# So how many Dopers are writing books? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 20, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465 "2006-09-20T19:46:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/21 "2006-09-21T13:20:57Z")
Finaklly started writing another mythology book (I’ve only been gathering material for over six years). I’ve also started writing and readinmg with another qwriter’s group, and I’m hoping this current piece will become a publishable piece of fiction. (So far I haven’t had any problem getting my non-fiction published, but I haven’t been able to interest anyone in my fiction. Not for lack of trying.) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/22 "2006-09-21T13:27:48Z")
[QUOTE=winterhawk11] I’ve written six, varying in length from 150 pages up to nearly 700, all set in the Shadowrun RPG world. [All of them are posted on my website](http://www.magespace.net/ratfiction.html). I’ve had some fiction published in official Shadowrun stuff (the opening story in the Shadowrun 4 core rulebook is mine, and I wrote the first full-length published SR 4 adventure) and I’m hoping very strongly that I’ll get to write an “official” SR novel one of these days. [/QUOTE] Oh, coooooooool! I downloaded the zipped version of the first one, to read when stuff at work is slow and the dope is cranky 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Carlyjay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Carlyjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carlyjay)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/23 "2006-09-21T13:50:08Z")
_raises hand_ Sort of. I’ve been dabbling in writing here and there, wrote a play and now working on a novel. It’s going slowly, though. Hopefully I get my arse in gear. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/24 "2006-09-21T14:02:11Z")
Well, not a book but a script. I’m halfway done with the first draft but I’ve hit a wall these past couple of months. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/25 "2006-09-21T14:16:44Z")
I’m working on three. I also have written several episodes for my favorite TV shows, but I don’t know how to submit them. I finished an annotated version of “Rosemary’s Baby” that was really fun and hard work. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/26 "2006-09-21T14:32:44Z")
I’m working on a law book that will definitely not be a best seller! But it’s fun. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/27 "2006-09-21T15:03:14Z")
I’m co-writing a sword and sorcery story on another message board, as posts to an ongoing series of threads. So far we’re up to [chapter nine](http://fff.fathom.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21019). The thing developed as an offshoot of a RPG with multiple players. Catz and I split off our characters during a period of, ah, creative differences. The others tried to keep the main game going but it petered out. Catz and I are well into our second year of our own story, still amazed at times by how our characters insist on having their story told the way they want it to go. Will we ever turn it into a manuscript and try to get it published? Hard to say. We’d have to rewrite so much, especially the backstory to where we split off. But we’re enjoying the process. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/28 "2006-09-21T15:17:11Z")
I’m working on comics and children’s books. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/29 "2006-09-21T15:19:34Z")
I’m writing a book that’s a series of essays commenting on The Issues from a centrist point of view. Parts of it are posted on my blog and I invite everyone to read and critique it so I’ll know where to shore up my arguments. > **[Squeaky Wheels](http://www.squeakywheelsblog.com)** > > patrick douglas mccauley edina ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Venom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Lady\_Venom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Venom)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/30 "2006-09-21T16:12:36Z")
I’m in the midst of an erotica novella. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/31 "2006-09-21T16:37:33Z")
I started one about 2 months ago, should be done around March. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/32 "2006-09-21T17:01:02Z")
I’ve finished NaNoWriMo twice, and I’ve been putting ink on paper for a third novel over the last several months. Fantasy: swords, magic, &c. I’ve no intention of publishing, but I suppose I’d like to. I just can’t imagine getting the first draft beyond the first-draft stage. The feel too _thin_, the stories go from start to finish, but what’s in between needs texture & weight, I think. I don’t really know. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/33 "2006-09-21T17:05:35Z")
I’m working on a non-fiction book, an English-language guidebook to Tokyo Disney Resort. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/34 "2006-09-21T17:12:19Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] I’m working on three. I also have written several episodes for my favorite TV shows, but I don’t know how to submit them. I finished an annotated version of “Rosemary’s Baby” that was really fun and hard work. [/QUOTE] Here are some links that can hopefully steer you in the right direction. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/35 "2006-09-21T17:12:51Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] I’m working on three. I also have written several episodes for my favorite TV shows, but I don’t know how to submit them. I finished an annotated version of “Rosemary’s Baby” that was really fun and hard work. [/QUOTE] [Here](http://dmoz.org/Arts/Writers_Resources/Screenwriting/) are some links that can hopefully steer you in the right direction. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/36 "2006-09-21T17:19:04Z")
I meant to add, **Annie** , that my screenwriter friend and partner out in Hollywood particularly recommended Done Deal and [Moviebytes.com](http://Moviebytes.com) to get good info on how to work the process. ---
**Author:** ![Alistair\_McCello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@Alistair\_McCello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alistair_McCello)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/37 "2006-09-21T19:58:06Z")
Since it seems as though everyone else is going into more detail I will elaborate that my book in progress is a realist retelling of my favorite Norwegian folktale in verse. I hope to evetually get it published but I am nowhere near that stage and unless I suddenly get a whole lot more free time it might be a while. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/38 "2006-09-21T20:47:17Z")
2005 Nanowrimo only. I still haven’t read it yet. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/39 "2006-09-21T23:23:27Z")
Always in the middle of several short stories… I only have one that I’d really like to pursue as a final, reworked, I’m all happy with it kinda story. But its short. Actually its only about two pages long. I like how it goes and the basic skeleton of the story is there… how it starts, develops, and ends. The problem is that each paragraph should be _at least_ two pages long. Characters jump in left and right. Its hard to explain… the main character meets “himself” (rather people very similar to himself at different stages of his life) at different points in his life and thinks and converses with the person he is meeting as he would at that stage in his life. It’s complicated. So I decided to write the story _about_ writing my first “good” (in my mind) story. My fears on screwing it up and making a good idea into a messy blob, reading other authors and seeing how their writing style flows, trying to develop a writing style of my own that seems natural and not so choppy… All with my own observations of things going on that I decided to encorporate into the story. So its a kinda easy way out of trying to make a great story the first time by writing about writing the story. ---
**Author:** ![Arien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arien)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465/40 "2006-09-21T23:28:58Z")
Last month I started on a short story that I decided would be better off as a YA novel. So I guess I am writing a book even though I only have about 6500 words. I really need to start working on that again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-dopers-are-writing-books/373465.md?page=3)