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JLMacDonald — Published Author
Published: 2009-04-16 01:03:44 +0000 UTC; Views: 895; Favourites: 85; Downloads: 23
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I've tried in vain to explain to people why I dislike Twilight and some of the replies I received were that because SM is a *published* author, that in turn makes her a good one. Ergo, because I'm currently unpublished that would logically make me a bad one, right?Not necessarily. It just means I haven't found a publisher for my book(s) yet. So yeah, Twilight and SM aside, I think this point still stands.
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Comments: 82
Twitard: bwwabhfjdkhfpppp!!!!!11!!! u r just jealous becuz shes got talent!!!
Me: ....my farts are more dazzling then Edward Cullen
Twitard: SHUT UPPPPP!! YOUR SUCHHH A PREP! I BET U CANT RITE LIEK HER!
Me: ...your right...I can right better... and nothings published
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Apparently some people wouldn't know good literature if you bashed them over the head with it. Not that I'm recommending that course of action mind you.
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T.T *puts down random book* ...fiiiiine
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ha ha ha OK you can beat them with it, so long as I can watch.
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*claps hands and bounces* yay! now where to find one...
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he he he I'm happy you're happy
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I actually have a copy of it on Lulu, but if I want the book to be available in stores and whatnot, lulu isn't really the way to go.
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Yes. I mean I've heard some people brag that they're published authors, but the truth is they've only published on Lulu.
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I guess *technically* they'd be a published author, but I certainly wouldn't claim that if I went the self publishing route cause anyone can do it.
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Yes, I wouldn't either.
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WELL, I BET *YOU* COULDN'T EVEN WRITE A BETTER BOOK AND GET MILLIONS OF FANS LIKE **SHE** DID.
jk, I totally agree with you. (: I hate it when people use that argument.
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I've tried even jokingly to write as crappy, but I couldn't even do it.
I do sometimes get people when they say stuff like "Well you've never written a book" and I respond "Actually I have. I'm writing my thrid and fourth as we speak" That usually shuts them up. XD
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And I'm willing to bet half the money I have that those books are much better than Twilight. xD
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Granted being better written than Twilight wouldn't take much, but if you are into superheros and have some free time, the first few chapters of the first novel are here: [link]
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Amen.
I can't think of anything else to say but that.
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Guess that means I'll never be good cause I don't wanna be published. 
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LOL I was trying to think of a way to add the converse in there as well but I couldn't word it properly or succinctly to fit in a stamp.
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I write for fun too but the idea of possibly making some cash from it is just a bonus.
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Fair enough. I'm a Twilight fan, but I can't deny that it is far from perfect. The writing style is sloppy, quite a lot of the logic is flawed, some of the characters are too underdeveloped and frankly, having a story told from a teenage girl's point of view is generally a bad idea. And to be honest, as much as I love the Cullens and have no problems with vampires who don't die in sunlight, I do not like vampires to sparkle. I admit that was original, but it's still kinda... Well, you get the point.
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I respect people's opinion of the book, it's the crazed fans that treat it like the gospel or something and exile you because you don't like the same thing they do. OR they won't admit that no author, even SM, is perfect.
I will give SM points for trying to make her vampires original, but yeah, the whole "sparkles in sunlight" thing is kind of ... wrong.
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As do I. At least I would hope people consider me a good writer, although I haven't had any complaints so far.
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I've received a few complaints, but I am constantly working on improving. 
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The worst I had was someone said the writing style was good but the genre wasn't their thing, and I respect that. But not a lot of people have read a lot of my stuff either.
I do find I have improved, and hope to keep doing so. I look back at The Darkness of Shadows and while it's good, I do find my writing has gotten better since then. And it requires less editing sessions to get the piece of to snuff, which is nice. I can spend more time writing than editing that way!
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I think the worst I've had so far is that I still need to work on some of the details in my stories. I sometimes get flak for not putting more detail into the five senses.
I take a look at some of my old writing and I can't help but laugh. I'm relieved at how much I've improved.
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I'm really good at writing dialogue but it's describing settings that I need to work on. I don't like reading books that devote 2 pages to describe the wall colour in someone's living room so I tend to keep my descriptions short.
And while my spelling was never atrocious, it has improved as well as my grammar. And I've been working on saying something without using a ton of words.
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I'm the same. It seems to me no one likes reading overly-wordy descriptions, so I try to give the basic idea and that's it.
I've been lucky in that I pick up spelling and grammar very quickly, so once I learn rules I can start using them immediately. My Creative Writing teacher still complains I'm too wordy, though.
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I wish I had a creative writing teacher! All there was in High School was English and that was read books no one cares about and write a report on it and if you don't share the same views as the teacher, you'll get a bad mark. I knew I liked creative writing (even though I was pretty bad at it to begin with) but I didn't care because I found it fun. But I quickly got it into my head that there was no place for creative writing in every day life and seeing as I was practically failing English class, I didn't think I had what it took to be a writer.
I'll always be learning about the craft, but at least now I can write stuff that's halfway interesting and well written. 
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I'm finally taking the class. It wasn't offered for a few semesters at my college, but they brought it back this time around. He's really big on poetry, which isn't my favorite, but we're finally moving into short stories.
