Please? What I’m looking for is a place laid out like the Dope (powered by vBB) where people who like to write can go and share their stuff, get feedback, advice, direction on publishing, ads for publishers, guidelines, reviews, and so on.
Anybody know of a place like this? I spent a good part of last night searching for such a place with no success.
Help!
What’s your primary genre?
I know of a few SF sites, and could probably ask around for other genres.
I dunno of anything like that (though I’d also be interested if anybody else does), but Zette recently created an SDMB writers club on Yahoo. Check it out: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/sdmbwritingclub
Ditto Orca’s question. I know a good board which, while not powered by VBB, is a great resource. It’s for mystery writers.
Also, Lex, you’re in Colorado, right? You might want to check out the Rocky Mountain Fiction writers (http://www.rmfw.org). They offer lots of critique groups, support services and the like. Or, if you have any questions, I may be able to help. As a struggling writer (well, slow, not really struggling), I try to keep up on the biz, and am friends with several published writers along the Front Range.
My primary genre is fantasy, mostly in the sub-genre of gothic fantasy. You know, White Wolf type of Mage kind of Vampire: The Masquerade type of thing. All my friends and family tell me I should try to get published. But they love me, so that doesn’t count. It’s when people who think I’m a total asshole say “Y’know, you’re a real dick, but I really like your stories. I only read them cause they’re free. If you get published, I’ll boycott the publisher.”
…better hope it’s not Tor then, right? Heh heh heh.
Anyway, Thanks for all the info so far, I will research it all, especially the RMFW since I am in Colorado.
Thanks again guys.
If anyone is interested in the same genre/sub-genre or even SF and wants to swap stories or ideas or anything like that via e-mail, feel free to drop me a line.
Go to SFF.Net for science fiction and fantasy writing. It’s at http://webnews.sff.net. You can read a lot of the categories for free, though certain ones require a membership.
Wait’ll you get the rejection notices that come back ‘we really like your work, but we’re just not interested right now’ or the ones like ‘We like your work, but we’re not interested in the subject matter currently. Please send further scripts as we find your style interesting.’
So you do, and get standard rejection letters.
The worst is ‘we like your work and please continue to submit to our magazine, however, we have more than enough of this subject matter so cannot use your script.’
Then you go to the book store and find Joe Schmuck’s new book out on how to turn recycled household containers into attractive plant pots and compost, or Sally Brainless has just hit the 200,000 mark on her book entitled ‘1000 things to make out of old coffee filters while raising baby.’
Intellectually stimulating stuff like that seems to sell fast.
I’ve read 6 books that were written is a style that led me to believe the author never graduated high school. Not only did odd, mysterious things come and go in the script that had nothing to do with the plots, but ‘helpful,’ previously unmentioned weapons, tools, friends, abilities or ‘nick-of-time’ situation solving things appeared out of nowhere. The writers, in this day and age of word processors, was too lazy to back track in the script and give such things a workable history.
They got published.
I’ve not.
(Noise of violently breaking pencils inserted here, along with crash of computer being trashed and sobs of frustrated rage ring though the room.)
Okay, now granted this is not in vB-style, but it may have what you’re looking for: guidelines, writing challenges/critiques, resources, and workshops via message board plus chat rooms in a variety of genres (science fiction. fantasy, non-fiction, humor, etc). It’s the Writers BBS.
Good luck and have fun (being one who finds writing difficult at best, I really admire those of you who get a kick out of it)!
Lexi,
CRITTERS.
I haven’t used Critters myself, but have spoken to folks who have. It’s primarily a site for giving and receiving feedback on SF, Horror and Fantasy, and it apparently requires a pretty serious commitment. You earn points by reading others’ work and providing feedback, and spend your accrued points when you submit work for critique. The monitors track rates of point accrual, too, so they can dump or demote less-serious participants.
They’re not the kind of message board site you’re seeking, but it might be a useful service for you anyway. You’ll find Clarion and Clarion West grads participating, not to mention at least one Writers of the Future winner I’ve crossed paths with elsewhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if some are Hugo nominees.
They also have guidelines and articles on various facets of the business.
http://brain-of-pooh.tech-soft.com/users/critters/
Let me know if you try it.
Correction to my previous post.
Critters does have a message board capability, but it’s on the SFF.Net server RealityChuck mentioned.
I get this all the time. Family and friends don’t count at all when it comes to critiqueing ( however that is spelled)
as most of them can barely write their names on the Christmas Cards that they buy, let alone write a cohesive sentance without nineteen mistakes.
[rant]
Not that I would complain. I would give anything to receive a letter from someone. Handwritten. Typed. Mistakes galore. I don’t care. I send out these hysterical letters to friends of " Here I am on Mackinac Island, writing to you on the back of a menu just to let you know that I thought of you when I saw baked beans on the menu…" and I never hear one frickin word back, but when I see the friend ( months later)
they tell me they took my letter to work and posted in the lunch room and had every one pissing their pants. How 'bout some *Quid pro quo *? ARGH.[/rant]
Writing is a dying art.
