Thanks for sharing your publishing experiences, Fencer. While my current series of stories (of which NaNo is the latest) isn't really publishable except as fan fiction, I'm intrigued by your experiences in getting published.

I'm taking a break from NaNo editing to begin the next project. It's the next chapter that carries on after the NaNo finishes, but I'm trying a different point of view. The earlier stories were usually told in third person limited perspective; this time I'm going to try the next one in first person. I've written some short stories in first person before; the challenge here is that I'm going to try to do it from Abby's point of view - challenging because I'm neither female nor a mother.

Aitb, I hope the editing goes well. Expanding a 17-page story sounds like quite a challenge, but you seem excited about it! How are you finding working on it?

gazer, I find first person very difficult. I think I'm going to try writing my next story in it, though, as I really need to learn! Because I want to show two characters' thoughts I wondered whether to jump between two first-person perspectives, perhaps from chapter to chapter. I want the story to be very personal, and I think first person will give me that.

I have found some of the things I've written about hard to write because I haven't had that experience, but I talk to others about it or read about it instead. Then I use things I have experienced to make the rest of the story more realistic!

Fencer, I hope that your discussions with MLP go well. Have you heard back about marketing?

I find it interesting that it's difficult for you to find books by Peretti, etc., in bookshops like Barnes and Noble. Here, where the main bookstore is Waterstones now that Borders has gone bust, the only Christian book I'm likely to find is the Bible. The only Christian novel I've seen in Waterstones is The Shack. The UK needs more books like that which are able to break through both the Christian and secular markets!

I am taking a break from The Princess of Nowhere in order to put my free NaNo CreateSpace book together. I haven't done much editing on The Dance, just a little tidying. I want the hard copy so I can do a proper edit! While I've been tinkering, though, I'm starting to realise how much more sense my second book makes. My first one is still all over the place whereas my second seems to flow much better. I guess that's good, and means I'm improving, but it means that dear old TPoN needs much more work ...

Christian fiction in big book markets like B&N are often thrown into the rest of the Christian section including non-fiction. And since Christian non-fiction is where the big market is (for Christian authors) the fictions ones are simply there and you need to know what to look for to find it. Christian books stores would be more apt to carrying them in their own separate sections which makes it easy.

As for MLP, I decided to go ahead and send my query in, wait and see. They said it would take a year to get through the submissions, but I have nothing but time on my hands in regards to my novel and it might take a year to find another publisher and get through to them anyway. They didn't get back with me on the marketing questions I had, and I assume it is just because it got pushed through a stack of e-mails and didn't get read.

I'm going to be patient about it, but I have enough on my plate right now to keep my mind busy. I'm looking at going into teaching so I have prep work to do on that. This summer I have several possible trips and you can read about those on the Sports topic. And when I have down time, I will finish what will likely be my last run through on my novel before I start the editing process of my sequel. That way if the first becomes a hit, the sequel will be so much closer to following it. God has really been moving in my life this semester and I have gotten opportunities that I never imagined just a few months ago. And I believe that if God wants me to go through MLP, that he is capable (not required to) of pushing me query towards the top of the stack or providing the means to go through it quickly. But for now, I'll just wait and see, having that faith that my novel will get published at the right timing.

I haven't been in here for awhile! Thanks for the updates on your novel, Fencer!

I have a request: Would anyone here be willing to take my novel summary and read it through critically, then send me some comments about where things are rough and where I can improve? I really need some constructive criticism at this point, and I want my summary solid before I rewrite.

Any takers? If so, you can send me a PM with your email and I'll email it your way.

Hi, everyone!!
Wow, the Writer's Thread got pushed way back! How is everyone?
I got through my first chapter, and it's been going great, thanks to all your advice I'm starting on the second one. It's still tough, but I'm managing.
I started an online Society with my two sisters and four of my friends. It's going very well, thanks again for all your advice

One of the biggest challenges to writing is getting started. The next biggest challenge is finishing. I was talking with a friend of mine two weeks ago about some stories ideas that she had. She had some great stories with pretty much the entire story-line finished but hardly a word written down (or typed). I encouraged her to go for it, in part because I loved her ideas. The basic premise is about a group of women in a medieval society that are the equivalent of today's Secret Service (for the US President), or the French Musketeers only nobody knows they actually exist, including the king. It's a really cool concept and I am trying to encourage her to go for it.

As for me, I am on the waiting game. I finished going through my novel for the last time after getting the tips I got at the Writer's Conference I went to back in March, and I am truly at the point where I simply can't do any more until a professional looks at it. So far I have only had friends get back with me on it, but one is a Creative Writing major and I am waiting on her feedback but I don't expect to do any more editing on this novel until a publisher is ready to look at it.

So in the meantime, I have this summer to work on the sequel and get it in much closer shape for an immediate followup when a publisher does take the first. It needs a lot of work, but not as much as the first did. Hopefully I can get most of that done this summer because once school starts, I expect no free time whatsoever to work on writing as I will be in my final year of school, as well as being student president of two student organizations (fencing and Intervarsity). So I will be busy. Can't wait to hear from MLP though.

*tap tap* Is this thing on?

