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Ever tried to write a book?
Posted by EmpressWingMay • 3/23/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: writing
How did that work out for you? Did you get it published? Give up? Rewrite it a million times?
(Just curious since bloggers are, after all, writers.)
User Comments
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lol, I'm a blogger, but I'm not a writer. I just post a crap load of pictures and videos with a few words here and there, and miraculously people comment on them.
But I have tried to write a book. I rewrote it three times, but I never quite finished it. -
Your blog is quite "kewl"! (Har har, I'm such a dork.) What was your book about?
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Thank you!
As you can see from my blog I'm a dork too, so its ok
Ok, don't think I'm psycho or anything, but the book was about a little boy whose dad just died from an unknown disease. YadaYadaYada, stuff happens...and by the end the reader finds out that the mother poisoned the father with meds that she got from the doctor that she was having an affair with and she was trying to poison the little boy as well...
Whew! Lots of words!
(Oh and there's a lot more to the plot, that's why I never finished it. It was waaay too long) -
Wow, that sounds like it would be a good book!
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Except that she spoiled the ending for us -
Ha ha, true!
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I wrote The Tessara in 2005 and have spent the past year revising it and reworking it so that it can work as a published item. I hope to have it off the press in June.-
It's a lot of work, from sitting down to write it all the way to getting it published. CONGRATULATIONS!
I've been working on mine, and am doing a rewrite now. I approached the first draft the way I would a painting, but found out that I can't just throw words on top of words. I ended up with word barf all over a ream of paper!
It has been a long journey, and I'm an impatient person. My previous to last blog post sort of touched on the way I tell the story so far, but has gotten the least response out of any of my previous posts! I hope this doesn't mean that no one will read my book when it's finally done! I think the first-person narrative of the other posts worked better to resonate with readers. I've gone back and forth on the narrative through the rewrite. Oh, so frustrating.
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A couple of times, back in the '90s.
The first time, the story quickly went nowhere.
The second time, I forgot to save and lost what I had written after a power outage -
Oh, that's awful! And yet you put a little smiley face next to it. I would not be that good about it! It could either strengthen your resolve or be a cue that it wasn't meant to be.
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Clear sign that it wasn't meant to be.
It was on an old computer (made in the early '80s!) and, now that I think about it, the story wasn't good. -
A computer from the 80s ... so basically, a rudimentary microwave-looking device with a keyboard, and the memory and processing speed of a brick!
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Hey, at least I could play some nice DOS games in it!
It worked well until we got rid of it in 2000. -
You mean like Pong? Cool! I mean, gnarly!
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What?! Not Pong! Well, maybe Pong ...
We had many games (and a virus, but that's another story).
Among them, was the great Commander Keen:
Fun times! Oh, I miss the '90s ... -
That's kickin' it old skool, fer shur.
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i am currently writing a book and really hoping to complete writing it soon.-
That's awesome! What's it about?
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thanks! its about Relationship Issues of Adolescents and Young Adults ...
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Seems like a complex topic to write about, but I've seen your writing so I've no doubt you can do this. You have a way of writing about complex subject matter in a clear, illustrative way.
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I'm really hoping that it works out well. I havent been able to give it the amount of time that I would have really liked to, which has delayed the process quite a bit. but i'm hanging in there and definitely won't be giving up. it would be tough to find a publisher, but first things first, i really have to complete the writing part as soon as possible.
i've got a satisfactory response to my blog, which has been encouraging and your words have further motivated me.
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I've written several books...
...my first was about an orphan in Victorian London who finds himself in with a thieves' gang despite his innate goodness.
...second one was about the tempestuous relationships between a man who was adopted when he was a child and the members of the family he joined...set that one in the 19th century on the Yorkshire moors.
...my third book was a bit of a departure...it was a children's book and I set it in a fantasy world. It was about a wizard and a group of dwarves going on an adventure to get some gold from a dragon's lair.
