yeahhh... Im not so sure on this one. I find that if you are reaching for a thesarus, you are over-writing.

Of course the only things I've ever had published were in my High School Annual, and the letters section of MAD magazine, so what would I know.

It can help if your text is full of constantly repeated words by replacing them with synonyms (sparingly!) that can make your writing seem less repetitious to read.

Of course it can do harm if you constantly refer to it while writing initial draft and not during editing. But hey, what do I know, I haven't published anything (aside from some short stories passed to my friends) and maybe I'm a moron. I just got burned out of that "redundant" writing I see in amateur stories I can't feel not recommending it.

At first I thought it was expansive but, the cover looks really nice :)

Using the same word over and over sometimes indicates that the writer doesn't know all the details or isn't familiar with the right words to describe them. The first problem can't be solved by a thesaurus, while the second might be.

For example: "Jack walked to the door".

'Walk' is repeated because Jack walks everywhere. There are a few possibilities:

The action isn't important to the story. Jack is just going to open the door. It's possible to write: "Jack opened the door," and skip the walking entirely. Or, that action is important, but not the walking: "Jack turned to open the door and slipped on the rug."

If the walking action itself is important, it implies that the way Jack walks is important. Did he walk as if he doesn't care, went as quickly as he could, or walk pompously (showing off to onlookers)? If the writer doesn't know, then he should think about it. If he knows, then when I write, if I don't have the word I might write "Jack walked slowly to the door" or "Jack walked (with self importance) to the door", and then a thesaurus might help, to replace the description with 'sauntered' or 'strutted' or whatever.

Then again, sometimes 'walked' is just the word to use, because it tells the reader what happened without taxing her.

There are also some words which IMO should be left repeated, like "said". It's better to drop it when it is clear from the context rather than try replacing it with synonyms. In general, simple words are easy to read and the story should flow around them without problem.

I'm really surprised you don't see single numbers on ebay for 10$ then. I mean people buy OEM Windows for half price, surely they'll buy "resold" ISBNs for 1/10th of the price, even if it means technically they won't be the publishers. And the person selling them would be doing so at a huge profit too.

Unless there are legal aspects to this I'm not seeing here.

Anyway, I hope you get to use those remaining 10 ISBNs. Or you alread did? Good luck!

Write right now. Excessive planning hurts. The longer you procrastinate with snippets, the less likely your project is to get anywhere AFTER you decide you're done with snippets.
No, but if you're self-publishing your dear babby, you might as well have your own imprint, not some schmuck's who evidently won't be curating the collection. Do you want your Important Modern Novel to stand side by side on virtual shelves with "Pounded In the Butt By My Own Butt"? Thought so.

Writing advice is about as unique as the people who write. Hopefully you'll find something useful here.

How do you feel writing down these snippets and ideas? Can you see an overarching idea forming from these bits and pieces you're doing, or do they feel more of a background idea, something that belongs in a writer's bible? Neither is better or worse than the other -- if they fit into a book it gives you (and the reader) a sense of the place; if they're more for a writing bible, that gives you the background and information to refer to later.

George RR Martin says that there's two overall types of writers -- the gardener and the architect: I, myself, am laregly an architect. I plot and plan out the story from start to finish to an almost absurd detail, though I do allow for random thoughts, ideas, and progression. As an example, this is a scene sketch I did in the past:

Some time later, Jim is in Prešov, waiting for his contact to appear. He mentally runs over his fake name, but before too long sees his contact and greets him with a code phrase. His contact stutters and stammers, getting out half the code phrase before a shot goes out and everyone in the area dives for cover. Jim peers out to see what’s going on but gets nicked in the arm; he grabs his contact and runs away.

I can then take that and build on it. That scene ended up being almost 700 words with description, thoughts, dialogue, and action. For me, I can plot and plan almost anywhere -- give me a notebook and pen, or even my phone, and I can scribble my thoughts down. You may be different, with someone who wants to write as you go along.

Edit: Oh, and just because I'm an architect, that doesn't mean I remain that way. Sometimes I get ideas and inspiration for a potential future scene or idea. I write that down in the story with a good idea of where it'll fit and how I'll get there, and I can incorportate it later.

I've also (personally) found that using specialised writing software has helped me a lot. I use but I've also seen a lot of people use and recommend [url=https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php]Scrivener. You don't need either of these documents, but I found it really helps to have everything in one, single file and flick through.

But in general, regardless of what you do and how you do it, just write. Don't be concerned about editing and changing/removing things. Just get it all down -- you can't edit nothing, after all. See if you can dedicate some small portion of your day to work on your book. Even if it's fifteen minutes in the evening, that's a guaranteed fifteen minutes you're using to work on your book.

Again, talking about something I've done -- I participate in things like (once-yearly, November), [url=https://campnanowrimo.org/sign_in]Camp NaNoWriMo (twice-yearly, April and July), and WriYe. NaNoWriMo is a solid "write 50,000 words in a month" (1,667 words a day) while Camp NaNoWriMo lets you set your own goals from as low as 10,000 (but still a month's deadline). WriYe is a year-long writing club, with a self-set writing goal.

The idea behind all of these is just to get you to write. It can be slop and utter drivel (I have one story where I got ~35k in and realised that absolutely everything I had done was boring; the idea is still there but the story itself is in the trash) but you will have something, even if it needs reworking and heavy editing. You will have something to work with.

With all my plotting and planning, I know that I can sit down and knock out at least 2k words an hour. I don't need to stop and think what's going to happen next, as I've already written the general idea down. I block off all distractions and write in 15 minute bursts, with a 5 minute break in between. No thinking, no hesitation, just write. No concerns on spelling errors (and believe me, I make a lot writing like this). The advantage is that if I have only a tiny amount of time to write, I can do a short 15 minute burst and have 800 words. If I have a lot of time? Well, one day I managed 10k words and still had more than enough time to relax and watch a movie.

