Emily Miller’s Ask Me Anything [about my stories] thread

[EmilyMiller]

Hi,

This is a total experiment. Given the dearth of author interaction functions here, I’m going to include a link to this thread in future stories.

It’s not intended as in lieu of comments, rather if there is something you’d like my feedback on.

It’s not meant to be: “What is your favorite breakfast cereal, Emily?” [cue that as a response of course], more “are you planning to write more about character X?” or “where did you get the idea for plot point Y?”

As I say, just an experiment.

Em

 

[AchtungNight]

What’s Eden’s favorite breakfast cereal?

Just kidding.

Seriously, though, great idea for a thread. I think I will copy it.

Real question- do you still plan to write more Eden stories?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

dearth, huh. At first, I thought you somehow misspelled thread but it is an actual word, after all. Woohoo, I learned something new.
FYI, I couldn't care less about your breakfast cereal!

 

[MrPixel]

Okay… raising his hand… I have a question. You’ve been using emojis in your stories, mostly as separators, but, still emojis nonetheless. How are you uploading stories? I do everything in .doc/.docx file uploads, and want to (sparingly) use emojis when dialog is on smartphones. I'm mostly concerned about getting into a rejection loop because I didn’t code them correctly. There seems to be no facility for “test” uploads… am I missing something there?

 

[BobbyLaker]

Dear @EmilyMiller,
What first prompted you to put pen to paper (metaphorically)?

 

[SimonDoom]

This is why I think adding a blog/interactive author feature to this site would be a good idea--to permit exactly this kind of interaction between authors and those who read their stories. This forum isn't perfectly suited for it, because it obviously would not work if every single author started a thread like this one in this forum.

 

[onehitwanda]

Okay… raising his hand… I have a question. You’ve been using emojis in your stories, mostly as separators, but, still emojis nonetheless. How are you uploading stories? I do everything in .doc/.docx file uploads, and want to (sparingly) use emojis when dialog is on smartphones. I'm mostly concerned about getting into a rejection loop because I didn’t code them correctly. There seems to be no facility for “test” uploads… am I missing something there?

don't upload - learn the supported html code that the lit online submission text editor supports. Then write elsewhere, but in a text editor (or copy from word or whatever) to text.

Start a new submission on Lit, and populate the title etc and a few words for the body. Save it as a draft.

Now go back to your works list, to drafts, and shift-click on your story so you have it open in two browser tabs.

Use one tab for editing, the other you can preview/publish on to get the rendered HTML that Lit will display once its published.

Make changes in the first window, save them, refresh the second window, your saved changes will show.

Now copy + paste any unicode characters you want from something like wikipedia into your story text, and they should render correctly when you save.

This circumvents the entire "bad formatting" bullshit on docx upload and means you can try things out without submitting / publishing.

I write everything in Lyx. When I'm ready for proof-reading on lit, I copy + paste as above.

 

[Euphony]

This is why I think adding a blog/interactive author feature to this site would be a good idea--to permit exactly this kind of interaction between authors and those who read their stories. This forum isn't perfectly suited for it, because it obviously would not work if every single author started a thread like this one in this forum.

This. So Much This.

If we must (which I don't think we do but I'm a singular vote) Story Feedback or Discussion would be less detrimentally cluttered by these type of seeking more interactions threads.

Still can't help feeling we are merely creating a different problem (forum hijack) to fix an origin problem (lack of feedback for authors)

 

[MrPixel]

don't upload

Gotcha. It’s going to be a tough habit to break. No problem with HTML, I’ve been doing this kind of markup for… OMFG… 45 years. Problem I have with relying on the online editor is I am constantly tweaking things, and am used to hammering on the doc locally. We’ll have to get over it, I guess.

 

[SimonDoom]

Then write elsewhere, but in a text editor (or copy from word or whatever) to text.

What does this mean? Do you mean online? What's an example? I typically draft documents in Word on my desktop and then upload the file. I don't ever use special formatting so it's not a big deal, but I've noticed that my stories seem to take a little longer to get published than those of some other published authors so I'm wondering if doing this in a different way would speed up publishing times.

