Fiction

[WordCraft]

Does anyone know if there is a site like Constant-Content but geared toward fiction (short stories, etc.)?

[WordCraft]

OK, so no one does know of one

I would have thought a site like this where various fiction publications can come to get content (generally short stories or possibly reviews of fiction books etc.) would have been a good idea...

[Celeste Stewart]

I think most fiction publishers are inundated with submissions that they don't need to go looking for more.

[jadedragon]

You can submit book reviews here as they are informative articles.

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Or you could try some of the eBook publishing platforms. I know Amazon will take shorter pieces for the Kindle store. The pricing has to be pretty low, but I think I remember they are now giving half of the proceeds to the writer. $4 a download isn't much, unless you get 50-100 downloads. I know many people who write fiction, self-publish, and then promote themselves on Twitter etc. And a few even book themselves book signings etc.

Fiction publishing is becoming like non-fiction publishing on the web. Anyone with a passion and discipline can make a go at it, you don't need an agent and publishing house anymore. It isn't easy, but what job working for yourself really is?

And the short story is coming back into popularity. More and more commuters are reading on their iPhones, Kindles, Nook, and iPads while they ride the train or airplane. Nice thing about text documents is they don't take up too much memory like a movie or music, so even smaller devices can handle the files. I read eBooks on my Blackberry storm through their free Barnes and Noble ereader application.

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Okay, so my goal this year of expanding my writing abilities has had mixed success.

I have tested out writing for and maintaining my own website, Life After High School (.info), and learned why webmasters buy content. It's takes a great deal of time to promote a website, maintain it, and write original content for it. I am not giving up on this project, but I am slowing down my dedication to it as I learn more and more aspects of writing.

I have also jumped back into my dreams of fiction with a fan fiction attempt based in the Twilight universe. Twilighted.net is a high-end fan fiction site ran by older writers (meaning not teenagers) and many of them are published romance novelists. I've been rejected 3 times, lol. But, they see my potential, so I am now working with a team of beta readers. I have already taken a crash course in verb tenses (really, keeping verb tenses all past tense or all present tense in fiction is a task of Hercules). I've read tons of fiction writing resources, and it took me a bit to play the 5 sense game (what does the setting look like, smell like, taste like).

Why am I doing this? I have decided I am a writer. This was a major decision. Catelynn just turned one, and next year I will be sending her to daycare 2 days a week for half days (she is effectively an only-child and I want to keep nurturing her independence and social skills). This is only $100 a month. So until then, I have a year to really "play" with my craft before I go back to being professional like I was before she was born. Who knows, maybe one day I will be the next Stephanie Meyer (we all need dreams).

How is everyone else's fiction writing attempts going?

[Debbi]

I am writing a YA fantasy novel but am only about five chapters in (and they are pretty short). I sure wish I had a team of beta readers! My 16 year-old granddaughter is reading it as I go along and has given me some good feedback from the audience perspective (her primary advice is 'have a vampire' in it' but I'm ignoring that, heh) but it would be great to have some writers comment on it. I need to work on the 5 senses for sure. And I'm never sure how much description to put in without putting the reader to sleep or straying too far from the story. I think my plots are strong but I have little confidence in the emotional resonance of my work.

I've written 2 YA novels in the distant past (both unpublished and now both woefully dated) and several children's books (some self-published and 2 making the rounds with book publishers). I am such a slow writer that I can't devote too much time to it or else I can't make a living writing non-fiction. Writing fiction sure is a relief from writing articles and editing doctoral disseratations though!

Debbi

[Celeste Stewart]

I"ve been neglecting my fiction writing. I love writing it but can't stand the whole find an agent-publisher process. My sister got an agent relatively fast after writing a book of her own but she's been dealing with revision after revision just to get the manuscript ready to present to publishers. Not sure I have that kind of dedication, at least not right now.

Debbi, are you in a critique group? They really help.

[Debbi]

Celeste,

No critique groups near me and I can't drive so everytihng I do has to be online pretty much. I think I might join SCBWI again (though their dues are high for me) and see if I can find a group there. If you konw of any online critique groups, anyone, let me know

[Celeste Stewart]

ONline critique groups are great. Sometimes I think better than in real life.
Maybe check VerlaKay's board for other people looking to connect? No need to pay a membership to find likeminded writers.

[jak]

You can post fiction for review in the Arena at writelink.co.uk. It is UK based but has an international membership of very helpful writers. At the moment full membership is free until October after which there is a small annual fee (£15). You would need to reciprocate and review work from other members to get useful reviews yourself.

[WordCraft]

I wrote a Harry-Potter-like novel some years ago (started it before the first HP came out!), but it's never been published (and not really polished either, to be honest).

Currently I am writing a "tighter", more fast-paced YA light fantasy novel (I do have a tendency to get caught up in descriptions). I started it on March 1st this year, wrote 9 chapters in just a few weeks, then about 1 paragraph in the last 6 weeks or so It's currently at 28k but will be at least 80k (if not 100k) when finished.

The Absolute Write "water Cooler" forums are very good, for all types of writing...

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php

[articlewriteups]

Hi,

I don't know of any actual place that allows you to sell your short stories and just focused around stories only but I do know of some websites like storywrite.com that allow you to post your story so that other people can comment on it. You'll also find many other authors on that site that enjoy writing. If you do find a site like the one that you're talking about let me know!

Kari

[Sharion]

I'm a bit late to the thread but I've just released a book through Amazon's CreateSpace. You can write fiction or non-fiction and self-publish. I'm delighted with how the book turned out and I've sold a few. You need to figure out a really good marketing plan though as nobody is going to do it for you. They have forums full of helpful writers at CreateSpace and I'd definitely recommend it if you're into writing books. Don't expect to "get rich quick" though

[WordCraft]

This may be of interest to some of you - even if you do not write fiction.

I do not know too many people offline that enjoy writing stories, so I wanted to find a good online critique group. An author friend gave me one service, but I was not too keen on its appearance (and some of the stories seemed a bit amateurish). Then I tracked one down called http://www.CritiqueCircle.com

I love it. It works like this: You join (free) and earn credits by critiquing other people's work. You can submit your work when you have enough credits. Of course, you could just critique to help polish up your grammar skills. You don't need to be qualified in anyway, though there is a grading system that you build up - as writers fill out a survey to judge your critique's usefulness.

It's well managed too and works on a weekly Wed-Wed basis.

One drawback - it's called CC for short so may cause confusion