I'll be the first to admit that I'm not all that great at networking. It's not just that I'm a slightly technologically challenged teenager, it's also that I find it difficult to tell whether what I'm saying is interesting and I have almost no idea whether an online community will be good for me until after I get into it. I usually try something for a while and then drop off the face of the forum, either a week or a year later, and occasionally go back and look at my quiet page and think about what it's like to be an internet ghost. By the way, if anyone wants to write about an internet ghost, you can have that one. Like I said, technologically challenged here, and that idea frightens me because of the amount of research that could possibly be involved. Can spectral material travel over internet signals? How does chain mail feel as it zips through your entity? Are spammers really just ghosts that are as tech-illiterate as me trying to get our attention?
Anyway. Lately, when I go to join a writing site, it seems like it's either a big gaint community that intimidates me with it's connectedness, a giant community that really isn't very connected at all and isn't that great of a place to be, or a small community that intimidates me by its intimateness. And most WIP sharing sites have strict rules about what can be in manuscripts, and I break at least a few of them. This makes me kind of sad. I had no idea my book was too bad for the internet. The irnoy is cold and painful like a rusty scouring pad to my self-confidence.
Anyway. What I'm trying to say is I know it's not as easy as it seems to do social networking. People you meet over the internet can be just as, if not more, intimidating than real-life people. The pressure is all on you to be witty and charming without even having eyelashes to bat, and internet sarcasm has a nasty habit of going over peoples heads. So if you are a socially awkward struggling networker trying to find their place in cyberspace, don't be afraid to ask for help. Just not from me, 'cause I'm as clueless as the rest of you. I also use 'Anyway' way to much. I was just about to start another paragraph with it. I'll restrain myself.
...Check out these websites that have at least marginally worked for me!
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/
http://www.webook.com/home
http://fantasy-writers.org/default.asp
And fictionpress.com is okay, but you've gotta have a way to draw people in from other places, because that site is ginormous.
Til next time!
Teen writer succumbs to the devastating wiles of fiction. Also available: opinions, blabbering, author-worship.
Showing posts with label webook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label webook. Show all posts
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Little Piece...
I thought it might be fun to post a little, teeny piece of the book I'm currently editting, Accidents: Densetsu. This is the first book in the Accidents series, and this scene was added pretty recently to the second chapter of the book. It's just a fun transitional scene, really, but I think it's important because it brings up some themes that might be important in later books and it highlights Art's macabre/playful side. You can read the rest of the chapter on my webook account.
Artemis
I wandered down the south hall, letting my fingers brush along the lockers. The school had decent heating, but the lockers still felt like metal ice. Only one teacher asked where I was going. “Mrs. Lamb wanted me to get another roll of paper towels.” It was a good lie; all the teachers knew that the art teacher was notoriously messy, and that she almost never gave hall passes. The guy straightened his glasses and told me to get a move on. He watched me go, though, so I had to take the wrong hall to the supply closet until he’d walked away. I turned back and skulked to the Biology lab.
No one was using the lab, so I slipped in and went looking for Yorik. That’s what Tabor had named the human skull model that no one ever used. I sat on the edge of a desk, more or less out of view of the windows into the hall, and talked at Yorik, because I was just that desperate. “What’s it like to be dead?” I asked him seriously, running my thumbs over his teeth. “Is it interesting? Or is it nothing?” I worked his jaw for him. Tabor sometimes tried to convince people, usually our Biology teacher, that he talked to her. He’d never talked to me unless I helped him. “I don’t know anyone who believes in Heaven. If it existed, it’d probably suck. I don’t want to just... keep going... forever.” I sighed and let myself flop back on the table, holding Yorik up the way Hamlet did in illustrations. “I’m close enough as it is.”
Yorik chattered reassuringly at me, and I patted his skull plates and put him back on his shelf. The bell rang as I started back to the art room. By the time I got there, all of the students were long gone, leaving the teacher to clean up and put away everyone’s supplies. She didn’t look up. I grabbed my canvas bag and left without saying a word.
