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I'm getting really frustrated with this story. I've been working on it for four years, and I don't seem to be any closer to finishing it. Right now my problem is a minor character I really like, but who is supposed to have died by the next book (this is a prequel.) However, since I really like her, I don't want her to die (and seriously, enough people die in this book already, its depressing.) However, she probably wouldn't appear in the next book anyway, so it wouldn't make much difference. Besides, she's the mother of the main character in the next book, and I'm sick of the mother always being dead . . . Any thoughts?
(Its a major part of the protagonist's character that he was raised by his older sister. I tried to work out a compromise that had his mother being sick instead of dead, but I'm not sure whether that will work or not.)

That's tough, Lady Haleth. If you want, maybe you could figure out an alternative to death that would somehow remove her physically from the situation. She could run away. Go on a long trip. Be sold into slavery. Be taken prisoner. Things like that.

Or, she could always be absent mentally. She doesn't necessarily have to go insane, but maybe something intensely tragic happened and due to that, her brain shut down. Maybe she sits in bed all day because she literally cannot shake the depression and oppressive emotions, and thus it is that she can't take care of her child. They did something similar to this in The Hunger Games—Katniss' mom wasn't dead, but she was mentally absent, which forced Katniss to step up to the plate and care for her younger sister. I think the fact that her mom wasn't dead added a whole other dimension to the plot, because Katniss resented the fact that her mom couldn't pull it together.

Those are some ways you could avoid having the mom be dead. One doesn't need to be dead to be out of the picture. Be creative, and most of all, enjoy the process! You could really have some fun with this one.

I finally got a really great program for writing!
I've been creating detailed Bios for each of my characters, places and a brief history. I think it really helps me when writing to have it all laid out and ready to go.
Now if only I could motivate myself to really get to writing my actual story.
But at least I'm getting something done.

I recently gave my NaNo novel to read to one of my friends and she gave a real positive response to it, it was so nice to hear, I am real nervous about giving anything I write to anyone, cause I know I'm really not good at it, but in order to get better I have to have other people read it. She loved my book and even told me I have a writing style that resembled Tolkien, which was a REAL nice compliment coming from her . Right now I'm writing a short story and am posting it chapter by chapter for some of my friends to read, so they can critisize and tell me what they think as I am writing it, it's a lot of fun as they point out the things that they don't like, or they think should be changed, and that way it almost feels like we are writing the story together I hope to have it finished by the time November comes around

My most recent writing endeavor is actually going pretty well. In other words I'm coming up with the major plot ideas chronologically so I haven't gotten too badly stuck yet. I'm stuck at the moment cuz I'm trying to come up with a name for a minor character... I stink at naming characters I also have yet to name the major antagonist... but hey naming villains is so overrated, right? In all seriousness though... I will get to that, but it probably won't be until the 2nd draft

Right now it's focusing on two friends who are on the run from a corrupt group that has taken over the government. There's some fantasy elements and some romance elements getting tied in at the moment (which is odd because I never write romance, but I figured I'd try something new - it's predominately fantasy-based though.) By the time I'm done (if I ever get done) I'm sure you'll end up getting some sci-fi elements in as well That always happens when I try to write fantasy XD

This is actually the reason I'm probably gonna skip out on NaNo this year... I'm doing to well to stop or switch gears at the moment

An author's worst reviewer is self. I too feared having my first piece of work read by another but I was surprised as most first timers are.

Names? My writing bane. I hate coming up with names for characters, book titles, chapter titles, etc. For characters, I have sifted through baby name websites and for characters/places/etc that are definitely in a foreign language, I'll search for a language translator on line and get various words/phrases in Latin, Greek, or something else. For my books it's necessary because I have two very distinct story lines and worlds. So to make it easy for my readers to know which world they are in, when I switch between them, I have a very distinct naming style so there is no confusion between the two world.

And speaking of my works, I will NOT be doing NaNao even though I will have time this year. I am now focused on trying to get my sequel done. I'm sure I have 50,000+ words to go but I'm not going to put it aside to start a new NaNo novel. This next week, I am going to be contacting Oak Tara Publishing in regards to seeing if they want to pursue my first book. I submitted it to them back at the end of June and they told me to wait 12-16 weeks before contacting them about it. So next week will be week 15/16. Oak Tara Publishing can get my book out to Barnes and Noble and Christian Book Distributors which is exactly the type of marketing I need. Just pray that they take it.

