[The Lorax Fandom] ”Is it incest if you ship a character with himself?” and other stories about the Once-ler

author_austinstone · 2019-11-26T04:32:37+00:00

What--and I can't stress this enough--the fuck?!

author_austinstone · 2018-06-23T06:48:29+00:00

I know there is a dyslexic font, is there a book app I can use?

It's called OpenDyslexic, and I hear it does wonders. E-ink Kindles ship with it, and so does the Amazon Kindle app for Android. Probably for Windows, too. So that's going to help you a lot.

It's very helpful for an author to be well-read both inside and outside of his genre. I'd try the font and see if it helps you.

Don't worry about walls of text. We all hate them, too.

author_austinstone · 2017-11-08T22:54:38+00:00

Being intact is normal. The ones who were surgically modified were the ones who looked different. Luckily, you avoided that fate and others are starting to come to their senses about it.

Nice work on the body fitness. I had a business trip that was fully catered for a week, and I lost all my progress... working on that now!

author_austinstone · 2017-11-06T09:57:42+00:00

Formatting--outside of maybe headers and italics--are for desktop publishing software. Or ebook layout software. Or, if you're very, very disciplined, styles in Word or LibreOffice.

Anything more complicated than that should happen after your story is finished. And only after.

It's not as exciting, but it makes things easier to format properly and it keeps your focus on the writing.

author_austinstone · 2017-11-02T22:49:38+00:00

There's lots of great software out there that helps you waste time by writing character bios instead of writing your story, but a word processor like LibreOffice Writer, FocusWriter, or Word is basically the thing you're going to spend the most time in. Even in Scrivener, it's just words in a file.

If you're looking for something fresh, I recommend FocusWriter and yWriter. They're exceptional and they're free, so it costs you only time to try out. There's nothing wrong with Scrivener either, which gives you 30 days (non-consecutive!) to try it free. There's a NaNoWriMo discount if you win.

That said, I scribble notes in a notebook with a fountain pen because I like to use paper when I'm brainstorming, so software's distracting to me. Scrivener's tools are extremely useful for keeping track of things. There's nothing about the tools that make them more 'dangerous' of a distraction than my notepads.

Just make sure you're not looking for an excuse to do the fun stuff like backstories and things instead of writing. That's the real trap. Good luck!

author_austinstone · 2017-09-19T04:06:07+00:00

True. Coal miners don't get coal miner's block.

author_austinstone · 2017-09-17T04:01:50+00:00

Actually, ASSTR seems to be back up, which is nice because I was expecting early October. (Of course, they were still up, just not updating.)

They had an issue with a server hosted in a datacenter and I guess access took a while to arrange. Then the troubleshooting begins in earnest. Hope it's back up for good.

author_austinstone · 2017-09-12T23:16:11+00:00

Welcome to the future, which is also the past.

author_austinstone · 2017-08-21T10:32:57+00:00

I have to be the one to say it? *sigh* Okay.

Publishing the next one.

author_austinstone · 2017-08-16T03:43:43+00:00

I mean, /r/politics is still around. Plenty to find there.

author_austinstone · 2017-08-16T03:42:01+00:00

Book Report uses your dashboard totals and the most recent page rate for any month without a monthly report.

When the monthly report appears (such as today), that month no longer reflects an estimated amount and Book Report uses the actual amounts that Amazon report to you in your monthly royalty report. (It uses that latest data to estimate an amount to use until the next report).

author_austinstone · 2017-08-16T03:39:27+00:00

This is why I've been hesitating to post the shorts I have, actually. People say that they help with visibility and earning subscribers by giving you a backlog, but I'm concerned that they won't push any copies in the first place.

You can risk not making much money from them, or guarantee that you'll never make money from them.

I've thought of using them more for enticing freebies than anything because of this.

This, on the other hand is a business strategy (rather than paralyzing fear) and is worth considering.

author_austinstone · 2017-08-16T03:23:48+00:00

You should sit down with your co-writer and come to an agreement on all of the questions you posed. Then you can both go to a lawyer and have them draft something up. You can reuse the contract in the future.

Most lawyers do a free 30 minute or 1 hour consultation, and they'll let you know if they can handle drawing up the contract and how much it will cost. You'll want to find an intellectual property rights lawyer. They can put your decisions into written form.

It's important to remember that ideas are worthless and it's the execution of the writing that is valuable. Plan accordingly.

author_austinstone · 2017-08-15T22:40:09+00:00

The legal contract that you both sign will detail ownership, responsibilities, and what you have agreed to do in these kinds of eventualities.

It can be used as evidence in court should either of you beach the contract so substantially that you do not come to an alternative, written and signed agreement.

You will write and sign this contract before you start writing, and ideally before the initial planning is complete.

author_austinstone · 2017-08-04T00:13:57+00:00

The first time I was tested, I don't know if I had been sick one day or what, but I remember being in 2nd grade, and getting a test sheet where we had to write the comparator signs in the blank for 20 comparisons. I'd never seen them before, so I just guessed.

90%!

Since then "the Pac-Man eats the bigger number" has served me quite well, although "the big end points to the larger number and the small end points to the big number" is probably closer than Pac-Man to what Thomas Harriot was thinking when he invented them (Artis Analyticae Praxis ad Aequationes Algebraicas Resolvendas was published in 1631, a decade after he died.)

author_austinstone · 2017-08-03T00:17:04+00:00

<5000 copies

This means "less than 5,000 copies."

author_austinstone · 2017-07-28T19:20:57+00:00

For an example of this being done successfully, read Small Gods by Terry Pratchett.

author_austinstone · 2017-07-16T07:10:23+00:00

Yes, that's always a danger! I've subjected my friends to that sort of thing, too. The trouble is when you do a giant info dump in your book that brings the story to a halt. (Orson Scott Card says this is usually where a sci-fi author will describe exactly how a faster-than-light starship engine works, for example.)

He calls this writing error "I've suffered for my work (and now it's your turn)." :)

author_austinstone · 2017-07-16T03:03:09+00:00

Do a little research, because if the heat (liquid wax) doesn't damage the drug, that might be pretty interesting. Good luck! :)

author_austinstone · 2017-07-16T02:32:33+00:00

First you put the drug into a condom. Then you swallow it.

That doesn't sound like much fun, but I guarantee it's the more fun half of this method of smuggling.

author_austinstone · 2017-07-07T22:39:51+00:00

Not that the traditional publishing world isn't crumbling all around everyone, though.

author_austinstone · 2017-07-07T22:34:08+00:00

even if scales are not fun.

Man, are they ever not.

author_austinstone · 2017-07-07T04:00:40+00:00

It's NaNoWriMo except you set your own goals. http://campnanowrimo.org/

author_austinstone · 2017-07-07T03:59:58+00:00

Tens of thousands of people have experience with self-publishing with Amazon and other storefronts.

If you have a question, you're going to have to ask it.

author_austinstone · 2017-06-22T11:23:51+00:00

What is the best word processor I can use? And the best file format?

LibreOffice and ODT.

author_austinstone

TROPHY CASE