I work at my old high school and my bosses send the students and their essays to me. I was taught well, and now I get to rip apart essays like mine were ripped apart.
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I do tend to rip things apart, like it irks me to no end when billboards have bad grammar or spelling. I used to not care too much about spelling, but now I realize just how important it is. I don't want to hound people to spell properly but there is that stereotype that if you can't spell or create sentences without proper grammar, people will tend to think that person is unintelligent. I think that gets to me because the people I know that don't care about their spelling aren't dumb by any means and I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression of them.
I thought about taking some creative writing classes, but the most I've taken was a class on how to get published. That worked wonders! I am a bit leery about taking other types of classes because I don't know if my money will be wasted or not. I've bought a ton of books on the subject that seem to be good but when I start reading them they tell you what you HAVE to to, but the reality is, what works for one writer may or may not work for another. My method of writing I think is pretty abnormal, but it works for me and that's all that matters.
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It bothers me when people don't check spelling and grammar due purely to laziness. I hate the excuse "Well, I didn't have time to check it." There is a button on the computer, people! You have to WORK at coming across as incompetent with that technology!
I took a self-publishing class. That was interesting and informative. I went to a conference about children's lit writers (which is my category, I've recently realized) and learned quite a bit there.
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That'd be cool! As sad as it sounds, I'm not sure if I could write something non-Nightcat related. I may try at some point in time later to see what happens but staring at a blank Word document freaks me out. At least with NC it's a helluva lot easier because I have a character base already and just need to think of a suitable plot.
Actually, I did do a short story about a zombie. I think it was an interesting concept but in the end it kind of flopped. I may revisit it later on or post it here for sh*ts and giggles. But I'm not sure if I want to show you guys my not-so-great pieces. I wouldn't want anyone to not take me seriously because of it. (Not that you and a bunch of my DA buddies would mind you
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I find that I don't stray outside of the Sci-fi and fantasy genres. I try to stick with what I know.
Blank Word documents don't freak me out unless I'm attempting to write something on a deadline. Then I begin to panic.
DO IT!!!
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I could never write say romance novels (even though the NC novels have romance it's not the central part of the plot) I wouldn't mind trying horror sometime, but I'd have to think of a twist. It's probably deal with the paranormal cause you never really know if it could happen or not. A psycho picking up a chainsaw could potentially happen and it'd be scary but the idea of unwillingly becoming say the devil's slave or something. That'd scare me that much more.
I usually get a small idea for an upcoming book, write that scene and continue to write my current book so I haven't suffered a whole lot staring at a blank word document. Once I'm finished editing book 2 for the last time, I'll continue to write book 3 and probably write something here and there for book 4 and won't concentrate on that until book 3 is done.
When I started writing the first book I was scared. I think a lot of it was because I didn't really know what I was doing and the blank page staring at me was pretty daunting.
And I may upload "I, Zombie" and in the artist's comment put in that it's not my best work so people don't get the wrong impression. The premise is neat but I wasn't quite successful in the creeping the read out part or the believability on some of the things. Basically it's told from the guy's point of view who is slowly becoming a zombie. It was hard to write because his mind was deteriorating but the idea of it being first person from the zombie, intrigued me.
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I use romance in some of my stories, but it's definitely not the focus. Plus, most of my protagonists tend to be teenagers, so I think it's not as heavy as some adult relationships would be written. (Besides, the industry for romance novels has such a quick turnover rate. I'd have to churn out novel after novel just to keep up, and I'd prefer to take my time). I've written a few horror pieces, but it has to be a REALLY strong idea or I scrap it.
When I started "Defenders of Fate" I had no idea what I was getting into. I've reworked the thing five or six times now. One last edit should make it perfect in my eyes, then I'll send it off.
I'm interested to see how you wrote it. I've been wanting to write a Zombie story forever, but I haven't had the right idea yet.
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I would like to branch away from Nightcat, more to exercise my writing skills than anything else. But it's a two edged sword I find. I want to spend my time writing Nightcat as a series and want to concentrate on that and only that. I'd rather write one good series and several mediocre series. I may do short stories because that shouldn't take as much time away from Nightcat and it will get me thinking about different things. I find Nightcat is easy to write, (even though there are challenges) but I'd like to expand my writings. Say a different genre, or a different POV or whatever.
I'll have to dig my Zombie short story from my backup dvds but I'll post it and you can have a peek.
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I've noticed that I've strayed further away from my characters in the Rymol Chronicles as time has gone on. It used to be the only series I wrote, and I was religious about expanding it. Now I find myself writing other stories and spending less time on Mira and the others, not because I love them any less, but because I'm still growing as a writer.
Out of curiosity, do you find short stories harder or easier than full-length novels? I myself have enormous difficulty with short stories.
Yay!
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I've only ever really wrote that one short story before and as weird as it sounds, I found it more difficult to write than a full length novel. In a short story you have such little time to develop characters and whatnot, you have to get the point of the story right off the bat. At least with a novel, you can take your time to some degree and really develop the characters. That's what I felt anyway. I tend to naturally be long winded so even in novels I need to think of condensing sentences but leave the meaning intact. With a SS I need to do it even more so.
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Nope! Not about this, at least.
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