Anyone ever thought about writing a book?

It's something ive always wanted to do, just hope one day ill be good enough at what I do to have the chance.

Anyone else contemplated it? What steps would you have to go through?

I've been working on one for about six years now. I'm on chapter five.

I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.

ha ha thats what I mean, I doubt id be able to finish it, spose its alright for a story but for a technology book not so good lol

I wrote a sample chapter for a book idea I had about a year ago, it was rejected by the publisher for being too insensitive.

Six years???
What are you writing about? Is it still useful?

.seb
http://sgomez.blogspot.com

I once wrote part of a book on the history of Reliant Automobiles; I stopped after thinking about how small the market was.

Angus Higgins

Sven Groot wrote:

I've been working on one for about six years now. I'm on chapter five.

I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.

I feel ya.

I have a screenplay that I have been working on & off (mostly off) for over 8 years. I am still on act I (but I have notes for the entire production).

I also have a book I have been writing for about 3 years, loosely based on my life experiences.

I am really bad at time management.


I have been wrestling with how to label /market my book. I do draw many of the stories and characters from my real life experiences, but I am really creating a fiction novel. My life has been mostly exciting, with a very non-traditional childhood. My ultimate goal is to provide insight to what it means to grow up basically orphaned as a ward of the state, and to illustrate that kids that grow up in the 'system' can still persevere in life and be successful.

I always wanted to write a screenplay for a good (at least to me) scifi movie. However everytime I want to give it a try, I sit in front of Word, not knowing where to start and after 5 minutes I feel all cheesy.

Tom Servo wrote:

I always wanted to write a screenplay for a good (at least to me) scifi movie. However everytime I want to give it a try, I sit in front of Word, not knowing where to start and after 5 minutes I feel all cheesy.

Why not write a screenplay for an existing universe? The BattleTech saturday-morning cartoon sure did suck (then again, it was aimed at 6 yearolds). There's plenty of undeniably cool things about the universe's rich and illustrious history (great houses, soldiers born in canisters, an exodus that makes the Isralites look like a family holiday, and the ultimate poster-child vehicle).

I am writing a second chapter for a book with another author.  It is quite a lot of work.  The first chapter I wrote took about two months with all of the research.  Of course if you have the time to devote to just writing it would go faster, at least as far as the calendar is concerned.  It is the little things like work and family that tend to slow things down. 

In all it is a fun experience and it actually makes you better at the subject you are writing about.

Back in 1998, me and a buddy were sipping a few adult beverages and came up with an idea for a screenplay/movie. 

2 years later a movie was released that was strikingly similar to the ideas we had for the project. 

My title was different.  I was going to call it "7th Mission"

It's almost as if someone was eavesdropping on us that night and stole our idea(s).

Since then I have not had time for such endeavors.  Maybe when the 3 kids get in grade school . . .

sgomez wrote:

Six years???
What are you writing about? Is it still useful?

It's a story, not a tech book, so it was never useful to begin with. I won't say what it's about, except that it's a sci-fi story (space opera, basically).

I haven't really been writing it for six years, however it's six years ago that I first came up with the concept for the universe and the story. Since then many of the details have changed and the universe has gotten complex and fairly detailed. I even wrote a timeline that goes back nearly 14000 years (it's not that long though; it skips nearly everything between 10000 and 800 years ago ), with the actual events of the story being somewhere near present day.

I have over the years created many materials relating to this story. Story outlines, the aforementioned timeline, character sheets, even a few sketches of spaceships (which are horrible since I can't really draw). I also wrote a VB6 program (this was before .Net came out) that converted between our calendar and the one used by the people in the story.

There have been three attempts to actually write this story. By now, I have so much material to draw on I could probably write a whole series of books (if I had the time and the skill), but these three attempts all started at the very beginning. They all failed. Each attempt tried to fix the problems of the one before, but they still failed. I'd always start full of hope, think I was doing okay, and a week later I'd read it back and think it was awful. None got past chapter 2.

