Scribblers?

[Circus Cranium]

I'm just curious how many other Chronicles members are writers?

How long have you been writing, and what do you write?

Successes, publications or aspirations?

Hobby or die-hard passion?

[I, Brian]

Long-time aspirant - I completed my first novel format 10 years ago - a modern parody of Romeo and Juliet as a modern comedy - first as a play, then as a novel. I paid £50 for a short appraisal of the novel from a slightly dodgy literary company, and the basic reply was: 1. technically not well written; 2. modern comedy is one of the hardest novel formats to sell. Project abandoned.

A year later I started "Chronicles of Empire" - a massive fantasy epic based on mediaeval realism, but containing sff elements. I read sff was the biggest literary market, so figured it would be easier to get published there (!!!) and then spent around 7 or 8 years writing the first volume of 5 novels (approx. 750,000 words), and plotting an overall 6 volume series.

Took it to agents in 2002 - roundly rejected. Took it to Orson Scott Card's Hatrack River critique group, only to be told it was very over-written, and I needed to learn the basics of technical writing before writing a novel - acceptable use of Point of View for starters. Conclusion - unpublishable in current format.

"Chronicles of Empire" remains a masterpiece in the making - the characters and plotting are extremely well-developed - but I need to make a lot of effort to thrash it into shape - first volume needs rewriting in a completely different Point of View, and requires editing down to around 150,000-180,000 words (about 25% current amount).

It may yet be too long for a first time author, so I've thrown my lot in with a science fiction trilogy - Emperor - that serves both as a prologue and epilogue to "Chronicles of Empire". Currently in its third revision, as my writing style improves. Was hoping to have finished it by now, but 2005 has also seemed like an important year for me from a publishing point of view. I consider myself to finally be a serious aspirant, and my ego very much in check.

At the heart of my stories is a series of "revelations" I experienced in 1997, which combine science and spirituality in a rather big way. Includes some radical idea about the universe, solar system development, the evolution of life, and consciousness itself. Adding it all to my "fiction" has been a way to try and get the ideas out for maximum exposure, without being seen to be too flaky.

Main focus is as a novelist.

I also have a secret comedy project on the slow burn.

[Foxbat]

I just write as a hobby. Had some small success - won first prize two years out of four in a regional writing competition(1990 and 1992), so you can see I'm a very slow writer. Had ten short stories published (mags and anthologies). My biggest royalty check was for £15!!!

I've also written a screenplay which remains unsubmitted and I'm currently half-way through my first attempt at a novel (it's neither Fantasy nor Science Fiction) set in Scotland in 1969. It will also lie around for a while unsubmitted (if I ever mange to finish it).

My only aspiration is to enjoy what I do. Everything else is a bonus

[Mark Robson]

I started writing from a throw-away line by my navigator whilst I was in the Falkland Islands in about 1996. I was pretty irritable at being idle as the weather was too bad to fly. He got annoyed with me and said 'For goodness sake do something useful; write a book or something!' I took it as a challenge and told him I'd write the Prologue to a book, and if he liked it, I'd write the rest.

I wrote the Prologue to 'The Forging of the Sword' - the first of a four part fantasy series. I've always liked fantasy series. I finished the book over the following 18 months - about 100 000 words. Sent it off to a couple of publishers and about 8 different Literary Agencies over the following year. No bites. I then had one hard back copy made up for my bookshelf and didn't write anything more of the series for the next two years until I was convinced to self-publish it.

'The Forging of the Sword' was published in summer 2000 and has been re-printed every year since with increasingly large runs. I published 'Trail of the Huntress' in summer 2001, 'First Sword' in 2002, and 'The Chosen One' in summer 2003. This series is now complete. All of the titles have sold well.

My break into mainstream publishing came with a novel called 'Imperial Spy', which was written earlier this year (again 100 000 words). I drafted it between Jan and May 04, submitted it via a Literary Agent (who had signed me up in January) in July and agreed a deal in September with Simon & Schuster for a two book contract.

I'm currently writing 'Imperial Assassin' - part 2 of the book deal. However, thanks to a bit of inspiration from this site, I'm writing a second novel in parallel with this called 'Dragon Pact'. The prologue - 'Dawn Dragon' is in the Critiques section.

Launch dates for Imperial Spy and Imperial Assassin are Spring 06 and Autumn 06 respectively. The 4 titles of my self-published series (The Darkweaver Legacy) are currently available through amazon, or by order from any mainstream UK bookshop. They are also becoming increasingly available on the shelves of major UK book chains, and should be stocked nationally after the new cover versions are available.

[Circus Cranium]

That's really interesting, I love hearing about other people's treks through the writing world. Foxbat, I'd love to write a screenplay, but I always find myself getting impatient when I try......like I want to express more point of views and end up just making it a novella. I guess I have a short attention span, but I'd like to learn to do it.

