The Aspiring Authors Society discussion

@Reagan probably whoever ends up having the biggest influence on me mentor wise at least for my first publication (but lets me not get ahead of myself 😭)

Reagan wrote: "I don't know if this is where I should put this or not, since it is a question, but not about something that I'm confused about and need the answer to. But anyways:

When you guys get published, wh..."

You can put whatever you like!

If it isn't obvious already, Dove lol
And also have those ones like 'to those who...'

One author dedicated to his wife, his friends, his colleagues… and the 18 cats he’s had through his entire life. Your art is something you love, so dedicate it to someone who deserves it. I saw a funny dedication once that was “to my 8th grade teacher that told me I’d never accomplish anything… in your face”

I’ll probably dedicate mine to like a larger audience, like
For anyone who has ever made a bad decision because of a broken heart Stephanie Garber, Once Upon a Broken Heart
OR
To those who seek and never find Victoria Aveyard, Realm Breaker
or I really love Marie Lu’s in Rebel
To those charting their own paths and those who make it possible for others

DoveyV wrote: "I’ll probably dedicate mine to like a larger audience, like
For anyone who has ever made a bad decision because of a broken heart Stephanie Garber, Once Upon a Broken Heart
OR
To those who seek an..."

I've thought about doing that too (although I'm not sure yet)
My favorite one of those is "For anyone who has ever dreamed of finding a body in the library"- Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson.

@Reagan oh my God I love that one 😂

These are all so cute!

My acknowledgements would be so long and include all you bookish beauties

Where do you guys get your ideas?

academic theory mostly. I write stuff abt social justice, so it’s that and critical analysis of tropes and stereotypes.

Everywhere, I was just having a conversation today about how salt boosts electric signal strength and had an idea for a sci-fi world that put a huge fusion generator at the bottom of their ocean and they just run power lines through to the beaches

I'm not very good at coming up with ideas. A lot of writers see story ideas within there every day life, but I don't. I don't remember how I came up with the idea for my current wip. I came up with the idea 3-4 years ago, and only wrote about 2 chapters of it at the time. I only picked it back up again last year. But recently I've been worrying about what I'm going to write about once I'm finished with my wip. A few days ago, I watched a video from author and vlogger, Abbie Emmons, and she gave an amazing template for story ideas, that she calls a "story smoothie". I've only used it once so far, but the idea I came up with it is making me so excited! The link to the video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCVZt...

Thank you for those!
Mine usually come to me when I'm about to sleep or thinking deeply

How do you guys come up with your titles? And do you come up with them before or after you've written the book?

Reagan wrote: "How do you guys come up with your titles? And do you come up with them before or after you've written the book?"

They are soo hard!
But it's best after.
I recently titled a poem after a line froom the poem itself, felt pretty satisfying

Heyyyy I need some help. I am currently writing a fight scene but I have no idea how to trigger it. My writing is really awkward like how do you describe the actions of a person before a fight scene( like how they are alert or something).

Arel wrote: "Heyyyy I need some help. I am currently writing a fight scene but I have no idea how to trigger it. My writing is really awkward like how do you describe the actions of a person before a fight scen..."


Make it personal, show tics and agitation. Use jerky movements, dialogue and adverbs to make it more powerful. It depends why they are fighting, use that reason as something they talk about. Is this a fist fight? Make the characters hit something else first. Sword fight? Make them toy with their sword.
If you could give some details, I could try and add to that.
But hope you are successful

Thank you so much!

Arel wrote: "Thank you so much!"

Of course!

When you get published, are you planning on traditional or self publishing?

Reagan wrote: "When you get published, are you planning on traditional or self publishing?"

Maybe self, I like to have control over my works but traditional has its benefits too

@Raegan (both up top about titles and about publishing because I must have missed the top one) —
usually the title will come to me as I write but it may change slightly or even completely over time, sometimes that title may be temporary from the start like I’m pretty sure my wip has had at least three completely different temporary titles before landing in the one it has now. but of course it really depends on the person.
I’m personally going to self publish as like Ruqayyah said it gives me more control, that does however mean more work and money on my side but it also means more overall profit once books start selling. I talked to a published author once and he said that after he switched to self publishing he went from 10% to 90% so it would be good if you wanted to be successful in that area. it’s also more definite since the book being published relies on you and not a company choosing it.

Hello! Does anyone know a way to do a poll? ( If that's possible. I have a survey I need people to answer for my math class and it would be great if I could get more people to answer!)

