Sharing your work

[anastasia517]

 incognito kangaroo11 mousemelon @writererin Pom EnchantedSoul gardengal fatamy lilibet

This week I was wondering about the extent people share their work so I have some things on that topic we could discuss.

Who, if anybody, has read your stories? Does the answer change depending on which story it is?

And in a more vague way, how much do you tell somebody who asks about your story what it is about? (ie. Characters, plot) Are there things you purposefully keep secret like twists just in case you get published one day?

[gardengal]

No one has read my stories. I mostly keep my writing to myself, I'm not sure family & friends know I do it. If I was more sharing, I'd probably not hold back info., mostly because I don't intended to get published ever.

[EnchantedSoul]

I'm like gardengal no one has really read my work and almost no one knows I write. Every now and again I have my husband proofread something, but that's it. My reason being that I'f be embarassed if someone didn't like it. I'm trying to loosen my grip on my work.

If I had a story in progress, I'd keep all the secrets to myself and only tell the gist of the story. I think (of course) that I have good story ideas so I'd be afraid to tell too much, like online, and have someone steal my idea :-P

[kangaroo11]

My husband read my first two NaNo novels. He read half of another one and gave up I guess?

Sometimes people ask what my novels are about, but when I say I write fantasy most people seem to have their eyes glaze over.

[Deleted]

I very rarely let anyone read my first drafts. If anyone asks what I'm writing, I'll give the brief synopsis, but I'm very self-conscious about my first drafts, because they usually involve a lot of word vomit on my part. The first person who usually ever sees anything I've written -- and only once I've started doing revisions -- is my critique partner, who's a friend of mine from an old writing group we both used to be in (she reads my stuff, I read hers, we help each other revise).

After my critique partner has given me her feedback, and it's been revised a time or two, then I have a few friends who I can usually ask to beta read for me. I trust their opinions and I know they'll be honest with me.

My husband doesn't usually read my stuff, but then he's not really into reading. Whenever I finally publish, he'll probably read it then.

[anastasia517]

gardengal, EnchantedSoul, I'm impressed that you can keep your writing quiet. Everybody knows I do NaNo since I try to recruit people every year. Even so, when people ask to read it I feel horror and/or want to laugh because do they not understand how things are when you're trying to figure out WTF you're doing at first!? (No, the answer is no, non-writers don't really get it.)

kangaroo11 My DH has also read 2.5 of mine. To be fair, I think the 1/2 might be all I had written at the time but its certainly nowhere near all I've written. Unfortunately, the two he read in their entirety are the two books I wrote entirely in my teenage years and they were certainly not my best work. My main focus is also fantasy so that helps scare some people off for sure! Is yours a high fantasy world(s) or lower/contemporary/urban fantasy?

@writererin That's really neat that you have a critique partner. I have a couple writing friends but nobody I swap with. When do you tend to exchange in the writing/revising/editing process? And how do you choose which friends to share it with to beta read?


For me, as I've mentioned DH has read 2.5 of my NaNos. My sister has read most of what I've written, but she's been participating with me since the beginning and we share a world for some stories. The only other people who have read what I've written have been fan fiction readers who read what I've posted on the internet anonymously and that's much lower pressure.

I try to keep some of my twists a secret, especially in the series that I'd like to publish someday. This makes it hard to talk about my long story since it shows the main antagonist's descent into being the antagonist. The big twist would be revealed if anybody got more than a vague answer of what it was about. With other stories I'm more comfortable telling. Especially with the one set on the Titanic, the journey was more important than the destination so the fact that people would automatically know a major plot point that introduced life threatening danger was to be expected.

[lilibet]

dh has read some of my stuff and I've told a friend the summary of my last nano. Otherwise I don't share much.

It's not so much that I want to keep it secret or anything but I get so nervous when people read my stuff. I have to leave the room when dh reads anything. Weird trait for someone who wants to be an author, huh? lol

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2016 18:24:29 GMT -5 anastasia517 said:

@writererin That's really neat that you have a critique partner. I have a couple writing friends but nobody I swap with. When do you tend to exchange in the writing/revising/editing process? And how do you choose which friends to share it with to beta read?

My critique partner and I exchange as we go (a habit we picked up in our old writers group).  We meet in person about every other week.  When I finish revising 2 or 3 chapters, I send them to her...and vice versa for her novel.  So when we meet, we usually have something to discuss (other than our normal gossip sessions).  She'll tell me what works or what doesn't in my chapters, I'll do the same for her, and we also make comments and changes in the documents themselves before emailing them back to their author.  Going by small chunks works for the two of us, because if there's something really drastic that gets changed in earlier chapters, it's not as big of a pain to adjust in later chapters.

As far as beta readers, I have a handful of friends who are either also writers or who really like reading (and who I know will tell me the truth about their opinions).  When I'm ready for beta readers, I'll usually contact a few of them and see if they even have the time or willingness.  Usually at least a couple of them are up for it at the time.  Although, I recently joined a writing forum, so I might try to get a couple beta readers from there (there's a special beta readers section of the boards), so I have brand new eyes on my writing.

