Any writers?

[Tux Toledo]

I had this problem about a year ago. The current novel I was working on was giving me fits, and I had another novel I'd started earlier that kept tugging at me. So I eventually abandoned the problem novel and went back to the other one...which is the one I'm working on now. However, I think I'm going to tackle the problem novel after I'm done with this one. I really like the story and my characters...

I've just about decided to go with my "franchise" character, The Lovable Rogue, and focus on my mystery novel. I can retain more control over it than I could with my screenplay. Making a movie is a very collaborative effort (which I enjoy) however that also means that your work is subject to significant revision, whether you like it or not. A screenplay, like the pirate's code, is more or less a guideline. And regardless of what the purveyors of online screenwriting courses and seminars tell you, to be a screenwriter you need to live in L.A.

The novel, for the most part, will be mine. Perhaps no one will like it and no one will read it. But it will be mine and it will have my name attached to it (not always a good thing!). It will be the story that I want to tell, not one a Hollywood producer wants to make. I'm not giving up on the screenplay, just going to put it on the back burner for a while.

Now, on to improving the plot and characters. Tally ho!

 

[AmateisGal]

Kristi - I love reading homefront novels, too! My novel is set in Nebraska during the war.

I love the idea of him being interested in radio...lots to work with. Good luck!

 

[KayEn78]

Could I read your novel or excerpts of it? By the way, I'm over on Absolute Write as well. I think I first contacted you there. I'm glad to see you here as well!

-Kristi

 

[AmateisGal]

Kristi - I haven't been on Absolute Write in forever. Just can't keep up with all the social networking sometimes...I maintain a blog and that's where I am the most active.

I can send you some excerpts some time, too, after I'm done revising...

 

[KayEn78]

Sure! That would be great! You can send excerpts (once you're finished revising) to my Yahoo e-mail. It's my username at yahoo.com (Sometimes sites don't pick up e-mail addresses. I haven't been to AW in awhile either. It's so busy and fast moving, it's hard for me to keep up at times.

-Kristi

 

[AmateisGal]

Good writing weekend. You?

 

[KayEn78]

Yes, in the fact that I finished my last fan fiction story. And no, that I haven't begun another project or my novel yet. I hope to soon!

-Kristi

 

[Benzadmiral]

I've posted my latest "Man from U.N.C.L.E." short story at the MFU Fan Fiction Archive: http://www.mfuarchive.net/archive/3/theguadalupe.html

It features an important guest star: another famous TV character of the Sixties, also connected with crime.

 

[Diamondback]

Well, it's not exactly "Golden Era", but I'm writing a character for a collaborative Criminal Minds fanfic site who is a definite "Vintage/Retro Lifestyler" that might fit in among us here, to the point that his home is a closed-to-visitors section of a museum battleship's officer's quarters and he's made arrangements to carry one of the FBI's old Thompsons as his personal weapon. (The twist: he's basically "Spencer Reid's Evil Twin Turned Semi-Good", and after he was shot and killed by Agent Prentiss he somehow managed to escape from Hell and came back head-over-heels for her, along with gaining an FBI badge and responsibility for protecting his "good twin" from an unspecified but persistent threat. I will admit that a certain amount of him is based on myself, but if we're both "Jekyll & Hyde" personalities he's so dark that my Hyde is lighter than his Jekyll.)

 

[AmateisGal]

Finished writing my fourth novel over the weekend!

 

[LocktownDog]

Can't wait for it to hit the shelves. Got my money at the ready.

Congratulations!

 

[AmateisGal]

Can't wait for it to hit the shelves. Got my money at the ready.

Congratulations!

Thank you, kind sir!

 

[_Nightwing]

Finished writing my fourth novel over the weekend!

Aw, you've finished four novels and I haven't finished one - is that fair? What's your secret? Without using the phrase "hard work."

 

[Rathdown]

The secret of writing is... writing. If you write only one page a day you can turn out a novel in about a year. Writing full time (5 pages a day) you should be able to knock out a book in about five months.

Screen writing is a bit different, but a complete draft of a screenplay (before revisions) shouldn't take much more than about three months to complete.

 

[Tomasso]

The secret of writing is... writing. If you write only one page a day you can turn out a novel in about a year. Writing full time (5 pages a day) you should be able to knock out a book in about five months.

Screen writing is a bit different, but a complete draft of a screenplay (before revisions) shouldn't take much more than about three months to complete.

You make it sound downright easy..................

 

[Rathdown]

You make it sound downright easy..................

I suppose that if it was easy, everybody would do it.

 

[AmateisGal]

Yep. Just have to buckle down and write.

I am currently in awe of my 11-year-old daughter. She is writing a novel (fan fiction) and is already at 50,000 words. I remember those early days when I didn't worry about agents or publishers but just wrote because I loved to. That's where she's at right now and I have to say, I envy her a bit. She's gloriously free in her writing. Her work ethic is pretty amazing, too.

 

[KayEn78]

Does this mean your WWII homefront novel is going to hit the Barnes and Noble shelves soon??? I hope so because I'll sure buy a copy!

I remember being in that "writing is fun" stage. I guess I'm still in it now, but for the time being I've kind of lost my ambition to write. So, I haven't even begun my novel yet, if I ever will.

-Kristi

 

[Gray Ghost]

I am currently researching info on the Edgecombe Guards. They were a militia unit in NC at the beginning of "The War Against Northern Aggression". I am writing a book about their history. I am a reenactor for that time period and my unit portrays them. I am also looking into doing either an adventure story set in the 30s to 40s or even a Noir for that time period. I have also thought about doing a modern Noir where the detective is fascinated with movie detectives of the golden era and has that kind of style. Kind of like The Man with Bogart's Face type deal. He could be named Spade Marlowe because his parents were big Bogey fans. I think that would be a fun character to write.

=GG=

 

[AmateisGal]

Does this mean your WWII homefront novel is going to hit the Barnes and Noble shelves soon??? I hope so because I'll sure buy a copy!

I remember being in that "writing is fun" stage. I guess I'm still in it now, but for the time being I've kind of lost my ambition to write. So, I haven't even begun my novel yet, if I ever will.

-Kristi

Haha! I wish! Still have to get an agent and then a publisher to buy it.