...I'm currently writing a book set in modern times, and I think it's going to be quite controversial...it's about a big conspiracy to cover up the fact that Christ had a child. I hope it doesn't cause too big a stir!-
Hey, don't forget about the book in the making you've been slaving on right here on BC. -
What, you mean this thread? LOL I'm just a curious person. I ask a lot of questions. I must have driven my parents crazy when I was a kid.
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Oh neat! I don't know how I missed that.
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@Siuil
Oh my goodness. I bow down to thee, Prolific, Productive One! Seriously, that's really impressive, three books and working on a fourth. The fourth one, if it causes too big a stir, will net you more buzz and more readers! -
umm , not yet -
Yeah, I started 56 books.
Finished them all too.-
Jerk.
Just kidding, but I'm a little jealous...
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I have! I was writing one, got through about 50 pages and figured that A it's not long enough and B I have no idea where to take it. It's quite a frustrating problem. It's about this guy a coma a girl and a love lost.-
Hello odenflagship, I don't think there's a set number of pages that a book has to be. Carl Hiaasen's Team Rodent is about the length of a booklet, but it's still considered a book. Different subject matter though, I know.
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+1 for Jack Payne, that is such a BA comment. He basically said, "Yes, I am better than you." thanks Jack!
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Yeah, I didn't comment on that. I don't know what a BA comment is. (Not bad ass, right? 'Cause it wasn't.) That's great for him, but without any insight into the process like the other contributors to this thread, it just looks like bragging.
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bit.....ter
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ha ha! actually I did.
And I only finished three pages' worth of writing. -
That's a start!
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I had a book (BYTE-ing Satire) published before I started blogging. It is a collection of the first year's worth of a weekly humorous column poking fun at people's use and abuse of everyday technologies.
I wrote the columns for a trade publication. The publisher of the trade publication also has a book division. That's the publisher that published the book. Only about 5-10% of the material was written just for the book, the rest came from the weekly columns.
The book is still available on online bookstores (he said in a brazen promotion).
Actually, I started blogging primarily to try to promote the book. It didn't help sales, but for some reason that I still don't understand, I didn't stop blogging.-
That's really cool. I'm looking at it on Amazon right now! Why not brazenly promote it? Maybe you didn't stop blogging because there's another book in the pipeline, and you're trying to figure out what it is?
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Maybe, but I'd like to see a few more copies of the first book sell first. My book wasn't self-published, so I've made some royalties without any cost, but the publisher hasn't made it's money back yet. If you'd like to buy a few hundred copies that would certainly make my publisher and me happy.
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yeah.. only chapter 1.. hahahaha... i really want to write a book
www.estudyantenghectic.blogspot.com
www.marcospot.blogspot.com -
I always wanted to write a book and I always consider myself as a frustrated writer. I really don't why. But one thing's for sure.. I'm a BLOGGER, and this is a testament to my love of writing... hahaha.. -
I wrote the first 12 chapters of a book. It's very good. But I got really sick when I wrote it... And I'm just now becoming human again to where I'm able to write - But not quite mentally capable of finishing it yet.
I plan to write more books. I enjoy writing and I think I'm a good writer. (not being snotty or anything... just my writing is good at least to me... LOL... and I've had lots of folks read some of my stuff...)
Yanno - some people have a talent for stuff --- my talent lies in writing... at least when I'm doing it.
I also write lyrics, poetry, articles - and I've been published on a couple - but nothing like a MAJOR publisher. I've sent articles to businesses who have used my stuff to submit to Reuters.
But --- don't ask me to bake a cake.
Or to fold laundry.
LOL!
I have NO talents when it comes to sports (except badminton) and no talents on the "homemaking" spree...
But I'm a good mom - a good writer - and a good friend.
LOL!
WW-
You're funny, and you ARE a good writer. I'm a visual artist. I don't know how I got into writing! It's much cleaner -- no supplies really, more immediate, and takes about the same amount of mental preparation.