[EnchantedSoul]

Feb 7, 2016 14:11:05 GMT -5 @writererin said:

Feb 5, 2016 18:24:29 GMT -5 anastasia517 said:

@writererin That's really neat that you have a critique partner. I have a couple writing friends but nobody I swap with. When do you tend to exchange in the writing/revising/editing process? And how do you choose which friends to share it with to beta read?

My critique partner and I exchange as we go (a habit we picked up in our old writers group).  We meet in person about every other week.  When I finish revising 2 or 3 chapters, I send them to her...and vice versa for her novel.  So when we meet, we usually have something to discuss (other than our normal gossip sessions).  She'll tell me what works or what doesn't in my chapters, I'll do the same for her, and we also make comments and changes in the documents themselves before emailing them back to their author.  Going by small chunks works for the two of us, because if there's something really drastic that gets changed in earlier chapters, it's not as big of a pain to adjust in later chapters.

As far as beta readers, I have a handful of friends who are either also writers or who really like reading (and who I know will tell me the truth about their opinions).  When I'm ready for beta readers, I'll usually contact a few of them and see if they even have the time or willingness.  Usually at least a couple of them are up for it at the time.  Although, I recently joined a writing forum, so I might try to get a couple beta readers from there (there's a special beta readers section of the boards), so I have brand new eyes on my writing.

Do you mind sharing where you joined? I can't seem to find any writing forums that are fairly active. I completely understand if you don't want to specify where you joined but if you know of other spaces I could look into, that would be helpful. I really feel like I need some hand-holding and/or direction. Thanks

[EnchantedSoul]

Andplusalso, this board is hopping these days! :-P

[Deleted]

Feb 7, 2016 15:57:00 GMT -5 EnchantedSoul said:

Feb 7, 2016 14:11:05 GMT -5 @writererin said:

My critique partner and I exchange as we go (a habit we picked up in our old writers group).  We meet in person about every other week.  When I finish revising 2 or 3 chapters, I send them to her...and vice versa for her novel.  So when we meet, we usually have something to discuss (other than our normal gossip sessions).  She'll tell me what works or what doesn't in my chapters, I'll do the same for her, and we also make comments and changes in the documents themselves before emailing them back to their author.  Going by small chunks works for the two of us, because if there's something really drastic that gets changed in earlier chapters, it's not as big of a pain to adjust in later chapters.

As far as beta readers, I have a handful of friends who are either also writers or who really like reading (and who I know will tell me the truth about their opinions).  When I'm ready for beta readers, I'll usually contact a few of them and see if they even have the time or willingness.  Usually at least a couple of them are up for it at the time.  Although, I recently joined a writing forum, so I might try to get a couple beta readers from there (there's a special beta readers section of the boards), so I have brand new eyes on my writing.

Do you mind sharing where you joined? I can't seem to find any writing forums that are fairly active. I completely understand if you don't want to specify where you joined but if you know of other spaces I could look into, that would be helpful. I really feel like I need some hand-holding and/or direction. Thanks

Of course!  It's a site called Absolute Write. 

Here's the main page: absolutewrite.com/
Here's the direct link to the forums: absolutewrite.com/forums/forum.php

[anastasia517]

Feb 14, 2016 13:03:39 GMT -5 incogneato said:

Oh hey guys! Sorry I missed this earlier! I haven't shared my book (first draft complete!) yet but I have a few friends who have volunteered to read it and provide feedback. I still have a bunch of editing to do but I hope to get it to them by mid-March and while they are reading it I'm going to gear up for the mini NaNoWriMo in April to start my next book.

You already seen braver than a lot of long time writers! I hope to do Camp in April as well so it's nice to know I will have company. Have you decided what your project for that one will be yet?

[anastasia517]

Feb 19, 2016 14:46:22 GMT -5 incogneato said:

Feb 19, 2016 12:44:51 GMT -5 anastasia517 said:

You already seen braver than a lot of long time writers! I hope to do Camp in April as well so it's nice to know I will have company. Have you decided what your project for that one will be yet?

Yes, I actually came up with it when I was a teenager. It's a post-apocalyptic YA story that takes place after a plague kills all the men on earth. LOL. It's the one I really am attached to, unlike my first book, so I hope I can do it justice. How about you?

I'm not sure yet.  I am either going to attempt to re-do something I never finished and was poorly written from a past NaNo or I'm going to try for my big story.  That one is a bit scary, because it's something I really don't want to "ruin" it.

By now I should just accept that it will be questionable no matter when I dive in.  The pressure seems somehow more for attempting a series though.

[fatamy]

I've started posting my 2015 NaNo novel in chapters on my blog, so far all my friends have given positive feedback. I'm going to edit (for the 3rd time) my 2014 NaNo next and begin posting it.

I've stopped writing for Camp NaNo, I like my plot but want to develop it and have an outline before I start writing more.