#I actually want this book to be about 90k words
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We recently got into a discussion of producing audiobooks for small press, indy, and/or selfpub authors on another post, but we had strayed pretty far from the original post, and @genedoucette very kindly gave permission for me to slice his comment off the end of that post and put it into a new one.
genedoucette
I have been very, very lucky when it comes to audiobooks, so I'm hesitant to offer advice without adding a huge YMMV caveat at the top.
For most of my self-published novels, I used ACX and paid a narrator out-of-pocket (rather than 50-50 proceeds split), which just means I'm paying an agreed-upon X dollars per finished hour, prior to making any money off f the audio editon. Every book I did this with paid for itself, sometimes within the first two or three months, sometimes longer. (YMMV: I did a lot of this during what I would call the audiobook bubble, when demand was higher than supply.)
I had another novel series--Tandemstar--that I brought to an audiobook company, who brought it to their distributor, who agreed to pay for the production costs of the book and to pay me a (small) advance. To date, the royalties from that series have not made up the cost of the advance, but the good news was that none of the production costs came from my pocket and the advance meant I did make something out of the deal.
The rule-of-thumb I always heard was, don't expect books that haven't sold well to sell any better as audiobooks. But my experience, with ACX/Audible, is this: about 50% of my monthly earning come from audio sales.
How long is the book in question (word count), and what is the genre? Because it is absolutely possible to get a not-terrible narrator at a not-terrible cost on ACX. If it's a low word count book with a decent sales record, I'd 100% do it. If it's a high word count book with few sales, maybe not.
Thanks so much for this! I am admittedly always suspicious of Amazon writ large, but it's not like I've never partnered with them before, and often for indy authors they're one of a very few games in town.
50% of sales via audio impresses me a lot -- I'm not really in the industry so my sense of scale may be off but my eyebrows went up at that. And looking at ACX, a split-profits model would be appealing. I'm more interested in providing the reader with more options than I am with making royalties, so I don't mind low payout, but I also don't want to exploit a narrator if I can avoid it.
I doubt I'm selling near the level you are, but it's pretty consistent, at least -- for the last literary novel I published in 2021, and for the four genre romances published in the past year-and-change, it's generally 200-250 copies (epub and paperback) in the first 6 months, and about 40 per year after that. None of them are over 100K words -- the first of the romance novels, the one I'd be most likely to have done as an audiobook to trial, is around 50K, and the other books are all between 60K and 90K or so.
There's some fine print I'm not nuts about -- exclusivity to Amazon/Audible/iTunes for example -- but I can see why it's a necessary business model for them. There's not a ton of clarity on cost per hour for a book, but it looks like for a flat fee it starts around $250 per finished hour? So I'd probably be looking at minimum $1K out of pocket, which is probably roughly (I haven't done the math) royalties per book for a full year. It could be fun to give it a swing regardless, although reading the ACX site made me realize I'd actually have to give notes and feedback to a reader which sounds nervewracking.
It looks like the readers for ACX are repped by SAG-AFTRA, which means that for now I have time to consider while the strike is going on. (Obviously not all of them are union but if it's an entertainment format where the union is involved, I don't want to cross the picket.) And the ACX site is pretty comprehensive in terms of figuring out how it all works, so if I did want to source a narrator elsewhere and perhaps not distribute exclusively through ACX, I now have a grounding from which to research other options too.
Sorry, a lot of this is just me thinking aloud, but I truly do appreciate the info and also something to bounce off of in terms of considering it. And I appreciate the opportunity to share it with my readership too, thank you!
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TMITAWH is 2 years old????!!!!
i cant believe i missed it that sounds so ridiculous to me! in my defense, i was driving for two weeks straight
i don't have anything planned for celebration; i'm so sorry! but i do have some updates!
for those that missed it, tmitawh is now a novel and will no longer be told in an interactive fiction format. this has upset a lot of people. i've lost a lot of followers over this announcement. and i can understand this to some extent, but largely i have to continue to be unapologetic about my choices.
this story is one that has, in every meaning of the phrase, saved my life. writing in this little world has gotten me through some of the darkest times and carried me through to the next day. at some point, IF stopped being a media that was capable of telling the story i wanted to tell.
i'm disheartened by a lot of the anons i've received. some are hateful and unkind. others are upset that they no longer will have the opportunity to pursue Cain or Ezio, and a few mention that they're not interested in reading a lesbian story and will not be reading the book if it ever makes it to publication. i've disregarded the first, but the second cuts the deepest i think.
i have never, ever been shy on this app that i'm a lesbian. i feel as though i've talked endlessly about it. being a lesbian is a huge facet of my identity and being told that, in so many words, a story written for myself, with other queer people in mind, is not for them seems like such a stupid thing to say. like, i didnt write it for you. i wrote it for me. i wrote it for the lesbians who love so violently that they have to hide it away under their clothes, in between their teeth. i wrote it for the lesbians who have been told their love is disgusting, or wrong, or sexy and for a male's pleasure only. i wrote it for the lesbians who are told their love is okay as long as they never show it- as long as they only hold hands at most but never kiss in public. i wrote it for the lesbian who sits in pews and breathes over their hands and wonders if God loves them still.
i'm not sorry to not have written a story catered for you when the whole world is for you. leave me out of your self-absorbed, hateful little orbit.
please know, this blog does not tolerate hatred, bigotry, or harassment in any shape or form. and if you're going to fuck around with me, you sure as hell are going to find out with me.
on a more positive note!
i want to thank you all who have been overwhelmingly positive and supportive of my endeavors!! it means the absolute world to me!! i sometimes hold myself at night and think of all the kind words y'all have sent over these past two years and just sob. never in my life before this could i have imagined sharing my work with people who give a shit and care. it warms me in ways i cannot begin to describe. i love you and i hope you are well as always. my inbox/dms are open ANYTIME if you just want to chat, catch up, rant to me, or tell me about your pet. actually, please tell me about your pet.
