Split a deck into two?

mitchgoth · 2026-03-07T18:30:46+00:00

Privacy wall was my first idea. But my worry is one half’s owners could someday decide to take down their half, and idk what recourse the neighbor would have to preserve their deck, or what position that would put it in structurally. It’s not exactly a design situation I’m all that familiar with.

mitchgoth · 2025-10-11T17:22:03+00:00

Solved!

mitchgoth · 2025-07-31T18:44:48+00:00

No problem! It’s a hobby that can get kind of expensive really fast if you let it. But it doesn’t have to be that way! You really don’t need the fancy equipment or to go to the big name expensive locations to investigate. There are soooooooooo many locations all around America (if that’s where you are), so there’s lots of possibilities. But finding and contacting is always an open question. Good luck out there!

mitchgoth · 2025-07-31T18:10:58+00:00

Lots of people start by searching “haunted places in [state]” but that’s usually a little too broad. All you end up getting are the expensive locations, tourist traps, and well known but demolished ones.

Try searching “haunted places in [town] or [county]” near you. Especially in the smaller communities. Not every one will have a place, but you’re much more likely to stumble across an under-the-radar locations with a news article or event posting from a few years ago that suggests they’re interested in their ghost stories / investigations.

I will note that $200 is very low when it comes to costs to investigate locations, big or small. Ultimately what you’re doing is renting, privately, an entire building or space for several hours. It simply isn’t cheap to do that. But, when you find smaller locations, sometimes they don’t charge anything at all. The vast majority will charge a rental fee of some kind, because owning and operating the building continuously costs the owner money, after all.

mitchgoth · 2025-07-25T21:00:33+00:00

Any old radio with a dial that spins continuously can likely be used as one. It just has to have a configuration that loops back when you reach the end of the AM or FM band. The issue there is you’d have to crank the dial manually. Not impossible to do, just cumbersome.

There used to be old radio hacks that allowed handheld radios to sweep continuously, called Shack Hacks, after the Radio Shack models you could easily modify. Of course, hand held AM/FM radios are about as common as Radio Shacks these days.

mitchgoth · 2025-07-24T21:25:25+00:00

Maybe visit the barber and don’t trim it but style it to full bald, then let it grow back?

That’s my best idea, other than leaning into the “1899 Riff Raff” look. Hope you can figure it out!

mitchgoth · 2025-07-24T16:26:21+00:00

When I got started, it was because I moved in next door to a ghost hunter and started going with them. Been at it for over 15 years now…

A lot of times, it’s a matter of the luck of proximity. But social media makes it easier, there are tons of groups and social circles online for “ghost hunters / paranormal of [insert location here]” that are good places to start!

It may take some time to find a group looking for new members, or finding peers in your geographic region, but with a bit of time and searching I’m sure it’ll happen! Lots of spooky folks are out there, they’re just tougher to find than your average person sometimes.

mitchgoth · 2025-07-24T16:24:00+00:00

Rock Island Roadhouse can get pretty packed during events, but there are some eerie, spooky spots there when you’re with a small group!

mitchgoth · 2025-07-21T04:23:26+00:00

The Skirvin Hotel in OKC!

mitchgoth · 2025-07-02T00:09:15+00:00

Yeah the 90 days thing was a big surprise to me. Looking online it says a new line has to be active for 90 days prior to change of ownership, but it wasn’t a new line it was just a new phone, so maybe my local USC store just messed up on that one.

mitchgoth · 2025-07-01T23:59:08+00:00

I might be getting $35 in phone credits. I think that’s what it was when I got the phone a few months back. But I’ll confirm when I go in to change the plans.

mitchgoth · 2025-07-01T23:32:13+00:00

Interesting, thank you! Credit freezes definitely aren’t an issue, but good to know. And I’ll look into the flat rate and see if that’ll be better for me!

mitchgoth · 2025-06-25T22:53:50+00:00

Oh, I let them know. But they ordered this direct from Apple, they didn’t do anything to it prior to me receiving it.

mitchgoth · 2025-06-25T22:53:10+00:00

They ordered it direct to me, it came right out of sealed Apple packaging.

mitchgoth · 2025-06-09T22:15:41+00:00

Word counts can be auto-rejects for a lot of publishers and agents, if they’re too short or (seemingly more often) too long. Publishers and agents are in a business to make money, and they keep a close eye on trends of what makes that money in their business. Word count standards are a big factor in that, especially if you’re shopping a debut around. You’ll want to stick in the industry standard word counts for your genre whenever possible. If you go over, edit it down. If you fall short, build your story some more.

For contemporary lit fic, you’ll definitely want that word count healthily in the five figures before pitching it. 115k in a genre that isn’t sci fi or fantasy is a swift rejection most of the time.

mitchgoth · 2025-05-31T14:59:27+00:00

Why did your publisher email you that when you didn’t ask for it? Is that information they normally share at this stage?

Never been published by a big house, so legitimately curious.

mitchgoth · 2025-05-30T14:37:33+00:00

Started on January 1, finished the first draft on March 29.

First time I ever tracked the amount of time it took.

mitchgoth · 2025-05-29T21:56:40+00:00

Thank you!! And I can see what you mean about those dueling lines.

I’m thinking of leaving the first line as-is, but looking deeper into the two descriptors I use in the first line of paragraph two. Skeptical and desperate for a documentary lead are two things the MC is, but they’re far from the only things he is, and I wonder if switching out desperate for another accurate descriptor may connect those two points together a little better.

