I am considering trying to write a book ..... Any tips??

[Angel Undercover]

Hello everyone! I have been writing and reading on the site for three years now. Some of my fans have suggested I try writing an actual book. I want to know if any other Authors here have written books and if they have any suggestions for me. My writing name here is Angel Undercover. If some of you wouldnt mind checking out some of my writing and giving me feedback, I would appreciate any you can offer ( good and bad)! Thanks! ---Angel

 

[Icingsugar]

You are one month late, fiend. If you had been here in the Author's Hanlout by the beginning of November, you might had written a novel by now. There was a whole bunch of us signed up to the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), a project designed to spur thousands of would-be novel authors on.

Here are two threads that ran before, and during the writing month. Check it out, there are some good pointers scattered in there.
NaNoWriMo 2003
LitWridoNaNoWriMo - The Support Thread

My personal advice would be:
1) Be a little organized. Write a summary of a story and imagine it as a novel, with chapters and all.
2) Be a bit brave. Actually start. Sit down in front of that screen and say "Yes, this is it, I'm gonna write an insanely long story, and it's going to take a hell of a lot of time." Then just start. "It was a dark and stormy night..."
3) Be a bit diciplined. Set aside a certain amount of time (an hour, two, five, what you can spend) to write. And do it. Don't compromise with it. No inspiration? Write something uninspired, it might be better than you thought. Might even start the inspiration. No time? I'm sure there is something you can sagrifice for some extra writing time. Toss the TV, unplug the Internet from your computer. Order pizza instead of cooking.

I'm sure there are more, better advise out there, but those are my guidelines, which I try to follow.

 

[KillerMuffin]

The only way to write a book is to write a book.

Here's what they call a story arc or plot:

Exposition
Rising Action
Climax
Falling Action
Anticlimax

Exposition is where you introduce stuff. Character, setting, yada yada.

Rising Action begins with the introduction of the primary conflict (usually) and does exactly what it implies, it has action that raises the tension in the conflict.

Climax is where the conflict is resolved. Right before the Climax is something people often call the crisis, this is where things couldn't get any worse and the protagonist must deal with conflict in some way which leads to climax. There are two kinds of climax: Structural Climax and Dramatic Climax. The Structural Climax is where the primary conflict is resolved. The Dramatic Climax is where the action is resolved. A good example of this is the Titanic story. The Dramatic Climax is when the ship sinks. The Structural Climax is when Leonardo DiCaprio dies (yeah!), actually it's where Rose finally deals with whatever the hell was bothering her and moves on. The conflict was Rose's issues, not the Titanic's imminent submarine expedition, but both were climactic. Dramatic climaxes are more fun, but you will leave a reading feeling very unsatisfied if you leave out the structural climax which frequently happens in stories and leads to the oft repeated phrase "It was pretty good, but. . ."

Falling Action is often called the resolution. This is where you tie up loose ends and make things all pretty and neat.

Anticlimax comes at the end and often mirrors the climax. I should be more explicit, but I suddenly can't remember a thing about it beyond that it mirrors the climax.

Start out in third person past tense (though the other POVs and tenses can be done) because somewhere like 90% of all books are written in the perspective and it's the easiest one to write well in.

Um, read. Read a lot. Even more than that if you can. Eat a book a day, if possible.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I am considering trying to write a book ..... Any tips??

The best tip is, DON'T. But if you insist, then the next best tip is to believe and follow the advice you got from Ice-man and KM.

Although some may disagree, a novel is not a long short story. If you're not sure about the differences between the two forms, other than length, get a book on writing novels.

There are some variations between different genres, so being any more specific is tough. Good luck.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Sabledrake]

Angel -- I've written a bunch. Ten novels and four kids' books, most of which are actually in print. So, if you have any other questions beyond those answered in the above very good advice, feel free to ask. If nothing else, I can scare you with the horror stories of what I've been through (one thing that new authors and pregnant women seem to have in common; everyone's got a horror story for you <g>).

Sabledrake

 

[Boota]

My first novel is getting ready to come out in January, and I am very inexperienced as a writer. I have written a grand total of seven things, besides songs and poems. With my inexperience the only thing I can advise is to plan the story very well. Know it, all the way to the end. Have someone you trust read it every so often as you're working on it, to keep you honest. Continuity can be a real bitch, and your own mistakes don't seem as glaring when you are reading your work. It is very easy to look past some things in the grand scheme of a long work. And the hardest part, put your ass in the chair consistently. It takes a lot of time. If at all possible set aside a certain time everyday to write.

Good luck.

 

[oggbashan]

Killer Muffin has given some very good advice above.

I had a quick look at some of your stories. You need to think about plotting, interaction, conflict, resolution and sheer quantity of output.

It is a large step from short scenes for Literotica to a full scale novel and the only way to do it is to write it.

The first novel will probably be rubbish but the second should be better. Although I wrote 50,000 words in 18 days in November for NaNoWriMo that was only a quarter of a real novel by the time it has been edited.

Go for it.

Og

 

[Angel Undercover]

Thanks .....(more)

Thanks to everyone who offered some tips to me. I will keep them in mind as I debate whether or not I should attempt this task. I am not sure what I have to write about ... some of the people who read my work regularly say I should write an entire book on erotica, but Im not sure I can pull that off. A story is one thing ... a book???Well thats a whole new can of worms!