Artemis
I wandered down the south hall, letting my fingers brush along the lockers. The school had decent heating, but the lockers still felt like metal ice. Only one teacher asked where I was going. “Mrs. Lamb wanted me to get another roll of paper towels.” It was a good lie; all the teachers knew that the art teacher was notoriously messy, and that she almost never gave hall passes. The guy straightened his glasses and told me to get a move on. He watched me go, though, so I had to take the wrong hall to the supply closet until he’d walked away. I turned back and skulked to the Biology lab.
No one was using the lab, so I slipped in and went looking for Yorik. That’s what Tabor had named the human skull model that no one ever used. I sat on the edge of a desk, more or less out of view of the windows into the hall, and talked at Yorik, because I was just that desperate. “What’s it like to be dead?” I asked him seriously, running my thumbs over his teeth. “Is it interesting? Or is it nothing?” I worked his jaw for him. Tabor sometimes tried to convince people, usually our Biology teacher, that he talked to her. He’d never talked to me unless I helped him. “I don’t know anyone who believes in Heaven. If it existed, it’d probably suck. I don’t want to just... keep going... forever.” I sighed and let myself flop back on the table, holding Yorik up the way Hamlet did in illustrations. “I’m close enough as it is.”
Yorik chattered reassuringly at me, and I patted his skull plates and put him back on his shelf. The bell rang as I started back to the art room. By the time I got there, all of the students were long gone, leaving the teacher to clean up and put away everyone’s supplies. She didn’t look up. I grabbed my canvas bag and left without saying a word.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Get Started...
I have a blog. XDDD;; Why did I do this?
Okay, uh, basic info/what this blog will be about... Obviously, the title is Minor Writes, so I'll try to stick to that topic. I am a minor, and I do write, so that's the premise, mostly.... I'll be working on getting my book published very soon, God willing, hopefully that'll be interesting enough to blog about.
I finished my second book sometime in early December. My first book isn't worth mentioning, it was very, very bad and had entirely too many fairies in it. We'll skip that. The series I'm working on now is three books, one finished, as I said. It's a modern fantasy, and I try to work with lots of different creatures and locations... I hesitate to mention that the main character is a vampire. ^_^;; It isn't another Twilight ripoff, I swear! There isn't even any romance in it. And no werewolves. Plus, I'd already created most of the characters before I'd ever read Twilight. I was late on the bandwagon. Anyhow, the series is called Strain, and each book sub-title is in a foreign language, so the first one is Densetsu (legend) and the second is Juex (game). If you want to read the series, it's posted online at webook.com. Densetsu was recently sent to a friend of a friend for editing. Once I get her notes back and do my second draft, I'll start looking for a writing agent. I already have one I'm looking at, but it's really uncommon to get your first choice, or so I've been told... I can't wait to get some rejection letters to pin up on my wall. XD At least it'll mean I've done something.
If you read through this whole thing, God bless you. Goodnight.
Okay, uh, basic info/what this blog will be about... Obviously, the title is Minor Writes, so I'll try to stick to that topic. I am a minor, and I do write, so that's the premise, mostly.... I'll be working on getting my book published very soon, God willing, hopefully that'll be interesting enough to blog about.
I finished my second book sometime in early December. My first book isn't worth mentioning, it was very, very bad and had entirely too many fairies in it. We'll skip that. The series I'm working on now is three books, one finished, as I said. It's a modern fantasy, and I try to work with lots of different creatures and locations... I hesitate to mention that the main character is a vampire. ^_^;; It isn't another Twilight ripoff, I swear! There isn't even any romance in it. And no werewolves. Plus, I'd already created most of the characters before I'd ever read Twilight. I was late on the bandwagon. Anyhow, the series is called Strain, and each book sub-title is in a foreign language, so the first one is Densetsu (legend) and the second is Juex (game). If you want to read the series, it's posted online at webook.com. Densetsu was recently sent to a friend of a friend for editing. Once I get her notes back and do my second draft, I'll start looking for a writing agent. I already have one I'm looking at, but it's really uncommon to get your first choice, or so I've been told... I can't wait to get some rejection letters to pin up on my wall. XD At least it'll mean I've done something.
If you read through this whole thing, God bless you. Goodnight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)