Some quick publishing updates:
I'm 20k words out of 90k into draft 2. and i think this is going to be the last draft before i query (?????) i'm really very happy with the muscles and bones of the manuscript. now it's just some meticulous line editing i have to work through.
after this, i'm off to the query trenches. (im scared) if anybody has gone through this process before and has any tips, i'd love to hear them!
here's a little excerpt:
"She grabs hard enough to make sure of her presence, not enough to bruise. Some sick part of the Traveler’s brain says, Yes. Please. More. Press deeper. Press harder. Bruise me. Hurt me. She delights in the heat that blossoms from where the Reverie digs her fingers into skin. Eyes earnest, stubborn disposition to her jaw as the thick muscle there flickers in an implication of anger.
“I will find you,” she’s shaping her tongue into a dagger at the Traveler’s throat. “I will find you again, and that is a promise.”
The Traveler gasps, tilting her head higher. She blinks and—
The Reverie’s mouth is on hers, hot and aching, and the Traveler blinks—
Want flavors the Traveler’s tongue, the Reverie’s hands pressed tightly against her collarbone, teeth at her jaw. She blinks and—
Is this Before or After?"
i also, stupidly, have officially started a twitter that i want to start working with. i know twitter is dead, but it remains to be very useful for publishing. if you'd like to follow me, im there on @ morganhollow25. i dont know how to use it. im scared to use it. but if you have a twitter maybe follow me there too! i absolutely plan to be on tumblr primarily. i love it here and have grown a tiny home in these webs.
i'll have more updates coming soon regarding FTMTB and other works. thank you all again <3
#long post#long update#update#tmitawh#tell me if there's a way home#this was a lot more lecture-y than i meant it to be#but i dont think i said anything unnecesary#writeblr
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Writing Update
When Pinioned Birds Take Flight: currently at 105k words, not particularly close to being done yet. My longest story by far, original or fanfic.
When the War Ends: currently at 66k words. Estimating I’ll finish around 90k. This will be my third novel, and the first that isn’t a fairy tale retelling. It’s about a princess who gets kidnapped because of drama with her ex, and teams up with her kidnapper to end a war.
Untitled Beauty and the Beast retelling: currently at 20k words. I suspect it will eventually be novel-length, and thus my fourth novel, but I’ll probably be sharing it serially, first. I’m not exactly writing in order, so I’ll probably start sharing serially once I have 20k consecutive words starting from the beginning. An often-forgotten detail of the original story is that the Beast is cursed as punishment for rejecting the sexual advances of his mother-figure, and one of the main things I want to do with this story is actually deal with how traumatized this dude must be after all that. I badly need a title.
Take Off Your Happy Face: currently at 10k, probably won’t get much farther until I finish Pinioned and When the War Ends. Fanfic about Tim and Harley, after Bruce and the Joker are dead. Was meant to be a brief flashback scene for Flightless Birds, but now it’s a whole separate story.
Ozma: The Boy Queen: currently at 18k. A little boy named Tip gets turned into a little girl and made queen. Tip did not want either of these things, but no one cares what Tip wants. (Life gets weird. They fight a Nome. They meet a lady with 30 heads. The guy who murdered Tip’s dad shows up and moves in.) Based on books 2-6 of L Frank Baum’s Oz series. Those first 18k are on AO3, though they’ll go through a few more rounds of editing before I do anything else with them.
#my writing#batfic#batman#batman fanfiction#fanfiction#flightless birds#original fiction#beauty and the beast#oz series#oz project#when the war ends#when pinioned birds take flight#take off your happy face#oz books#Oz#batb#fairy tale retelling
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An excerpt of my 90k+ word Kinky Thrawn Fanfic (jokingly called Fifty Shades of Blue).
Content includes discussion of kinky play such as CNC (consensual non-consent). No actual sex in this part, only planning for future kinky encounters.
~
Thrawn was laying across the bed with his head resting on my lap, allowing me to gently play with his hair. I savored every time he let me touch him in such an intimate way. He only allowed it on the occasions he intended to climax during our sexual encounters or after the encounter. Such touch caused him to lose control in a way he didn’t like to do often, though it was very fun when he did.
His hair stuck to his forehead due to the small amount of perspiration there from the strenuous activities we’d just completed. Both of us were still breathing hard, coming down from it. With a gentle caress, I stroked his hair from his forehead, trying and failing to return his hair to its pristine pre-sex state. It was a losing battle. I’d thoroughly mussed it in the throws of passion. Still, I enjoyed running my fingers through his soft black hair. Or… blue-black, as the books described it. Certainly it leaned towards the blue end of black, but I never would call it blue personally.
It was a rare sight for Thrawn to have his eyes closed, his brow relaxed, and a serene smile on his lips. He often thought of me as his artwork during and after sex, which I usually had trouble understanding. But with him relaxed and peaceful before me, it was easy for me to consider him my artwork. I’d done that. I’d gotten him to that state.
“Where is your mind, ch’acah?” he asked, not opening his eyes.
“How do you know my mind’s anywhere, Grand Admiral?” I asked, continuing to run my fingers through his hair.
“I heard a change in your breathing,” Thrawn stated, an amused smile replacing the serene one. “Tell me.”
“I was just thinking that right now you’re my… bat ch’ast,” I said, tentative about using the Cheunh words.
Thrawn gave a content hum, his smile becoming peaceful again.
“How are your studies?” he asked, still not opening his eyes.
I let out a heavy sigh, “You want to talk about that now? We can’t just bask in the afterglow?”
He opened his eyes, quirking an eyebrow at me, “Should I take that to mean ‘badly’?”
“Slowly,” I corrected, “It’s a lot to learn.”
“You don’t have to learn it, [Name],” Thrawn told me, moving to sit up.
I sighed sadly, wishing I had more time to play with his hair. Though the sadness quickly faded when Thrawn’s hands moved to my shoulders and he started gently working my sore muscles. There were few things better than to be under his strong, talented hands.
“It is a bit much,” I admitted, “But I don’t want to disappoint you.”
