Forum: Author Hangout

to post or not to post, that is the question.

Freyrs_stories 🚫

I'm nearing the end of the alpha draft of a story. What do I mean by 'alpha'? most of the scenes and plot are there but there is still a lot of other things to put down. Such as the dialogue and some intervening scenes.

I'd say there's about 20k words till 'alpha' is complete and at least another 20k till I'll be happy with 'first'. After that there will be a lot more 'back and forth' between me and editors to get it to a second and possibly a third draft.

This will result in a story in excess of 20 chapters but it will only be the first 'part' of the story, one year out of four. Once I get to 'first' I'll start poking at the second year.

So, the big question is do I start posting 'part one' when I'm 'happy' with it and then let it roll out once a week or so while I dig away at part two with all the pressure of chapters rolling out, creating a 'deadline' scenario that will rinse repeat for parts two through four. Or do I 'try' and write all of it in one 'go' including some minor edits once it does eventually start posting and maybe garnering feedback. or stress over a 'schedule' to work to.

I've not written at all for the last three months due to injury and starting again will be slow as I finish healing and 'recover'. At least the 'break' has let me read and get the ideas for extra plot points that had eluded me previously. I am taking measures to improve my word output going forward so that may be a non-issue but it doesn't solve my quandary. A rolling release or one once 'all' of the story is 'written' I know that even if I do the all at the end version there will be a lot of re-writing regardless of which path I take. So am I gaining or losing anything with either method?

I do have a good number of other stories 'in progress' and any one of those could be the first to post but none of them look like being the length that this one does at 300 - 500K words. Regardless of which 'path' I choose this story will be unlikely to be the first to actually post from my keyboard, the 'others' are anything up to around 40K, some also with no end in sight.

I feel an urge to post, but what? I feel some of this will be eased in the next couple of weeks when I can put a decent number of words down each week / month. The question I'm asking is how did the other authors on this site go about 'popping their cherries'? A short and cheery missive or an epic or mini-epic to slake their Muse's thirst for a reward.

I understand that some of the people who get into a 'pattern' receive negative input if that 'schedule' slips. I'd like to avoid that as it's likely to be distraction from what ever writing I'm trying to get through at that moment in time.

I do have another 'project' I want to start. A multi-generational series with characters appearing in multiple stories. that one will be a much larger undertaking, maybe not in general word count but certainly in complexity. This current story then is a bit of a practise for that undertaking and I'm hoping to learn from it. From what I have started and roughed out in my head. I think there is only one story that will come in under 10 or 20K and that's out of well over a dozen started. there's even more that are only bullet points for a future idea to run with.

Would people change the way they posted their first few stories here? and if so, why?

Replies: Sarkasmus REP Quasirandom Paladin_HGWT Grey Wolf Freyrs_stories

Sarkasmus 🚫

@Freyrs_stories

I like to finish before I start posting. But that's (mostly) due to the way I write.

I'm the type who starts writing based on an idea, and then fleshes out the story as I go. Naturally, that holds a huge potential to write myself into a corner, so I have to go back and correct things. Or I get an idea in Chapter four that would need some set-up in Chapter two, so I can go back and insert the hints. Once I posted it, it's posted, and I can't correct or extend anything anymore.

Also, I hate it when I get invested in a story, just for the author to go MIA half way through.

Replies: Freyrs_stories Pixy Tw0Cr0ws

Freyrs_stories 🚫

@Sarkasmus

thanks for that. the write myself into a corner is a real fear. in the story I have a character who was going to be a throwaway purely for exposition but now she's crucial to the second year and if I'd written her out that would mean some gymnastics in order to fix.

Pixy 🚫

@Sarkasmus

Once I posted it, it's posted, and I can't correct or extend anything anymore.

Is that personally or technically? Because you can go back and re-post chapters here quite easily if you are not happy with them or wish to add further details.

Replies: Sarkasmus

Sarkasmus 🚫

@Pixy

That's more personal.

Yes, I know that I can edit stories after they're posted, but depending on where I posted them, that can turn out to be a rather tedious task. On Lit, for example, I'd have to post the chapter like I would any other story, and then hope the admins will understand that it's an edit of an already existing chapter and replace it for me.

