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Think I could get published?

  1. loverofgreatbooks
    Member

    I have started writing this series of short stories about horse called The Horseshoe Trilogies. Please tell me if I have talent or don't. Please be HONEST!

    http://totallyhorsecrazyandhorsestories.wordpress.com/horse-stories/the-horseshoe-stables-trilogy/book-1-prince/
    http://totallyhorsecrazyandhorsestories.wordpress.com/horse-stories/the-horseshoe-stables-trilogy/book-1-prince/prince-part-2/
    http://totallyhorsecrazyandhorsestories.wordpress.com/horse-stories/the-horseshoe-stables-trilogy/book-1-prince/prince-part-3/
    http://totallyhorsecrazyandhorsestories.wordpress.com/horse-stories/the-horseshoe-stables-trilogy/book-2-sarah/

    The blog I need help with is ejsbookshelf.wordpress.com.

  2. gigisanchez
    Member

    hi Evajoy,
    One question ...How many times did you edit each one of those stories? How many times did you take each story and go through it from top to bottom and edit it?

    Be honest. ;-)

  3. loverofgreatbooks
    Member

    I went through the first one...then, um I kind of got slack with it. :(

  4. gigisanchez
    Member

    Never ask if you have talent. What you're doing with that question is telling people that you lack confidence. All it takes is one insult or one comment meant well that doesn't go well and a fledgling writer will crawl into a corner. Okay, so the story slacks. That doesn't mean you don't have talent.

    If you want to get published, you have to do the work. Nobody gets first drafts published. That means yoo back to each piece and let your characters surprise you. Don't control it, just let whatever comes up, come up. Maybe the main character is a bitch. Or maybe her father is having an affair with the women that has the horse. Or maybe her mother isn't her mother; it's her older sister. You have no idea what will happen. Just write whatever comes up. Don't contrive your story. Then, when you have something that makes you laugh or cry or wonder, edit it 50-100 times, just like published writers do. Go through it and take out every single word that doesn't have to be there. Do you have to use the word "had"? Can the sentence say the same thing without the word "had"? Go back and take out every word/words that tell the story and don't show it.

    IE:
    She said, hastily.
    She couldn't spit it out.

    Make the story so you don't have to ask if it can be published. Just write it so you love it. Have fun with it. If you're slacking, you're not loving the story. If you don't love it, nobody else will. Or they'll lie and tell you that it's great and what is that worth?

    Try it. ;-)

  5. gigisanchez
    Member

    yoo back to each piece....

    ...you go back to each piece...

    ps: "I got kind of slack with it."

    Excellent answer. That you can be honest means you can tell this story honestly. What about if you write it as if the family is not the Cleaver family? As if they are a real family?

  6. loverofgreatbooks
    Member

    Well I'm not slacking in writing. I absouloutely loved writing the story. I will take your advice about the extra words too. How can I make it be more a real family?

  7. gigisanchez
    Member

    Okay, I hear what you're saying. Here's what I mean...

    Writing is editing. There's just no way around it. Pick up any Shakespeare play or any novel in your house or any book of poetry or anything that's published --those writers *toiled* over every single sentence. That means they know why they used the word "since" and not "because." They've actually sat and thought it out. So when someone slacks in editing, they slack with the writing.

    What I mean by loving it is, it's impossible to slack on a story and love it. When you really truly love it, you're not slacking. You're into your work. Your head is in the screen and you forget the time. You refuse to finish it until it is finished. That's what I mean. You can do it.

    How can I make it be a more real family?
    When you get up tomorrow morning, get up an hour early and write whatever comes up. In the morning, your brain hasn't had a chance to think. So the critic that lurks inside your brain has less of a chance to start criticizing. That's when you're most vulnerable.

    Another idea is to purposely go back to what you wrote and write the exact opposite.

    She said, hastily.
    He said, forcefully.

    The horse was hurt.
    The mouse was strong.

    The sky was blue.
    The dirt was green.

