Is your goal to find other writers you can meet face-to-face, who want to be published, who strive for professionalism as an author, and who want to share the journey and exchange feedback on a periodic basis?
If you answered yes, what are your options?
As a beginning writer, I’ve struggled with describing my story ideas. After research, thought, and effort around the definitions of idea, concept, premise, synopsis, and theme in writing, I discovered a solid concept, premise, and synopsis can help me craft the story more robustly.
I came up with the following premise and synopsis for Salvage:
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Should an aspiring writer blog? Like so many other questions in life… It depends.
On what?
Do you want to…
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Blame is making us sick. Splashed across mass market media, our communities, and our homes is a maelstrom of finger-pointing targeting the mighty and the ordinary alike. A different storm of blame, a sickness silent and unnoticed, also rages across our country – one where the finger-pointing is turned inward.
“Passengers had a water leak an hour ago.” The air suddenly seemed to sharpen.
Water had been critical to interstellar travel from the beginning. Reclamation tech had never lived up to its promise, and building craft with large enough water supply tanks proved too expensive for most. So, ships like the Pinoche carried less water, relying on carefully planned stops along the route to collect ice.
Although incredibly clean, like the rest of the ship, the floor in the corridor showed its age with scuff marks and scratches, the kind paint doesn’t hide. As she strode along, the worn metal grating beneath her feet rattled occasionally. Kaylah tipped her head back to examine the conduits running overhead behind a series of grates. Several were taped together with what looked like duct tape.
“A budget ride is a budget ride,” a family friend had warned as they said their last goodbyes back on Earth. He had added earnestly, “but it will get you there in one piece. The captain’s a good man.”
“Whatever that means,” Kaylah thought. She pulled her coat tighter. The air smelled musty but better than in the passenger rec area. On any given day, when too many of the unwashed crammed into the converted cargo hold… Her nose crinkled in disgust. She understood the need for limited water rationing, but she didn’t have to like it.
I keep a separate Word file that I reference often when I write, especially when revising. It contains a rather eclectic mix: scene checklists, story structure advice, lists of conjunctions, and much more that I would like to remember. I do add endnotes for the sources of most of the information.
Here’s the current Table of Contents:
Writers first diving in to the business of becoming a published author may trip over unexpected business overhead. I have.
One doesn’t know what one doesn’t know.
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I’ve posted snippets from a hurricane scene a few times before (original, revised, in first and third person). I’m using it rather as a practice ground.
Here’s a snippet with a few emotion beats added:
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I’ve posted before snippets from my work code-named “Hurricane” (I don’t really have code names, but work-in-progress-I’ll-title-better-later names, but code-named sounds better!). Here’s two versions, one in the original 3rd person and one in the 1st person.