As his hands continued to work, his lips found my ear, giving it a quick nip before whispering, “I would not be disappointed, ch’acah.”
“I still wanna try to learn enough to play the part convincingly,” I told him, a little breathless from his touch.
“There are other scenarios we can attempt that would require much less preparation on your part.”
“But this is what you brought up first so I assume this is what appeals to you the most.”
“Not necessarily,” he replied, “I had an opportunity to acquire a costume that was passable as a uniform, which is why this particular idea came up first. I have been intending to introduce the possibility of roleplay of various types for some time, I simply… did not find a moment that felt right to mention it.”
“So me finding the uniform was a strategic way of introducing the idea.”
“Precisely.”
“Fair enough… So what other types did you have in mind?”
“I would rather hear your ideas first.”
“You… uh… what?” I asked nervously.
He kissed my head and then pulled away so I could turn to face him, “You certainly have ideas of scenarios that may appeal to you.”
“Why would you think that?” I asked, my face blazing.
“I have seen you pleasure yourself, ch’acah,” he reminded me, “I have heard the words you mutter. You imagine a specific scenario when tasked with bringing yourself to orgasm. Is that scenario something you would like to discuss playing out?”
I swallowed hard and whispered, “Maybe.”
“While I strongly suspect what it involves, I would like to hear you say it,” Thrawn urged, his voice gentle.
“It’s… being used… against my will… for someone else’s pleasure,” I muttered, my face must have glowed like a sun to his eyes.
“We already skirt the edges of that with our normal games,” Thrawn pointed out.
“It… it’s not the same,” I admitted, “Being tortured for your amusement is… great in its own way. But it doesn’t quite scratch the same itch.”
“You want me to fuck you,” he stated plainly.
I nodded, chewing my lip.
“While you’re restrained?” he asked.
“Maybe. It doesn't have to be. You’re… uh…” suddenly it became a little harder to breathe, “You’re strong enough to hold me down while…”
“While you attempt to fight me off,” he finished for me, his voice becoming low and husky.
I swallowed hard again and nodded.
“With, of course, the knowledge that I would stop as soon as you said ‘red,’” he reminded me.
“Of course,” I agreed in a choked voice.
“I am willing to consider such a scenario,” Thrawn told me, “If you believe you will enjoy it.”
“What about you?” I asked, “Would… If it isn’t something you’d like…”
He put his hand on my cheek, running his thumb over my bottom lip, “I will enjoy it.”
I leaned into his touch, giving a happy hum as my eyes closed.
“One of my ideas is similar to what we already do,” Thrawn began, “Though with a… twist, I suppose you could say.”
“Hmm?” I questioned, still enjoying his hand on my cheek.
“An interrogation.”
My eyes opened and I raised an eyebrow at him. My mind immediately went to the infamous scene with Thrawn, Pryce, and Hera from Rebels where Pryce was torturing Hera. That certainly wasn’t something I really wanted to reenact…
“You would have information I wished to extract,” Thrawn explained, “And I would use… my normal ‘torture’ methods, as you call them.”
“So you’d deny me and/or overstimulate me until I tell you what you want to know?” I asked, pulling back from his hand so I could think more clearly.
“Yes.”
“Not to get caught up in details, but… anything specific? Am I making the information up…?”
“We can use a program on your datapad to generate a random codeword,” Thrawn explained, “Only you would know it. We would see how long you can hold out before you give it to me.”
I grinned at him, “Confident, aren’t you? What if I never do?”
He returned my grin, “Then you win. In fact, you could give me a fake codeword. If you convince me that it’s real and I cease the interrogation, then you win. If I extract the true word from you, then I win.”
“What’s the prize?”
“We can discuss a suitable reward for the winner, though I am certain the game itself will be worth playing on its own merits.”
“I agree, but it’s still nice to have a special bit of motivation.”
“Understandable,” he inclined his head.
“Just… uh… Question,” I ventured.
“Of course.”
“May I be allowed to employ some… dirty tactics?” I asked mischievously.
He raised an eyebrow, his eyes glowing a little brighter.
“Meaning…?”
“If you’re gonna take advantage of my weaknesses, I think I should be allowed to take advantage of yours.”
“You’re asking permission to touch me?”
“Yes.”
He sucked in a deep breath, his brow a hard ridge as he considered.
“Alright,” Thrawn agreed after several long moments of silence, “If you are able, you may employ whatever tactics you deem necessary. With of course the understanding that I may say red or yellow at any time.”
“Of course,” I nodded. “Safe to assume then that I’ll be tied up?”
“Always a safe assumption, yes.”
“So… you’ll torture me,” I began in a businesslike tone, “For a word. If I can convince you that a fake one I’ve given you is the real one, I win. If you manage to get the real one from me, you win. Both of us can use whatever tactics we want to accomplish our goals.”
“Exactly.”
“I love it. When can we get started?”
“Soon,” he promised.
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i used to look at fics that were 100k+ words and be like “oh i simply could never, good for you though” because the idea of laying down that many words on any one thing? insane. totally batshit. couldn’t fathom it.
but then my current wip happened to me, and like i was thinking about the story and where i wanted it to go and planning it out (internally, in my brain) and went “oh yeah, i guesssss maybe 80-90k, around 20 chapters, that sounds reasonable.” but now i’m writing along as i intended, with things playing out the way i imagined, and just indulging myself in the best possible way, and i’m like. yeah, i get it. when you’re just truly having a good time, and you’ve got a story in your head that you want to get out, what is a word count? it’s not like you’re going to have a publisher go to you, “actually we just can’t market anything that’s over 80k in this genre, so you’re going to have to edit.” there is no publisher! you’re doing this for you! and it’s also not like any fic reader is going to complain about there being too much fic.
i have such a hard time in my professional life convincing people to pick up and read long books that i’d forgotten that fic just simply doesn’t operate in the same way that published fiction does. readers want to get lost in the sauce, and they want writers to get lost in the sauce too. more is often better.
so i’ve passed 100k, my estimate of 20 chapters is looking to be way too conservative, and i’ve decided not to care. i’m just going to write the way i want to write, and keep telling the story i planned in my head, and it’s not words wasted or poor economy of language because it’s literally just for fun anyway, and i’m having the best time.
