Splitting the stream of consciousness.

[myaru]

It has always been hard for me to split my time. We all know (well, many of us know) how terrible I used to be at managing my time for school work, but the problem doesn't end there. I'm bad about chores at home, which doesn't affect many others besides myself, and I'm terrible at managing when I should (or want to) work on something of my own

Comments

[starlitlady]

I think you should define what exactly publishing means to you, specifically. Then figure out which avenue to take in publishing (novels, lit mags, online journals, contests, etc). Maybe having a more concrete definition of it in your head will make things easier.

You brought up the Star Wars books. I think that kind of writing might be good for you to get your feet wet in publishing; see if you actually like it and if this is something that will make you happy. Also, there's always self-publishing with e-books. That's becoming really, really popular. The number of e-books by "unrepresented" authors has skyrocketed over the last couple years. And in the publishing world, it's becoming more acceptable and recognized as a valid form of publishing. I'm not sure how the money works out though.

If characterization/world building is an issue, why not try to eliminate the more evil of the two? World building is crazy hard. I know fantasy is your thing, so why not give urban fantasy a go? The world is already built for you; it's our world! Add in the details that you need to make the fantasy elements make sense. Use character tropes and build them from there. Identify a few characters that you truly love (good and bad guys) and boil them down to their bones. Build from there. Don't think of "original fiction" as something completely new and never before seen--that's a lie. It's really just fanfiction of the old, truly original stories of the world.

Hope my ramble helped a little. XD

[myaru]

That's a hard question to answer. What publishing means is changing so much, but getting into print is what it has always meant to me. Publication in a magazine or journal, a hard copy book on the shelves in the bookstore, etc. Ebooks would feel a lot like just posting to my fic journal.

What I really want out of print now, though, is the legitimacy, vs. what you get with ebooks, which technically any idiot can put out and push. I'm not sure how much perception of that has changed. There are amazing cases like Amanda Hawking, and then there are tons of people who I've never heard of.

re: SW books, the crappy thing is that for the licensed materials I know about, you have to be previously published to get a leg in. This doesn't seem to mean that you get amazing writing (what I recall of SW and Dragonlance novels is all over the map), though, but maybe has something to do with professionalism.

I loooove world building, at least? XD; I don't have a problem with it unless I'm writing fan fiction and have to supplement things the original material should already have in my opinion. But I think you're on to something with both urban fantasy and boiling characters down to tropes and such. I've done a little of both, but only dabbled.

You did help. <3