Oh wait, this isn’t about me, it’s about Lexi.
Sorry.
Sure, Shirley, it’s about you. It’s about all of us.
The reason it’s so hard to get published, Serendipity, is that there are million different people who submit a million transcripts a million times a year. That’s a rough figure. Anyway, junior editors at magazines and other publishers sort through all kinds of stuff. If you’re lucky enough to get to a senior editor and she rejects your work, that’s a big break.
I have sent a whole bunch of stuff to White Wolf and have not even gotten a reply. I am hoping that the disclaimer on their Web site (We regret that we are not accepting any submissions for the remainder of this century) means that they will start actually opening my stuff after January 1.
sigh
I feel you, though, Shirl. I send massive tomes via e-mail (easy when you type 80 wpm at 99% efficiency) to my friends and family and get a “good to hear from you” in response. Then I get e-mail from people I don’t know making “hilarious” and “where did you find that” noises. They obviously had something forwared to them from someone who should’ve replied to me in depth. Oh well.
Hopefully, I will make it big time some day and sell a million copies of a series of books. Or maybe 40 million like Robert Jordan. I think I should go back to college first, though.
Being curious about people over seas and in different nations, I obtained E-pals and sent them volume after volume of wonderful and witty descriptions of local and national life here in the States and would get a paragraph back.
They loved the letters, but, alas, mainly wanted to know if we Americans really did mainly swill beer from cans, wear bristly beards, have pot bellies and walk everywhere with guns strapped to our hips. Then they’d describe, in brief, their little garden of what?, the American Harley they bought, their 200 year old and boring cottage, current CD player and gripe about gas prices.
I’ve obtained MS back from editors with helpful corrections written in the sides, but nothing gets published and I am loath to use an agent. They charge.
Good luck to all of you whom are endeavoring to get published. BTW scripts should be Times Roman #10, double spaced, header containing name, title, page number, serial rights and date, cover letter included along with a stamped, self addressed return envelope to get the work back along with a rejection notice if rejected. Always include a © (Copyright) by the title even if not copywritten. Some less than honest magazines will reject the work, keep the script, publish it under another name and rake in the minuscule royalties. With a ©, they’re not sure if you have actually copywritten it or not and won’t mess around.
Unless asked, never send a MS on disk. They hate that. Most disks get dumped in the trash. Follow their submission guidelines also and spellcheck, spell check, spell check! Submissions failing to meet their format usually get dumped without being opened and bad spelling or messy work gets dumped within a few pages.
They don’t have time to struggle through your work and correct things.
No colored fonts, papers, or highlights unless requested. The less they have the fuss with, the better your chances are. Do not staple pages together. Use a big metal paper clip. They like that.
Never, ever use fancy fonts, especially script ones. The ever protective secretary will weed those out even before the editor gets his enormous stack of mail. They are hard to read. They’ll be returned with a form note if you provide a SASE, if not they get dumped into the huge trash can they give her. You might or might not get a rejection letter.
The days of sending in a hand written MS on paper, having a publisher see the wonder, beauty and magic within all of the misspelled words and occasional coffee stains then buying it up then begging for more are gone.
Serendipity28 said:
Going without an agent is OK if you’re submitting to magazines; it’s a death wish if you’re looking to publish novel-length fiction. If you want to write books, get an agent.
A couple of points here. One, editors usually do not prefer Times Roman 10-point, as it’s too small and also not a fixed-width font. The industry standard is Courier (not Courier New) 12-point. That said, many magazines have their own standards and practices.
As far as your copyright discussion goes, that’s just not true. Putting a © by something doesn’t mean anything. You don’t actually have to go through the formal copyright process to hold the copyright on something, either. Basically, the fact that you wrote it and printed it out means you own the copyright. If you want to actually prove that you did it at a certain time, take the manuscript and mail it off to a friend. Or even mail it to yourself. In most cases, the postmark is more than enough proof of prior authorship. I swear there was a thread on this somewhere. Do a search on “copyright” and you’ll probably find it. But the bottom line is, ethical publishers will not steal work, and unethical ones will steal work regardless of whether you have a © by it or not, just hoping you won’t notice.
There’s a site called EZBoard that has all sorts of message boards. Maybe you could find one there, though I don’t think it’s vBB.
For an SF/F workshop, check out Critters as mentioned above by OrcaChow. I am a sometime member, when I get around my writers’ block and actually am able to contribute 
For a message board, check out the Speculations Rumor Mill. While you’re there, subscribe to Speculations. It is an excellent magazine for those who wish to sell their speculative fiction.
LL ← actually has published!