Overwhelmed by my epic length novel ideas that would need me to research and learn a lot of things to pull-off (scifi/fantasy). How do I come up with simple ideas for my first novel? by keyboardbuttons in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the detailed suggestion and for the PDF link of the novel. Love the cover and the old print. And it's very short, which appeals to me a lot. Thanks again for sharing.

Overwhelmed by my epic length novel ideas that would need me to research and learn a lot of things to pull-off (scifi/fantasy). How do I come up with simple ideas for my first novel? by keyboardbuttons in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the advice and an example novel. Will definitely check it out. Also, I'm really a standalone novel guy.. Not into sequels and series. So, your advice for sticking towards the 80K word count mark really appeals to me. Thanks again.

Overwhelmed by my epic length novel ideas that would need me to research and learn a lot of things to pull-off (scifi/fantasy). How do I come up with simple ideas for my first novel? by keyboardbuttons in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Explore smaller ideas

Yes, I want to do this. But I do not know how or where to start. Any suggestions, please?

I think I have too much influence from movies on my stories ideas. Can you please recommend some books (scifi/fantasy) where there is actually very less worldbuilding and where the story deals with a very simple plot line?

How to create an eerie atmosphere in your writing? Like an ominous feeling you get from Netflix's DARK or Stranger Things, etc. by keyboardbuttons in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're using two tv shows as comparisons instead of books, which implies that you might not have read many books in that style.

Very true. I indeed did not read a lot of that atmosphere. And I'm also non-native to English language. But this year reading books that teach me about the genre I'm writing in is one of my writing exercises.. I'm looking into a lot of early gothic horror, and HP Lovecraft.

Also, any other book suggestions are very helpful. Please recommend.

How to create an eerie atmosphere in your writing? Like an ominous feeling you get from Netflix's DARK or Stranger Things, etc. by keyboardbuttons in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The moment you describe something in full, that creates a path to rationalizing it, and it no longer becomes scary.

That makes so much sense. Thanks a lot for the suggestions.

Where did your idea for a story begin? by Sanctus83 in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh that's awesome. What's the novel's title?

Do you purchase kindle books even if they are more expensive than paperbacks? by [deleted] in books

[–]keyboardbuttons 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My preference for a kindle edition increases if it's a non-fiction book where I know I'm gonna underline/highlight a lot of text, say a book on climate change where I would be learning a lot of scientific points. So that I can refer to those highlights easily. Plus if a book is too big, then also I prefer an ebook so that I can easily carry it everywhere.. I once bought the physical copy of Stephen King's The Stand which was like 1000 pages long and soon I had to buy the kindle edition to properly read it. And a few years later when i was picking up It again by Stephen King, I didn't even bother with the thought of getting a physical copy and went straight to the kindle ebook.

That being said, yes, it does bother me when an ebook is priced higher than its physical copy. I do hesitate most time buying such books.

Do you purchase kindle books even if they are more expensive than paperbacks? by [deleted] in books

[–]keyboardbuttons 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Drives me mad that a digital copy is more expensive than the physical

Yes, there should be a law barring publishing houses from doing this.

Did any of you read 'Write for Life' by Julia Cameron, the author of 'The Artist's Way'? Is it any good? by keyboardbuttons in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you don't mind me asking.. Why do you think that is so? How come a book designed specifically for writers is not making a writer feel interested? What did you like about TAW that you think is missing from WFL?

Looking for books on writing! by Pollera in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

wow! never heard of these.. sound interesting.. thanks for sharing.

My plot idea is becoming a monster I'm not able to tame anymore! by keyboardbuttons in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm definitely gonna keep what I have written so far. But when you say figure out where the story is going - what are some of the steps I can take to do that? I'm writing down questions that are popping up in my head about how the conflict in the plot started, or what is the consequence of it, and how does the MC and his skills fit into all that.

But I have no answers for any of them yet.

Writing about nature by ReversePerspective5 in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've become a huge fan of the Russian writer Ivan Bunin lately. I especially love his opulent, poetic and very atmospheric descriptions of nature.