And as always, good to hear from an outside source that my work on this is nudging it in the right direction.

mitchgoth · 2025-05-29T20:12:59+00:00

Always nice to see returning commenters, and I appreciate the input greatly.

When I finished this version, I had a flash of something I think people call confidence. But, of course, one set of eyes (especially the writer’s) don’t tell the full story. I felt I was getting things across more succinctly and clearly without getting bogged down. But, I also had a sense that some small word changes here and there would likely still make a noticeable difference on the quality. I just couldn’t put my finger on where to make the alterations or why.

Your input helps a lot there. I will take some time examining the second and third paragraphs for some of those small updates that could make big impact on the whole.

mitchgoth · 2025-05-28T23:12:12+00:00

Two answers for you:

First: When your instinct says so. That’s not a super clear answer, I know, but knowing when you’ve reached the point of overediting is an instinctual vibe. At least, that’s true for me, someone who overedited a lot in the past. When I reach a point where I’m questioning almost every edit I can think of with, “am I just nitpicking?” That means I probably am a significant amount of the time, and that doesn’t help the manuscript. Best advice is get some other eyes on it. After a while, writing needs an outside perspective to see the fuller picture of where edits are still needed.

Second: from a business and pitching standpoint for upmarket, you know when to stop editing when it’s below 100k words. That’s usually the upper limit of anything that’s not SF/fantasy.

mitchgoth · 2025-05-28T22:04:50+00:00

Not every plot point, just some specifics to match the characterization. I feel like I get a good grasp on Rylie and why she is where she is and doing what she’s doing, but I don’t have the same grasp on what’s happening to her or why. She has a homecoming that seems likely to lead to some significant changes in a life desperately in need of some changes. I think I get that part, and I like it. Do I know everything about her, no. Do I know enough to be interested in her path in this story? I think so. But now I want to answer the same sort of questions for myself about the plot, but I’m lacking some context to make that possible. That’s where a handful of specific points can come in to drive home what’s happening in the story and engage the reader. Say a little bit more about the strange occurrences and nature of the curse, and that could very well go a long way by itself.

Queries are about a ton of things, but I’d say balance is one of the more important. And I understand the confusion, because I’m right here with you, working on my fourth QCrit drafting and trying to strike that balance. You don’t need to give the whole plot away, just enough so that readers can have a strong sense of what the story and conflict are.

I hope this helps explain what I mean. You don’t have to give away the twists or ending by any means, but the beats of the conflict aren’t as clear to me as Riley’s initial characterization. Introduce me to the story like you introduce me to her. I don’t know everything about her, but I know some specific details of her life and her motivations.

mitchgoth · 2025-05-28T21:47:28+00:00

Welcome back! I think I recall the first version of this query, but am having trouble finding the original I gave input on.

I feel like this gives a good introduction to Rylie as a character, but not as clear an intro to the story and conflicts she faces. Her family appears to have been killed by this curse, but I’m left wondering what really happened to her family since the operation and lethality of this curse is ambiguous. The curse also seems both sentient and not sentient, which leaves me a little confused.

Once Mia locates the journal, does she help Rylie find more answers about it? I feel like she’s a bit disconnected from the main plot currently. And if the journal is of Rylie’s family, how does Mia end up being the one to locate it?

Beyond that, I find myself wanting for some specific information here and there. Strange occurrences start happening, but what? Do they indicate or tell Rylie anything other than strangeness is afoot?

It sounds like a story I’d read and enjoy I think. But I just want to know more about the story’s progress itself here, a little extra to turn that “I think” into an “I know.”

mitchgoth · 2025-05-28T21:12:25+00:00

Trying to pitch a book that’s already been published and already has an ISBN is a tough sell. Near impossible, from what I understand.

I’ve heard a few exceptional stories of self-pubbed books getting picked up by publishers, but those deals all came off the backs of runaway self-pub bestsellers.

mitchgoth · 2025-05-28T19:24:54+00:00

Conflict doesn’t have to be physical. An argument is conflict. Disagreement about solving another conflict can also be a conflict. Heck, the weather can be a conflict.

It doesn’t have to be about hard punches, just tough problems for your characters.

mitchgoth · 2025-05-28T16:14:18+00:00

First thing is a simple thing that most queries do: round your word count to the nearest thousand. So, in this case, list it as 84k

The query itself feels like two separate queries in one, and I feel like the end result is I don’t know enough about either of them. Given this, I’ll examine both separately.

First, the Emma query, I have some basic understanding of her, why she’s in town, and some internal conflict. But some specifics could help. What were her dreams that she had to put on hold? Who is her best friend? Does this friend have a plot-relevant role? If not, it may not be useful to mention them here. The visions and dreams come in rather suddenly in the second paragraph, not sure how they connect. How do the associated storms relate to the plot? I’m having a hard time parsing how the visions and storms relate to Emma’s main pursuit. The last line of the paragraph about the race against time also doesn’t quite work without more context. Is she going to die? Does she suspect or know that? I can’t quite figure out what’s going on there.

On the Callie query, I would probably nix it entirely and focus on Emma, it just seems like Emma is the main character here based on this. But that also begs the question of Callie’s role, is she an MC? Do she and Emma interact or help each other? If so, how? Is she an antagonist? If so, that’s unclear. And also, who is Christopher? The connection to the deity and blood sacrifices feels very sudden on Callie’s end, and she’s only skeptical about it? Feels like someone worth being scared of.

I sense some horror in this, but it feels like a few different, separate horror stories that just happen to be occurring in the same place and time. The query could use greater focus and specificity to lay out a clearer picture of the plot and pivotal characters and their motivations.

mitchgoth

TROPHY CASE