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can you post more about my second verse pls? I neeed to know more
Oh sure! Thank you for asking! I haven't talked about that fic in quite a while hhhaha :')
I'm not sure how much you've poked around on my AO3, so I'll start from the top: My Second Verse is my 90k+ word canon-compliant xingyun relationship study. I wrote it as my very first long-fic because I wanted to explore Xingqiu and Chongyun's relationship, the ways I interpret their compatibility with each other, etc.
The overarching plot is sparked by Xingqiu receiving a request from Yae Publishing House for a sequel to his main book series. In chapter 1, Xingqiu asks Chongyun to act as his muse for his next book and Chongyun agrees (since that request is pretty vague as-is anyways.) From there the two spend a lot of time together working through their core character traits; Xingqiu is forced to realize he's a self-righteous prick, and Chongyun is forced to realize the way he lives his life suppressing his yang energy is unsustainable.
Things explored in this fic include:
What does Xingqiu value in Chongyun?
What does Chongyun value in Xingqiu?
What can these two grow to learn from a relationship with each other?
What does it mean to love someone? What does it mean to feel lonely?
It's pretty slow-burn with a few sword-fighty action scenes speckled in, but it's mostly introspective drama and alternating POV. Currently the fic is marked as "unfinished" because I had plotted a whole second half from the part where I stopped, but I've been on hiatus from this fic since I hit some severe writer's block :'''') If you're the type to only read finished fic, the fic as-is currently wraps up nicely! I've also received some feedback that the fic doesn't actually go the direction that some people thought it would, if that's something that you're into.
Happy to answer more questions abt that fic tho, if you were looking for smth more specific!
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my current insane plan is trying to read 推し短歌入門 (an introduction to tanka through composing poems about your favorite characters) by april 19, 2023, the date of Hyper Misao's second produce show, because Misao loves tanka and i feel like it might make her day if her own wrestling work inspired someone to write tanka, so i want to read that book and learn the basics of writing them, then compose a tanka based on her show and post it on twitter (where there's a strong chance she'll see my poem).
the only problem is that i have a whole lot on my plate reading-wise right now, because TJPW is about to be in the middle of an extremely busy period, so there will be a big show that i’ll have to translate next week, and then their show in America, which will likely include a press conference that i will also have to translate, and i’ll be watching a whole bunch of other shows on top of all of that.
oh and also i still have yet to have actually finished reading a proper book in Japanese (just manga and a fair amount of digital text and a few books with a lot of English in them), so this one would be my very first finished Japanese book, and it’s quite a bit harder than everything else i’ve read. and not to mention i’ll be attempting to compose poems in a language i’m not at all fluent in.
what could possibly go wrong? 😅
the book is a little less than 90k characters total, and i have to read it at roughly a rate of 3k characters a day to keep up. this is fine when i have no translation workload. it’s substantially harder when i do. so far, i’m doing an okay job keeping up, but the real busy days will be the end of march and the first week of april, so i’m hoping to get a bit ahead now while i still can in case i fall behind then.
i am currently 22k/90k characters into it! roughly 1/4 of the way through!!
i'm actually enjoying the oshi tanka book more than i expected! it's LGBTQ-inclusive (the author used an example from The Half of It (2020 Alice Wu film) when talking about other ways to say "i love you" without using those words, and in the section i just read, there was a tanka that was explicitly about a lesbian relationship used as an example). it also cited Henry Jenkins, which shocked me, hahaha.
it feels honestly about as accessible for beginners as it can be (barring the language barrier). i feel like i'd be struggling more if i didn't have the little experience that i do have reading senryu (and composing a couple), since a tanka is basically a senryu/haiku with 14 extra mora. but i'm picking up on a lot of things from reading it, and i managed to successfully compose my first tanka:
半時間あなたと俺のにらみ合い空き会場を照らす火花だ
(inspired by this)
#i hate translating my own poems so no translation sorry#also i finally migrated to yomitan from yomichan and am reading this with a new beefed out dictionary setup which helps a lot#~
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I know AI is sketchy and this isn’t recommended but I was wondering… if authors are actually using AI for query letters and synopses/outlines, does that mean they’re feeding their entire BOOKS into the AI system? Is that what they’re doing??
I have no idea. But I hope not! That seems like a bad idea?
For a query you can certainly tell ChatGPT like, "write me a query letter for 90k word dark academia romance novel about a washed-up swordsman turned scholar named juan carlos who falls in love with the demon king he accidentally summons while studying ancient runes at the Bodleian library"
And it would probably write you a passable start to a query letter that you could then edit to be much better.
For a synopsis -- uh, idk. Maybe you give it the basic outline and it spits out a synopsis? Or you put in a synopsis and it spits out an outline?? But I'd imagine you'd have to do a lot of editing - probably easier to just write the thing yourself.
I experimented with asking it to write some queries - they were OK, just really predictable and bland. (Of course, right? It's not *thinking of great ideas*, it's taking the most common denominators of a bunch of query letters and flattening them to be "correct" -- just not particularly interesting.) I asked it to write my agency bio, and it seemed exactly like the perfect agency bio.... except all the salient facts were wrong. I asked it to come up with titles for various kinds of books (an enemies-to-lovers romance novel about a hockey player and a cake decorator, etc) -- and it DID, they were just totally cheesy and not even in a good way. Like the absolute most obvious.
So, yeah. If you want to just seem like a not very creative or interesting writer, by all means offload your work onto a chat bot. But I'd certainly be leery of giving it too much of my own information or intellectual property. :-)
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Lately I have been trying to learn more about story structure and have been rereading books I've enjoyed while trying to pay attention to the structure specifically. I reread The Gentle Wolf and was just wondering, if you don't mind answering, is structure something you make a point to think about along with character/plot while you're planning out novel-length projects, or is it more something that happens instinctually for you?
