Wannabe Writers Writing: Revisions, Feedback, Evil Chickens

This is the keyboard I'm thinking of picking up in order to have a writing implement with me constantly.

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So do we have any writing groups around? I really want to get back into writing. I told myself that I would once I finished my degree and I did that over a year ago now.

Rykin wrote:

So do we have any writing groups around? I really want to get back into writing. I told myself that I would once I finished my degree and I did that over a year ago now.

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1... They do this monthly, though I haven't seen one for Sept yet. You could start it!

Chairman_Mao wrote:
Rykin wrote:

So do we have any writing groups around? I really want to get back into writing. I told myself that I would once I finished my degree and I did that over a year ago now.

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1... They do this monthly, though I haven't seen one for Sept yet. You could start it!

I ran the July thread which bled into August. No one seems to have gone for a September iteration. Duoae IIRC (too lazy to check right now) did the May thread, but membership and submissions seem to have dried up. Only I submitted something the last time and the previous thread only got a couple of subs. Last year, though, we had a strong showing

DON'T DO IT.

http://theweek.com/article/index/258...

But do write. Just not for this :).

Sounds like it's similar to what Destructoid and other such sites do, occasionally posting selections to their front page. I know I turned in quality work regularly, but only ever got front-paged once. It's really, really tough making a mark in all that muck.

I should go back and check some of the other blogs there some time, though. Some of the folks there were pretty cool.

When it comes to a lot of "jobs", though, there are a lot of people that promise pay later. A friend of mine thought she was doing me a favor linking me to this page, but even the places that pay are absolutely criminal in the amount. I found some that want you to post roughly 3 or 4 articles per day for maybe $15/day. Absolutely ridiculous, and only endorses the constant cycle of press release pasting.

Actually, here's a perfect example. You get $5 per review, but you have to provide your own games. That's fine, you were going to buy that game anyway, right? But they expect a review within 30 days and only newly released games.

So that means I wouldn't have been able to get $5 for my review of Bravely Default unless I reviewed it based on it being a half-finished game (granted, I doubt most of the professional reviewers managed to finish it either, but still, it bugs me). I just don't think that's worth it, and while they try to color it up by claiming you'll get exposure, they're clearly a small site no one reads and, from my time at GamersDailyNews, I can admit that without the right website or connections your name on a byline won't mean squat.

edit: oops, wrong thread, my apologies.

ccesarano wrote:

Sounds like it's similar to what Destructoid and other such sites do, occasionally posting selections to their front page. I know I turned in quality work regularly, but only ever got front-paged once. It's really, really tough making a mark in all that muck.

I should go back and check some of the other blogs there some time, though. Some of the folks there were pretty cool.

When it comes to a lot of "jobs", though, there are a lot of people that promise pay later. A friend of mine thought she was doing me a favor linking me to this page, but even the places that pay are absolutely criminal in the amount. I found some that want you to post roughly 3 or 4 articles per day for maybe $15/day. Absolutely ridiculous, and only endorses the constant cycle of press release pasting.

Actually, here's a perfect example. You get $5 per review, but you have to provide your own games. That's fine, you were going to buy that game anyway, right? But they expect a review within 30 days and only newly released games.

So that means I wouldn't have been able to get $5 for my review of Bravely Default unless I reviewed it based on it being a half-finished game (granted, I doubt most of the professional reviewers managed to finish it either, but still, it bugs me). I just don't think that's worth it, and while they try to color it up by claiming you'll get exposure, they're clearly a small site no one reads and, from my time at GamersDailyNews, I can admit that without the right website or connections your name on a byline won't mean squat.

Getting paid $5 for a review seems worse to me than putting up for free. Either pay me something worthwhile or give me the game for free.

Focus on writing and writing well and the rest will come later. You need connections and all that but you won't get anywhere if you can't write well.

I just realized I wrote all that thinking this was Wordsmythe's "so you wanna write about games" thread. D'oh!

Still relevant I suppose. And yeah, Garrion, I don't mind being able to keep a review copy. I still have a Naruto game for the Wii because it was a review copy from GamersDailyNews, and that's how I got Bioshock 2 as well. I've occasionally thought about trading the former in, but honestly, it feels like a sort of badge to have that.

Anyone enjoy writing flash fiction? Or non-fiction? Wanna have a prompt every day for a year? I'm running a Tumblr blog to do just that! Sometimes its just a great way to get your writing juices flowing, or perhaps its something small to do for fun. Either way, check it out!

ccesarano wrote:

Sounds like it's similar to what Destructoid and other such sites do, occasionally posting selections to their front page. I know I turned in quality work regularly, but only ever got front-paged once. It's really, really tough making a mark in all that muck.

