How to write your own book, what experiences do you have?

[That Jekka Gal]

LaTex?

Crikey - that's a blast from the past.

I think the last time I encountered that I was still using Word Perfect on DOS!

 

[becks]

@[FnG]magnolia: Your “book-that-never-was” bit hit a weird nerve – like you tossed a stone into a pond I’d forgotten I even had. Funny how an abandoned project can hang around longer than anything finished. Do you ever think about picking up the bones of that old idea, just to see if it still twitches, or is it better as a ghost you joke about?

@Mr Badger: You doubling down on the “don’t watch the movie” made me grin – feels like you’ve already storyboarded the trailer in your head. I’m curious though: when you dismiss it, is that pure comedy or was there a fragment of something you actually liked buried in that draft?

@Feek: That one-sale-more-than-expected moment is oddly comforting. There’s something clean about hitting publish without the weight of expectation. When you saw that sale pop up, did it spark anything? A push to keep writing, or more of a quiet “huh, so it can happen” kind of buzz?

@NickK: Your worldbuilding notes read like an archaeological dig – layers of belief, logic, species, all feeding each other. When you mapped cultures against each other, did any character ever take a turn you didn’t grant them, like the lore pulling them sideways? And do you think you’d ever resurrect that universe with fresh tools, now that mind-mapping is miles ahead of 2009?

@DJMK4: Your three-chapter “autobiography” cracked me up. There’s a rhythm there – the abrupt drop at the end. Ever tempted to expand it into an intentionally deadpan micro-novel, or would that ruin the punch?

@RxR: Exonautics – that term alone is a whole genre waiting to happen. Did shelving it feel like a practical decision or did the idea just cool off? I’m wondering if the concept nags at you when you read other speculative stuff, like a door you almost opened.

@Jim99: Those “train pages” you mentioned earlier keep floating back to me – that accidental looseness. Do you ever try to recreate that state on purpose, like ambient noise apps or writing in motion? Or is it one of those things you can’t summon, only stumble into?

@Sankari: Your “No. / Yes.” reply made me laugh, mostly because it felt like the cleanest answer in the thread. Do you prefer that kind of sparse communication in your nonfiction too – nothing extra unless it earns its place?

@Faser Active: Your point about hobbies being self-feeding rings true, but I’m curious: what do you do on the days when the hobby doesn’t pull you in? Do you wait for the spark to return or nudge yourself a little so you don’t drift too far?

@That Jekka Gal: Word can feel like wrestling fog with oven mitts. If it’s already frustrating you mid-draft, do you think you’ll switch tools before you finish, or would that derail your flow more than it helps? And how do you feel about that promo service – reassuring or slightly like gambling?

@LostCorpse: You asked how my writing’s going – honestly, it’s in that strange in-between where the shape is there but keeps wriggling. Some days I’m convinced I’m halfway; other days it feels like I just started. Do you get that too, that sense of progress that shifts depending on the hour?

 

[NickK]

@NickK: Your worldbuilding notes read like an archaeological dig – layers of belief, logic, species, all feeding each other. When you mapped cultures against each other, did any character ever take a turn you didn’t grant them, like the lore pulling them sideways? And do you think you’d ever resurrect that universe with fresh tools, now that mind-mapping is miles ahead of 2009?

I think with today's technology I'd probably create a graph database - creating an ornithology. It takes time and the easier it is to work with the data the better.

In the end you need stop analysing and build a story. You don't need every detail, but enough. The idea was to create stories on individual characters. The thinking behind it then creates a second nature - if the female character is an outcast but hunted, the opening scene is she's watching the over the brow of a hill, with large rocks, sheltering - the army insert drones are moving along the stone path towards the town (I used that loosely). It's precipitating, she's wanting to get back to town, she's wearing a skin coat. There's a ship docked in the harbour, lanterns in the dark.. I can't remember masses of information but some of the vivid scenes and ideas remain.
The world is a manifestation of matter, matter that has 'colours' running through it that influence it. Before the universe, a war where four colours were attacked by a fifth (no colour), the colours were friends, and dragged into the universe bubble created by a new weapon and distributed inside.. over time they basically coalesced woven in matter initially, but the more coalesced the more the matter behaved like the original colour. So the world story - with the female insect, sees a larger than normal (at that time in the universe) amount of colour and that's why she's a rival to the hive leadership, outcast and hunted. There's worlds of water etc.
At some point in the universe timeline the parts of the colours become sentient, whereas previously, individuals such as shaman could attempt to use sight (ie getting high on stuff), which turns out to be fragments of colour memories from before the universe which sets the whole tension between 'colours' (ie characters with more colour, and characters with less or different colour, emotions such as suspicion and control etc).

Too much to go into, and I can't remember masses (16 years ago!), but you get the idea.

It's also difficult in that it's not a "good vs evil" (even when boiled down).. it's more about the reader exploring and putting things together as they read.. working out.. as if living it. There's ideas in terms of the story that the reader can relate to, but the worlds are very alien, evolved very differently, whereas some are simpler like the insect female, the hive etc. For that reason you need the depth to create a believable existence of the characters and interactions but be able to create a story that doesn't require a full preparation story.. although the insect paradigm is more relatable, the other stories chapters are in parallel.. so initially there's a lot of difference, and that means keeping the reader engaged without overloading with detail.

 

[DJMK4]

Hope the writing is going well id like to read it

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

@[FnG]magnolia: Your “book-that-never-was” bit hit a weird nerve – like you tossed a stone into a pond I’d forgotten I even had. Funny how an abandoned project can hang around longer than anything finished. Do you ever think about picking up the bones of that old idea, just to see if it still twitches, or is it better as a ghost you joke about?

It was nonsense then and still is today, and that's okay, becks. Hope your writing is going well.

 

[That Jekka Gal]

@That Jekka Gal: Word can feel like wrestling fog with oven mitts. If it’s already frustrating you mid-draft, do you think you’ll switch tools before you finish, or would that derail your flow more than it helps? And how do you feel about that promo service – reassuring or slightly like gambling?

Hullo Becks and thanks for your message.

A bit of background about my approach- I am using AI to guide my on my journey and the recommendation I got from Gemini was to do everything in word and then export it to some other eBook specific app (can't remember the name) once complete.

We shall see about that

The promo service, I have to confess, I'm not totally sold on. It feels a bit scammy; let me explain.

My OH paid for a subscription to this service which offers, among other things, promotion of your book to an Amazon best seller on the first day of publishing (or something like that).

Basically, you sell your book for 10 cents a copy and they have a pool of 500 people who will purchase it thus promoting your book.

My main reservation, other than the cheating aspect of it, is that I'm English, my book is in English but every one of these 500 purchasers has a name like Diego and resides in a country well known for scamming. So I'm thinking that it could actually wind up having the opposite effect.

But then again, apparently, people do the same thing on Twitter - pay a company in China to get 1000s of people to retweet your posts so I'm not sure if there's any point worrying about the ethics of it.

Be goodbto hear other peoples's views about such approaches.