Hi anon,
Tbh the answer for both things is kind of true when it comes to novels? I've talked a lot in the past about how I use a 3-act structure, and A/B/C storylines, so you only need to go back into the pia on writing tag to see some of those posts that have more of an explanation.
But I also generally speaking look at wordcount. I work out that I want to write a 90k story (give or take 10k words) - which is a standard novel). I generally divide that number by 4.5k (average chapter length, give or take 1000 words) and that leaves me with knowing exactly how many chapters I have to tell my story in.
From there, I mostly focus on having each chapter not be too 'busy' (i.e. focus around one major scene. The only exception are what I call 'transitional' chapters, where time gets super non-linear and I just skip ahead through a bunch of smaller scenes), and cleanly getting through my plot points as much as possible. In the chapter plan, everything is extremely short-handed. An example of my The Gentle Wolf chapter plan looked like this (copy/pasting from my chapter plan):
AODHAN
Thomas visiting Little Star. Aodhan happy to see him. They chat, and Aodhan realises he likes Thomas (or has known for a while) but that it’s been 2 years and he’s probably missed the mark. Thomas expresses needing information for his museum and because Aodhan wants to establish more of a connection, he suggests his grandfather.
THOMAS
Thomas meets Aodhan at Iona’s house. Iona treats Aodhan badly and Thomas feels bad. Wonders how this is connected to Aodhan’s ‘absences.’ The information Aodhan has is good. Thomas marvels because he has zero connection to his own wolf family, as he was put up for adoption. Aodhan mentions loving shifting, asking if Thomas would ever do it with him, but Thomas redirects: ‘I don’t like the loss of control.’
AODHAN
Aodhan with Hunter, shifting, chatting about Thomas. Hunter says Aodhan should just tell Thomas that he likes him. Aodhan gets a call, and leaves to see his father. Later he lays in bed and decides the worst thing about him isn’t that he’s demisexual.
(These are chapters 1-3 - Tumblr's formatting is weird and I don't want to touch it, lol).
The entire chapter plan is 1000 words, and one or two chapter descriptions are only one sentence. When that happens, it means I know around that point I'll need 'more' but can't figure out what I need yet at the beginning of the story. I leave those chapters as kind of empty spots for me to put any extra stuff in that might be relevant at the time.
But anyway you can see from chapter 1 we establish the unrequited aspect of Aodhan's feelings for Thomas, as well as Aodhan's workplace, and Aodhan's family as historically significant. In chaptaer 2, we meet Aodhan's family, and we learn more about Thomas' issues with shifting. In chapter 3, we learn that Aodhan is struggling over whether or not to tell Thomas he likes him, etc.
The Gentle Wolf actually had pretty slow / gentle pacing on purpose. But I tend to go with chapter plans like this because I just want bare bones of the events that are happening, or the emotionally significant events. I've got friends who write really long chapter plans (they're basically just writing a skeleton draft), but I've always done it this way - leave them as short as possible, focus on how to make these basic points powerful.
I don't chapter plan most of what I write, and the more complicated a story is, the less likely I am to plan it out (with the exception of The Ice Plague). The reasons for that are that I've had 9 years of practice writing serials, and I actually feel like I'm stronger at winging it and creatively figuring my way out of dead ends, than I am at pre-planning a story. So that's where the 'both' part comes in. I will also throw out an entire chapter's description if I think of something better as I'm writing the story.
I would say overall structure is pretty innate in the sense that...I've read thousands of books. I've watched thousands of TV episodes and hundreds of movies. I've read thousands of fanfics over the years. And I've done university-level courses in Scriptwriting and Creative Writing. There's so many different ways to look at story structure (3 act? 5 act? 9 act? etc.) I am a character first writer always, for better or worse, and I am mostly just interested in following characters through a story.
I try and avoid reading too many books on 'how to write' but I do like Dan Harmon's Story Circle technique (I learned about it late though, not at the beginning) and I feel inspired by the way Studio Ghibli tells a story, and many fanfiction writers that I love reading. I also find books written by writers tend to be extremely rigid and 'do it this way or else' (which is annoying when you realise they're all teaching you different ways), and a little (or a lot - in the case of Stephen King) ableist. So I avoid em! I'm the first person to say I'm not a great writer, but I like what I write, and since the great writers aren't writing specifically for me (not enough hurt/comfort, not enough angst, not enough BDSM, not enough diversity, not enough sitting with characters as they just talk about stuff and figure stuff out, not enough non-sexual touch, etc), I figured I'd fill that gap ;)
If someone wants to be a successful author, I don't think they should write like me, so...I'm just going to leave on that parting note, lol. There's a lot of other authors doing it better out there, just be wary of anyone who says that their way is the best and/or only way.
#asks and answers#pia on writing#the gentle wolf#pia foxhall#perth shifters#the gentle wolf got criticised a bit for having pacing that was too slow#but i wanted it to be a slow and gentle story (hence the name)#so it's like... i think the criticism is valid#but i also think if i went back i wouldn't make it faster paced#i sometimes think there's something fundamentally wrong with what i like in a story vs what other people like in stories#but i'm trying to think that way less#because i know a lot of y'all feel the same way#and there's nothing wrong with you for liking what you like#therefore i don't think there's anything wrong with me either#asdklfjdsa but it's still frustrating lol#conventional novels actually make me pretty angry these days#some of the most lauded ones out there in SFF i'm like *angry face* at because i just#don't understand why we spend so little time with the characters and their growth and development#and i don't understand why lyrical descriptions of setting are now more important than like hurt/comfort dsalkfjasdfdas
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How did you become a ghostwriter ? 🤔 AND is it lucrative enough to support you solely ?
It was an long painful process to be honest. I will preface this by saying my experience is based on working for ONE company and I can't speak for all ghostwriting companies. I will also say I've had much better luck doing things myself and not through a ghostwriting business.