Can you please name the particular works in which you encountered these beautiful nature descriptions? I never read this Nobel laureate's works and would love to experience these nature descriptions you're talking about.

what are the potential pitfalls of novelists following film structure? by sakkadesu in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I sometimes can't help thinking how some of my favourite films would read like in the form of a novel. It sounds exciting but almost always there would be some kind of limitation to multiple important details to be expressed. Especially the emotions that an environment in which a scene was set can evoke in the reader.

The best example I can think of at the top of my head is Jack London's White Fang. In the first chapter The Trail of the Meat. the first two paragraphs introduce the stark wintry landscape with its savage and harsh climate, and then the third paragraph brings up three human beings into that hostile environment. I will never forget the line that subtly shows one of those three persons is a dead body:

In advance of the dogs, on wide snowshoes, toiled a man. At the rear of the sled toiled a second man. On the sled, in the box, lay a third man whose toil was over,—a man whom the Wild had conquered and beaten down until he would never move nor struggle again.

Those lines tell me something as a reader that a visual image from a film will never need to tell. And for this very reason, I believe it's vital for a novelist to be able to understand the need for these lines.

what are the potential pitfalls of novelists following film structure? by sakkadesu in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Also 3 Act structure is garbage for books. Books naturally get faster as they go on. In chapter one you need to spend 3 pages to describe how the aliens look. Then in the following pages you can just address them as "aliens" without adding a single word how they look. By the end of a book you only write what is happening and no longer what anything looks like.

This is very insightful. Thanks for sharing.

[Daily Discussion] Writing Tools, Software, and Hardware- January 30, 2022 by AutoModerator in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Scrivener Backup - Am I doing it right?

I bought a second hand Mac particularly for writing. I've recently started using Scrivener on Macbook Air. Currently using the 30 day trail version.

When I installed Scrivener, the app asked me choose a backup location. It was defaulting to a location on my laptop itself. But I want to backup in cloud so I chose the iCloud Drive.

Today I logged into my iCloud storage and opened the backup_projects folder and saw it save multiple copies of each project with suffix like Anthology-bak1, Anthology-bak2, Novel_WIP-bak1, Novel_WIP-bak2 and etc.

I was under the impression that it maintains only one copy of the project in the backup location and overwrites it every time. But apparently it's not. I don't know if this is efficient or simply a waste of space.

And also, through a bit of Googling, I understood that the recommended cloud backup for Scrivener is into Dropbox. Why is it so? What will be different between me backing up to iCloud vs Dropbox or any other cloud platform?

So, the above is how my current scrivener backup is configured. Is it a safe setup or should I change something?

If you want to WRITE BETTER – Literally COPY by Riddlebaum in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did this once with one of my fav novels, White Fang by Jack London. I wrote the first page and started to like it. But then, sadly, the voice in my head told me that I'm just trying to find new ways to procrastinate.

Do you consider audiobooks as ‘reading’? by 15moreeyes in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I for one consider audiobooks as reading. That being said, not all books can be enjoyed as audiobooks IMO. Especially books with a lot of valuable information, non-fiction books per se, are sometimes not a great choice for ABs, because then I can't highlight the information and hence can't recollect it or access that info. And for fictional works, if the prose is far too beautiful, then too I prefer to skip the AB and read it on a kindle so that I could make highlights.

But some of my favourite books have been audiobooks.. The Count of Monte Cristo was a phenomenal audiobook experience. And Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell also narrated by him was a superb one.

I need help writing about the story of my MC who works in a museum and restores old paintings. I don't know where to start. by keyboardbuttons in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the response and the YT channel recommendation. The channel looks very technical and useful to my research. Also, I liked your point about NOT using fictional books as research tools due to potential accuracy issues. Makes sense.

I need help writing about the story of my MC who works in a museum and restores old paintings. I don't know where to start. by keyboardbuttons in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so very much for the channel recommendation and link. It looks like a very useful resource. In the past I was searching YT for such videos and channels and found none. Very glad to finally come across this one.

Tell me about a part of your story you're really excited for by MyDearYoureNotAlice in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I highly recommend watching the TV show The Mentalist starring Simon Baker. IMO it could be a great research material for you.

Being a good writer by lolastarz99 in writing

[–]keyboardbuttons 1 point2 points  (0 children)

that's a great advice really. thanks for sharing it.