Also - anyone who has published a book -- how do you go about contacting a publisher ect?? What about copy writting your stuff ?? How is that done? Thanks again all !!

 

[KillerMuffin]

Buy or borrow a writer's market.
Buy or borrow books on how to write query letters.

 

[snooper]

Re: Thanks .....(more)

Also - anyone who has published a book -- how do you go about contacting a publisher ect?? What about copy writting your stuff ?? How is that done? Thanks again all !!

There is a site which has lots of help in this area. It is http://www.erotica-readers.com/ERA/. If you PM me I'll go into some of the perils with publishers that I encountered.

 

[Dirt Man]

It can takes months, sometimes years to write any book.

The last book I wrote took me 4 months to finish the first draft. And a year more before it went into print. Good luck Mr. Phelps if you decide to take up this mission, as it is the hardest thing you will ever do in your lifetime.

As Always
I Am the
Dirt Man

 

[Stormraven23]

Writing a book

Honestly, I am -not- a short story writer. I'm a novelist, but I do short stories to keep my skills honed, which can be seen by the stuff I have up here.

However, to write a novel, you definitely need to know how one is put together. It is different from writing shorts and one of the hardest things for me is plotting. Which is why I have my husband help me with it, since his strong point is plotting.

My first suggestion is to go to the library and hit the writing section (in Dewey Decimal it's the 808s). Writer's Market will show you what the publishers want and there are online services that are genre specific. I have looked over the erotica publishers and it seems that most of the ones I've seen are more interested in "Erotic Romance" rather than what we see on a regular basis on Lit.

While I wouldn't recommend you load yourself up with every book on noveling published (as a good portion of them are really crap) I'd look for things published by Writer's Digest over other book publishers out there. There is a decent series by Writer's Digest Books called "The Elements of Fiction Writing" which I think is probably one of the better how to series out there.

Unfortunately, I don't know of a good "how to write an erotic novel" book on the market (as I'm looking for one), but there are some reliable things on general fiction writing, it's really a matter of reading and thinking about what it is that you're reading.

For genre writing, well, it depends on the genre you're shooting for, as to what is good and what isn't. For the record, a decent Romance book is "The Idiot's Guide to Writing a Romance and Getting it Published", a good more inspirational book on Dark Fiction (horror, etc) is "Dark Thoughts on Writing" and an excellent general inspirational book for writers of anything is "Zen and the Art of Writing" by Ray Bradbury.

Hope this is somewhat helpful. Mainly, don't give up, writing a novel can be a lot of fun, but it's a lot of work too.

Stormraven23

 

[Sshafer]

Reply to angel undercover

I say go for it Angel. I have written two books and I'm finshing up two more. At the top of this board you will find a thread were writers of lit. have their books. Go back to that thread and see whos doing there publishing. Once that is done start to write. I try to write ten pages a day sometimes I get only one or two done. Then there are days I will write a hundred or more pages in a day thats when I'm on a roll. Do not an try to force your writing there will be some days that nothing going right if that happens then don't write. There will be days when everything comes togather every thing fits thats when you can knock out alot of great writing. There have been days when I couldn't write a thing then in the middle of the night something clicked and I will get up and write. As someone wrote on this threat get some one to read over your writing to check spelling and make sure you don't wander off the plot line. You have to have a thick skin because some people may not like what you write. But never let that stop you keep writing. That the only way you learn and that how you get to be good the more you write the better you become. Rember there is no set time table to write a book, if it take a year so be it. If you get it done in a couple of months thats great to. Work at your own speed you will know when your writing is good.

 

[Angel Undercover]

Thanks

Everyone has given me some great advice ... thank you all ...I will probly wait to start writing till after the holidays but I will let you all know how well its going!

 

[sweetnpetite]

Re: Thanks

Everyone has given me some great advice ... thank you all ...I will probly wait to start writing till after the holidays but I will let you all know how well its going!

My advice is everytime you read some advice that says, "It's not easy to be a published writer, you have to...." substitute, "It's easy, you just have to... (sit down and right, be persistant, have a thick skin, or whatever.) Try to phyche yourself UP not DOWN

 

[Angel Undercover]

Re: Re: Thanks

My advice is everytime you read some advice that says, "It's not easy to be a published writer, you have to...." substitute, "It's easy, you just have to... (sit down and right, be persistant, have a thick skin, or whatever.) Try to phyche yourself UP not DOWN

Thanks for the advice! I will keep it in mind as I start my writing adventure!

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I just find it strange that people decide they want to write a novel first, and then go looking for something to write about. It seems to me that first you should have a story you want to tell, and then start writing.

---dr.M.

 

[Angel Undercover]

I do have a story line .....

one that I think will work. I just have to sit down and start writing it ! Bring the ideas together so to speak, and I need to come up with Charactor names. LOL ... if you've read any of my writing then you'd see that my female charactor is usually named Angel, and she does everything she can for her lover Sean, to keep him aroused ect. Though I could keep the names the same for the book I dont want too. Anyway thanks for the feedback and have a great day !