I had subscribed to a newsletter that had daily listings for freelance writers. A ghostwriting company was looking for romance writers so I applied. I was very excited to get the position.
The downside was, with this particular company, we definitely weren't paid what I thought we should be paid and the due dates/turnaround time for projects was fucking ridiculous. I'm talking about 3 weeks for a 30k word book. And you also didn't get paid if you didn't completely finish the project. Like edits and all. Not only that, clients could comment on your progress whenever, so you'd be trying to finish when they would have changes or not like what you had done so far. You also couldn't vet the clients yourself and were stuck with whoever they assigned you to.
There was also a legit romance novel formula you HAD to follow. I'm talking something that told you how many words you needed to spend on certain story beats. There was zero room for creativity.
I worked for them for about four months but was going through a very dark mental time. They were uncaring about my situation and unyielding on their due date. Basically the manager/owner was starting to be rude to me. Even though I was working on TWO books at the same time, three of them for a brief period. I had to leave mid project because I was having a legit mental breakdown. And no, I was not paid for either project.
HOWEVER, through that madness something good came out of it. One of the clients, one I had only gotten halfway through their book, tracked me down through my personal website and reached out. She said she loved what I had done and was sad to see me go. The company flat out lied and told her I had taken a full time job somewhere else. But she said that if I was ever interested I had a job with her whenever I wanted.
I outright told her the legit reason why I left and also apologized for not finishing her project as that's not the way I operate. She was super understanding and her offer still was standing and could be taken whenever. A few months later, I accepted and I've been writing exclusively for her ever since. Which is about four years now.
Because I'm in charge, I can negotiate WAY more pay. Not only that, my policy is that I charge for the full amount upfront and any additional words once the project is complete. I now make double per book than I made at the company writing three books. And she gives me bonuses and a certain amount of creative freedom.
As far as being lucrative, I believe it can be. I personally just don't have the time right now to write as much during the day as I'd like. But even so, she loves my work and has actually increased the word count per project because we both know I can handle it. We started at a minimum of 30k words and now, the last two books I wrote for her have been over 90k words.
As long as she is kept up to date on progress, she's totally fine. Any due dates are "rough" estimates and from the beginning she made it clear that my health comes first. I really lucked out with her. And she's the reason I tell writers to always make a personal website. You never know.
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3, 15, 55! and also please identify the most gothic powerful vampire song on it. the people need to know
edited to do this GAME RIGHT bc i forgot it was about lyrics :')
3. Direction by Mat Kerekes (feat. Anthony Green) - so this is a track off the debut solo album of Mat Kerekes, singer of beloved emo band Citizen. The guest vocals are by Anthony Green of Circa Survive. But what I really wanna talk about is the production, bc this is the first record I listened to that really made me aware of Will Yip. This is an acoustic record, really stripped down and organic sounding, and Kerekes plays all the music except for some percussion provided by Yip - it all sounds so bright and airy. The guitar tone has this gorgeous twangy pop, the percussion sounds like someone slapping a pattern out right next to your ear. Admittedly, this is probably so high up on the list bc it was on a playlist i made when i went insane and wrote a 90k word fanfic earlier this year, but still - love this song, love this record. The Anthony Green verse at the end is so dramatic and good "I could be anything that you wanted / I wouldn't mind if you handed me a loaded gun / Crack a smile while you turn the safety off / I'll destroy anything that you want me to / Help me try and understand what you're going through"
15. Ladders of Supremacy by Coheed & Cambria - I'm not here to convince anyone to listen to Coheed bc I don't think anyone should. They just happen to be my favorite band (derogatory). However, in their extensive catalogue this track still manages to stand out - by being the exact thing they do really, really well. It literally always works on me. I'd consider this song the first part of a three part suite that closes out the record (a concept album, per usual). There's an incredibly sexy bass line on this song, a great chorus, kinda filthy bluesy guitar work, and a shockingly jazzy drum performance from Josh Eppard. It's just peak Coheed prog bullshit and I'm so weak to it. So, this Coheed album is the second part of a record that came out in 2019 and it's about a kid who uhh perceives all of time at once? And also his parents who are sci-fi bank robbers/theater performers? Who the fuck cares. "Stay down, boy, see, ya got clowned, boy" is Typical Claudio Nonsensery but the delivery is so fun. Down BWAAH see ya got clowned BWAAAH
55. Wear U Down by Teenage Wrist - I Am Not Immune To Shoegazey Alt Rock. Actually I was surprised tracks off this record weren't higher in my play count this year, bc I feel like I listened to it a lot? I don't have as much to say about this - great fuzzy guitars, love the snare tone. "I'll wear you down, down down" is not a very articulate or impressive chorus, but it sure is fun to sing along with in the car. There's a great lyrical book end in the first verse and the last that goes "Stomp me out / I'm burning red but now I'm done" and then later "Stomp me out / Before I burn another hole" and who among us hasn't poorly ashed a cigarette and found this relatable?
out of these three songs I'd say the biggest gothic powerful vampire energy is probably teenage wrist. but that's grading on hard curve.
out of my whole top 100, biggest gothic powerful vampire energy is When Will God's Work Be Done by Unto Others. This is a GREAT song - big Sisters of Mercy But Heavier vibes. Very goth adjacent imo. This vocalist is incredible. He makes all kinds of great noises - OUGHHHH! HUAAGHH! AUUH! GAUGHDD! WHEN WILL GOD'S WORK BE DONE! Anyway very vampy lyrics + a great evil laugh at the end - "Working all night in the burning dark" / "When a man dies, I feel alive" / "Death, such sweet release" / "Make sure the first bite is the last bite" - yeah! easy win.
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I’m not usually one for memories, but timehop caught me on this one. Four years ago, I was babysitting my parents’ cat. I love that cat with all my heart.
The flannel shirt I’m wearing in the photo is the same flannel shirt I was wearing the day I ran away to be with DD (January 2019). It’s also the shirt that matches one of JW’s (Mr. BFF and coworker from where I used to live) favorite ties, and we used to arrange to coordinate, just to be silly.