I should go back and check some of the other blogs there some time, though. Some of the folks there were pretty cool.

When it comes to a lot of "jobs", though, there are a lot of people that promise pay later. A friend of mine thought she was doing me a favor linking me to this page, but even the places that pay are absolutely criminal in the amount. I found some that want you to post roughly 3 or 4 articles per day for maybe $15/day. Absolutely ridiculous, and only endorses the constant cycle of press release pasting.

Actually, here's a perfect example. You get $5 per review, but you have to provide your own games. That's fine, you were going to buy that game anyway, right? But they expect a review within 30 days and only newly released games.

So that means I wouldn't have been able to get $5 for my review of Bravely Default unless I reviewed it based on it being a half-finished game (granted, I doubt most of the professional reviewers managed to finish it either, but still, it bugs me). I just don't think that's worth it, and while they try to color it up by claiming you'll get exposure, they're clearly a small site no one reads and, from my time at GamersDailyNews, I can admit that without the right website or connections your name on a byline won't mean squat.

I did some game writing for a site called Game Chronicles back in the mid-2000s and was paid in free copies. Honestly getting $5 is worse than doing it for free as you're out $50+.

Im curious to know if there's a good way to get a new gaming blog noticed. My idea is to take a game and a book a month, then write about the themes of both. I've been inspired by the Idle Thumb book club podcast. Im wondering if I should host on my own site or create a blog on say Destructoid.

At this point, I think the best way to get a blog noticed is to be on a network of some sort, though perhaps not necessarily a site like Destructoid. I think there are others that will appreciate more in-depth talk more. But trying to promote my own blog has been a pain in the ass, and I think if you're on a network with "If you liked this..." features and other sorts of cross-marketing tools for everyone's blog, it'll be easier.

But getting noticed in this day and age? I haven't found the magic key to it.

Hey, here's a thing that happened to me.

Let me know what you all think.

I enjoyed that greatly.

ccesarano wrote:

I enjoyed that greatly.

Thanks, man.

Arise!

This does feel a little awkward, what with being the last poster and everything. I scanned the first few Everything Else pages to see if there was a current, relevant thread, but nothin' doin', I came back to this one and saw that I originally killed it. Regardless, I just needed wanted a spot to share this good news; sorry if resurrecting this feels...ancient or something. I can pretend to be a spambot at the end if it's going to make everyone feel better...

Anyway, I'm at the "just signed the contract" stage of having an original stage play of mine -- one I wrote in Fall of 2014 for my Drama Club to perform at our state-sponsored competition -- set to be published and offered for licensing around the country/world.

I'll offer a link as soon as it's, you know, available, but since it's not, I'll just leave this info here.

(Although, I did have a few other stories published at the same online journal I linked to above. Might as well link them here, 'cause what the hell...

Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4)

Congratz.

So the podcast I host, The Library Police, had to miss a week, so I decided to try something. I wrote, narrated, and produced an audio short story and released it as this week's episode. It's about three minutes in that it starts, and it lasts for about thirty minutes. I'd love to hear thoughts, suggestions, etc. I had a blast, and I'd like to do more of this. You can find it here.

Came across this on Imgur (linking because of how long it is) and thought it would be a neat writing prompt. Basically a sci-fi universe where humans are the scary ones instead of the aliens always being tougher and stronger.

I feel like I'd need to do a lot more research to craft a story where humans are the scary ones.

Though in some ways it was already done in the original Day the Earth Stood Still. "If you guys don't straighten up and fly right we're gonna come down in the angriest celestial rage and wipe you off the starmap".

As for me, I dunno why I'm posting here because who knows if I'll be able to do anything with it, but after having a conversation with my brother this weekend I decided I had a sort of theme or topic I wanted to write about in prose form. So I sat down starting with a very loose idea, and through jotting thoughts and concepts down in a blank document I went from a hazy concept of a setting to a full protagonist, antagonist, conflict, and story arc. All I need is the ending.

Granted, the setting isn't clearly defined and I should probably do more planning, but this is the first time in a while I've sat down to come up with a story, and I'm stunned that a basic outline just generated itself through typed-out brainstorming.

Hoping I can find the time and energy to do something with it, as most of my other ideas never went far (partially because I never had a full idea start-to-finish in mind).

