Making a book

[jadefyre]

I do like writing novel-length fiction, but lately I've been trying my hand at short stories and microfiction. I want to make a small collection or anthology of my things, but I don't want to overwhelm myself. I've actually started compiling my last few microfiction sci-fi stories into a little chapbook. Once I have enough to fill all 8 pages, I'll probably print off a few copies and shop them around locally. And I'll probably sell them on my ko-fi shop.

As for novels and stuff, I figure I'll get there when I get there. Taking the pressure off has already done wonders, and I might even go into novella-writing rather than worrying about full-on novels. So many of the stories I want to tell can easily be told in fewer than 50,000 words

[starbreaker]

Believe or not, 50,000 words counts as a novel. You've heard of "National Novel Writing Month", right? That event's goal is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I recently read a blog post by author Dean Wesley Smith about how novels (especially genre fiction) seem to be at least 100,000 words in the last 30-40 years because of the demands of publishers, and that "back in the day" full-length novels used to be a lot shorter.

For example, I doubt that The Black God's Kiss by C. L. Moore (1934) was more than 25,000 words long.

"Killing Even More Sacred Cows of Publishing: #1… Novels Must Be A Certain Length" by Dean Wesley Smith

Don't worry about length. Just write the story you need to write, the way you need to write it.

[starbreaker]

I'd love to write a novel. Just one, some day. I have a few ideas in my head but I fall into the easy writer trap of: no one cares and also this has been done before.

Your post reminds me of that "stereotype vs reality" meme applied to nihilism.



I also have that doubtful voice in my head (which totally doesn't resemble a homicidal bicycle) telling me that nobody cares and what I've been doing has been done before. And it goes the same way every time.

fixie of god's blood and burial
Dude, nobody is gonna read this. Nobody read Silent Clarion and nobody's gonna read Spiral Architect either.

me
So what? If nobody's gonna read it then I don't have to worry about meeting anybody's expectations. I can write whatever I want.

fixie of god's blood and burial
Dude, this is so derivative. It's basically yet another JRPG/Michael Moorcock mashup with a Eurotrash power metal playlist.

me
So what if it's Hawkmoon on a Honda with a soundtrack by Within Temptation? All of this might have been done before, but I'm still gonna do it MY WAY.

Also, why are you even giving me unsolicited advice? How does that even work? You're a bicycle.

fixie
You can't even visualize your inner critic without ripping off song lyrics, bro.

me
You're lucky I don't visualize you as a cricket and let Smudge and Purrseus play "pounce the hoppy bug" with you.

[starbreaker]

Sometimes I dream of making the Dragonology equivalent for unicorns - compile actual legends of unicorns of all around the world, give them beautiful illustrated renditions, and classify them by continent. It's all a pipe dream for now, tho...

Write one legend this weekend. Just one. Post it here. I'll read it.

[di]

I just want to chime in and say I love all the book ideas I've read here y'all are so creative and your ideas are worth putting time into (if you want)!

Starbreaker, all your posts are really spot-on! This advice

write the story you need to write, the way you need to write it.

is so great.

And I love what you wrote about that nihilistic voice.

Sometimes I dream of making the Dragonology equivalent for unicorns - compile actual legends of unicorns of all around the world, give them beautiful illustrated renditions, and classify them by continent. It's all a pipe dream for now, tho...

Write one legend this weekend. Just one. Post it here. I'll read it.

I'll read it too! I loved those Dragonology books growing up.

Also, it might not be as much of a pipe dream as you think - this project could be really doable as a zine.

[starbreaker]

Starbreaker, all your posts are really spot-on! This advice is so great.

Thanks. It's something I learned the hard way, without any support or community.

And I love what you wrote about that nihilistic voice.

Thanks again. Just some more experience showing through; I still struggle with the inner critic, but struggling is better than just rolling over and giving up.

I'll read it too! I loved those Dragonology books growing up.

I didn't read those; I skipped from "Dick and Jane" pretty much directly to Bullfinch's Mythology, The Hellbound Heart, and Stormbringer. I'm not even into unicorns; I'm into soul-searching androids, swashbuckling sopranos, and demons from outer space. But I'll read it anyway and I'll damn well find something to like about it. It probably won't take me that long, and it might help encourage another writer to start telling their stories instead of settling for somebody else's.

Also, it might not be as much of a pipe dream as you think - this project could be really doable as a zine.

At the very least it'll be something to put on your website.

[Gans]

Allow crazy things in your fiction. You need no market, so you can go full-crazy or full-niche without consequences. Just make sure you're not running broke while being engulfed in your colourful imagination.

Putting the twelve characters of Lufia 3 on bicycles and letting them battle it out with lots of details is the only fanfiction I wrote. Basically, the story kept writing itself after starting somewhere, reading through it, correcting things. Beautiful experience. Is this like being on body-own drugs? Bye bye, doubtful voice, you just got deactivated.

I think it helps to write about experiences you have made by yourself. That can be written in more detail. And you don't have to make up the next Hollywood-Story, which might be quite boring indeed.