By October 2018, I’d already had this blog going for over a year. I’d had Starbucks Sunday going for about a year. My big writing project that month was “Are You with me after all,” an Irondad & Spiderson story delving into the personal and the political as the media swelled with the Me Too movement.
The following month, I experienced my first status migraine, yet I put every spare minute into writing, completing both the Novemeto challenge and NaNo, with 30 one-shots, a 70k word book, and a 90k total.
That is not bragging. That is not me begging for sympathy. That was me, four years ago, being a stupid twenty-five-year-old, experiencing the onset of fairly severe Bipolar disorder, using lack of situational awareness (blame autism a little, my selfish ass a lot) to my advantage, and caring only about my statics.
Riding mania is not equal to more productivity.
Riding depression is not equal to resting.
Abusing (OTC) drugs does not put the body back into a “regular” schedule. Taking something to sleep, then taking something to wake up, then living on protein powder and instant coffee because food is a waste of time… it’s not sustainable.
Sometimes crutches are needed. The same with time-outs. Float for a while and let the anxious fizzle out somewhere else in the brain, somewhere under the soft lights and music.
Same with activity. DD is immensely strong, and she has actually carried me outside to sit on the back porch. I like to test the weather report. Look at the app. Then I go to the nearest window to see if it’s right. My kid likes to help. But it’s good just to move. To make a thought that’s unrelated to you. Geez, the sun is bright. Shit, it’s raining again…
Now, I’m not telling anyone what to do. I don’t know how to manage or cure any mental illness. I can just pass on descriptions of what happened to me at my lowest points, and explain what went wrong. It’s like… a police investigation, sort of. Now that I have proper medication and a support system and doctors who look after me, we can look back on my behavior and thoughts and what I was doing four years ago so we know how I derailed and how to prevent it from happening again.
I’m not fixed. Not cured. That’s impossible, unfortunately. It’s hard to manage constantly fluctuating mental health with a migraine condition and metabolic and gastric issues as well. Sometimes it’s hard to tell them all apart and treat the correct problem. I’m so lucky to have DD and our children and our roommates for their consistent love and care. Nothing gets easier, but it is better.
Four years ago I was an idiot about to crash and burn, but, the moment I took this photo, I didn’t know that yet. I was just doing whatever I wanted to do, whenever I wanted to do it. Because I thought I thought I could. Drink my parents’ beer and work on Inktober and tap away on my computer and hang out with the world’s loveliest orange tabby.
Take the chances when you can. Do what you want. But learn, too. I would say listen to your body, but reality is that we also have to learn to care for bodies that don’t speak up. Take care of your loved ones. Let them show you how to take care of you.
My parents’ cat gets wet food in the morning and evening, and his dry kibble and water bowl are filled as needed. Scoop the litter box daily. Let him sleep in the bed with you.
Caring for people is not that simple. But learning the basics is a good, solid start.
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this year my goal was to read at least 25 books (which now seems too easy) and i decided to start with rick's books cuz i loved pjo
(i then realized i had actually never finished the pjo series - i didnt finish the LAST book... thats crazy)
i went on yt and found a vid that showed the RIGHT way to read all his books so my journey started.
anyway blah blah blah, i wanted to talk about the kane chronicles
obv spoilers if you havent read those and if you care
hell nah. that series was so bad 😭😭 (imo ofc and ill explain why i think so)
i should mention that i read the first and third book, but i only read half of the second book cuz it got very looooooong and boring to me (i just read the wikipedia summary for it)
also the only reason i read these books was cuz i knew there would be a collab between the magicians and demigods and that sounded rly interesting to me!
im usually not that picky when it comes to books/fics/anything so i was surprised i didnt like these books. first of all theyre so long, and for what.. the world ends in 3, 4, 5 days yet each book is 90k words at best and 120k-ish words at worst. it just dragged ooooooon and onnnnn and onnnnnnnnnn. i thought maybe its just the length that im not used to (even tho ive read way longer fics but i thought maybe its not the same..) then i started reading the heroes of olympus series which was a similar length and i sped thru those. which prob means that the kane chronicles were just boring. i was gonna say that it just felt like there were attacks and fights just cuz, but then again, thats kinda similar to percy jackson books. i cant put my finger on why some fights felt kinda useless and filler.. unlike in pj books. also when they beat apophis it felt too easy. there was so much build up to that final battle, and in the end he got destroyed in like half a page or smt.. not satisfying! and since we know the kane siblings are still alive (cuz of the recording being sent etc), it didnt feel like there was anything at stake.
the egyptian mythology was actually pretty interesting, i did like learning about it. however, at times there was just a LOT of info being dumped- so many gods/stories etc that i had a hard time remembering everything. i think w the percy jackson/greek mythology books there was just more time for rick to set the scene and build the world so it didnt feel that overwhelming (even tho it was still a lot, im ngl).
and now my biggest complaint... i thought rick could write powerful female characters butttttttttt maybe that was just annabeth LOL. SADIE WAS SO ANNOYING!!!!!! she was SO unlikeable but i think we werent supposed to dislike her??? yeah shes young but so was percy and annabeth and every demigod from the pjo series and they were much more enjoyable to read about. all she cared about was guys. more specifically, sadie, a 12yo, was head over heels for ANUBIS, a THOUSAND YEAR OLD god, who oh yeah,,, looked like a 16yo guy but idk if its just me, thats still a WEIRD/uncomfy AGE DIFFERENCE 😭shes so lucky that she ended up w basically both guys she had a crush on, but she still made it such a big deal when that happened.
like anubis had stabbed her in the back or smt lmfao. also should mention that in the pjo books for ex., percabeth didnt just happen when they were 12/13... a long time passed so that relationship could feel unrushed and natural.
