Are you writing a book and why?

[HEyHEY]

I am. It's just basically about the last seven years of my life. I spent them travelling Canada in an attmept to learn more about my country. It's not neccesarily for publication. It's just that I always regretted not keeping a journal. So I'm trying to get down as much as I can before I start forgetting. Then when I'm real old I can read it. If it's good enough, which I doubt it will be, I may approach a publisher or two. I had a lot of funny and interesting things happen along the way.

[Taeger]

1. String together all my posts ...

You will find a book in that SOMEWHERE!!!!

[elperromagico]

2. I actually had an idea for a book,

called The Moral Hammer, which would deal with the influence of fundamentalist Christianity in modern politics. In particular, it would deal with people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. There would also be a chapter called "How George W. Got Religion," covering Bush's lengthy courtship of the Christian Coalition.

[HEyHEY]

3. Sweet, I'm gonna start writing it tonight!

;-)

[elperromagico]

4. Hmm... I smell a lawsuit.

I've got notarized drafts of the book already. ;)

"Bring your lawyer and I'll bring mine/Get together, we could have a bad time."

[HEyHEY]

5. Ever read "the proud highway"?

A collection of Hunter Thompson's letters. There is a funny one to an author when HUnter writes him to inform him he had qouted him in an upcoming novel. The guy gets all pissed and a letter wrting war ensures.

[elperromagico]

9. Very well then. Let the letter writing war begin.

You, sir, are an impudent rascal!

[HEyHEY]

18. HACK!

"Be glad when go made you he gave you a fool's face."

[wryter2000]

6. I just finished one

See the thread about romance novels.

I just finished a historical paranormal romance novel of 90,000 words and sent it to my editor. I write them because I love them.

After that, I have to finish a long fantasy that was requested by a NY agent with a good reputation. This'll be a first for me, and I'm excited. What I really want to write is a fantasy romance novel, but there isn't much market for them right now.

I started writing in hopes of making some money. hahahahahah But I soon discovered that there are stories in my head that I need to put down on paper. My stories (I hope) are about strong people with goals and hurdles to overcome to reach those goals. My endings are happy, because the world needs more happy endings, imho.

[joeybee12]

25. Good luck

I'm finishing up a novel myself--I like to consider it "literature" because it doesn't fall into any genre. Let us know how everything turns out, and when we can find it in bookstores!

[Occulus]

7. I'm thinking of it

and writing in fitful spurts. It's fiction- fantasy.

Synopsis: A man in our world buys a painting that is actually a magical doorway into a world that is always our world's polar opposite. Before technology appeared here on our world, we had magic; in the other, they had technology. As tech appeared here, it disappeared from there. They gave up tech for magic at the same time we gave up magic for tech.

There's a lot more to it, but I'm still working out a lot of the details. The world of magic I'm conceiving of is seriously screwed up.

[supernova]

8. I enjoy the subject matter

It's the first time I've written a novel, but I enjoy the historical time period.

Because the story is partly true, I just pray and hope I have enough footnotes in it when I'm finished. x(

[pagerbear]

10. No--do you think I should?

[HEyHEY]

11. yes - yes I do

Good luck!

[pagerbear]

12. Shameless plug

Not for me, but for a friend of mine, an author:
Glenville Lovell

I highly recommend his first two books, which are more literary than the latest book and the book soon to come out, which are more popular detective fiction. All of his books have a Caribbean flavor--he's from Barbados. The first two books take place in Barbados, and the detective books take place in Brooklyn and feature a detective of Barbadian descent.

[H2O Man]

13. yes.

Actually, my 1st one went to the printer's last week. It's a study of the conflictual relationship between metro/city/empires, and rural areas; how trade is accomplished through avenues such as canals, turnpikes, railroads, highways, etc; with a special focus on the Irish immigrants in central NYS on RRs in mid-1800s.
2nd book: in process; 25 years experience working with a traditional chief of the Onondaga Nation (Haudenosaunee/Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy) on issues involving environment, burial protection and repatriation, and earth consciousness. Plan to finish it this year, put on market next year.

[proud patriot]

14. I just have to say

I just love your new polar bear pic ...

[HEyHEY]

19. Yes, it's very soothing isn't it?

[JVS]

15. I'll buy it!

[HEyHEY]

20. For you? Free.

How's that!

[JVS]

28. sweet!

[Robb]

16. Yes

...and it's going to piss a lot of people off. :evilgrin:

Which is not why I'm writing it, of course. I'm at the editing stage for a fiction (2nd book, first continues to do well) that will stimulate the debate on its subject matter. I expect outrage from many groups, and support from fewer. I think there will even be a few here on DU who will slam me for it.

Oh, but the ride will be a blast. :)

p.s. - to those who last week told me to stop writing and start editing, just that process added another 10K words to the thing so far! Adios novella, hello novel. ;)

[TheMightyFavog]

17. Writing a script...

It's about three friends going down State Street in Madison, WI and the people they meet. Sorta like Easy rider without the motorcycles.

