Forum: Author Hangout

In the old days, I'd crank out 3 full novels (60 to 250K words) a year. However, after getting off the old 'Publish-or-Perish' treadmill, I've learned a LOT more about how to write, though I've also forgotten more than most authors know, so I'm forgetting with one hand and learning new things with the other.

However, since learning new things builds new brain cells, mainly because those new things create new associations, reinforcing your other memories, I've always seen learning new things as my Alzheimer's protection (I've lost several relatives to it, so I'm ever-mindful of it).

Nowadays, I mostly write until I encounter some significant story issue, put it onto a shelf to work on something else, and frequently, never get back to it again. :(

I mostly write until I encounter some significant story issue, put it onto a shelf to work on something else, and frequently, never get back to it again.

Page 40 disease. Happens to all of us. They are a good resource though. I frequently scavenge those unfinishables for plot elements or just character names. Never waste, never want.

When I finally got myself motivated to write something (after plotting things in my head for years), I got about that far into a story.

Then a different idea popped into my head, and I wrote about four times as much story in two days. It's just kept going since then.

The first one is still there, waiting. Sooner or later, I will probably dust it off. The idea was solid and is solid. The actual story will probably be told radically differently than it would have been the first time.

And I've got three other things kicking around (two that are theoretically short stories but will probably turn into novella-length works, and one that's an epic), all of which were written while taking short breaks from my ongoing mega-epic.

I should probably try to make myself write something else every so often. It's good for resetting and grabbing ideas.

I delete the more egregious ones, including the ones that accused that story in specific of being racist.

I've never minded serious discussions of implied or accidental racism, however what's much more common now, are accusations of 'reverse racism' (i.e. anything which doesn't purposely favor White-Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs) is something biased against the entire ruling class, and thus must be eliminated, usually by force (i.e. it's mostly an attempt to silence opposition by other voices, rather than actual free speech by different voices with different perspectives.

Trends on SOL often vary as much as trends in publishing, so there are always 'jerks' in any field, who prefer ripping others apart just to make themselves feel good, yet as you note, they typically don't last long.

Yet, as conflicted as most people are now, over a whole host of different issues, people just seem more inclined to attack than they are to simply get along, and that's pretty much infected all aspects of culture now. The old idea of 'civil society' where people can openly discussing conflicting ideas now seems to be a non-existent, long abandoned concept, and actual physical conflict, not to mention random shootings, is now the norm, rather than the exception.

And sadly, there's no indication that trend won't continue, getting worse than better over time.

However, the goal on SOL, unlike most other story/book sites, is for readers to read the entire story for free, before they volunteer to pay for the book just to encourage readers to continue writing. That psyche has worked well over the years, especially because most authors are more than willing to accept suggestions and openly discuss any stories designs and aims. While on other sites, no one dares discuss their books, for fear others will either copy it, rip it off, or attack and belittle it—mainly to make their own look better in comparison.

As a said, the hole concept of a largely civil society seems to be dead, yet again, SOL seems to be an exception to the rule, not the lanyard for society's eventually collapse.

comments … can be disabled can't they?

Yes. I have them turned off on all my stories.

That's sad, yet even on SOL, usually it's due to specific topics (i.e. gay, scat, pedophile or stories by openly violent people (i.e. mainly focusing on the violent of other people or animals). Not necessarily 'slasher stories', but those focusing on the violent murders of innocents themselves).

That's sad

What's sad? That I have comments turned off?

It has nothing to do with negative or mean comments. I don't want the end of my stories cluttered with anything before my author notes or Bookapy ads appear. I also don't want spoilers there. Stuff like that.

I appreciate and answer all feedback. I don't see comments as feedback.

That's essentially a separate issue, as it's based on the story requirements, rather than reader reactions. But you're right, that's why I'll often respond to other reader feedback in the comments, yet when communicating with an author themselves, I'll always use a private message, as it's generally bad form to publicly critique an author for simply stylistic difference. Plus, if I add a suggestion, it's up to the author to accept or reject it, a private matter, not a public discussion.

Comments for me are definitely feedback, but I suspect I'm in a fairly unusual place overall and having comments open the way I have for my last three books wouldn't work the same for most other authors.

For me, it's about encouraging community, which is also a form of feedback. Community could be somewhere else, but it's not now, and the spoiler issues with comments are worse in most other forms of community.

Then again, part of that 'community' is you're regularly requesting that commenters NOT toss in spoilers for new readers, which you've had to repeated fairly regularly.

Actually, my biggest concern is discussion of current (2025) politics. I can't remember the last time I had to mention spoilers as a concern, except for myself when posting a comment where I know something will happen but it hasn't been published yet.

Unless I am wrong - and I just checked, so I'm pretty sure I'm correct - the comments only appear after the current last chapter of the book. Anyone getting a spoiler from them has to have gone out of their way to get to the spoiler.

Now, if someone posted Book 6 spoilers on Book 5's comment section, that would be bad, but I'm not sure that's ever happened.

You're right of course, yet the reason I remember it is, near the end of each book, the threat of spoilers is usually high, whereas with each new story, it's abnormally low (as there's little to actually give away at that point).

That said, that's partially why I use a unique conflict with each new volume in a series, as with a whole new conflict, there's also little to spoil, as the conflict in one book has little to do with the main conflict in the others, while maintaining the same overall series conflict.