Beatrix wrote: "Hello! Does anyone know a way to do a poll? ( If that's possible. I have a survey I need people to answer for my math class and it would be great if I could get more people to answer!)"

if you click someone else's poll then look to the top right, above the voters list, it'll have three options- all polls, create a poll and widget. click 'create a poll' and it'll take you right to it. here's a link though for this time if you want it, it should work
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/new

Thank you!

Beatrix wrote: "Thank you!"

np

I have a little question. I'm writing one of my books rn and I just realized that it might turn out a bit shorter than I expected it to be. So my question is, do you know how many words are usually considered a novel? Because if I write less than that, then I guess I'm writing a novella :)

technically a novel is between 60,000 and 100,000 words and a novella is anything below 50,000. but then that’s without factoring genre or anything else. like the Wizard of Oz is a novel and it’s like 40k and then you have some epic fantasy novels reaching 200k.

so what I’m trying to say is no matter how long your novel is it’s still going to be novel if you mean for it to

@DoveyV
Thank you so much for the help! And I think you're right, word count shouldn't define what we're writing :)

happy I could help :)
and we’ll said

Yup, agreed- there are no rules when writing your story, only the ones you choose.

Kymela wrote: "I'm having trouble getting a story started. What do y'all usually do when you can't come up with a good opening?"

I learned in college that you should typically try and open your story "in medias res" (in the middle of the narrative/the action). Starting in the middle of the action can help to keep your reader engrossed. And since the conflict is already happening, you're giving your reader something to worry about right away.

Okay guys I have a question
do you suggest putting my story on Wattpad? or online somewhere or would you guys suggest just trying to get it published first?

okay so that is hard to answer. I would say it really depends on what way you want to publish maybe, and even if or when you would want to publish.

traditional publishing I could see publishing on Wattpad being a good thing considering I’ve known authors to get discovered on there. but if you want to go the self publishing way then I would say just go for it and publish (after research). I think if you do self publish then it would make more sense to not publish for free and just work on publicity. you could just post sneak peeks and other things on Wattpad, like short stories relating to your book (I was thinking about doing this, and Soman Chanani recently posted a short fanfic about his own series on there lol).

in the end though it’s completely up to you and every author’s journey is different so it’s kind of hard to compare, but I think once you get going with the process then it’ll be clear what you personally need to do.

DoveyV wrote: "okay so that is hard to answer. I would say it really depends on what way you want to publish maybe, and even if or when you would want to publish.

traditional publishing I could see publishing on..."

Omg tysm <33 I'll do some research about self-publishing and yeah I'll see what happens :)

DoveyV wrote: "okay so that is hard to answer. I would say it really depends on what way you want to publish maybe, and even if or when you would want to publish.

traditional publishing I could see publishing on..."

Completely agree

Rae (Jurdan's Version) wrote: "DoveyV wrote: "okay so that is hard to answer. I would say it really depends on what way you want to publish maybe, and even if or when you would want to publish.

traditional publishing I could se..."


Let us know if you need any tips, both (self and traditional publishing) have pros and cons but go with your heart

AO3 is also great for writers

Does anybody know how long it takes for Goodreads to approve a request to claim an author?

I have had my Goodreads account for a decade or so although I never used it; I just became active here a few days ago, because I read that Goodreads is important for new authors if they want to generate publicity and get new readers and reviewers for their self-published books.

After setting up my personal details and updating my shelves, one of my first actions was to search for my name. Under the pen name Sera Maddox Drake, I published my first book, Ancilla, at the end of December. (I'm using a pen name because I live in a conservative part of the United States, I have a day job in insurance sales that I would like to keep separate from my writing life, and my book is metaphysical erotica with a bisexual protagonist. I'm not in the closet myself, as an individual, but my authorial persona is another matter. I would prefer to keep my identity an enigma. Hence the pen name. In the unlikely event that I sell enough copies of my books that the books themselves achieve notoriety or name recognition, if people look up my pen name and find out it's linked to my actual name, I'll deal with that, but I'll cross that bridge if/when I come to it).

I acknowledged Sera Maddox Drake as my "name," and that I am the author of Ancilla. How long will it take for Goodreads to approve that, so that I can set up an author page? Anyone else have any experience of this?

Sarah wrote: "Does anybody know how long it takes for Goodreads to approve a request to claim an author?

I have had my Goodreads account for a decade or so although I never used it; I just became active here a ..."

I haven't done it but maybe a month at most?

https://www.goodreads.com/author/program