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Post by devogirl on Sept 28, 2019 18:54:12 GMT -5
Also, is it the case that all dev writers of dev fiction are selfpublishing? Or are some of you with tradition publishing houses? A few years ago I tried to find an agent with the plan of going for a traditional publishing house, but didn’t get anywhere. To be fair, I didn’t try very hard. I realized I didn’t want to play the traditional publishing game—write a long series, establish yourself as a brand, alway write the same thing, do a bunch of press, etc. I wanted the freedom to write however I wanted, even if it doesn’t make any money, so I decided to stick to self-publishing. Traditional publishing is just as oversaturated as self-publishing. Everyone wants to write but fewer people want to read, and no one wants to pay money for books. It is possible to publish with a traditional publishing house as a dev though. In the 1980s there was a woman who wrote for Harlequin under a bunch of names including Elizabeth Glenn who only ever wrote PWD heroes. Her author’s note even said something about finding them the most attractive. I always thought it would be so cool if there was an interview with her now. I haven’t ever asked anyone I know IRL to read my writing. My husband knows what I am writing and he often helps me workshop ideas with the plot, but I would never ask him to read anything. I have sometimes thought about sharing with friends but it feels awkward. While at one point I was very open about being a dev with all my friends, I no longer live near any of those people. My friends now are all either from work or through my kids and I’m definitely not sharing anything so personal with them. So I guess I am hiding but I also think it’s an imposition to be like “Here read my book!” Most people don’t want to. I recently read an interview with a woman who has been a professional manga artist for 20 years and still keeps it a secret from her parents. They think she works in IT. We’re not the only ones hiding, haha.
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rebeca
Full Member
Posts: 162
Gender: Female
Dev Status: Devotee
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Post by rebeca on Sept 29, 2019 1:20:14 GMT -5
Completely agree with you. It's not a bad idea not to share what you're writing. Most professional writers don'. John Banville, Joanne Trollope and Rose Tremaine being some I personally know don't ever share their writing.
I don't either. Only when something is completely done, my editor or agent will see it or I'll send to some magazine's. I do share with my writing group, but that's mostly to participate. I don't edit anything based on feedback. The only person who's opinion matters is the writer.
I do provide feedback as a mentor, but I don't have a mentor. I do have some readers whose opinion I value, but I don't often edit anything based on their feedback. I just listen what they have to say.
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Post by annabelle on Sept 29, 2019 18:31:08 GMT -5
I used to very rarely share my writing, but these days, I make sure that every book I put out has gone through at least three or four beta readers. Frankly, I find it invaluable. They see things about my writing that I could not possibly see because I’m too close to it.
But you have to have people that you trust. And fellow writers are better than non-writers, because you can be critique partners rather than always being the one asking for help.
You also have to be good at knowing which critiques to follow and which to disregard.
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Post by annabelle on Sept 29, 2019 18:32:16 GMT -5
I also used to have real life friends who knew I was a dev, but now that I’m older, I guess I’m more secretive!
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Post by Amee on Oct 24, 2019 12:00:39 GMT -5
I actually consciously did not write my female characters as devs and I'm just now wondering why that was (I think it's more complicated than just the guilt/shame). I'll ponder this some more and come back to this thread I'm excited to hear about why you were avoiding writing devs!!! So, more than a month later, I'm back to answer... I think there were two or three reasons for that. One is that devness for me was still such a complicated, secret and difficult thing in my mind that I would've had to work through that in writing a dev character. If I had written a dev character, the story would - at least to a large part - have needed to be ABOUT devness. And I just wasn't ready for that. The other reason was probably some internalized idea that physical attributes shouldn't matter too much in romantic relationships. I think it's quite possible that a part of me had learnt to enjoy the narrative of one person loving another "despite of" some perceived physical "flaw". Although I never stated this directly in any of my writings, I think it was there in an underlying way. Some societal prejudices about PWDs sneaking up on me... Finally, although I never showed my writing to anyone and the only thing I ever seriously considered was posting on the PD story board, in the back of my mind I still had that requirement to write "for a general audience". And for a hypothetical general audience I thought writing non-devs would be more beneficial to making PWDs be seen more desirable as romantic partners. Of course, my devness still hugely informed the way I wrote PWDs I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to describe certain things, especially intimate situations, in a way that would be beautiful and make PWDs attractive to non-devs as well Slightly off-topic, but related: annabelle I absolutely love your writing!! Your books have been a wonderful companion on my dev journey and I'm actually slightly starstruck to be posting on the same thread as you, right now, haha Thank you for all the time and effort you put into writing them over the years!
