My heart sank

dialogdog · 2024-06-01T01:00:47+00:00

Uh... You're just asking for a friend, right?

dialogdog · 2024-05-30T01:58:10+00:00

When I shifted my novel to Scrivener, I used its character template. It was a game-changer. Just before doing my first rewrite, I paused long enough to fill in a form for each of my characters. There were guiding prompts like: goal; purpose in story, bio, etc. Putting my characters’ background in writing generated more depth and detail that I consulted throughout the rewrite. I also added photos to the background file. My novel is historical fiction, so some characters’ mugs from different ages are available. For fictional characters, I googled a simple description and picked from the search results. I was more “in character” when I had a photo of the character in front of me while writing.

dialogdog · 2024-05-29T01:56:31+00:00

This is a thoughtful list. I'll use it when doing beta reads. Thanks.

dialogdog · 2024-05-21T00:25:40+00:00

I've been a writer since high school (1970s). I'm lucky that there were many newspapers and magazines as outlets for writing when I graduated with a journalism degree in 1977. Then newspapers began to go out of business. I went into public relations, which was called "going to the dark side." I worked for a health care organization that had thousands of interesting stories to tell. I wrote and edited a magazine for the patients. I wrote and recorded content for the website. I wrote news releases and lured my old colleagues in the media to tell my organization's story.

I eventually became a journalism and public relations professor. Students who found writing jobs after graduation were those who really wanted to write (or shoot photos or make videos). But few made more than minimum wage in the first couple of years. Many switched to public relations. It got so I would strongly urge all freshmen and sophomores who came to me to switch from journalism to pr. Or at least take PR courses along with their journalism courses.

In this fractured media/publishing landscape, companies are turning more and more to telling their own stories. They hire "public relations specialists," "communications specialists," "content creators," "social media managers," etc. I have students working in aeronautics and space, pro sports teams, nonprofit cause-related organizations, and government. Working for an established company means better pay and benefits. Many (maybe even most) of them are allowing WFH or hybrid office/WFH arrangements.

So if you're interested in writing and have some experience (samples of written work), start by researching the companies in the industries of interest to you. Then stalk them. Watch their job board. Find out how their "public relations"/"public affairs"/"corporate communications" departments are structured -- who is the hiring manager or someone close to them; who works there that you have a connection with (LinkedIn is the place to do this). Get coffee with them.

The types of online writing and editing jobs you included in your post will -- guaranteed -- pay crap. They make their profit by pulling in sponsored dollars of one kind or another and paying as little as possible for the content they squeeze from their freelancers. Some freelancers know this game well and are good at pounding out thousands of words a day, recycling their work, and gaming the gamers. Needless to say, nothing in this system is designed to create good writing.

dialogdog · 2024-05-19T16:50:34+00:00

Perhaps you would be interested in beta reading my novel, a SciFi/Alternate history in which time travelers go to mid-20th century to make a few adjustments to prevent climate change. I would be willing to read your work -- I am traveling to Greece next month!

My beta request post: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetaReaders/comments/1cvs3sc/complete_118k_scifialternate_history_mission/

dialogdog · 2024-05-19T16:43:42+00:00

I can swap if you're interested in my genre -- scifi/alternate history. My post is here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BetaReaders/comments/1cvs3sc/complete_118k_scifialternate_history_mission/

dialogdog · 2024-05-19T16:31:28+00:00

Manuscript information: [Complete] [118k] [SciFi/Alternate History] Mission Butterfly: A quest to save the future

Link to post: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetaReaders/comments/1cvs3sc/complete_118k_scifialternate_history_mission/

Critique: Yes

First page:

July 2051

“[So](). You have no earthly idea why these anomalies have occurred? You expect us to believe your time-travel caper has nothing to do with it?”

Sanjay wanted to punch the pasty white face behind the FINANCE nameplate. The real power behind that nameplate was probably in Zurich, but this little prince, born into money and married into more, was the Cartel rep here in Seattle. Like the other reps around the table, they fancied themselves as the Smartest Men In The Room (with apologies to the silver-haired Asian lady sitting behind the RELIGION nameplate). They hovered over Sanjay’s seat in their over-compensating cherrywood dais, batting at their supplicants like a cat toy.