I also feel like, once readers have consumed my story, that's it. If I screwed up, chances are they won't come back to give me another shot, unless they somehow liked my work enough to follow me. Then I could maybe write a blogpost pointing out the changes, and hope they give it another go.

Tw0Cr0ws 🚫

@Sarkasmus

I hate it when I get invested in a story, just for the author to go MIA half way through.

There is a writer on here that I refuse to read any story he does until it has been concluded because of that. He disappears for long periods then comes back and drops the unfinished stories but starts new ones.

REP 🚫

@Freyrs_stories

I always complete the story through final edit before I start posting because I may want to make changes to prior chapters to support a scene or minor change in plot.

Quasirandom 🚫

@Freyrs_stories

I'm another who needs to finish that final draft before posting. (Back when I was writing commercial fiction, I *HATED* sending an earlier draft to my editor for comments, but sometimes the deadlines required it.) That said, I have no problem with posting (or turning in) the first installment of a series without having finished the next.

I've never understood why my hind-brain thinks these situations aren't similar.

Paladin_HGWT 🚫
Updated:

@Freyrs_stories

I too am writing a very long story with at least "2 or 3 Books"; worse, due to life circumstances I have had to take an involuntary "hiatus" from posting (but I am still writing, albeit at a reduced rate).

That said, I would treat each year as individual "books" and not feel compelled to keep the "Second Book" posting a chapter a week "without a break" from posting the first book.

I too considered trying to write everything first. I decided that I wanted to get feedback on what I had written so far. I don't intend to change my plot, nor many other things. However, there are quite a number of things I learned from feedback.

I have saved myself quite a bit of effort by taking lessons learned from my initial posting of chapters. I also got an offer from a Proofreader. So, my writing has improved, and I am not re-writing as much as I would have, if I had not posted some 30 chapters first. Also, from the chapters I had posted I learned some things, so I was able to do some more self-editing before subsequent chapters posted.

Now, other than a short story, a poem, and a partial story I posted on a fan fiction site, I hadn't posted anything else. So, my circumstances are a bit different than yours.

Plenty of authors post online, or have print books published, without sequels ready for publication.

Hopefully you (and I) will be more like JK Rowling (who published on a fairly regular basis); rather than like George RR Martin who has not been as consistent, and may never finish a Song of Ice and Fire...

Grey Wolf 🚫

@Freyrs_stories

I finished the first book for my story, then found a couple of editor/proofreaders, and started cleaning it up for publication. I was well into the second book before I started posting the first. One of my concerns was that I had to know I could write an entire book and finish it before I started posting anything.

Posting at that point worked well for me. All of my current editors and proofreaders joined subsequent to posting (with my original editors bowing out along the way for various reasons).

I probably posted Book 1 and 2 at somewhat too high a pace and lost some of the buffer I'd like to have now. My current criteria is that I need, at minimum, a 25-chapter buffer between the chapter posting now and the chapter I'm writing (it's higher than that as of today, but that's the minimum). Should I drop below 25, I'll lower the posting rate to compensate.

Ideally I want at least 40. I'm closer to that than I was, but not there yet. That gives me enough room to fill in most of the things I've missed along the way as they come up (and it's inevitable that things will get dropped - I'm often writing the primary plotlines; missing one or more secondary plotlines is probably inevitable unless I hugely change my writing style).

All of that is a very long way of saying: publish in a way that works for you. If you know you can reasonably reach a certain pace of publishable material, that trying to reach it won't burn you out, and so forth, you've got an answer. If trying to meet self-imposed deadlines and keep the words moving will burn you out, publish at a different pace.

I've had times when I can barely write anything, but so far the longest lasted a month and a half, and I got through that one. I've also had weeks where I write more than my target pace for a month. It averages out, with a big enough buffer, but if I was trying to write with a smaller buffer I'd have big problems and either have to slow posting or watch quality suffer.

Freyrs_stories 🚫

@Freyrs_stories

Thanks for everyone's input. I've decided to split my time and keystrokes between 'chocolate' and maybe 2 or 3 other stories to see what happens. if they don't work out I'll roll over to another couple and keep this one on 'keep warm' till I at least get it to a complete 'first' draft at which time I'll likely be looking to get some of the 'second year' written down. I'll rinse/repeat from there I think.

again, thanks for the input.

F.

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Forum: Author Hangout

to post or not to post, that is the question.

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