Mark, congrats on your contract with Simon and Shuster! That's freeking huge, wow, you must be jumping up and down.

Brian, your tale sounds a bit like mine, cept where I say I wrote the ten commandments, you wrote the whole damn bible! lol My first version of my first novel, finished in 2000 was over 300k words, and I knew virtually NOTHING about editing. I thought I did, but man, the thing was a freeking MONSTER. I could have killed someone by bashing them over the head with that manuscript. When I first sent it out, I got a phone call from an editor at Tor. At the time, I was so inexperienced, that I didn't appreciate how huge a deal getting a phone call from Tor was. He told me the synopsis was one of the most interesting things he'd ever seen, and to send the whole book. So I did, and it got rejected. I was told I over-write.....just like Brian said.

Since then, I've read tons of editing books, and of course practice practice, learned about things like 'author intrusion', and how to only leave scenes that are relevant to the plot. Three years and carving and cutting and editing the crap out of it, I got it down to 200k words, and sold it to Mundania Press. That's a hundred thousand words I cut from the original manuscript, and I STILL had trouble selling it at 200k because people said it was too long. But scifi supposedly is the only market that long word counts are the norm.

[littlemissattitude]

I write, and I've had short pieces published (mostly letters to editors in newspapers and magazines, as well as an op-ed piece or two), but I've never been paid for any of them. That's next on the agenda.

I play around with fiction, but I'm much more serious about my non-fiction writing. I'm currently trying to get back on track with a book-length work on the Baby Boomer generation. It was going along very well until a series of family things got in the way a few months ago. I wasn't able to work on it at all for about two months and once I had the time to work on it again, I'd sort of lost my direction on it. So I've been piddling with it ever since; just in the past month or so I've started getting back into this project in a serious manner.

When I couldn't get back on track with that project, I started playing around with another project, this one dealing with belief and belief systems. I find that it's always good to have a fall-back project so that when one project isn't going anywhere I have something else to work on so that I don't just quit writing.

Most writing, though is on hold until after next weekend - this is "Nutcracker week", and I'll mostly be in rehearsals and performances until a week from today. Can't pass up a paying job, now can I?

[knivesout]

I've been scribbling away forever - my earliest works, as a young boy, were this chaotic salad of sf, cowboys and injuns and mystery stories - basically a regurgitation of everything I'd been reading at the time. I really started seriously trying to write stories in college though. There were a few Lovecraftian atmoshphere pieces, and a novel set in the real world, the mandatory coming-of-age novel every young man will try his hand at. I'd never want to have it published, now, but it taught me a lot about characterisation, dialogue and scene setting, because I was basicaly channeling things I knew first hand and was all too aware of how well or badly I'd caught the spirit of things.

I've had some nonfic published, like littlemiss - I used to freelance about the local music scene for a newspaper, and also write music and literary criticism for a glossy mag. I've stoped that because I ddin't have enough time, but I'm thinking of starting again.

And these days I'm trying to write stories that broadly fall under the spec fic bracket. It's fun to do.

[Leto]

Non-fic only. And paid for this fror 8 years now. Mostly tech articles, but also more and more about SF.
I've tried fiction once, and I've never get past the first chapter. My problem is that I immediatly sees what's wrong in my writing but not what's right. The main character is still somewhere inside my brain, I'll let her out sooner or latter.

[SilverLady]

I'm pleased for those of you who have had such success with your works, and for those who are still on that journey - keep going! A story dreamed but not shared is a sad thing indeed.
I've been using writing as a kind of thearapy for years now - since I was about 10 years old, in fact! Short stories and poetry for the most part, & a few larger endevours which I'm not sure will ever be finished! I love to write, but I hate to read my writing. I tend to re-write them in my mind as I'm reading them, which can be very distracting! (not to mention the many alternate endings I then start thinking of!)
I am trying to develope a new writing style for my short stories, but as yet I'm unsure of how it's working.
Would any one care to share any of thier shorter works? (a link, perhaps?)

[Foxbat]

SilverLady: You will find many interesting pieces (extracts rather than complete works) in the critiques section on this forum. Quite a few folk post stuff just so that they can get a measure of how their new story or technique is working. People criticising their work are asked merely that any criticism be constructive. I think you may find it close to what you are looking for.

[Foxbat]

Here's a link to one of mine (The Butterfly Collector)

http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/ap77v7.htm

[Circus Cranium]

(A story dreamed but not shared is a sad thing indeed.)


Amen Sistah Silvah Lady!

[Sirathiel]

I started writing fiction when I was still a school kid. Back then I had the aspiration of becoming a writer. But soon enough, I became aware that I was only writing very sporadically. And that way, you'll never get anything published.

These days I mainly write for fun. I still harbour the hope that if I ever to manage to finish one of my more serious works, I might get it published... who knows...

The only stories I have finished are basically some short stories (to be found at www.seyrenia.de under the pseudonym Sira Thiel) and fanfiction.