Creative Corner

Introduction
In Nanowrimo 2013, Micahjaguar started a writers' chat thread in the Wind forum. Since Micah and I left Wind last June, we've created a writers' chat here every month, to (a) meet new writers! and (b) keep in touch with all our Windy friends. (Hi Windies! We still love you all!)

Some purposes for this thread:

• Talk excitedly about your current awesome writing project!
• Whinge about your current project which no longer seems so awesome and you don't want to work on it any more but YOU WILL anyway. Because REASONS.
• Show off snippets of your writing
• Cheer your fellow writers on as they write!
• Commiserate with your fellow writers as they complain about not writing, or about not being happy with their writing
• Ask other participants to pick one of your dragons for you to write something about in the dragon's bio
• Show off dragon bios
• Admire one another's dragons and new hatchlings from time to time (because this IS Flight Rising)
• Any other writerly activities you want to chat about

"Dragon Writers" is a reference to this being a chat on a dragon site; there is no requirement that you write about dragons in order to participate. (Okay, there really aren't any requirements at all).

This is intended to be a general chat thread and not a critique group. Now, it's absolutely fine for a writer to post a link to their work and ask people for feedback and/or criticism! But it's also fine for people to post bits of their writing just to show off and with no desire to have it critiqued. And it's fine if you participate in the thread without ever sharing anything you write, or giving feedback on anyone else's writing.

Unless a writer solicits critiques, please only respond to their writing with supportive comments (or don't respond at all).

New business
For those of you who participated in Camp Nano -- how did it go? Did you make your goal? Was it fun?

For everyone -- how are your current writing projects going? What're your plans for the coming month?

I summon the horde of dragon writers!

@Amut, @benalene, @blaireau, @BombSwan @chalcara, @chaosheart13, @Elfnextdoor, @encarmine, @Erratic, @IvoryMuffin, @Jane13, @JiggertyPokery, @kanashiiichigo @Kazaera, @Kelwyn, @KittyHamilton, @LadyRowyn, @Oakwick, @LucklessLady, @Metamochi, @micahjaguar, @MischiefSword @Mistwalker, @mwingzero, @LilacsandFreedom, @nano, @Nemera, @Paintminion, @pixeltune, @PocketTheSaurus, @Pookasaur, @purplpeanut, @Pyrasaur, @Rabbithearts, @SadariEvenstar, @Serpenthyne, @Soleil, @Steffon, @Suraya, @Syrinx, @The13Inquisitor, @VioletWhirlwind, @Wisecakes, @Yukino, @Snaphance, @dransnake, @tacroy, @Morichinatsu, @Bhelryss, @Ickyrus, @Alpharaposa, @typoAdventure, @nargothrond, @Rexcaliburr @SparkyLurkdragon @disbounded @FlyingNorth, @SierraKomodo, @Stoat, @Mort, @NightwindDragon, @Melodious, @puffbird, @EonFlamewing, @DrippingWords, @Namira @melonLord, @Silverspun @Neige, @Zidderinni, @Aloysius @quartzcrusher @Velg, @brilliantsky, @ShadesofCyan @Batme, @ManaStar, @Satchen @VigilanteSnail @egyptelf, @IronPen @Celetia912 @ObsidianNights @velvetpaws @SN1006 @gendersquare

To add or remove yourself from the Dragon Writers' pinglist, please edit the Google doc. Thanks!

Happy May, dragon friends!

Hello. No real update on what I'm doing right now, because not a lot has happened, but on another note, anyone interested in a second gen Imperial? [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=12626102] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/126262/12626102_350.png[/img] [/url]

I am finally getting around to writing proper clan lore.

I'm proud of myself.

http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/1421840
In case anyone wants to see it. It's so unfinished and I have so much more to write but I just started so...

Aside from that I also started writing a short novel called 'The Road To Nowhere', which is about a small town trying to piece their lives back together.

http://rexcaliburr.deviantart.com/gallery/54216529/The-Road-To-Nowhere
Which is up there in case anyone wants to read it.

Hooray, new thread! Thank you for the summons, @LadyRowyn! :)

Happy May, everyone! I did CampNaNo reluctantly, because a friend asked me to participate. While I didn't reach my goal of editing three novels to my satisfaction, I did finish one and a half, so I'm counting that good progress. I'm on target for all my deadlines. So far. -_-

Old business from the old thread!