BTW, your blog looks great!
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no never, do you think i should?-
Only if you want to.
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Yep, over the years I've written a few books, none of which in the long run I felt were of a quality for publication-- most of them were written when I was a teenager or early in college.
I've learned a lot since then.
Currently, I'm writing one I am proud of, and am 185 pages into it. It's a humorous science-fantasy, tonally along the general lines of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or some of the Terry Pratchett books.
I'm enjoying the work a lot, just would like to have more time to work on it-- I have two blogs plus a full time job... so I have to carve out time when I can.-
Wow, I don't know how you find the time!
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I love writing stories when I'm 13..
I even finished one book, and its a fiction, because those times, my imaginations were goin' crazy! I want to be a superhero... I want to be a king... you know,hehe.., kid thing... -
I wanted to be a superhero, too, something along the lines of Wonder Woman, except I wanted to be able to fly without the help of an invisible plane. I had a really kick ass comic book collection for awhile, until my brothers raided it.
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Never! I just like reading. I'm not good at writing and storytelling. -
how to start writing a book is the most difficult part
once u start then it becoomes easy and interesting -
I wrote a collection of short stories about the antics and hilarity in the Chicago rental market. It was relevant for a while in the 90’s, but because it wasn’t published right away (i.e.-—because it was rejected), there was no sense in continuing to revise and resubmit for publication. The material was time sensitive. In the meanwhile, I’ve pillaged, salvaged, wretched and borrowed the content for other things (—-kind of like making banana bread out of old bananas).
I’ve also written a children’s play set in the late Renaissance era that throws a critical eye on the tendency to blindly adopt new technologies. It uses three tools of reasoning common to the Socratic dialogs: argument, analogy and storytelling. When I get caught up, I’ll probably make it freely available for non-commercial (school) performances. I imagine I’ll start with a link or excerpts on my blog, which is all about early childhood education.
I’ve written other plays that I’ve drafted into oblivion (more banana bread), and one day might dust off a collection of letters I wrote for six years with a clinically depressed woman. -
Yep, we have already published 4 books. Most excerpt from our books can be found in our blog. -
I write the book which make the whole world sing
I write the book of love and a special thing
I write the book that make the young girls cry
I write the book, I write the book -
Yes, several times. Never got past about 4500 words. My problem is that I am not methodical enough (aka JKRowling) to plan sufficiently to make it easy to follow an outline, and I'm not spontaneous enough (aka Jack Kerouac) to just write whatever and worry about whether it makes sense and/or is believable during re-write.
It's also possible that I just don't want it badly enough. Someone said that novel-writing is easy: you just sit down at the blank page and open a vein.
That sounds a little unpleasant actually - I think there's a CSI re-run on - I'd rather watch it than do it. -
I've got plans to write some. They would be more of the instructional sort on the topics of beading patterns, and also on ways to upcycle common household items.
Avogana
beading-blog.blogspot.com
recycling-art.blogspot.com -
This is one of my goals for the near future, but for now I'm focusing on blogging, poetry, and short stories. -
I have started three different books. It seems as if I get to a certain point and then can't go any further. Probably one of the reasons I started blogging. -
Ok...feel I should come clean as EmpressWingMay still hasn't gotten my joke...
Book 1 = Oliver Twist
Book 2 = Wuthering Heights
Book 3 = The Hobbit
Book 4 = The DaVinci Code
...not much of a reader, I'm guessing!-
The Da vinci code isn't a book, It's the inane scribblings of a seven year old with behavioural problems and a guide book to Paris. -
@aningeniousname, I couldn't agree more. It's one of the worst-written books I've ever read. Full of contradictory plot points, literally NO character development (difficult for a book that's so long), and terrible, terrible dialogue.
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I know, I couldn't believe how badly written it was. I was able to get about twenty pages in and that was as much as I could take. I don't know how he ever got it published never mind how he sold millions.