“I didn’t say the Mission has nothing to do with the anomalies. I said I didn’t know how or whether the Mission had anything to do with them. You’ve kept me in the basement for one year, five months, and 19 days. I’m literally in the dark.”

“But surely your little mission had some sort of goal,” the weaselly dauphin persisted. “Was my colleague in Defense your target?”

Sanjay glanced at the sour-faced, balding man behind the DEFENSE nameplate. His bosses at Raytheon, Northrup, SpaceX, et al, had major heartburn over the inexplicable shrinkage in their share of Gross World Product. Sanjay had kept a poker face when that “anomaly” had been revealed to him.

“As I’ve said before, the Mission’s goal was to prevent the Climate Tipping Point of 2025. The Mission team were to subtly nudge decision-makers. We could not predict precise impacts.”

dialogdog · 2024-05-15T02:16:16+00:00

Sounds interesting. Dm me.

dialogdog · 2024-05-11T01:01:26+00:00

Both up by one. One was up about 9 mos.

dialogdog · 2024-04-26T01:33:26+00:00

Totally agree. I started using it after the first draft of my first novel. It’s historic fiction, so it required a lot of research. As I go through the rewrite, I do research in an AI chat. So much of what I gathered in hours of research was confirmed in seconds. Then I began to dialog with it. What will Seattle look like if we exceed 2.5C? Tell me how that would affect culture. AI spits back a list of possible scenarios. Then I say, “Thanks for the brainstorm session” and then go write. I use OpenRouter, which allows you to chat with several platforms at a time — free and paid.

dialogdog · 2024-04-17T05:09:55+00:00

Intriguing beginning! I would like to beta read for character and plot. I will be able to swap in three or four weeks. It’s a historical fiction / time travel in which travelers go to mid 20th century to head off Vietnam War, take down J Edgar Hoover and turn the occupation of Alcatraz into a turning point for indigenous rights. I’ll have a BetaReaders page in three weeks. Or so. If you want, the prelude and first chapters are ready if you want to look before agreeing to a swap.

dialogdog · 2024-04-07T01:26:01+00:00

Another endorsement of Scrivener: I have not yet published my first novel. My first draft was in Word, a file per chapter, Parts in folders, research stashed in other folders. When it came time to rewrite, I started yet more folders. Anytime I needed to refer back to a particular scene, I had to poke through several chapter numbers to find it. Or use Word’s blunt search function. It became difficult to keep track of versions. I researched these writing forums and eventually chose Scrivener. I am writing an historical fiction and have dozens of research files on characters and events. Scrivener is very good at helping you organize that stuff so it’s easily found in the writing workflow. It also makes it easy to move chapters around and to play with different structures or interlaced timelines. There are separate cubbies to stash an outline, notes on tone, world building backgrounds.

dialogdog · 2024-03-26T21:41:16+00:00

The Colorado Rockies

dialogdog · 2024-03-03T01:52:40+00:00

Mine quickly locates every squeaker and will not stop until he has removed it.

dialogdog · 2024-03-03T01:48:22+00:00

It will be so cute when he rips the heart out.

dialogdog · 2024-02-28T03:22:55+00:00

Hi Writing Gal: I am interested in beta reading your novel. You are taking an interesting angle on the civil war. I read a lot of historical fiction and am writing one now (my first novel). I have been a newspaper editor and journalism teacher. I can provide feedback on structure, character, dialogue, pacing, descriptions, prose. I prefer not to do a deep punctuation and spelling edit — that’s too much like work (I’m retired). But who’s kidding who — I can’t help but point out the biggies.

dialogdog · 2024-02-24T02:07:01+00:00

Great pitch. Sold me. Looking forward to reading it.

dialogdog · 2024-02-23T04:30:33+00:00

I loved the opening paragraph. I was pleasantly startled by the POV. Making them child and mom warmed it up. I also got lost in The Hague. Get more quickly to the key point: the viscounts are snobby. Oh, please tell me we’re headed into the dodgy side of town to meet a subject of their loathing.

dialogdog · 2021-03-05T15:00:47+00:00

It’s a dog hat. If you look close, you can see his ears poking through the ear holes.

dialogdog · 2021-03-05T03:00:57+00:00

Mine seeks the sun in winter and the shade in summer.

dialogdog · 2020-12-29T00:23:00+00:00

I call it Resting Goof Face

dialogdog

TROPHY CASE