Who's Working on a Novel?

[J. Penn]

These all sound like interesting works, everyone! I hope you'll keep writing and putting fantastic stories into the world.

I've finished a steampunk novel that's an alternate, tea-obsessed 1850's. Here's a summary:

The year is 1851, and the world is steeped in tea. Young American photographer Madeline Bird, hoping to take photographs the likes of which the world has not yet seen, takes one last chance to make her living abroad when she travels to China's vast tea gardens. There, she stumbles into the dangerous business of Darjeeling and Earl Grey. Tea, the most prized international commodity, brews all kinds of intrigues—bandits, rumors of poison, abduction—and after her camera is smashed by an unknown assailant, Madeline is immersed in a mystery. With not just business but lives at stake, Madeline must determine who is genuine and who wears a mask.

Madeline, along with her friend and an enigmatic tea investigator, embarks on a perilous airship journey that foreshadows the war they discover between rival tea barons. All the while, Madeline battles her own doubts about pursuing photography and the role she can play under confining expectations.

If you'd like to read part of it, you can check out an excerpt on my blog here.

[CPT_J_Percell]

Toot da do!
Finially got down onto my lazy backside and started working on the next book in the series. Thankfully the first draft was completed last year so already have a massive amount of it done.

[gaslampfantasy]

Good luck, Captain Percell. Just finished my 81st. On to the next!

[Clym Angus]

Close to the centre of the town Eddie saw more madness. He passed the Arthur Lowe block of flats, and he noticed that the flats were one fire, and that the there was a red fire engine parked outside. And just for a second Eddie felt relieved. At least the fire brigade was responding to this emergency.

https://gaslampfantasy.wordpress.com/free-story-bad-effects/

Did you mean "the flats were on fire?"

I like "one fire" however. I think you should keep it.  

That is a warming little tale isn't it? I approve. And retort:
http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=17247&start=20

[Deviette]

I'm working on a prequel to a short series of short stories I have planned. I'm actually writing it so that I have a decent level of understanding of my characters' motivations, relationships and characteristics rather than it being important to the story. Unfortunately it's actually sitting on the back burner for the moment, as I'm trying to get one of my non-steamy ideas down in written form.

[pakled]

My plot structure is based on Gandhi - first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. I just have to figure out how they win...

[EvilKelsits]

I have been working on a novel for a very long time.
I need the confidence to organize it and get it out there though.
Oh, and come up with a title. There are many titles.... sigh.

[gaslampfantasy]

What qualifies as a very long time?

[Clym Angus]

Indeed. There are times you must stop polishing and push!

[EvilKelsits]

Three and a half, perhaps even four years or maybe that isn't long enough to quantify as 'a very long time'
Sorry for my imprecise language, I am sometimes guilty of hyperbole.

[Aemilia]

It's very early stages but i'm working on a narrative about a young woman who is broken out of a steampunk asylum by what later transpires to be an unsuccessful paranormal investigative agency. I know paranormal agencies are a bit overdone (BUR from Gale Carrigers Soulless and the BPRD from Hellboy etc.) But i'm fairly certain that the characters can bring something new to it . The only writing I've ever published online is the opening chapters to an anime fanfic i'm working on but if you guys are interested I'd be happy to post an extract of another story for you guys to look at so you can get an idea of my writing style.

[RayneSaikoro]

I recently published a short story called "The Machinist's Workshop" on Amazon. If interested, you can download the e-book for free today. I'd love some reviews ^_^!

After narrowly escaping death, Cecily is asked to repay the favor by helping to revive her fiancé Harlowe, a brilliant machinist. In order to accomplish the task, Cecily must work alongside four automatons who contain parts of the machinist's soul. As Cecily begins her mission, however, she discovers that the automatons have interpreted the plan quite differently, consequently undermining one another in their struggle to reach the same goal. As Harlowe's fragmented mind works against itself, ultimately endangering the person he tried so hard to save, Cecily finds herself uncertain not only of her new mechanical body, but of what her heart is telling her.

Download the short story today for free here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013RR4WRO
If you miss out on today's freebie, then keep tabs on my blog for the next one.

[Lynkhart]

I've got the beginnings of something involving a young museum curator/apprentice taxidermist, his plucky young widowed companion, and strange creatures from beyond their reality!

I started writing it in screenplay form in the hope that I could nail the dialogue first and not get bogged down in details, but it kind of fizzled out, so I'd like to revisit it at some point.

[gaslampfantasy]

I can't do screenplays, never learnt. But I am interested in the idea of a taxidermist / monster hunter. He could end up with a collection of the enemies which he defeats, the collection growing with every story. Original! Keep working away on it and see where it goes.

