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Ever thought about writing a novel?

post #1 of 34
7/20/09 at 10:32pm
Thread Starter 
Has anyone ever wrote a book?

Or thought about writing a novel? Written a manuscript that you keep in a drawer?
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post #2 of 34
7/20/09 at 10:35pm
I've written 2 books and a broadway style show. Why do you ask?
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post #3 of 34
7/20/09 at 10:36pm
I've thought about it. I've never progressed beyond short stories and short screenplays though.
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post #4 of 34
7/20/09 at 10:38pm
I have the idea for a killer novel, thought about it a lot. one day......
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post #5 of 34
7/20/09 at 10:45pm
I have a book in print: Gun World's Guide to Defensive Handguns. It is a conflation of two series of articles I wrote on the topic some years back.

Tried my hand at a heroic fantasy novel many years ago. No takers. In hindsight it seems pretty lame and an embarrassment.

Although I consider myself a pretty good raconteur, I really don't have the gift for storytelling.
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post #6 of 34
7/20/09 at 10:45pm
I often think about writing a book. It will be anecdotes and stories from my career in health care and called, "You Can't Make This Stuff Up."
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post #7 of 34
7/20/09 at 10:47pm
Considering the pains I go through to write short stories (it took me six months to write a two-page story, and I've been working on a six page story for a year and a half) writing a novel would be absolutely murderous.

Especially dialogue. Dialogue kills me.
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post #8 of 34
7/20/09 at 10:48pm
Sort of writing an essay that is to be the basis of a work of philosophy, economics, engineering, art, and humanity. ~ H
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post #9 of 34
7/20/09 at 10:48pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by fredfred View Post
Why do you ask?

- I've thought about it before.

- Most of the interesting people I know have thought about it, or tried it.

- My dad once said he'd accomplished pretty much everything he wanted in life, except for writing a book.

- I was thinking about how many posts I have on a half dozen plus message boards. If I spent all that time writing a novel, I'd be done by now
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post #10 of 34
7/20/09 at 10:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by globetrotter View Post
I have the idea for a killer novel, thought about it a lot. one day......

Isn't that just a running cultural joke, though? Everybody has the Great American Novel in them, but just can't find the time to write it?

I know better. I've fantasized about writing a novel about a girl living in bohemian culture in the 20s, illustrated by her collages of newspapers and magazines of the era, but realistically I know I can never write it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JLibourel View Post
I have a book in print: Gun World's Guide to Defensive Handguns. It is a conflation of two series of articles I wrote on the topic some years back.

Tried my hand at a heroic fantasy novel many years ago. No takers. In hindsight it seems pretty lame and an embarrassment.

Yeah, when a hero can simply pull out a handgun and smoke his opponents, it really deflates a great deal of the romance of the fantasy genre.
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post #11 of 34
7/20/09 at 10:56pm
I wrote this nice little short story for an English class called "South Side Story" which takes place in Chicago. It was supposed to be an ultra dramatic life story but I couldn't do ultra dramatic and it slowly took the form of a dark comedy. I don't think the title would pass if I tried to do anything with it.
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post #12 of 34
7/20/09 at 11:11pm
I have an epic historical fiction novel in the planning, the story has been revamped a dozen times before I yet to lay down a single word on paper. doing a ton of research right now, been reading more books than I ever had before voluntarily, and I really started enjoy reading again, to the point where I thought, "maybe I'll just keep reading, don't about writing my own"
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post #13 of 34
7/20/09 at 11:15pm
I've thought about writing a book. Not really a novel, but rather, nonfiction. I've contributed to other stuff, but nothing as massive as a book. I think I'm mostly in love with the idea of royalty checks. So, in that respect, maybe fiction is the way to go. . . doesn't necessarily lose scope as quickly as a nonfiction book. Look at all the crap fiction that gets several reprints.

Anyway, I did meet a writer one time that made a great living as a type of ghost writer (not sure if that is the correct term or not). Basically, a number of editors have him in their rolodex, and when they get a novel on their desk that is pretty good, but needs more fleshing out, but the original author is having trouble, they call this guy up, and he reads the manuscript, then develops the side characters quite a bit and generally enriches the story. Sometimes he even develops various characters on spec and submits it to these editors so that the authors can kind of draw that into the novels as well if they are capable of the writing but short on the ideas.

He got good pay and was never named (and thus got better pay for the anonymity). Interesting fellow.
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post #14 of 34
7/20/09 at 11:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by crazyquik View Post
- I was thinking about how many posts I have on a half dozen plus message boards. If I spent all that time writing a novel, I'd be done by now

Exactly. I've done the 2 books, one show (with music) and one other major script. When I was writing them I certainly wasn't spending more than about 5 minutes a day "playing" online.

Write one page a day for 1 year, and you have 365 pages. "On the Road" was written in... what... 3 days? (Speed induced/fueled, but still). And it's certainly possible to write more than one page a day. Spend two hours a day for two weeks and see how much progress you've made.
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post #15 of 34
7/20/09 at 11:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by crazyquik View Post
Has anyone ever wrote a book?

Or thought about writing a novel? Written a manuscript that you keep in a drawer?

I've written parts of novels since I was 10 or so years old. UNfortunately they're long lost or I'd post them here. I have considered writing a treatment to a screenplay, but have no idea how to start it and am afraid it won't be as interesting in text as in my head or when i describe it verbally and visually.
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