It reminded me of a young teenager's writing when they haven't really got to grips with what writing is about yet and use every cliché known to man because "That's what writing is" -
I haven't read it...anything Stephen Fry describes as 'arse-gravy' isn't going to make it onto my bookshelves...
I just thought that she would surely have heard of The DaVinci Code even if the others had gone over her head! -
Don't be ashamed of it, if that's what you like that's what you like.
We won't think any less of you. -
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
I can't have people thinking I read Dan Brown! *commits suicide* -
If you are going to commit suicide you must do it Dan Brown style.
Siuilaruin looked at the gun. It was a nice gun, maybe it had been Jeebus's gun or the pope's gun.
She looked at the Eiffel tower, which was built in the 1800's by Monsieur Eiffel out of metal. It is big.
She pulled the thing that lets bullets come out, what they called in the knights templar's a trigger. She was dead. The pope he was happy. -
I think if I had to read a book written like that I probably would kill myself.
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I caught on to it, but I was waiting for you to fess up.
Dan Brown writes better than that, barely, but still. -
I didn't think I'd need to fess up...
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Good one! LOL
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@aningeniousname
That was awesome!
Where can I read more of your work?
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Yes when I was a teenager I wrote about a guy spending a vacation at a beach resort only to notice it has an undercover werewolves society -
Did he have to pay extra for that at the resort, or was it all-inclusive?
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hahahahaha well he wasn't told there was a society so no.
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Hey, I'd read that book. Sounds like an episode of The X-Files or something.
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I wrote two but am rubbish at editing so no publisher. Want to do it again some day but no time right now. -
I am currently working on my second, but the first is as of yet unfinished.
The first was a bodice, ripping Historical romance that spans continents and two generations. I was really into it for about a month, then just burnt out as soon as I had outlined the entire plot in my head.
The second is a fictionalized memoir, heavy on the fiction, light on the memoir about a girl who goes home to reconcile with her mother on the event of her father's death and on the way, discovers self-acceptance.-
what's the title
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All my writings gets transformed into poetry form..
My 26 philosonaloetic peace (poems) can make atleast 20 books -
i've written three- 2 fiction and one narrative non-fiction. i submitted my narrative non-fiction to literary agencies last spring with positive results. i decided that if i were to be published i would want my literary debut to be fiction... thus i am working on my third project that i began in february, a novel called 'letters2soulmate' that i will begin to introduce and unveil on my site soon!
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I am currently working on 4. I've been currently working on them for at least 4 years now and seem to be in the same place. I seem to get to a spot and then freeze, not sure how to unfreeze myself just yet, but plan to, hopefully soon! Are you trying to write a book?-
I've been doing the same thing as you, sounds like. I wrote and illustrated one, but it's not ready for prime time yet, so I haven't taken it to a publisher. It took me a year to outline it, I've spent the second year writing the same chapters over and over, and now (still second year) I'm changing the narrative. It's about a girl who meets all the wrong people in life, but she learns an important life lesson from each one. Each chapter focuses on a different colorful character as the narrator moves through her life.
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Not sure how much of a "book" it is, but I have been working on a Book of Poetry that should be published hopefully before the end of the summer. We'll see how that goes. But besides that I've had various attempts at starting to write one but have a small issue with maintaining that single train of thought in an organized way. *shrugs* perhaps in due time :). -
I always wanted to write fiction. However, I never could get a story started. Then I started writing non fiction, mostly movie reviews and reports on the entertainment business and found that is my niche. LOL who knew. -
I am sitting on an edited manuscript. It is ready for publisher to do their part. Let me see where it goes. -
Terraking, that does seem to happen a lot Just kind of following what entertains you and allowing it to lead you to places you didn't think you were going. It's pretty funny
Congrats, Sudam08. I hope everything works out great! -
I've finished four books and have three others in progress--unfortunately not too much time to work on them these days. One I sold and was published under a packaged name (no, I can't tell you what it was), one was self-published (this one made the most money), one I had to pull from publication because of my job, and one I'm in the process of revising per request of a potential publisher. The rest, unfortunately, are in limbo until I can recover from the past three years and impose some order on my life.-
Keep writing! Do you recommend self-publishing, then?
