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 THE GREAT UNVEILING! *dramatically pulls sheet from new book item; sheet sweeps off stage in a gust of wind and suffocates onlookers* Ah. Um. Hello! I've been meaning to do this for a while. There are already great forums out there like the fantastic "Invalid Item"  , but have you ever just wanted to be rambled at? If so, you're in luck. It's my hobby to ramble unrestrainedly on writing/craft topics. I've been fortunate to be the recipient of some great advice and resources that have changed the way I write and think about writing, so I wanted to have a place where I could share them. I always held off, though, because who the heck am I to give advice? That feeling hasn't changed, but my eagerness finally whittled down my restraint, so here goes! I gotta stop clearing my throat and show you the thing.
I only have a small handful of entries in it now, but I hope to add many more this year. I'll be happy if anyone finds this useful! Even if not, I hope my unchecked rambling brings someone a smile. (I have a list of ideas for future entries already written up—and constantly expanding—but feel free to comment here if you have ideas to add to the pile. I can't guarantee I'll cover them, since I imagine these entries will be written up based on whatever's buzzing around in my brain at any given moment, but I'd be glad to hear what folks are interested in!) So far, I have:  "[Sentence-Level] Commonly Confused Words" — I've read so much creative work, and these are the words I see people mix up most often (and a few words that are hilariously similar in appearance but hilariously different in meaning that I tacked on just for kicks and giggles). "[Sentence-Level] Passive Voice" — Why passive voice is good and how to use it to great effect in writing...and how to recognize and eliminate it when it's weakening your storytelling. "[Developmental] Using Literary Callbacks" — A brief entry on calling back to past events in fiction in order to emotionally devastate readers. "[Developmental] Matching Character and Conflict " — Another brief entry on selecting story elements for maximum impact.Anyway, I hope you enjoy these verbose throat-clearings of an enthusiastic amateur. |
 New Year, New (User)name! I finally took the plunge! My old username, concrete_angel, has been swapped out for an easier-to-remember roseille. See? Roseille ♥  {suser:roseille}— just like it says on the tin. 2022 brought about some other adjustments, though, and here is as good a place as any to wax wordy about them.  With the help of critique partners and the amazing speculative fiction critique group "WYRM" I revised a completed novel and prepared it for querying! By April, I had a query-ready draft and threw it into the trenches, chasing that elusive dream of getting a literary agent. (Somehow it happened. As of summer 2022, I signed with an agent I adored. We still have to survive the terrifying—and molasses-slow—process of submitting to publishers, but it's one step closer to my dream.) While querying, I started two new books. I'm halfway through one and aiming to have a polished draft by summer. (Because sometimes writers don't end up selling their first book. Or their second. Or third. Or—)  Anyway, I'll keep at it. Which is part of why I haven't written much poetry or short fiction for a while!  Novels have been eating my brain. Recently, I deleted my 2019 poetry collection. I've copied the poems that were in it into my "Poetry Collection" . They're hidden, now, but I'll make them visible once I've organized everything! But see, I deleted the old book item to make room for a new one. I tend to get way too excited about talking about writing craft, and I love to share my enthusiasm with the Writing.Com community. It's not quite ready to be seen, yet, but if all goes well, I'll soon have a   brand new book item I intend to fill (slowly) with characteristically-conversational (read: rambly) articles about craft (or one writer's thoughts on it), publishing (or one writer's experiences with it), and general tips and tricks for prose and poetry (subjective, as most writing advice is). Okay. Now that I've said it, I actually have to do it. Wishing everyone a delightful 2023, and remember, if you're ever trying to get in contact with {suser:concrete_angel}, you won't find me there anymore. |
Schnujo's NOT Doing NaNoWriMo  , thanks, and I'm glad that extra mention was effective! I kinda figured my characteristic rambling would mean I'd gone way off track by the end, so I thought a reminder wouldn't hurt. And that's such cool advice! Was the speaker at the conference self-published or independently-published? Alas, I do in fact have three completed works (and am working on the fourth), but I won't be able to publish more than one at once. I'm aiming for traditional publishing, and the big 5 houses (Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Harper Collins, and Macmillan) and their imprints are sloooooow. Friends who've gotten deals with them in 2020 are only now seeing their books come out! And friends who've gotten deals this year will need to wait until 2024 or 2025 to see their books come out. (It's because the author and editor and copyeditors need time to edit and format the book, and then cover designers, marketing and publicity people, and library/book club people etc. need a pretty long lead time to create "hype" for a book and prepare for release, but it's all infuriatingly slow!) Generally, the guidance in traditional publishing is to publish a book a year, if possible—for exactly the same reasons as the author you mentioned spoke about: you want name/brand recognition! Sometimes it'll be a little faster with romance imprints, though, which tend to put out books more quickly. |
| I'm not sure I'm completely clear on self-published vs. independently published. I'm assuming self-published means you can put out any stupid crap and independently published would be through a small company like Vivan's 4RV Publishing or whatever it's called. (I'm too lazy to look at the moment. ) Either way, I don't recall. That thing I was listening to was months and months ago or maybe even a year ago. I don't recall. But I do know he wasn't published by one of the big companies. |
| Schnujo's NOT Doing NaNoWriMo , sorry! I should've defined it. Independent/"Indie" publishing houses are small presses that require no up-front payment (traditional publishing never requires authors to pay a cent to get published) and may have more limited distribution. Sometimes they're digital forward (primarily selling e-books) with limited print runs, but the "bigger" indie publishers are a lot like the "big 5"! There are a ton of great indie presses, and they allow for much faster release schedules and allow authors more creative control when it comes to covers and such. Self-publishing, of course, is cool because it allows authors full creative control (and some self-pubbed authors are rolling in cash)... but it also means that the author has to do marketing, editing, cover design, book formatting, and all the other challenges of book-creation by themselves or pay someone else do do it, and alas, I'm far too introverted to market my own books, though I respect self-published authors! |
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