It's been awhile, but I figured this counted. I was finally able to get my free proof copy of my NaNo novel that I wrote last year. I LOVE how it came out, and I thought I'd share the photos!

The pics really don't do it justice. I love how it all looks. The last two pics is both my NaNo's together; this year and last year's. I can't wait to see the pile grow and grow!

SWEET!!!!! That's awesome Gymfan. I have to say though, there is very little more warming to an author than to see his/her work printed out. I'm so close with mine. I'm just waiting to hear back from Marcher Lord Press, which could be anytime between now and next Spring.

Thank-you for the encouragement, AJAiken. As for working on it... I've been slacking of late, but I'm enjoying going at a slow pace and rewriting and rereading and rewriting. It's a tiring but fun process!

Gymfan, how exciting that must be for you! The cover and inside (and the font for writing, I like the ice-skater silhouette-thing seperating scenes!) are wonderful.

Sadly I've missed the deadline for getting my proof copy, but I was told that I can still get it otherwise by paying for it on Createspace. So...how is that done? Do I join, enter my script and cover and settle shipping questions and then get it? I was going to join, but figured I'd ask some instructions on how to do things on there.

On a different note, I was interested in that 3-Day novel thing. It sounds very neat, and I'm tempted to join impetuously right now and permission was granted by my parents, but I'm still going to pray about it and consider it seriously... That's fascinating, how people would just write 100 pages or so in a span of three days.

Hi, just thought I'd post here.
I've written one fantasy novel 'The Black Galloper', about a man who is wrongly accused of theft and exiled for fifteen years. When he comes back to his home city, all the people are gone, except for the man who was partly responsible for his exile in the first place. The two of them have to work together to solve a series of riddles to bring the people of the city back from the enchanted sleep in which the Dark Lord has placed them. They receive words of power from a princess of their allies in order to achieve their goal. I liked it, but no one except my family and a friend or two has read it. I wouldn't go the publishing route just yet, since I'm not that good. Now I realized that there are some inconsistencies that need to be corrected, so I will probably release a second edition. Not to mention the changes that were made necessary by altering the prequel, 'Elwen' (which I am currently working on), to make it less derivative. It tells the backstory of the princess, which before had to be explained in a lot of notes.

Hello! I love to write, especially stories about princesses/medieval stuff. I have written two stories/short books, one called 'Isabella I' and the other called 'The Tale of Ana Main'. I love to name my characters and stuff. Does any one else like writing about that stuff? No one except my sisters have read my stories.

Lady Haleth, that sounds really good! I can tell you I would like to read a book like that. How long is it?

The biggest thing about writing a novel, novella, or story is finishing. There is little more rewarding to an author than to finish a work. I have finished at least a draft of three novels, but two of them are going to need quite a bit of re-writing before they get to where I want them to be. The other is the one that is so close to publication. I am still waiting on Marcher Lord Press, and I don't expect a response before Winter Break or Spring (beginning of 2011 for the Southern Hemisphere folk). But that is a good thing.

I just found out that several things in my novel are very closely related to some other works, even though I came up with a lot of it independently. I've already found out which points they are and I am in progress of dealing with it. But it's going to take some time to go through my whole novel and fix them all. And with school in two weeks, my chances of finishing very quickly are slim. So I really need the time to go through this and I am actually praying that I don't hear from MLP until I get it done. The changes are not going to effect my story line, but they will affect some of how things are described and how they take place. It's only going to make my story better in the end.

I submitted a story last month, for the first time in a couple of years. It was quite empowered. Of course, if it were to win the contest and be published, I would feel even more empowered.

Working on a few other projects right now, all of them short stories. But I've also picked up a couple reference materials to aid me in planning my novel. We'll see how it goes.

'The Black Galloper' is only 117 pages long. The prequel, 'Elwen' is a lot longer, however. I'm still working on it, and the beginning has had to be rewritten twice. After 'Elwen' is finished, there will be a second edition of 'The Black Galloper', with a few things changed. They are the first two in a planned series of eight. I've also done three short stories: 'The Alliance' about, well, the making of an alliance between the Sarion (the nation of 'The Black Galloper') and the Arristam (the nation of 'Elwen'); 'The Great Race', about a group of the Arristam called The Blue Riders that arrange a race to win their horses back from their enemies; and 'The Battle of the Ford', the first story to feature the Kisaars, about a battle between the Northern and Southern Kisaars during a famine. Its the best. I've also done a lot of poetry, some which is good.

I guess I'd better pop in here and say hello to my fellow writers!

I've been working on a YA fantasy novel for at least two-and-a-half years now. I really didn't do any outlining when I started. Now that I'm finished with my rough draft, I've realized how much my writing has improved since I began. I'm currently in the middle of editing. And by "editing", I mean "completely rewriting/deleting scenes/adding in new ones". It's taking forever, and I'm running low on motivation at the moment. I'm also concerned that my manuscript is too long, but it's hard to tell until I finish my second draft.

I'd love to someday be published, but I'm not really in a hurry. In the meantime, I've been reading tons of author, editor, and agent blogs. I've taken a writing workshop and tried joining a critique group, but with my schedule, I always seem to have something else going on whenever there's a meeting.