*wanders over to the Writing thread with two purposes for posting*

First purpose - something interesting happened the other day. My sister and I were talking to a girl at a church gathering whose family had come for the first time. We asked her what books she liked to read and had a quick chat about that. Suddenly she said, "I like to write as well!" I said that I did, too, and asked her what she liked to write. When explaining, she said, "There's this site called ... NaNoWriMo." I was like "?!?!?! " I've never heard about NaNo outside of Narniaweb, so that was pretty fantastic. Didn't have anywhere to share it, so figured here would be appropriate!

Second purpose - April is far away and so is the Screnzy forum, so I guess I can ask a Screnzy question here? I was wondering, what are the rules for Screnzy? Can you write a script for an existing book, provided you give complete and full credit to the author and DO NOT plagiarize and if you're not intending on making it public in any way (such as, you will keep it only with your family and not use it publicly at all and will keep it at home) at present or in the near or even seemingly far future? Or is that not allowed, if you have not asked the publisher? And even if not for Screnzy, is this allowed, in general?

Aslanisthebest wrote:Second purpose - April is far away and so is the Screnzy forum, so I guess I can ask a Screnzy question here? I was wondering, what are the rules for Screnzy? Can you write a script for an existing book, provided you give complete and full credit to the author and DO NOT plagiarize and if you're not intending on making it public in any way (such as, you will keep it only with your family and not use it publicly at all and will keep it at home) at present or in the near or even seemingly far future? Or is that not allowed, if you have not asked the publisher? And even if not for Screnzy, is this allowed, in general?

Wouldn't that fall under the category of fanfiction? Because if fanfiction were illegal, I doubt fanfiction.net would be able to stay up as long as it has. And I've heard that fanfiction is allowed for NaNo and Screnzy.


~Riella

Hmmm... maybe it would, I suppose. Although, technically, it's not fanfiction - it's writing a script for the book, as if I'm adapting it for stage or for film, so I wouldn't necessarily be changing events to write fiction as a fan, per se. Would that fall under the same category?

Aslanisthebest wrote:Hmmm... maybe it would, I suppose. Although, technically, it's not fanfiction - it's writing a script for the book, as if I'm adapting it for stage or for film, so I wouldn't necessarily be changing events to write fiction as a fan, per se. Would that fall under the same category?

You can write literally anything for private viewing.

Okay, that's relieving to know! I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn't fall into trouble. It's really only going to be between my sister and me for the forseeable future. Thanks for answering my question!

Dropping in here for some help I'm planning on writing a new story and I have two ideas that I really want to write, but for the life of my I can't decide between the two of them, so I'm holding a vote, and if anyone is interested they can participate. On my blog (there's a link to it below) there are the synopsises of the two stories, and if you have the time, you can drop by, read through them and comment on which on you like more, the story with more votes will be the one I'll write first

http://writingsmy.blogspot.ru/2013/01/story-vote.html

*double post* but is' been waaaay over 24 hours

my vote is finished and now I shall begin writing a new story I'm very excited, let's see how I'll be in a few weeks
if anyone is interested what story will be written, here is a link
http://writingsmy.blogspot.ru/2013/01/vote-results_14.html

Alright, this is my first time on this page, but I have a story that I'm working on that I would like critiqued, and, if it needs it, some help with. Here is a link: http://darkhorsed.deviantart.com/art/In ... -365785031

There's a lot of knights and castles in Narnia, and a lot of stuff similar with the Crusades. I'm writing a trilogy about the Third Crusade. It follows King Richard the Lionheart and others. My blog is http://www.awriterslife96.blogspot.com. Will any of you check it out? I get back to every comment pretty quickly.

I haven't been over here in a long long while. I've been busy writing away, starting more projects than I can finish (I do have a terrible habit for that, I need to learn to focus on one thing at a time )
I do have so exciting knews, I recently met a guy is really into creative writing. Thanks to my mom (who literaly over boasted and over praised my writing) I have sent him my novel Dragon Eyes and he said he would give his critique on it I am so nervous but at the same time so excited. I don't know what he will say or what he will think of my writing, but I hope he likes it I'm waiting to hear from him, but I expect it will take some time and so I have made up my mind to be patient. In the mean time I am editing another of my children's novels and planning for NaNo