@SolarDaemon Being published isn't much like being unpublished, to be honest. I make money, and I get asked to speak places, but other than that, it's surprising how little's changed. You still have doubts and fears and moments of "OH LORD I AM AWFUL AT THIS WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE MY WORK IT NEEDS TO BE BURNED WITH BURNINATION". Some things do get better with experience: my first few novels were hard work, and I remember it wasn't until I wrote the fourth that I started believing that I had more ideas in me. (For the first few novels, every time I finished one I was like "OMG WHAT IF THAT WAS THE ONLY NOVEL I'M EVER GOING TO BE ABLE TO FINISH AAAHHH PANIC") By Novel #6, it had become routine. You learn to trust yourself at some point. Practice really does make you better and faster.

Deciding when to publish is a rough decision now. Back in mah day (she says, waving a cane), you couldn't publish yourself. I had to make my first few sales to editors, which was a useful way of figuring out whether I had polished my skills to the point where I wouldn't embarrass myself in public. If I was going at it today, with self-publishing a respected option, I'd probably show my manuscript to several people first. There have been teens published before, but they typically have experienced professionals helping them with the process (editors or older authors who are willing to review things for them carefully).

Having said all that, the oldest work I've got available now is Alysha's Fall, and parts of it were written when I was in high school. I rewrote them extensively... when I was not much older, in college. I think that work reaaaallly shows its age, and sometimes I am fretful about having it out in public when I've improved so much since then. (For context, that was decades ago.) But that's always going to be a problem. If you're working, you're improving, and the you of ten years from now is always going to be a better writer than the you who started publishing. You have to make some peace with that. It's hard, though. The impulse to rewrite and "fix" is strong. -_-

@hitoritabi Author Solutions is one of those scammy 'we want to upsell you on marketing packages that don't work and that's how we make money on unsuspecting hopeful authors' companies. I am puzzled about the 'only e-book' thing with CS because they started out as only print! And expanded into e-books only when Amazon bought them (and even then, when you click the e-book option it just takes you to Amazon's kindle publishing platform).

Technically, yes, you need a different ISBN for every edition. In practice, almost no one assigns ISBNs to e-books or audiobooks because they're distributed digitally and there's less need for a way to refer to them. I have never bothered to buy ISBNs and it's never had a material effect on me.

I also had one of those '!' moments at 'e-books make no money', because 90% of my revenue comes from e-books (and they're priced around $4.99!). Print and audio editions are less than 10% of my sales, and this isn't unusual for modern authors. Unless you have broad distribution and a big company pushing your print editions, they aren't going to outsell your e-books. In fiction anyway. I think the graphic novel segment's still in flux, though e-editions of graphic novels are beginning to accelerate with the color tablets having become so ubiquitous.

But seriously, e-books are enormous revenue generators. Many modern authors wouldn't have a career without them. I have author friends who are making high five figures a year and they've never been published in print at all. :)

Hello!

I don't have much at the moment (still beating the writer's block, and failing), but I'm fleshing out clan lore and doing a bit of a side project. Still thinking on how I should expand on the canon divergence for an Emperor story I'm hoping to write.

It's Maaaayyyyy! And I need to clear out some dragons so I can hatch Iraeharita's nest. Hoping for ugly vip/hypno babs. :3 In the meantime, I'm still waiting for the royal/royal tundra to sell and I also hatched this cutie. She's one of Simon/Charon's [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=12776759] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/127768/12776759_350.png[/img] [/url] And also Eidothea got a bio! Finally. I've known what she was for the longest time but the poor girl just never had hers written. [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=7016168] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/70162/7016168_350.png[/img] [/url] @Steffon Hello! Also, my gosh, your signature. My best friend wore his John hoodie on campus on a windy day once, and a girl shouted "DO THE WINDY THING". It made his day.

Hey there!
Got a weekend wedding coming up, (not mine, family though) and I'm going to see if I can finish up the project I've been working on for some time now while flying. At least, write out the roughs for each, I'll have to type each up later.

Main project right now: Get a new laptop.

It's MAY already? *eeek* That means I have only a month left of kids in school, and then my job changes from "do creative stuff quickly while the preschooler is gone" to "full-time entertainer and minion manager"...

I love my kids. Honestly, I do. But it is impossible to put in full-time hours as a creative AND be a full-time mom. And childcare costs for 3 kids make it impossible to get child care so I can work full-time, anyway. >_<

Alright, griping aside... This is going to be a busy month. Hubby needs to look for a summer job (possibly something that can work with his college schedule so it can extend into the next school year, in a way that his current job can't) and I've gotta keep on keeping on, trying to get my fine art career on its feet so I can contribute to the finances in a more substantial way... I think I'm spending WAY too much time trying to figure things out and not enough time actually doing and trying things. I have a Patreon mostly set up, but I have yet to launch it because I don't have an audience and I'm not sure if I should work on audience building first, or just launch it and work on audience building as I go. >_>

*sigh*

I may or may not be scarce here... but I've just gotta keep on keeping on!

@NightwindDragon Good luck on the new laptop! That can be a challenge!