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bluefox
Junior Member
Posts: 60
Gender: Non-binary
Dev Status: Devotee
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Post by bluefox on Oct 26, 2019 18:25:39 GMT -5
Not a writer directly, but I always did a lot of literate roleplay and have a writing style as though I was writing a book, so maybe I also think in a similar way - for me it's very much a part of almost all of my characters. I have never had a devo character though - but I only have two to three fully fleshed out female characters, so there's that. I'm thinking about visiting a writing course though, I would have the control over how the story progresses, I could explore devness in the stories - so if any of you have hints on how to better come up with storylines, I'd love to hear those tips - I'd love to contribute to the stories site actually. But back to what I was originally talking about: my devness always creeps into my character concepts - I actually can't even help it. ^^' It's also the reason I'm even just slightly out as a dev - if you have a good 5 characters which all have a clear devvy appeal und subconsciously write in the devvy way, you just won't be able to hide that long.
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raindrop
Full Member
Posts: 244
Gender: Female
Dev Status: Devotee
Relationship Status: Married/Domestic partnership
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Post by raindrop on Oct 26, 2019 21:52:22 GMT -5
We all have secrets here, being a dev is the biggest we share. My biggest secret is that I love to write. I wrote urban fantasy, almost exclusively for a long time, until I read an article about Amazon(kindle unlimited), and the idea behind short stories, almost specifically romance, can be big money makers. Then I wrote my first romance- I even titled it as short story... but it kept growing. This story had a PWD. This was when I started seeking out “dev romance”, to get a feel of how I wanted my story to go. How detailed I wanted it, how much info, etc... Until this point, in Urban fantasy I did write 2 books with male pwd, the rest were AB. This is when I learned about Dev fiction. I read almost everything written here in the blog. I had never heard of devotees, and honestly, I get that I am a dev, but I don’t see a point in labeling myself as one - it’s a bit confusing out loud, but in my head it makes sense. I absolutely love my stories, and I read them often. I surprise myself all the time with how good my books are, and yet I have only shared a few stories with my daughter. My daughter loved the books. I also don’t talk about my writing with any of my RL friends. Only hubby and kids know I write. There are a few reasons I have not looked at publishing them. 1. I don’t feel like I am a strong writer. I feel like my characters lack depth. I feel like I lack a complex plot and I don’t trust my writing. My grammar etc.... 2. The idea behind choosing a cover for the book scares me
3. I am chickenshit. I am terrified of being judged.
I really relate with those of you who have expressed how your writing is part of your soul. It is exactly how I feel, and it really touched me. It is the reason I am posting. My stories are a part of me. They are my dreams, my thoughts and they are like my babies.
My husband would jump for joy if I published. It kills him that I have all these books that are ‘finished’ and just sitting there. He has not read any of my stuff. (Refer to #3)
I really am quite impressed with people who publish, even if it just to the board. To me that is an amazing accomplishment.
Reading this post, woke something up in me, and I really enjoyed reading everyone’s different view points. I know I am late to the party, but it was nice to read it all at once.
Thanks everyone! ❤️🧡💛💚💙
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Post by devogirl on Oct 27, 2019 0:56:14 GMT -5
I had no idea you wrote so much! That's great! Please consider posting on the PD stories site. The readers there are very kind and encouraging. No one will judge you in a mean way. Once you gain some confidence sharing on PD you can think later about self-publishing on Amazon if you want. There are people who will help you with the cover if you ask, some for free, some with payment. There are also proofreaders who will help you with grammar and plot development. Just be brave and put it out there, you'll be glad you did!
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