[pakled]

Well, I should give props to this forum, since the 'what if Rome hadn't created an empire' thread did light a fire in the boiler, so to speak. Combine that with a dystopian magical Empire based in Carthage. Working title is Carthago Still writing the prologue, doing research (Liddle-Hart, of tank warfare fame evidently wrote a biography of Scipio Africanus. Who knew?...

[CPT_J_Percell]

Well, I should give props to this forum, since the 'what if Rome hadn't created an empire' thread did light a fire in the boiler, so to speak. Combine that with a dystopian magical Empire based in Carthage. Working title is Carthago Still writing the prologue, doing research (Liddle-Hart, of tank warfare fame evidently wrote a biography of Scipio Africanus. Who knew?...

Usefull tip = If this is the first in a series or a one off, don't write a Prologue!
It is a know fact throughout the writing industry that most readers will skip the prologue!

[pakled]

D'oh! well, backstory it is, then... thanks for the tip.

[The Corsair]

Well, I should give props to this forum, since the 'what if Rome hadn't created an empire' thread did light a fire in the boiler, so to speak. Combine that with a dystopian magical Empire based in Carthage. Working title is Carthago Still writing the prologue, doing research (Liddle-Hart, of tank warfare fame evidently wrote a biography of Scipio Africanus. Who knew?...

Usefull tip = If this is the first in a series or a one off, don't write a Prologue!
It is a know fact throughout the writing industry that most readers will skip the prologue!

Or rather 'Don't submit a prologue'

Most stories don't need a prologue, and it's best to avoid submitting one. The times you do need a prologue are when your first few chapters are unrepresentative of the tone or style of the rest of the piece. In those cases, you use a prologue to set up what kind of story it will be so that readers get invested in that.

A great example is Star Wars (IV). The first thing we see is a massive ship pursuing another one while shooting at it. The second thing we see is a skirmish aboard the smaller ship. Then we get a whole load of slow exposition, but we're interested in it because we know the premise of the piece is 'Action setpieces in space and starships shooting one another'.

[Lady_Lockharte]

So I have yet to publish anything, but I have been writing for many many years. I'm currently making real effots to finish a novel. Once I do, i hope to get it published (although I have no idea how to go about it). I'm not exactly sure how well my story would fit into the steampunk genre, but it is at least steampunk-esque. There are no airships or ray guns, and magic is at a minimum. There are a race of automatons...of sorts. However, the story does not focus on them. It might be considered adult literature, as it is a bit sexualized in some scenes and has others of explicit violence. It is not an upbeat adventure story, nor is it a romance by any means. My stories tend to be dark, gritty, and I don't believe in happy endings.

However, I'm a complete amateur when it comes to the big world of published books. I have no idea what audiences are into, how to categorize my work, what my boundaries are when trying to appeal to certain audiences, what a good length of a novel even is, etc.

[gaslampfantasy]

The length of a novel? It used to be around fifty thousand in the days of Edgar Rice Burroughs - but now you should be aiming at 80,00 as a bar minimum. That will be too short for a lot of publishers, and some prefer in the region of 140,000. Check with the publisher what word count they want before approaching them.

[GCCC]

These are the guidelines set forth by The World Science Fiction Society and The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in their criteria for awards categories for The Hugo and The Nebula, respectively. (Luckily, they are both the same.)
Novel:          40,000+ words
Novella:        17,500 – 40,000 words
Novelette:     500 – 17500 words
Short Story:  <7500 words

[Lady_Lockharte]

These are the guidelines set forth by The World Science Fiction Society and The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in their criteria for awards categories for The Hugo and The Nebula, respectively. (Luckily, they are both the same.)
Novel:          40,000+ words
Novella:        17,500 – 40,000 words
Novelette:     500 – 17500 words
Short Story:  <7500 words

This... will be easy. I had passed the 3,000 word mark by simply introducing two characters and fleshing out a scene as one made her way down to a boat house.... well, a bit more than JUST that... but as far as story progression, that's where it was at about 3.5k words.

I understand that I obviously will need more than just lots and lots of words o make a good story. I am honestly not trying to hit a specific word count in my novel. However, now I know I actually NEED to get a certain word count. Either way, it shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for this.

[GCCC]

De nada. However, gaslampfantasy also gave you good advice, in that you'll want to do some research to find out what publishers are looking for. Then you'll know who's looking for the minimum 40,000, and who's looking for more (or less).

[Lady_Lockharte]

Isn't that kind of a circular problem though? Don't you need something finished (or mostly finished) before you approach a publisher? You know, to show em' what you got?

[GCCC]

Indeed. But, that's also why agents are so important.