I'm broke.

Demographic? Eh, not sure. I hesitate to say 'young adult' because that seems to be the cool thing to write towards these days. It's for anyone who likes reading fantasy that's based around the characters instead of some grand plot (though there's a little grandness) and doesn't mind a little absurdity.

I've seen this thread pop up a few times and always been interested. I'm on co-op now so I have lots of free time and would be happy to give this a read.

Thanks for the comments guys. I've been leaving this thread open for when I have something more substantial to add. Still working on the draft, but had a couple of hiccups so I didn't get much editing done, though 2nd book has made a reasonable start and the world building has been ironed out considerably. I won't even put a date on when it'll be done, but I'll be sure to post on this thread when it is.

"Rebublicum caelum" I lolled.

Ha, yeah. I'm bad with names so usually I come up with placeholders (often going back to a chapter where for three pages they talk about "Sir X". The Old Empire has a windy, city in the clouds kind of feel with the hedonism of the Roman upperclass. I guess it reflected that. Or I played too much Dominions. And I'm rambling again.

[stickadtroja]

All this looks super awsome! Read some of the lore on the first post, and it was pretty cool!

I really like that take on magic, that its a dangerous thing to use, wich not many people can. Helps make it more belivible.

I however dont like the impending doom that you keep mentioning... To focus on a group of thieves, and thier problems with bare survival is intresting enough, it doenst really need a doomsday ticking down. I always prefered my fantasy to have less epic goals than saving the world and more focus on day to day buisness.

[Caz]

All this looks super awsome! Read some of the lore on the first post, and it was pretty cool!

Thank you!

I however dont like the impending doom that you keep mentioning... To focus on a group of thieves, and thier problems with bare survival is intresting enough, it doenst really need a doomsday ticking down. I always prefered my fantasy to have less epic goals than saving the world and more focus on day to day buisness.

I share your distaste for the fantasy cliché of "oh no the world is ending, our hero must follow the quest and save everything!" as well. My goal is to have a major world 'event' going on during the books, that the main characters are basically oblivious to because they're busy with their own petty, thieving lives. It doesn't really take up much space until the end, when the civil war can no longer be contained. It's a hard thing to balance I think, but I can't really separate the apocalyptic-ish events since they're so integral to the story. Most of the 'epic' stuff happens in the planned finale, and the characters are only really doing it to spit in the eye of the King and because everyone else is dead.

[Caz]

I'm wondering what I've actually been doing for the last year. Apparently I'm still editing. I think I spent the year being drunk instead of writing, huh.

Draft is at 500 pages. Around 200 pages have been edited. To call the "first draft" complete was a ridiculous fantasy. There's so much more to this book than I planned.

The "series plots" are still revealing themselves slowly. I see the beginning and the end, but it's getting from one to the other that is the real adventure.

Doing something completely different for NaNo, so should be able to resume in December. Definitely getting closer to finished than ever before. Damn, this was a long project. I thought authors were supposed to complete a book per year?

[Caz]

. Then show your entire first draft to people in your real life who like to read. Tell them to rip it apart; most of them will tell you that it's great or not even read it. Ignore those people. Listen to the people who are ripping it a new one. Read over your draft again, and see if you can identify what they are talking about. Chances are that they have at least some (or a lot) of truth that you will have to face honestly. HOWEVER, at this point you will already have a full finished first draft of a book! Go you. And so going over the entire thing once more won't be as scary, and you will have a lot to work with if you decide you need to write the entire thing again but a little different. Or you can use entire sections unchanged if they were good. Or you can edit sections that were a little weak.

Yeah, this is good advice. Unfortunately with the first draft I had I was uncomfortable to even lead others read it - it's far too shoddy. I'm still working through the 2nd draft and that's the one that people will get to read. I've shown it to several family members and friends, everyone who read it enjoyed it, eerily so. Either I am being bullshitted or it's not so bad after all. It'd be nice once in awhile for someone to come at me and say "hey, this doesn't work! you need to fix this part!" or tell me which sections are weak etc. I've been locating those parts by myself, but it's hard to see the negative aspects from the writer's "this sucks" mentality. I pretty much hate the whole thing.

I kinda think of this project like a dwarf getting a fey mood. Finish it, or go insane.

It's like... 35% edited so far. Part 3 is kicking my ass. Of course when I went back to look at it, it was more telling than showing and needed a lot of the narrative expanded, characters filled out, and an actual explanation for the escape.

It's... quite violent. Not sure if that's a bad or good thing. Dwarf Fortress-influenced, yep yep.

Well, that was a satisfying ramble. Just posting to say that I haven't forgotten about this and it's getting underway. 2014 will be the magic year. It will. ^plzbtru

[Willfor]

If it makes you feel any better, you are beyond the novel-length first draft, and I haven't quite gotten that far yet.

Yet.

I'm getting there. >:[

Edit: But yeah, that "this sucks" mentality can be very useful in self-criticism and self-improvement. But at the same time, it can become a crippling self-doubt issue that can kill your creative drive. It's currently difficult to get a good source of objective criticism if you don't already have one in your life, especially now that the book market is the way it is. (Not dying by any means, but the people who used to hold the balance of power are losing their grip and the supply of stories has only gotten higher, so it's hard to get the attention of the people who held the balance of power -- people who have a good idea of objective criticism, but don't have the time to do any more than stamp "pass" or "fail" on anything)

Do you know any English majors personally?

[Caz]

If it makes you feel any better, you are beyond the novel-length first draft, and I haven't quite gotten that far yet.
Yet.
I'm getting there. >:[

You'll get there, as long as you don't give up!

Edit: But yeah, that "this sucks" mentality can be very useful in self-criticism and self-improvement. But at the same time, it can become a crippling self-doubt issue that can kill your creative drive. It's currently difficult to get a good source of objective criticism if you don't already have one in your life, especially now that the book market is the way it is. (Not dying by any means, but the people who used to hold the balance of power are losing their grip and the supply of stories has only gotten higher, so it's hard to get the attention of the people who held the balance of power -- people who have a good idea of objective criticism, but don't have the time to do any more than stamp "pass" or "fail" on anything)

Do you know any English majors personally?

Oh, it can, I try not to obsess over how good or bad it is and just try to improve it. I guess that will come later though... 3rd draft or something. Ah the neverending novel.

English majors? Nope.  I didn't even finish highschool, so I hope my lack of certified education doesn't hinder the book. I am terrible with that sort of stuff. I know a couple people, but it's a lot of work to ask them to look over it, and I'm not sure that English knowledge is a good prerequisite either. It's more on the character and plot-side of things that I'm worried about (Structure and grammars be probably not 100% or even 80%, but it's readable without having to claw the eyes. Something to look into later.)