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Good luck. I'll probably never get published. I'm military bound, so I don't have access to agencys and the like. That, and I write over too long periods to meet deadlines. Joining the Navy will only slow my writing down.

Well, now that I think about it I'll probably have more time to write. The way it works on a warship is you do your daily duties, then you have free time. Since I won't be spending time on video games and Gaia, which use up a big chunk of my time, I'll probably have a lot of time to write. As for agencies, maybe I could main my manuscripts to my stepfather or my sister to have them take them in. Contrary to what I thought an hour ago, this is not an insurmountable issue. Besides, I have a year before I join the Navy, anyway.

I've read through and considered this idea. Now, I can see the pros and the cons. What others have said regarding professional opinions (meaning none of us are professional writers yet) is one of the cons. One of the pros would be giving others honest critique. However, you need a damn good eye for good and bad material with this sort of thing, which is where the con of not having any professionals around comes in. So, this is a bit of a vicious circle.

You might have seen the Writer's Forum here on Gaia. It's full of wannabe authors who are in their early teens who have no idea about what good writing is. They might think they have the next best idea, or that the quality of their writing is of professional standard, when it isn't. I thought my writing was really good when I was 13-14, but even when I look back on what I wrote in college I think "what the hell was I thinking!?"

Most of the regulars on here are in their late teens right through to 30+, so their opinions are likely to be less biased. A 14 year old writer may ask his/her 14 year old best friend whether his/her writing is any good or not, and they might give a biased answer because they're best friends, or think it's great when in all likelihood the outside world probably isn't going to think so. There are still many aspects of my fantasy world that need changing, because my original ideas don't fit as well as I first thought.

Personally, I am a Simon Cowell type when it comes to judging things like that. People slate Simon Cowell, but in fact he tells it as it is. The general public will boo him and clap a really crap act out of sympathy, or because it's cute, or because it's a sob story. Simon knows a good act when he sees one, and I can totally agree with him. If I heard my best friend sing (because she's been told she's good), I would not base my opinion on the fact she's my best friend. I'm a very critical individual, and it's very easy to hear and see on things like these X Factor, Pop/American Idol, etc etc talent shows what acts are utter cack and what ones are absolutely fantastic.

In writing, it's not quite so easy. You need to look at the amount of description, how visual it is, the spelling, punctuation, grammar, setting, ideas, look out for plot holes, and so much more.

So, I don't see why something can't be worked out, but I believe this idea will need tweaking by everyone who's interested in it thus far until it fits in with what we're all looking for. Does that sound agreeable?

I also agree with the Simon Cowell thing, because if you don't ever get the real hard truth about what needs fixing, you won't ever get better. I've always been a bit weird about receiving criticism; I LOVE IT! When I took a college course on Creative Writing, I asked my teacher to take a pointy red pen and tear up my manuscript. I think she wanted me committed. sweatdrop

I'm not by any means suggesting that we start submitting those pieces of writing near and dear to our hearts. And I know a lot of people haven't finished a story yet, so they're not thinking about breaking into the publishing business yet.

At the same time, though, it would be helpful for all authors who want to be published to have, for example, a "Critique the first 3 opening lines" thread, because a lot of editors will look at the first 3 lines of a manuscript, and if they're not catchy enough, out the window it goes. Unfair, yes, but that's just one of the many obstacles faced by budding authors. We totally need to support each other in facing the evils of the slush pile. ^_^

The whole idea could be incorporated into an existing sub-forum--I don't know if it would receive enough traffic as a stand-alone issue. And if there's not traffic, there's no point in having it.

Alright, I posted a thread in the Writers' Circle. Just a fun one for starters. We'll see who's serious about post-writing/pre-publishing production by the response to that thread. ^_^

So everyone, go check it out! mrgreen

I think this is a good idea smile

This book I have about writing, has a few chapters about getting published, and one of them shows how you should lay out your manuscript. Things like... don't leave lines between paragraphs, just start a new line and do a few spaces before starting the paragraph. Or... have a title page with the title of your novel, your name, your phone number and your address on. And put a header/footer on each page with the name of your novel and your phone number on incase it gets lost.

That might be helpful in a publishing section.

Anyway, this has my vote whee

Well, when you imagine a publishers desk, they're often overflowing wih papers, right? Imagine how easy it would be for even just one page to get lost admist all the piles. See what I mean? Also helps to number your pages: just so it's nice and easy to organise. And much easier to get lost papers back in the right place.

The book said you had to make it look like you cared for your manuscript, and if you made an effort to check your grammar, and paid attention to all of the little details, it's much more likely to get the attention of publishers 4laugh

What's funny is...I'm actually in the middle of doing a lot of research, and my sister and I decided to start a guild where we dump a lot of the publishing information that we come across. So I fully agree with having a publishing subforum, if not just for the wannabes to be put in their places, but also for those who may have promise to step up to the plate and pool their knowledge. Query submissions can be a little intimidating.