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Actually, no. Or at least, not without a lot of research. The book that I self-published was a niche non-fiction book, and I had a ready market. I also have a background in marketing, specifically in internet marketing, and had a powerful endorsement that helped build sales. I worked relevant online forums and such for several months before the book came out, and published a lot of articles online on related subjects, often for free in exchange for links back to the sale page when the time came. So, while there is definitely money to be made in self-publishing, I think that different types of books do better--it is VERY rare for a self-published novel even to break even. And I think that to make any money at all in self-publishing, one has to be willing and able to invest in an ambitious marketing plan.
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I wrote the first draft of a scifi. I was so proud when I finished that draft. Then I went back for my first rewrite. It was awful. The sentences didn't hold together. The plod changed no less than three times during the story. Character's personalities changed dramatically. I tried a couple of times to put it back together but it was a lost cause. I haven't really tried since then.-
Sometimes it's better to start over from scratch.
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I've started and stopped - never completed anything. Now I just write short stories or serials. I'm planning on joining NaNoRiMo to force myself to actually finish one.-
Good luck, you can do it! Personally, I need people to give me deadlines. That outside pressure and encouragement really helps.
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Yeah..reached about chapter 4..last time I added to it I got pissed off because the Stargate movie had just came out and they had sort of stolen my idea. I get a lot of that.. have these great ideas...usually through dreams. My theory is that I tell someone in the pub and the idea is that great that it filters through too Hollywood and they make my movie..tragedy..great mind..lazy Bas##rd-
That's funny. I believe that ideas are more or less just floating around in the ether. I've seen group photography exhibits where the work looks like it was shot by one photographer, except that all the pieces were by different people from all over the world. They must have been similarly inspired at the exact same time!
You just have to be one of the people who plucks the idea out of the ether and turn it into something tangible.
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Thanks. I am a bit busy with some other activities presently but by the year end i hope something substantial will be done.
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I've written a brief digital book on the use of meditation and energy work for greater compassion... but it was less than 30 pages.
I plan to write more, but I don't know if I will ever write anything in the 100 page + realm. I lean toward informational books, but I have several ideas for fiction as well.
When you blog regularly, it just seems to be an issue of scope and continuity... just keep writing long enough on one topic...
keep smiling,
Ben
www.peacefulprosperity.com/blog -
My blog is my book - well first ever attempt at telling a story in this way. If my blog gets attention then I will think a little bit more seriously about writing and publishing an actual book -
Sounds interesting, lemortedeben.
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Working on one. Its called "The Book of Cheeseburger". -
Hi, I've had 6 books published my most recent book is THE VISION BOARD: the secret to an extraordinary life which I was able to get a $100,000 deal from Harper Collins Publishing for. To see 20 free pages go to tinyurl.com/seeinsidebook and sign up for my free newsletter at www.visionboard.info -
I wrote 2 books. Now I'm writing another, too. -
i just finished a book (a romantic mystery) and i'm in the process of querying agents....that's what my blog's about. my quest to become published! -
ive tried writing so many novels and novellas, but i give up on them all because i suck at writing everything but dialogue. so now i write screenplays -
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well i have tried to start writing a lot of books , but gave up finding that my language is jst soo poor that it will drive the reader mad -
Yes, I've written two novels; one of which is sufficiently ready that I'm working on getting it published.
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No,maybe in the futures. -
Hmmm, i think ill be able to write one! Before doomsday that is! -
My life is my book. I'm still working on it. -
almlost finished my book and looking to publish this year. Already had a radio interview and some positive feedback. It's about the healing journey from the effects of child abuse and rape.
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