Posting stories in the Writing forum?

[GregJ]

Well, the title really sums it up to be honest.

Are we allowed to write our own stories and post it piece-by-piece as we write, here on this forum? If so I would love to do something like that.

I may even include some of the members as characters even ;)

 

[GregJ]

Even got a story brewing in my mind already :)

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Cool idea! It could also be interesting to create "community" stories! Might be better to house those in a sub forum! Anyone else interested?

 

[GregJ]

I really like the concept of the Science Fiction Writing forum in general. I have been wanting to write my own novel/novella for some years now, but I just never started for some strange reason. One of the main reasons was to improve my writing, grammar and vocabulary generally.

Also, the idea that any technical questions we have, we can just post it here is fantastic. I have a sneaky suspicion that I will be using it quite often if this story of mine finally becomes a reality :D

Hehe never mind me babbling away, I am just excited!

 

[Nimbian]

I'm all for the Idea myself

 

[phinds]

The separate sub-forum idea sounds best for stories.

 

[Nimbian]

May I suggest Writers have Two threads.

Their Story Thread

and a Second thread for discussions, suggestions and other talk about their story?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

May I suggest Writers have Two threads.

Their Story Thread

and a Second thread for discussions, suggestions and other talk about their story?

Seems very difficult to organize though. After awhile the forum would be a mess.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Posting stories sounds like a great idea, IMO though there is no reason why it couldn't just be done in this subforum. As for comments and revisions writers could just post the piece in the OP and use the rest of the thread for feedback. When they have a part 2 they could put it in the thread again and discussion could go from there.

 

[GregJ]

Is there a character limit per post out of interest? The answer will effect the next part.

One option is when you open your thread, you immediately post some "reserve" posts. Possibly around 4 or 5 (or more if you're planning a long story). In these reserved spaces you can add more to the story once you write it up, so that it all stays on the "top" of the thread. A downfall though is that it makes reading the thread trickier to spot the new story as it will not be in the usual place nor will it show up as a new post.

But I also like Ryan's method. Easy and clean.

Also, just while I am thinking, another negative about my method is that you may not know how long your story will actually end up being. The more I think about it, Ryan's version is better.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Is there a character limit per post out of interest? The answer will effect the next part.

One option is when you open your thread, you immediately post some "reserve" posts. Possibly around 4 or 5 (or more if you're planning a long story).

30,000 per post. We can create a prefix of "reserved" so people know not to post and we can always clean them up if people do.

 

[Nimbian]

So we are looking at a Sub forum of SF Media? or of SF Writing?

Also Ryan's method works.

Maybe make a another sub-sub-fourm for Completed Stories? So the author can re-post in there the complete story without the breaks.

 

[Travis_King]

Just a note, if you are considering having any of these works published, it is generally not advisable to post them in a public forum. With that said, I think it's a good idea and I'd probably participate.

 

[Evo]

Just a note, if you are considering having any of these works published, it is generally not advisable to post them in a public forum. With that said, I think it's a good idea and I'd probably participate.

We've had a successful previously published writer work out issues for his new book here. He even thanked us in the Acknowledgent.

 

[Travis_King]

I know it's possible. Many publishers will not accept manuscripts that have been published in part or in full in public domains, however.

Working out issues in sections of text is one thing, Posting stories here and trying to have them published is quite another.

 

[dlgoff]

We've had a successful previously published writer work out issues for his new book here. He even thanked us in the Acknowledgent.

Wow. That's cool. I must have missed that somewhere.

 

[Nimbian]

Most of us know and understand that we will likely never become published Authors, not to be confused with Hope that we might some day become published authors.

Yet should our stories go untold simply because some one won't pay us to write it?

I say No!

We Write because we like to write, we write Science fiction because we love Science and dreaming what waits for us to discover. and we want to share our visions and dreams of what could be, what was, or what could have been.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Until we get lots of stories, I'm just going to create a thread prefix "Reserved: Story Development" for those who want to develop a story. Will be available in a few minutes.

 

[Nimbian]

Thank you Greg

 

[Nimbian]

Also very cool :)

 

[GregJ]

Thank you Greg for helping. It's much appreciated. I already have started writing a little (just a paragraph or two), so maybe tonight I will create a thread :)

I agree with Travis_King:
For those of you that might one day wish to get your stories published, I would not advise posting any part of it here (or anywhere else for that matter), as you will find that it will make it harder to get published.

 

[Evo]

Thank you Greg for helping. It's much appreciated. I already have started writing a little (just a paragraph or two), so maybe tonight I will create a thread :)

I agree with Travis_King:
For those of you that might one day wish to get your stories published, I would not advise posting any part of it here (or anywhere else for that matter), as you will find that it will make it harder to get published.

Do either one of you have sources you can link to that explain this?

 

[GregJ]

Do either one of you have sources you can link to that explain this?

I have no actual sources of evidence that I can find right now Evo. But I have seen it mentioned a few times before in various places around the internet (informally).

Maybe it comes from the fact that eBooks have become quite popular, and if you have already shared your work for free (digitally) it may effect negotiations with a publishing company. As they may not know how many copies have actually been downloaded/shared.

However, this is just my opinion and guesswork though. I'll try to find some solid sources. Perhaps i'll email a publishing company if need be.

 

[Travis_King]

http://www.writersrelief.com/blog/2010/04/what-is-considered-previously-published-writing/ , though it is not a definitive source (as I'm sure there are), many publishers have on their websites and submission pages/documents that they will, or may, not consider previously published works. This generally includes public forums.

As I said, it is a general rule of thumb. Putting stories on online forums does not preclude you from getting them published, but it makes it more difficult, and limits the number of publishers who would be willing to even take a look.

I have put stories onto websites and forums before, even public forums. They were, however, stories that I felt comfortable not trying to get published.

 

[Evo]

http://www.writersrelief.com/blog/2010/04/what-is-considered-previously-published-writing/ , though it is not a definitive source (as I'm sure there are), many publishers have on their websites and submission pages/documents that they will, or may, not consider previously published works. This generally includes public forums.

As I said, it is a general rule of thumb. Putting stories on online forums does not preclude you from getting them published, but it makes it more difficult, and limits the number of publishers who would be willing to even take a look.

I have put stories onto websites and forums before, even public forums. They were, however, stories that I felt comfortable not trying to get published.

That makes sense, if you've already published the entire work online for free, there's not much incentive for someone to pay to publish it. So working out story lines seems ok. There are tips about showing copyright, etc... that I might publish links to.