When it comes to making an actual book, the cheapest possible way would be what you can see on the image in the attachments. A big piece of thick cardboard. Keeping the pages together using two clamps (those with two legs that can be bent sideways).
The design is suboptimal. I'm out of space with around 30 sheets of paper, as the clamps aren't long enough. What works better is to make four holes and pull a cord (a string) through them, like in primary school.
The pages need a big offset at the binding as well, because the folded part is quite large on this thick cardboard, so the inner side of the pages has to be free.

The printing is done "in-house" on a black-and-white laser printer from a dumpster. It's slow, but it's very cheap. Especially when having lots of misprints that require multiple attempts to get the pages right.

The book itself is about some wild bicycle races I organise. Well, I always wanted to write an F1-like year book, so I did. Part Two just finished on 72 pages.

[starbreaker]

Allow crazy things in your fiction. You need no market, so you can go full-crazy or full-niche without consequences. Just make sure you're not running broke while being engulfed in your colourful imagination.

Hard agree here. As long as you've got a day job to cover your expenses (with perhaps a little left over for treats) you can write and publish whatever the hell you want without having to worry about commercial appeal. This is why I write about soul-searching androids and swashbuckling soprano catgirls.

[di]

The book itself is about some wild bicycle races I organise. Well, I always wanted to write an F1-like year book, so I did. Part Two just finished on 72 pages.

I love the look of your handmade book. Very nice, clearly made with passion

Isn't it so awesome to come up with an idea, write it, and then print it and actually hold your work in your hands like that?

As long as you've got a day job to cover your expenses (with perhaps a little left over for treats) you can write and publish whatever the hell you want without having to worry about commercial appeal.

Hell yeah, don't sell out. I'm a big advocate for writing what you want to write without the market being the goal

Write the crazy sort of stuff you'd want to read.

[Gans]

Isn't it so awesome to come up with an idea, write it, and then print it and actually hold your work in your hands like that?

Not only that. It can be given away as a gift as well.

Just remembered another home project. "Old Gramps, Old Times", self-printed, using one thicker, coloured paper as a cover, making it look like a booklet, using this large stapler on the attachment photo. A useful tool for making A5 booklets a bit faster.
Well, he wanted to tell his stories before dying, so we did an interview and I just used his words and talking style and made a somewhat fluent text out of it. Not a project I can be too proud of, because it lacked my inner fire at that specific time for it. Still, doing this was a well of personal knowledge about family history, despite not being the most creative work.

[johnnyfangs]

Realistically, I don't see myself publish anything. I enjoy the act of worldbuilding and writing short notes more than sitting down and writing a full chapter of something. Unless I would do it collaboratively, with someone else dictating the structure and me just giving sporadic input.

I've really realized this is what I like about being dungeon master when I play D&D with friends. I'm so focused on world building and character creation until it comes time to write the story, so it's kind of fun to set up a world with all of that already and let my friends poke around it.

[starbreaker]

Realistically, I don't see myself publish anything. I enjoy the act of worldbuilding and writing short notes more than sitting down and writing a full chapter of something.

I've really realized this is what I like about being dungeon master when I play D&D with friends. I'm so focused on world building and character creation until it comes time to write the story, so it's kind of fun to set up a world with all of that already and let my friends poke around it.

I doubt I'm the first to think this, but I can't help but think that the medium of hypertext (or wikis) would be perfect for worldbuilding as an art form itself rather than as a means to an end (writing a novel). Really, what is the SCP Foundation if not a gigantic, long-running worldbuilding project?

[Guest]

Hoping all the writers here can achieve their dreams! 

Hopping in this thread to say... I'm finally writing a novel idea that I've had for a while! In part because of all the positivity and encouragement from this thread, and also because I finally (after many... Many reassurances from friends, family, and various strangers online) have had enough reassurance that my writing is "good enough" (whatever that means to my silly little brain!)

Thank you guys for all of the support and encouragement within this thread. If you'd like to read, I've included the current (first draft) introduction line and paragraph for my novel!

Spoiler

What do you pack when hunting vampires?

Ideally some sort of weapon. A stake, as per the custom, though anything pointy will suffice. Eternity surely cant protect itself against a sharp blade, or at least that’s what she hopes. Rations are next, though they’re not as important when town hopping. Only one extra set of clothes, it’s important to pack light in the event that more blades are procured. Like mother always told her: “One can never have enough blades.”

She wished mother had taught her more than that.

[close]

[Bede]

I want to make an anthology someday... Perhaps about multigenders, perhaps about alterhumans, perhaps about bisexuals. Perhaps about autism. Who's to say

[zawieja]

I wanted to write fantasy books ever since I was a kid. Unfortunately my writing motivation quickly runs out so I gave up for a while. Writing fanfiction helped me to get back to writing a little bit thankfully 
So! Now I have two main ideas, I will leave the harder, crazy one for when I'm hopefully more experienced. For now I'm focusing on a lighter story about a weird sibling trio with the worldbuilding based on finnish and slavic mythology. I'm really hoping to finish it some day!!