memoriam wrote:@Demonskid: I'd read that I mean, anything fantasy, really XD I write fantasy, too Mine is more on demons and angels side, but in reading I enjoy mostly anything in fantasy genre.
Why wouldn't you get to the dragons part? Have you gotten yourself into the rabbit whole that is Revising before you finished the first draft and you can't get out of it?

@Popo: What sales? Wut? :o

When I first started writing this at the end of last year/start of this year, I shared small tidbits with a friend.

The part I shared he decided to re-write completely, using words I don't even know (he's from scottland) and it just didn't look like anything I wrote and it discouraged me. I stopped writing for a while...

I picked it up again not long ago, was reading what I did write to refresh my memory... saw that a few things in the beginning happened too soon that I needed to correct.. but to correct it I needed to rewrite most of the chapters.

I decided to just do a whole rewrite instead xD

after that rewrite, i finally started to continue... then I realized... i never described what people friggen looked like other than the MC! Dx

So that started this current re-write.. its mainly adding descriptions.... as I added stuff.. again I saw something happening too soon so I rewrote that part.. =w=, but it was THAT big of a change, easily cut out, but I still had to go through all the chapters. and as I did that, I changed a few other things xD these changes are good though. ovo, until I find another reason to rewrite stuff =A=,

What I REALLY want and need to do is get some character and beast art made.. every thing I've made so far just flat out sucks =A= the only decent art i have are of the MC's daggers and of some random items

Aw, I'm sorry to hear your friend decided to re-write YOUR writing, that's rude... No wonder it discouraged you. I suppose he probably had good intentions but it only proved to you that you weren't good enough (which is never true). An advice I once heard was to never give your first draft anything to anyone, even another writer. First drafts suck, then we can improve them :)

Well, to be completely honest, you can add the descriptions later, they really aren't crucial to the story, right? Unless the story is about the magic of hair/eyes/skin based on its color. Writers write their first drafts very differently, some completely ommit some stuff like descriptions and add them during revising :) Same goes for fixing pacing etc.

Haha, I'd ask myself if I REALLY need that art. I once thought I absolutely needed to make the world's map to know what it looks like and to visualize and now I'm not even using the maps XD I guess it only gave me the peace of mind, maybe (I still fear I'll be changing the heck out of that map during writing...). So perhaps it's okay if you only find some inspiration online? Or leave the visual things as "first concept" for further improvement?
On the other hand, I should really figure out bisolar systems to understand the day/night and seasons in my world...
I got stuck on NaNo and not knowing the following scenes I need to write. No outlining skills, lol.

Another good advice I got was "don't panic, just write whatever, you'll improve it in revision". It's super hard to do, because you read what you wrote and you think it's total crap, but if you let it breathe for a few days and read it again you'll actually notice it's not half bad. And if it is, you will easily notice what's wrong and will be able to fix it :)

I go to use the eye color or hair color for something then realized... i never gave them one o3o like "She moved a strand of her blond hair as she spoke." stuff to keep me from constantly going 'he said, she said' over and over =w=,

I get lost in my fantasy city often =w= so I make maps.

And I want to make arts eventually, draw out scenes here and there, like how japan does with their light novels.


owo i have a calendar made up and the place has 2 moons >:D


my issue is that i keep letting out the MC's secret too soon. that or introducing a character too soon.. =A= He's told the king three times (too early) his secret.. chief guard and guild master several times too early.. -head desk-

XD Maybe it just wasn't relevant when you were writing them previously and now you can imagine your characters more clearly?
To be fair, I've changed my character's appeaance several times, as well as names
'Said' isn't always bad though, it's one of the so called invisible verbs, they have less potential to ruining the immersion effect :)

Ooh, I wonder if I need city maps, so far I made continents XD Maybe I should make some, but I don't feel like I need them right now.
How do you create your maps? Do you use some program online? Some time ago I found this website called Inkarnate, it was great.

Aah, see, eventually, so maybe you're just distracting yourself from writing by telling yourself you need the art? XD I'm so guilty of this, lol.

Haha, I once approached making up the whole calendar, names of months in every language/culture etc., but only got to a point of knowing I had 20 months (no names tho), I have no idea how my seasons work because I have two suns, 4 normal moons a a fifth moon that comes around every few years (didn't decide how many tho) and it marks the intercalary year soooo.... it got complicated fast and I have no info still I got to that and then decided it wasn't relevant so eff it XD I need them seasons tho, and day/night, it's weird with two suns, especially how they work together is important. And I'm indecisive so Idk if they circle each other or one circles the other. I think I wanted the second option, but then it's more complicated and I'm too scared to figure it out...

Hmm, so it's either a pacing problem (which can be fixed in revision, so I wouldn't worry that much) or you need to work on that character. Maybe make him more secretive, to himself, not very trusting? OR give him a good reason to share his secret this early on, maybe it would make a good conflict. He shared too soon and suddenly he's in bigger trouble than before because of it? Try asking him why he's so over-sharing, perhaps he's not the person you want him to be :D

It is relevant o3o My brain just goes blach


I have a bad habit of using 'said' WAY too much, it's why I try to use other things in its place and use it less.

maps.. i use paint or photoshop.. o3o I want to make a 3D map but I suck at 3D xD

Character art gives me something to do when mom has a dr appointment or when I need a break from writing o3o

My calendar has 10 months 6 days a week, the months go back and forth on 18 and 19 days; like month one is 18 days, month two is 19, then back to 18 so on so forth, only exception is the last month which is 20 days!

names.. -w-, haha I'm so not creative for month/day names x'D

Months:
Firs
Seqs
Thirs
Fous
Fits
Sics
Sevs
Eighs
Nins
Tuns

Days:
Suu
Mun
Fir
Wat
Met
Ert

>w>,


Its more of a I derp and try to rush things then it screws up the actual pacing and MC is yelling at me because of it. he goes "I told ya so! o:< fixes it!"

