Now that you are here, welcome to the Writer's World, Benjamin. What kind of story are you working on? Most people here do a fantasy/fiction work, but other like to focus on poetry or historical fiction. If you scanned through the recent posts, I am on the verge of getting a spiritual warfare, fiction novel published. I even courted a publisher earlier in the fall, but God told me to hold up and wait for his timing. My next step at this point is to go to a writer's conference and I am targeting one in May 2010 in Estes Park Colorado. What happens there is in God's hands.

Good luck on your work. If this is your first draft, just write. Don't go through and edit until its perfect. If you do that, you will never finish. Stories can change on you and the first draft is really just getting your ideas on paper. You can always go back and edit to perfection later (regardless if you seek publication or not). That's what I did for my first draft and I actually ended up scrapping almost the whole thing. But I got down what I needed to get my story pointed the direction I wanted it to go and now it is a professional's edit away from publication status. Go for it and have fun while at it.

Now that you are here, welcome to the Writer's World, Benjamin. What kind of story are you working on? Most people here do a fantasy/fiction work, but other like to focus on poetry or historical fiction. If you scanned through the recent posts, I am on the verge of getting a spiritual warfare, fiction novel published. I even courted a publisher earlier in the fall, but God told me to hold up and wait for his timing. My next step at this point is to go to a writer's conference and I am targeting one in May 2010 in Estes Park Colorado. What happens there is in God's hands.

Good luck on your work. If this is your first draft, just write. Don't go through and edit until its perfect. If you do that, you will never finish. Stories can change on you and the first draft is really just getting your ideas on paper. You can always go back and edit to perfection later (regardless if you seek publication or not). That's what I did for my first draft and I actually ended up scrapping almost the whole thing. But I got down what I needed to get my story pointed the direction I wanted it to go and now it is a professional's edit away from publication status. Go for it and have fun while at it.

Wow thats so cool about you about to get a book published! What is the name of it? Yes its always the best thing to wait for God's timing even if it does not seem right to you, He is ALWAYS faithful! Its just warms my heart SO much to see another person on fire for God! Its so awesome! God is amazing! Wow I'll be praying for you tonight when I have my prayer time that everything goes well and that He will reveal more a more of Himself to you!

Its a fiction book, I don't know much about writing so i don't know the "real" term you would use other then Fiction
Its my very first Story that i have written and I hope that everything goes well.....

Wow thanks so much for the advice! it helps me so much!! thanks again!

Well I'm off now, May God shower His blessing on you! and Reveal more and more of Himself to you!

~Benjamin

My novel is titled "Battle Cry: Adventures in the Kingdom of Heaven". It is the first book of at least three in a series I am planning. I'm already nearly 100 pages into my sequel, but had to step back from it for a while due to school. So now I need to get refocused and get as much of it done as I can during my Winter Break (because I hate leaving a project partially finished). The sequel is called "Battle Cry: Expanding the Kingdom of Heaven".

Both go into heavy detail about spiritual warfare and how it can and does affect more than just Christians. The third won't complete a trilogy. Instead, "Battle Cry: Birth of the Kingdom of Heaven" will take us all the way back to the time of Christ for a historical fiction. I plan to use Matthias (the disciple chosen to replace Judas) and do a spiritual warfare POV through his eyes about Jesus' ministry and include a spectacular showdown between Jesus and Satan at the crucifixion. I've got big plans and I look foward to seeing how God's going to use them to have me walk his path.

My novel is titled "Battle Cry: Adventures in the Kingdom of Heaven". It is the first book of at least three in a series I am planning. I'm already nearly 100 pages into my sequel, but had to step back from it for a while due to school. So now I need to get refocused and get as much of it done as I can during my Winter Break (because I hate leaving a project partially finished). The sequel is called "Battle Cry: Expanding the Kingdom of Heaven".

Both go into heavy detail about spiritual warfare and how it can and does affect more than just Christians. The third won't complete a trilogy. Instead, "Battle Cry: Birth of the Kingdom of Heaven" will take us all the way back to the time of Christ for a historical fiction. I plan to use Matthias (the disciple chosen to replace Judas) and do a spiritual warfare POV through his eyes about Jesus' ministry and include a spectacular showdown between Jesus and Satan at the crucifixion. I've got big plans and I look foward to seeing how God's going to use them to have me walk his path.

That sounds really cool!! I hope everything goes great for you! I had a good time praying for you last night and that everything would go great with the publishing process!

Any Advice for me and writing is always very welcome! I need all that I can get!

~Benjamin

Since this is entitled Writer's World, are aspiring literary agents allowed?
After all these years of indecisiveness I think that's what my career will be.

So, anyone else want to be one? Or an editor at least?