About a year ago, I started on a fourth attempt. I went about this one much more structural: I filled in many of the gaps in my knowledge of the universe, finished the timeline, and set out to write only a short story, which could be a component of a larger one. Most importantly, I didn't start at the beginning. Instead I started about 15 years after the events I tried to depict in the first three attempts. This had the advantage that I don't need to be so careful; ultimately I feel the first three attempts failed because everything I wrote had to fit with what I know must happen sometimes years later. Everything has to fit the grander puzzle, and some things would need to be set up that would pay off much much later. By starting at this later point, I don't have to set things up so much.

And this does work better. Ultimately, I decided that the short story should indeed be a component of a larger one. The short story I originally planned has become chapters 1 through 3 of the much longer story I'm working on now, which is, like I said, on chapter 5. Currently it's just over 16,000 words. I'm told 50,000 makes a novel so I've got quite a ways to go yet. And most importantly, I can still read it back without cringing too much.

Will I ever finish it? Quite frankly that's doubtful. I have a reputation for starting things like this and never finishing. And I do have far too little time to work on it. But I've had many, many ideas for stories before (none of which I've actually written a single word of), and none have stuck with me as much as this one. So who knows, maybe one day. If I do, I already have plans for a sequel.

W3bbo wrote:

I wrote a sample chapter for a book idea I had about a year ago, it was rejected by the publisher for being too insensitive.

Was it a self-help book for overweight people titled "I'm OK, You need a Salad!"? 

Was it a modern day fairy-tale about the benefits of sterilization-based eugenics?

C'mon.  I gotta hear this.

ScanIAm wrote:

W3bbo wrote:I wrote a sample chapter for a book idea I had about a year ago, it was rejected by the publisher for being too insensitive.Was it a self-help book for overweight people titled "I'm OK, You need a Salad!"?  Was it a modern day fairy-tale about the benefits of sterilization-based eugenics?C'mon.  I gotta hear this.

A bit of both actually

At the time I was rather jealous of Luke Jackson getting all the fame and glory for spending a few hours every day in Word, writing about how much his life and family sucked[1] because his mum kepts on accepting disabled kids to take care of, add in a bit of product placement (about some special diet) and you've got the book "Freaks, Geeks, and Asperger's Syndrome".I was something like 14 when I was given it (after some problems in school), I felt insulted.

[1]Yes, he is that "disaffected", he even has a DeviantArt account where he posts high-resolution digital photos of soup bowls and calls it "art".I hit back with my own take on "self-help" books, borrowing Maddox's take on life.

I prescribed not "always tell your mummy and daddy if you are ever bullied", but actually "identify why you're bullied, did you ever consider that maybe you actually are a complete nutjob weirdo who wears his sweater inside out just to get double the milage out of it?"

I would like to say that said advice actually helped me a lot, before then I was always running to authority without actually doing anything about myself to sort things out (this is like 6-7 years ago though)

I emailed my sample chapter off to his publisher, they rejected it on the spot. I guess they don't like the possibility that maybe áss-burger children aren't necessarily only the victim. Just because they've got a "different-wired" brain doesn't mean they should abandon all sense of personal responsibility, even if it means they need to relearn it.

Disclaimer: I'm authorised to write this because I actually have ássburgers. (Yes, I know how its spelled).

That's it really.

W3bbo wrote:

I emailed my sample chapter off to his publisher, they rejected it on the spot. I guess they don't like the possibility that maybe áss-burger children aren't necessarily only the victim. Just because they've got a "different-wired" brain doesn't mean they should abandon all sense of personal responsibility, even if it means they need to relearn it.

You can email a sample chapter to the publisher and actually receive feedback!? I have to try this, then if I get rejected I haven't spent decades writting a book that is unpublishable.

Are you still thinking about chopping your locks for charity?

/enabling my procrastination