If writing the snippets and bringing the world together one piece at a time works for you, great. Don't try and change it up because another method might be 'better'. Just dedicate some time to writing so it becomes part of your schedule.

Good luck :)

Thank you for this, really! It's kinda both, really. There are notes of how the "world works", the rules, laws, character motivations and general feel of the setting and then there are bits of dialog :D It's a mess, really, but a beautiful one I can understand. But it is really, really scary that these just keep coming whenever I am without distractions. Sometimes it feels like my head is about to explode until I sit down and scribble these things on a paper. Perhaps in a 100 years some researchers will dig up my notes and declare them to be of a madman's :D Yeah, I should really try to have a schedule, since at the moment there isn't one. I just write whenever I feel like it, which may not be the way to go.

No, I used only one, for the kindle edition, but any variation (e.g. pdf, mobi, epub, hardcover, paperback) requires a new ISBN, if I ever get there. And hopefully, when I retire, I plan to write more novels (fingers crossed).



I too initially felt it wasn't cheap, but when you think of it, it is an original painting. Artists got to live too.

Not awriter myself, but have you ever heard of this program:

https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php

It helps writers to collect their "snippets". And to reorganize them on a timescale, etc.

It does sound interesting.

EDIT: Ah, I see, Katya has ninja'd me. Should've known, this would happen. ;o)

I know that feeling :D A lot of my scribbles are just to get things out of my head. I've got one file that's a ton of worldbuilding questions, partial answers to said questions for two nations, a list of literal world building (climate+countryside, fauna+flora, policies, social life, economy, culture+traditions, militarisation), and a ton of types of rulers/ruling (Divine Right, pluralist democracy, monarchies) and inheritance options (primogeniture, elective, ultimogeniture). There's no story, just a jumble of information.

Debate is eternal between whether morning or evening is better for scheduling. Morning means you can get it out of the way before anything else grabs your attention (with the risk that if you have a busy morning it might get shoved aside); evening means you can settle down once everything's been done for the day (with the risk that you day may be too hectic to settle down).

I find if you have some blank time (such as a commute on public transport) then that's a good time to see if you can get stuff done. Even if it's notes and sketches, it gives you something to build on later :)

For my first book, Memoirs from Special Education, I was finishing up my seminary education and working at a warehouse where a friend worked with mentally handicapped men and women. They were paid almost nothing and did lots of work. It bothered me, and it also reminded me about may things at school. Over the next few months of processing the event, I made an almost journal in fictional form. I spoke to my friend plenty and grew to learn that my perceived injustices in the world were not really injustices at all.

A few years later, I was reviewing what I had written and realized I had about 80% of a book completed, but not with any coherent plot and lacking some important characters. But it was mostly finished.

So I spent a few months proofing and rewriting and rearranging everything until it was a book. Book #1 done. Yay!


For The Darkest Wand, my second book, I started with a completely different idea for NaNoWriMo. But after the month, it gave me confidence to write a bigger book. And after NaNoWriMo and Memoirs, I knew a lot of my issues (pacing, characters being forgotten and disappearing, keeping track of setting locations). So I spent a few months developing software that tracked all of that for me. And so I wrote The Darkest Wand on my own software (which sadly is completely gone -- I saved the wrong files before reformatting. Boo!).

For Father Pimp, book 3, I started much like Memoirs, but with the intent to finish a book and do it fast. So I spent a month or two and wrote a few hours every day. I started at the beginning and finished at the end. I did a revision, let my wife read it, she hated it, I modified it, gave it to a test audience, had a decent reaction, and sent it on.

The book I'm working on now is being written in a similar fashion. I keep notes in one word doc, I write in the other, and I write until the story gets boring or I don't like writing a certain part anymore. Then I skip over that section (writing a note about what will happen) and then write what I want to write. I write when I have a passion to write and I write what I want to write.

Unlike our Magog creator, I do not treat it like a job. I treat it like a piece of art crafted by a hobbyist. That yields my best writing. And most writers make almost no money unless they are writing for a living.

Some tools I recommend to everyone are:

http://www.amazon.com/Sell-Your-Novel-Tool-kit/dp/0399528288/
And a book I swear is called "Crafting compelling characters" but I can't find it. Read some books or blogs or something from good writers about creating characters. Most writers start with a plot or setting. But you should start with your character. Make your character a being molded by the plot and setting, and build them so well you know them like a close friend. It feels a lot like acting in a play to me.

Lastly, I'd say enjoy yourself. Most people make nothing, but it's a pleasing thing to cross off your bucket list. And it's amazing when somebody is moved by your work.

My work has been read, as far as I know, on 3 continents and has been required reading for a college course. That far surpassed anything I could have ever dreamed about. (and I still haven't broken a thousand dollars :D)

Indeed, I am not doing this so I could make money, I am doing this, mostly, to get it out of my head and, if in any way possible, get other people to read it and give me their opinions and insight about it. Boring, perhaps, but that is my motivation.

And all this did, in fact, start with a character. There was no plot, no world, no story. Just this character, which I kinda treat as my own baby :D


Edit. Hesus H. Christo, that was a long quote.

I only noticed it because I thought the name "out loud" in my head :)

I have problems with long quotes. :)

I should also note that be sure that whatever language you're writing in, that you use proper grammar and spelling. It will help people see your material for what it is instead of hitting the speedbumps and potholes of the words themselves.

(I am by no means perfect -- I'm still occasionally cleaning up my old works. It's REALLY hard to get it perfect with a large volume.)