Becoming a novelist

[Elvin]

I'd be perfectly happy if my books netted me ~45k a year maybe, it's more about passion after all.

Of course, you'll always wish for thay best seller and movie adaption...

[oldwrench]

Sigh, I'd be overjoyed if my shop made me 45k a year...... or even 35. I come up with some interesting ideas in my head, and I work out whole stories, I have a vivid imagination, especially in scifi and fantasy, (I've had a nice two book story with dragons, elves fairies, and more, all worked ou tin my head) but when I try to write them down, I can never recall what I was trying to say, or what I had worked out in my head. Ah well, I'm to old to pursue it now. The RPG part of the forum is the best I can do.

[Elvin]

Nonsense. Everyone knows the older are the more author-ish you look
My recurring daydreams is the fuel for my books, I get really into them so they're more memorable than the lectures I have them in

I think 45k is reasonable for a semi-popular writer... As long as I make more than a full time burger flipper, I'll have the drive to go on though.

Dragons and elves would probably only do well if you had children as the main characters (ala Narnia), quite frankly I don't think another LoTR-like trilogy will do as well in modern times. I was having a discussion with my friend about changing entertainment standards, ie. what worked back then but might not work now. He agreed with me that people are generally getting harder and harder to entertain, in most related fields (maybe not music). A decent children's fantasy will at least guarentee you a spot in a few school libraries though.

[agito_0291]

I agree with you 100% there Elvin. In fact it's been talked about all over the place that if books like Lord of the Rings or Narnia had been published for today's market they would have been incredible failures. People expect to see something new and different even though everything has already been done before. It's finding the small things to twist a story to make it original that is probably the hardest part in writing a story for today's audience (or at least a story that has a chance of becoming a hit).

[oldwrench]

Well, the Eragon trilogy of books has done quite well. And dragons, magic and such are very big on the scifi and fantasy shelves at the book stores. As for needing something new, romance books sell by the millions, there are dozens of new titles every week, my wife reads a few, she says they are all actually just rehashes of the same plot, and have been for years.

As for my story, it is based on the characters in another story I found on the internet "Milady and the Dragon." It was a long and very interesting story, with some quite adult parts. The story was never finished, the author apparently had some health problem, and now her web site is gone. I have a copy of the story, glad I save it.

[Elvin]

Eragon seems like a children's book, and the critics weren't raving from what I heard, so that might reinforce the 'children's fantasy does better' theory. Honestly, I don't really know what it takes to make a good novel for adults. At most my range is early 20's, even if I wanted to go higher. Again I'm getting ahead of myself, but right now I'm afraid to touch upon more sensitive subjects lest I get some backlash from a parent concerned about what their children are reading.

My aspiration is to be able to get skillful enough to write a book that adults will enjoy. That, and having someone create a wiki page about me

[agito_0291]

It's probably won't be to hard to make a book that adults will enjoy; even if you are most comfortable with books aimed at young adult. Remember, books like Harry Potter and Twilight (although Twilight is hard to use as a positive example) were targeting the young adult area yet Adults enjoy them just the same.
As for a Wiki page... actually I would love to have one as well Funny how that could become motivation. Actually now that I think about it, that could be a great drive for a character. Something simple enough to make a person do something extreme, while at the same time keeping the character down to earth... He/she could have a previous problem with attention and believe that the only way to be remembered in the world is if he/she has a wiki page...*goes off to write*

[Elvin]

HP actually had no target, it was the publishers that decided it was a children's book (which ended up giving Rowling a lot of heat from parents and the church). I'd think Meyer'd have the same problem as me, she couldn't make a deep adult novel with hidden messages and characters that develop over time etc with her current skill (I hope she doesn't read this ).

I have the twist ending to your book Agito: the main character works himself to exhaustion to get his wikipedia page. He gets an illness and passes away, satisfied with being remembered. Then, a virus hits wikipedia and their entire database is lost. The online community does its best to restore it to its former glory, but after years of rebuilding, no one remembers the wiki page of one lone person...

[Elvin]

Has anyone actually started the story that they're planning to debut with?

[Zeratul2k]

i did, but then got writer's block, then came the thesis (started a long while ago) and right now, i forgot most of what was supposed to happen to link it with what I have thought off in the meantime... looks like I'll have to start from the beginning...