When you respond, keep in mind that while I like to think I'm a fast learner I am not a techie person and you cannot assume I share any of your knowledge of techie vocabulary.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Interesting idea. I think I'll just add a suggestion in my authors note that they can contact me via the forum IM function.

 

[Euphony]

Interesting idea. I think I'll just add a suggestion in my authors note that they can contact me via the forum IM function.

I'm getting a vision. A vision of your FUTURE.

 

[intim8]

Hi,

This is a total experiment. Given the dearth of author interaction functions here, I’m going to include a link to this thread in future stories.

It’s not intended as in lieu of comments, rather if there is something you’d like my feedback on.

It’s not meant to be: “What is your favorite breakfast cereal, Emily?” [cue that as a response of course], more “are you planning to write more about character X?” or “where did you get the idea for plot point Y?”

As I say, just an experiment.

Em

"There oughtta be...."

Goes and does it yourself. Excellent.

Now I have to go read some of your stories to see if I have any questions.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I'm getting a vision. A vision of your FUTURE.

View attachment 2289871

Hmm. Maybe I'll just forget the whole thing.

 

[intim8]

Now I have to go read some of your stories to see if I have any questions.

No questions so far, but "It felt natural, just how things used to be before the legions of guilt-trippers and power-cravers sabotaged the human race." Is a hell of a line. Speaks to an underlying theme in a lot of what I write here.

 

[AchtungNight]

I'm getting a vision. A vision of your FUTURE.

View attachment 2289871

Unless they’re a beautiful available woman close to me, my answer will be “none of your business” followed by a click.

Seriously, can we not shame someone just trying to reach out to others? Yes, you warn of a valid concern, but all here should already be wary of it. There are nice people here too. I like to think I’m one of them.

 

[Euphony]

Hmm. Maybe I'll just forget the whole thing.

But I'm...er...we were so close.

 

[Euphony]

Unless they’re a beautiful available woman close to me, my answer will be “none of your business” followed by a click.

Seriously, can we not shame someone just trying to reach out to others? Yes, you warn of a valid concern, but all here should already be wary of it. There are nice people here too. I like to think I’m one of them.

Drama much?

A clearly silly joke poking fun at a known downside to engagement is hardly my thesis on human interactions here.

And why the weird need to a defense of yourself (or those "like you") b/c of a rando meme post?

That's... odd?

 

[EmilyMiller]

What’s Eden’s favorite breakfast cereal?

Granola Factory - Grains and Honey

Seriously, though, great idea for a thread. I think I will copy it.

Real question- do you still plan to write more Eden stories?

I have an idea for at least one story with Eden in grad school in NYC. Maybe two.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Okay… raising his hand… I have a question. You’ve been using emojis in your stories, mostly as separators, but, still emojis nonetheless. How are you uploading stories? I do everything in .doc/.docx file uploads, and want to (sparingly) use emojis when dialog is on smartphones. I'm mostly concerned about getting into a rejection loop because I didn’t code them correctly. There seems to be no facility for “test” uploads… am I missing something there?

I write in O365 Word on my iPhone. I copy and paste from this to the Lit text box. I then use the preview to make sure it works.

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

This is why I think adding a blog/interactive author feature to this site would be a good idea--to permit exactly this kind of interaction between authors and those who read their stories. This forum isn't perfectly suited for it, because it obviously would not work if every single author started a thread like this one in this forum.

Very true. But, absent such a feature…

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

Dear @EmilyMiller,
What first prompted you to put pen to paper (metaphorically)?

Not ignoring this. Just will take a little time to answer adequately.

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

This. So Much This.

If we must (which I don't think we do but I'm a singular vote) Story Feedback or Discussion would be less detrimentally cluttered by these type of seeking more interactions threads.

Still can't help feeling we are merely creating a different problem (forum hijack) to fix an origin problem (lack of feedback for authors)

Of course I am. But that doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist.

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

"There oughtta be...."

Goes and does it yourself. Excellent.

Now I have to go read some of your stories to see if I have any questions.

Cool - that would be great .

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

No questions so far, but "It felt natural, just how things used to be before the legions of guilt-trippers and power-cravers sabotaged the human race." Is a hell of a line. Speaks to an underlying theme in a lot of what I write here.

Thank you. I quite liked that line too