I'm Trying to Get a Book Published! discussion

Hi Everyone. I am a fairly young author who hasn't been successful in progressing to actually write and finish a full length novel that I dream to publish in over 9 years. I started writing my novel since I was about 14. And as much as I have my ideas of what I want to have happen in my novels, I cannot ever seem to write them properly in paragraph formats they are all in raw notes and ideas. I have been searching for years for help or if anyone would want to work with me on them but that too was a failure, what else could I do to get the help I need?

1. Keep writing. It's the best, most practical way to learn. 2. Don't get discouraged. It takes YEARS, even decades to perfect skill to a publishable level. There isn't an artist of any discipline who gets his/her work to the vision they had. You need to know where you and your editors will be satisfied. 3. I recommend you read a copy of Strunk & White's "Elements of Style." You have several run on sentences above. I know you're not writing to suit an editor here, but this is a public forum. That means putting your most professional writing out for the public to read. Good luck! You're already well on your way.

Alicia, I wrote my first novel more as a narrative, imagining in my head the voice as it read. When action took place, I wrote it as a movie, not in script, but with the imagery of screen presentation. Tell the story, don't write it. Russ

Alicia, do you ever draw? Do you ever read about how to draw? In an art book I am currently studying, it said to plot out the entire body of the subject when drawing portraits to make sure you can place the body on the page the way you want it and to get the proportions right. After that, you fill in the details.

For some people, writing is the same way. I am currently working on a novel where I started with a bullet point list to describe each scene I wanted in the story. Now that I have finished that, I am writing snippets for each scene, a bit of description, a bit of dialog. Once that's done, I'll have the proportions in place and then it will be on to the detail.

Also, I have talked to many writers, including myself (yeah, I talk to myself a lot), and most recommend that you start with smaller works. If you can put a whole story into 750 words, you'll learn so much about writing. You'll learn about beginnings, middles, and ends. You'll learn about word choices. You'll learn about grabbing your audiences attention as quickly as possible.

Hey everyone!!! I'm Laekan and I'm working on revising my first novel. It follows a young woman as she returns to Argentina after years of living in the U.S. where she and her family sought refuge from the Dirty War. It's all about her discovering what really happened to her mother, who mysteriously disappeared during the height of the war and how this one thread of truth basically unravels her entire life and who she thought she was. In my opinion it crosses over between adult and young adult fiction but it is really different and I'm having trouble figuring out where exactly my book will fit in.

Would anyone out there be willing to exchange emails with me and critique my manuscript? I've queried some agents but haven't recieved news from anyone who's interested. It's about 50,000 words which is about 90 pages in a word document.

I would be more than happy to exchange a critique with other writers out there looking for the same thing.

If you want to read a sample of my work to see if it's something you might be interested in reading, I have a short story posted on my goodreads account.

Thanks!!!!