  8. loverofgreatbooks
    Member

    Those are good ideas. I have to tell you in all honesty, that actually I don't think I will get published but who knows? I just love writing stories, especially about horses. I will take your suggestion about getting up in the morning (probably) ;).

  9. gigisanchez
    Member

    ha ha ... Get a tape recorder and put it by your bed and talk into it while you're half asleep, if you don't get up.

    Here's my guarantee:
    I guarantee that, if you commit to your story (which will take you many hours), that something very interesting is going to surface. At that point, you will understand why publication is never the goal of a writer. Writing is.

    ps: Are you an adult or a teen? It's hard to tell from the books on your site.
    pss: Who knows? ;-)

  10. loverofgreatbooks
    Member

    A teen. Actually last night I couldn't get to sleep and I got an idea for a new story!

  11. gigisanchez
    Member

    I thought you were a teen. I've been on your blog, snooping around... You are writing your own story and other people's stories and doing a really good job with it. Keep going.

    No sleep? Really? Not even a wink? ...I'll tell you what the pro's tell everyone: Don't tell your idea to anyone. Not a soul. Not your mother, not your best friend. Keep it all to yourself. The reason is, when you tell someone, they're going to have a reaction, any reaction. Your subconscious just wants to write the story and it doesn't want anything placed on top of that. You have to keep *your* idea *yours.* Keep it pure, virgin. Get what I'm saying? The slightest comment can ruin your story. Just trust yourself and write, write, write. Nobody gets to see it until it is published OR until you are so sure of it that the only person you would ever let change even one word would be a professional editor or the people on your blog or anywhere else that you choose to share it with. But don't let *anyone* change it. It's YOUR story.

    So you should know, the juvenille market is a really hot market. There's got to be a local library by you and if you haven't already done so, you might want to spend some time there and talk to the "reference librarians" that work with books for teens. They read them all the time, they have to for their job, and they love it. It might be a good idea to read books that don't have anything to do with horses, but that have to do with other things you might love or might be going through, just to see how other stuff is written.

    ps: When I wrote (above) that people might "lie and tell you that it's great..." -I wasn't referring to your story. I was talking in general. This is advice I've read more than once is, don't tell your ideas to anyone and don't let anyone read your story until you are sure it is finished. It's not finished until you love it so much that you wouldn't change one word and you think it can be published. (I'm urging you to try a little harder than other people might cuz you're a teen and cuz you are consistently writing about books and cuz I think you can do it.)

  12. loverofgreatbooks
    Member

    Thanks for the advice. I'll take it. I do have a library close by me and I go there frequently. Cheers!

  13. gigisanchez
    Member

    Yikes. Scratch the 3rd to the last sentence on the 2nd paragraph. The people on your blog (or here) or anywhere else shouldn't be telling you how to change your stories. That would be like painting a painting and showing it to people and then hearing them tell you to erase a corner or something in the middle and draw it differently. Nobody does that to a painter so why should they do it to a writer?

    What I meant was: "Nobody gets to see it until it is published [that could mean your blog] OR until you are so sure of it that the only person you would ever let change even one word would be a professional editor."

    And those are my rules, not yours. So diss them if they don't work for you. But what I'm trying to do is get you to protect your voice and your stories. I'm saying this b/c of what you first wrote when you posted. So when people start slashing red pencils on your stuff, it makes you think you can't write well and pretty soon you say things like, I don't think I'll ever get published.

    You'll get published if you keep working at it.

  14. raincoaster
    Member

    Found something that might interest writers: an "online distraction-free space" to write. Then you can send the contents to WordPress or wherever.

    http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/quietwrite-offers-distraction-free-writing-space-online_b36092

  15. gigisanchez
    Member

    Mediabistro is a great site. They have an endless job postings section.

    Evajoy --> How is it going? Is the idea flowing? Did you wake up earlier?

  16. loverofgreatbooks
    Member

    I can't bring myself to get up more, but the ideas are flowing.

  17. gigisanchez
    Member

    That's AWESOME. You know how many people would actually pay cash to be in that position? You're doing great! ;-)

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