[neebob]

21. I wrote a book

about my silly cyber romance, my 2-year trip to the brink of destruction with the psychopathic con man I fell in love with, and another 2 years of reality-facing and recovery. Your basic bad boyfriend story. It's called You Can Smile Now (You're Rid of This A**hole). That's the last thing he said when I dumped him off at a motel on April Fools Day 2000. It may be the only thing he ever said that was true.

I spent 3 years writing, rewriting, and editing it, and got some good action on it last year. I had about 20 requests for the full or partial manuscript from various small publishers and agents, including Brenda Feigen (co-founder of Ms. Magazine, now an entertainment lawyer and literary agent). If there was a crushing disappointment, that was it. But I got some good feedback along with that rejection. So I did another front-to-back edit and decided I needed to rewrite the last two chapters. Now it's more like the last five.

I haven't gotten back around to it because (a) I've since returned to work full time and (b) working on the book tends to dredge it all back up. Yuck. But I do plan to do it soon, invest in subscription to Literary Marketplace, and approach some editors at major houses.

It's a long process.

[sweetheart]

22. 3 books

1. a textbook from my career expertise. It is under paid contract
with the worlds largest textbook publisher... Why i'm writing it,
is hard to say, perhaps though i'm a professional expert in this
field, i feel it an obligation to contribute... textbook authors
never make money. This one is at 40,000 words plus innumerable
diagrams. It is written from an outline structure and as i bulk it
out, i've had to reflect on the precedence of teaching that the whole
thing be coherent when read linearly... what a bitch. Leading
development on million+ line software code is rather similar. It
used to be on amazon.com in "prepublish" state, but the publisher
has pushed off the title, so i've been focusing on number 2 below.

2. A fiction work, using "the hero's journey"
http://www.adolescentmind.com/Heros%20Journey%20Pages/hero's_journey2.htm as a meta-blueprint.
This book is designed to tell a brilliant story that inspires
reflection on truth and all that good stuff. I'm at 15,000 words
and chugging. "why" is to make money. The book is my best quality
prose, and i hope it will hit the bestseller lists. My inspiration
is Orwell, Clive ?<the guy who wrote imagica>, and tolkien. This
one could be a hollywood screenplay, set mostly in the US, some in
tibet, india and the scottish highlands.

3. A fiction work inspired my enlightened meditation master of 20
years... also using the hero's journey blueprint. (hero's journey
are most easily mapped to screenplays as most hollywood/bollywood
films model on it) This one is the farthest on the back burner at 10,000 words.
Why? This one is for people who like mystical enlightenment,
and the millions of devotees of my former master.
This one is designed to become a bollywood screenplay.

[ChiefHappyButt]

23. I will

when I discover something interesting to write about.

good luck with your project!

[neebob]

24. I like your handle, Chief

It made me laugh.

[Nikia]

26. I've had a hard time writing

Writing used to be my passion. Writing is what I did. Then I couldn't write anymore.
It is not that I cannot write at all. I am writing now after all. It is difficult for me to write a coherrent work which is interesting all the way through.
I have tried writing a book about a science fiction story which I have been developing since my childhood (It was one of my imaginary dreamworlds.) which has greatly evolved into a wonderful novel about friendship, power, good/evil, loyalty, corruption, and courage. I have tried writing this several times. I have written over 800 hand written pages in it when I was in high school written third person, 300 computer typed pages in college written from a first person view of one character, and several other attempts to write it. Unfortunately, I have gotten bored with several parts of it and they don't seem to work. I think that my attempt to add to the story by having a sort of prequel to it isn't working either. The parent characters are too much like their children thus ruining their own character development. I don't know whether to give up on it or not.
I would also like to write a fictionalized account of my life involving myself and some of my friends and aquaintances. I have had a lot harder time doing this than I thought and I am wondering if I'd run into trouble with it if I published it. I would change the names and such, but I think that some of them would be upset about the portrayal of their characters. I think that it would reveal more about me than I would like as well. I suppose that a pen name is always an option. I could write it for myself too.

[neebob]

27. I wrote mine pseudonymously

and changed all the other names, too - mostly because I didn't think it would make it to, much less survive, a publisher's legal review using the giant hookworm of death's real name or the name of the corrupt-ass Republican judge who presided over two famous trials and let the hookworm out of prison a few months before I met him in a Yahoo! chat room. And I've just sort of resigned myself to the fact that if it ever gets published, my mother will hate it (because of what I have to say about my dad and my conclusions about why I got conned and wound up in an abusive relationship) and my ex-husband will probably never speak to me again because of parallels I've drawn between my marriage and the 2 years I spent with the hookworm.

[AlFrankenFan]

29. I am currently outlining several ideas

for books. One political one, one memoir/humor (kinda David Sedaris-esque). I may finish them in the near future, but may decide to settle on finishing one than wait to finish the memoir later.