Rykin wrote:

Came across this on Imgur (linking because of how long it is) and thought it would be a neat writing prompt. Basically a sci-fi universe where humans are the scary ones instead of the aliens always being tougher and stronger.

There's a subreddit for that: https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy

Rykin wrote:

Came across this on Imgur (linking because of how long it is) and thought it would be a neat writing prompt. Basically a sci-fi universe where humans are the scary ones instead of the aliens always being tougher and stronger.

I've read a published version of that, but am blanking on the author (Alan Dean Foster, just maybe?) and titles.

Whoever the author was, they were riffing off of the "hellworld" trope" -- sentient life evolved on a lot of planets, with Earth as the harshest of them all by a significant margin. Humanity entered the picture during an ongoing war between an alliance of "good guy" aliens, a few of whom could just barely push themselves to commit acts of violence for a sufficiently worthy cause if sufficiently trained, and "bad guy" aliens who weren't much better at directly using force but could psionically dominate others to do the dirty work for them.

I remember them as okay popcorn reading that mostly made me wish someone would do a more ethically- and morally-intensive exploration of the central idea.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi has a similar feel.

Not only have we engineered soldiers that can stand toe-to-toe with most aliens out there, we're expansionist assholes who won't play nice with the other species (which, to be fair, are mostly expansionist assholes).

misplacedbravado wrote:
Rykin wrote:

Came across this on Imgur (linking because of how long it is) and thought it would be a neat writing prompt. Basically a sci-fi universe where humans are the scary ones instead of the aliens always being tougher and stronger.

I've read a published version of that, but am blanking on the author (Alan Dean Foster, just maybe?) and titles.

Whoever the author was, they were riffing off of the "hellworld" trope" -- sentient life evolved on a lot of planets, with Earth as the harshest of them all by a significant margin. Humanity entered the picture during an ongoing war between an alliance of "good guy" aliens, a few of whom could just barely push themselves to commit acts of violence for a sufficiently worthy cause if sufficiently trained, and "bad guy" aliens who weren't much better at directly using force but could psionically dominate others to do the dirty work for them.

I remember them as okay popcorn reading that mostly made me wish someone would do a more ethically- and morally-intensive exploration of the central idea.

Quozl, maybe?

So, here's a cool thing -- a follow-up to my post from February.

For whatever it's worth, I finally saw this was available from the publisher after I put the draft to bed back in August. So, you know, there it is...

Hi all!

I was hoping to get some feedback on a project I've undertaken to improve my general comfort with writing. What I'm hoping to be reviewed is Episode 4 of The Grounded Wheel Jockies, a Rimworld playthrough featuring the awesome Rocket League GWJ community. Feedback of any type would be appreciated!

While it also celebrates the awesome Rimworld and Rocket League communities, the goal of the project was always to try to improve as a "writer". I have no aspirations for becoming a writer persay, but I've felt uncomfortable and inadequate while expressing myself online and on these forums. Forcing myself outside of my comfort zone seemed a good way to hopefully improve!

The ultimate of this project is to shore up weakness and become more confident with language. I'd like to be able to represent myself well in text form and potentially be able to jump in with confidence on the scary D&D forums.

Feel free to PM me your thoughts/criticism! Any suggestions on the episode or other ideas to improve at writing you might have are greatly appreciated!

Arise thread. I the great necromancer Rykin summon you.

Years later and I have finally gotten back into writing. I think I put almost 1000 words on the page today (slow day at work). Not really sure where my idea is going, but it is a basic idea I have been thinking about for years.

I was writing in a trial version of Scrivener and out of all the tools I have looked at lately it seems to bug me the least. Sadly I can't run the current version on my out-of-date Mac at home and the file format between the current version and the old version that will run on my Mac is different. For cloud based options Novlr seems nice, but a little pricey for something that I will probably quit using in a few months (and I generally hate SaaS licensing models). I really like how both of these apps let me create a project and then quickly jump between chapters and notes via an organizable list though. Any suggestions on other apps to look at? I could probably make due with just a Windows app though I do prefer my Mac even if it is a bit long in the tooth.

P.S. misplacedbravado the author you were correct about that series being by Alan Dean Foster and the books were The Damned Trilogy. Read it a little while back and it was kind of interesting.

Well, I actually just bought Nimble Writer on Steam, and took it for a spin. It seems simple and the layout is good. It doesn't have as many features as Scrivener or yWriter, even, but it's relative simplicity makes it seem easier on my "mind", for lack of a better term.

I keep it simple and use google docs, and then keep all my notes in a moleskin.