Lol, yeah, I get it, I also have such blach moments (like right now actually).

Just don't overdo it the other way then
Do your characters have distinctive voices? If you don't hear the difference in dialogue between two chars then maybe that's why you feel the urge to keep telling the reader who's saying what?

I can't imagine using paint and photoshop XD But I have no idea how photoshop works. I have no idea about real geography so I asked a ton of questions to my bf and then I found that website where you can create maps from scratch (most sites are random generators).

I understand, so art=break. I take too many breaks, in other words, I procrastinate XD Today I went to the bank only because I really didn't want to write because I git stuck on this scene and I'm terrified...

Your months' names sound very similar to the numerals. Was that intentional? The weekdays also seem similar to English names, but not as much as the months' names. I had no patience to come up with new names and I'm glad I didn't, I can always think about that later ;P

Then don't try to rush it :D Why do you feel you have to?

Some of the characters speak differently. the MC, who lives a double life, speaks politely as one person and like a slum rat as the other.. or he tries to >w> his upbringing shines through

I just needed a general layout so I know where the heck i'm going and so I can remember which store is located where. o3o

It was intentional >w> firs = first... second third forth fifth.. so on so forth x'D

Days were more of a play on this worlds week days in Japan.
Suu (sun) mun (moon) Fir (Fire) Wat (water) Met (Metal) and Ert (Earth)
If you were to equate these with our week days:
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday.
Ninjiyobi, Getsuyobi, Kayoubi, Suiyobi, Kinyobi, Doyobi
(Sun, moon, fire, water, metal, earth) xD

Mokiyobi/Thursday (wood) doesn't exist in this calendar >w>


It's not that I feel I have to rush, I just get the idea in my head "What if it goes down like this..." then it ends up not working xD I know who where and when he's suppose to tell people, but i get excited "WHAT IF!!!"

If they have distinctive voices then there's no need to keep telling who said what, at least in most cases :) Or instead os using "said" you can just describe what the character's doing at that moment.

Does your story take place in one city? Mine is all over the place and I'm just trying not to worry about maps, maybe I won't need them that much XD

Haha, then it shows ;)
Interesting approach on the week days too. I'm just like "they'll just call them by numbers, I don't care enough right now to make the names up".

LOL, if you have a plan why not write it that way? Or before you write the new idea write it down in a notebook and analyze if it would end up better for the story or not. It would save you a lot of time and frustration.
I did it a few times and some new ideas turned out to be better but some turned out to be plain stupid and inconsistent and I didn't waste time writing the whole alternate scene etc.

That's why i need the descriptions.. o3o the girls mess with their hair sometimes when they talk the one boy has a mohawk so if he moves his head it swishes, is their skin tan? pale? really dark? are their arms short or long.. what about their legs? are they stretching their long legs, are they flailing their short arms? what color are their eyes? are they glaring at someone or sparkling with happiness o3o

when people know what a character looks like, I can drop names and go "green eyes flickered with michivious" and since only one of the two speaking have green eyes they'll know who said what!


Right now it's in once city, but as an adventurer the MC will be visiting other places. the second arc will be in Faloria the elven kingdom and then third arc will be in Shugoe Kingdom (dragonkin/beastkin territory) then the final arc will be back in the original Kingdom, Kingdom of Lior.. but for now, my map just concentrates on Lior's city xD I couldn't remember where I put the school board building the other night x-x, I didn't have it down on the map

My carpal tunnel doesn't like me writing this out by hand. so I just write it the way my brain says to write it and if it doesn't work I just go back and re-write the thing starting where I messed up. o3o since it's typed out, i just cut the parts I'm nixing and just save it to the nix folder in case something in there could be useful later on >:3


I finally am out of the re-writes and back into turning the outline into story... and finally finished the death part QnQ

It's not always necessary to put the colors etc. unless maybe when you're introducing a new character. At least I think so. If you know the character is tall, they will probably have long legs, so you can mention that in describing their actions and that's how the reader will conclude the character is tall. Same with eyes, if a character that has been introduced already is constantly "gazing with her green eyes" it will be terribly repeatable and tiring to read. I know I'm annoyed when I read over and over again about a character's eye color like it's relevant to the story. We get she has green eyes, we still don't care unless they suddeny start glowing and shooting lasers. I think it's much better to focus on the emotion (like you mentioned glare vs. happiness).
Why would you drop names tho? If the character has their own voice, most of the time you can just skip the explanation who said what completely because the way it's said will be enough :) And the name is a better reminder than an eye color imho.

Hehe, I'm glad I don't feel the need to make detailed maps for now x.x

Well, I didn't say you have to write it by hand Even if you write the idea on your computer and expand on it for a while without writing the whole scene, it's still less time consuming. Like a map of thoughts, and then you jump to conclusions whether the idea is worth implementing into the story or not.
Sure, the cut out pieces might inspire you to something else later :)

Yay, that's awesome! May I ask how you outline? Do you have any tips?