HELLLLP!!

[puertoricanjane]

Hi all! Here I am at college, still trying to piece together this lousy novel I started this summer. It's getting unmanageably long for online posting (40-odd pages--10 miles behind me and 10 thousand more to go, in the words of James Taylor) , but I definitely need help. Here's the problem--this is just the start of my first draft, so should I

Comments

[father_turtle]

http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/ has a lot of great advice and she's done some writer workshops, all of which are linked on the sidebars.

http://www.crusiemayer.com/workshop/ is an online workshop that covers the whole spectrum. It's incomplete at the moment, but they've got a huge number of lessons already up. You can even get some interaction with the hosts, though only on the current lesson.

[lotuselise1928]

Snoopy icon party! I like your rather worried looking picture of the greatest-author-to-be, evaluating the horros of his own work. Cheers!

[father_turtle]

Snoopy is my favorite character all time, hands down. I tend to be like Charlie Brown, but I love Snoopy.

[auraesque]

http://absynthemuse.com has some great resources, including a project aimed specifically at young adults who are writing novels and trying to navigate the literary world of agents, ctitics and publishers.

[dragonlaire]

Unless you're writing a short novel in one of the simpler genres, the allocation of time between your creative ambitions and classwork may be an insurmountable problem. My best advice is to delay work on your novel until responsibilities are fewer and leisure time more plentiful. Semester breaks and vacation may seem distant this early into the school year, but time passes quickly in college, and any novel will benefit from the additional planning that can be managed along the way. Short stores, drabbles, and all the rest can be undertaken with a relatively modest investment of time, at least in comparison with longer forms of fiction to sate your literary urges. Then, too, Nanowrimo is just around the corner. If you choose to participate, you'll likely end up neglecting school work and your personal life as well, but it has the merit of lasting only thirty days

[lotuselise1928]

That plan suggestion is a really good idea...keep story-boarding man! And um, if you want useful input from me, and you have a plan, lemme know what it might be...You probably don't really have a plan, do you? Not with your characters. But hey, if you ever invent one, I'll certainly keep reading the giant beast. I think I'm getting to know Frank pretty well, it's nice, in a creepy, retro-eighth grade sort of way. At least his name is pronounceable and there are no elf ears involved...

[puertoricanjane]

Yeah, i named the poor bastard FRANK for a reason. I'm glad you feel well-acquainted with him, by the way--i recall earlier on you said he needed more development, and I assume from your professed approbation that somewhere along the line he got it, no

[puertoricanjane]

Plans--I been thinking. I can't. Can't! Despite how good an idea it is. Because if I knew that at the end, say, they were all going to die, or ride off into the sunset and life happily ever after, I would have no reason to keep writing. And for crying in the sink, if I knew how they were all going to GET there, too... One word (purists would say three), five syllables, starts with an F, ends with a T...

[lotuselise1928]

I wrote you something entertaining in response to this, unfortunately, the computer ate it and try as I may, I can't seem to make the fecking thing spit it back out. I hate the co-op's internet connection, it's so fucked-up! Anyway, yes, I'm pleased that you're not Tolstoy, he was a schizoid ascetic who lived in a bathrobe in his apt. for eight years, then died somewhere horrid, in all likelihood, a box on the side of the road of pneumonia. Plato was executed. Most angsty males who write and publish things over 500 pages die particularly ignominious deaths, generally in boxes of some sort byt the road in a particularly unfortunate part of town. Sigh, back to work...