Being one? Probably not. Looking for one? Definately. That's what going to the Writer's Conference is for. And yes, this would be the appropriate thread to talk about agents, how they work and what they do, as well as editors. As for me, I've done my own editing on my novel using some NWebbers from here to bounce ideas off. I've also critiqued some friend's works as well. In fact it was doing that which got me started into writing to begin with. And here I am three years later.

Hello guys! I was wondering if I could get a little bit of help from y'all. I'm entering an essay contest, but the story I wrote is about 500 over the limit. Could any of you read it and tell me which parts you thought were unecessary?
The Tale of the Princess

princess_of_narnia, I certainly agree with Benjamin; it is awesome. I'm not a writing professional, but here's my opinion. It seems like everything is essential to the story. Could you just try to condense it, like cutting out sentences here and there, or re-word sentences to use less words? Maybe it could still get the same effect with fewer words.

Hope this helps!

I'd agree with the other comments. You have a good premise and I didn't really see anything that was extraneous or didn't add to the story. But you could revise the sentences to cut down the length as the suggestions above have indicated. It's pretty much just a matter of simplifying your sentences.

As for me, I have finally gotten back to working on the sequel to my novel, "Battle Cry: Expanding the Kingdom of Heaven". I had to set it down in the middle of this past semester due to my college work load, but with five weeks of winter break, I am back on it. I had to quit 94 pages in, and now after a week of work (and travel) I am 127 pages through. It is also getting close to being finished. I expect 50-75 pages to go, because the story is coming together for the finale. But I have only today before I leave for St. Louis for Urbana 09 so that will be another week of little time to work on it. But after that, I should be able to fly and I expect to be able to finish the first draft before school starts again in three weeks.

Shamelessly bumping this thread up.

Now with Nano over, how are the writers doing? Still recovering from Writer's Burn-Out (an expected side-effect of Nano)? Even if you didn't do Nano, like me, are you working on anything?

The sequel to my spiritual warfare novel has taken off again. I am at the character climax (the moment when my characters make thier final developments before the final showdown), which will lead right into my finale. With a full week to go plus change before school starts, I am certain to finish this draft. After I finish, I'll be looking for some feedback, and I will be willing to pass it on to a few people who haven't read the first as well as the few that have. If you are interested, send me a PM and we'll talk.

Heh, boy do I ever hate Writer's Burn-Out. XD
I'm only just able to start *trying* to write again, and I've hardly gotten anything done. Normally I make myself write at least 500 words each day, but since NaNo ended I haven't been able to do anything. Same thing happened last year after NaNo, too, but I didn't really mind much then because I wasn't nearly so dedicated to my writing as I am now.

I'm working on a lot right now, actually (or will be when I can force myself to get going again)...I'm editing my NaNo novel, I'm almost finished the first book of my sci-fi/fantasy/apocolyptic trilogy, I've started a third novel, where the world is a chess board, and certain people are pieces...should be really interesting, I'm excited to see where it goes. And just two days ago I got the idea for two more novels...In the first, mankind is nothing but a few thousand people who have managed to create a pathetic excuse for some sort of society after almost all human life on earth was wiped out. The main problem: they have absolutely no concept of right or wrong, no concept of good or bad. So the plot will probably be something along the lines of rediscovering God, who brings good and evil back into the world (the knowledge of it, that is.) Second book will be about how the world degenerated into that...how the government and society at large basically brainwashed themselves and lost their grip on reality until they started killing and abusing without even feeling regret. The characters from the first book will probably find this out somehow, in order to prevent it from happening again.
I still havent' figured out all the details, or when I might write this, but I have the idea there. ^_^

By the way...are any NWebbers going to the Festival of Faith and Writing in Michigan, this year? It's in April...15-17, and I'm probably going. It's not cheap, but it looks really neat. http://www.calvin.edu/academic/engl/festival/

Fencer, my project right now is my NaNo novel, which is still not finished. (November's just not a good month for me, with all the other things that happen then, such as holiday travel). I've had a little burn out, though being away from it for several weeks around Thanksgiving and then Christmas helped (while I did write down a lot of other ideas and brief segments that came to mind during that time, I didn't do much "serious" writing on it).

Really, though, I just have a few ends to wrap up, and then I can begin a more serious editing job (especially on those earlier chapters!).

Mr Anderson, thanks for pointing out that festival! I'd not heard of it before. I won't be attending, but it's interesting to read about it.

I'm really, really wishing I had done NaNo. I saw the name floating around the forums, but I didn't investigate it until sometime in December.
I'll be ready next year.

I had no chance for Nano due to my schedule this year. Next year will also be unlikely due to it being my final year before graduation. I've got one week to kill before school starts and I am going to really push to finish the first draft of my sequel. It's almost done.