dont get me wrong, liking a guy etc is all normal and very teenage-y (even tho sadie wasnt even a teenager when all this happened). but making that MOST of her personality, or smt she constantly thought about and prioritized during the END OF THE WORLD. she just seemed very irresponsible and immature (which makes sense cuz shes a child.... maybe i shouldnt be reading these books as an almost 20yo) (but i can still tell when some1 has annoying qualities objectively) (even if its still a kids book)
idk thats just annoying. carter was tryna save the day/world and sadie had other things in her mind. or when she wanted to go hang out w her friends for her bday even tho the world was ending VERY soon and they had to get going. yeah she wants to be a normal kid but rn theres more important things you gotta think about bbg (and yes i do understand that the dance or her bday hang out would help w morale but at least be on the look out for stuff and dont think that youre not still on the job and most likely putting every1 in danger..). save the world first, then enjoy your life. maybe take a cake to go while youre traveling. maybe call your besties and talk to them on the phone for an hour or whatever
carter wasnt perfect, but even his obsession w zia wasnt THAT bad. it felt more normal and smt the reader (or i) could get behind and not dislike him too much for.
(when carter said that i thought he was in my head cuz i was literally thinking that sadie always leaves him to deal w important stuff)
i feel like theres more i had to say but theres too much negativity in this post already LOL im sorry 😭 this trilogy wasnt a 0 or 1 star, it was closer to 2 or maybe even 3. i didnt mind ignoring most of these. the only thing i couldnt ignore was sadie's attitude sometimes and ofc the weird relationship between her and anubis, but when walt showed up etc i had hope and it did get slightly better!
ofc im not a writer and i couldnt prob never write anything half as good as any of rick's books, but this is just my experience as the reader. as i mightve mentioned , rn im reading the heroes of olympus books for the first time and im enjoying them quite a lot!
lmk if you agree or disagree w anything, i usually change my mind somewhat easily so id love to see this series from some1 else's pov
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yet another writing ask: 4, 8, 10, 19, 33, 36, and 39!
you have sent me an absolute feast, thank you!!
(send me another writing ask!)
4. Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them?
yes! they tend to be tied to games/worlds rather than specific storylines - for example, a bunch of my favourite OCs in the past few years have been NPCs that i've played as DM in my dnd campaigns. i have a handful of original worlds too :)
8. How slow is a slow burn?
as slow as one prefers, really, though i admit i prefer them pretty fast! i tend to like characters who know what they want and are willing to take the initiative, but there are also very specific flavours of yearning that i find delicious and when they're done well, they can really hit
10. Top three favourite fic tropes
i love a good hurt/comfort, i definitely think catharsis is something i'm always looking for in fic. i like pretty much any sort of situation that can lead to a "dubious consent" tag, because those are always interesting (and/or hot) to explore. and i absolutely adore vampire/werewolf AUs and i am not sorry about it
19. Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.
"Has Wulf found the body?"
"No." Body, singular. Things were more dire than they thought. "How many got away?"
"None," Astrid said grimly. "But that is already enough."
Essek blinked. The room felt small. "When they do not report back, somebody will know you're alive."
She stared at him for a moment, as if suddenly seeing him again for the first time. "Why are you sitting here? He could have left a cat. A dozen cats."
"I'm sure he did." They had a habit of appearing out of the shadows. Essek put the book aside. "Will you call Eadwulf back?"
"He's not a dog," Astrid said, and she laid back down.
Essek could think of nothing else to say. After a few minutes, even to his carefully disinterested eye, Astrid seemed to be perfectly asleep.
33. Give your writing a compliment.
no one is as good as i am at writing the way i do! it's something i've been talking over a lot with a friend recently, and it's a driving philosophy behind my enjoyment of writing. it's so satisfying to make something and know that i was the only person who could have made it as such
36. How do you come up with fic titles? What’s the one you’re most proud of?
fic titles were one of my great projects of 2023 (and are still, if only i actually posted anything) because tbh my writing is cluttered with half-assed titles taken from songs and poems that i can't even differentiate myself. i've read a lot of poetry in the past year with the idea that it could help me; realistically, i just lie around for weeks after finishing a fic moaning about thinking of a title while everyone else is like "okay, yes, but we want to read it though"
honey melt might win the accolade because it's the only title i can think of that i actually like that isn't derivative 😭
39. Wildest AU scenario you have written?
i mean. listen. you know what it is. it's like 90k published words long (not all of which are mine anymore!) and i still barely understand why i did it. i don't write particularly wild AUs in the first place so its very existence is what makes it insane !!
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So I'm working on the rewrite of B&B book 2 and I just added it up and it's currently sitting at just under 34,000 words. I have 8 bullet points left on my outline which is a fair amount of story and is, in particular, the meaty climax bits. So 50,000 words is probably still not going to happen for this first draft but it'll be a lot closer.
For context: I wrote the first first draft of this several years ago and at the very beginning made a choice that was the wrong choice for the story and I knew that when I made it but I wanted it to be the right choice. So I'm rewriting it from the start with the actual right choice now and considering it a new first draft rather than a second draft. The first first draft clocked in at a whopping 22,000 words so 34,000 and not finished is great.
I do wish that I could make my books more like the 90k the genre seems to favor but it is what it is. I don't really want to combine them, but it still might happen.
At any rate, I added 670 some odd words today and it's just shy of 34k and I feel good about it. My main character does not. But I do.
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Four Years Edited Chapter Posted
Got another edited old chapter for Four Years up! The Halloween arc is starting! It’s the first Halloween on campus for these college freshman, so lots of shenanigans are incoming! And costumes and parties and such! The story is rated M for intermittent sexy bits, so please be aware.
You know, I’ve now edited and posted almost 90k words of Four Years! That’s a third of the way? Oh god, it’s actually 358k on FFN, so I’m not a third of the way in. Um, what I wanted to say is that 90k words is about 330 pages in a printed book, so I think the end of the Halloween arc would be a great place to cut off for book binding! Or maybe even before? I think printed books get a bit unwieldy to hold around 400 pages or so, and I use thick paper, so maybe I should print the first 17 chapters in one book... Hmm.
Well, regardless, check it out if you’re interested!
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