Really, just a Manuscript. You can have Script for things like plays, shows and films. Piece, but that doesn't really apply since it can be used for a published work. And Paper, but this is purely for academic work. Remember Cacian: Words have meaning for a reason.
Zero. This is the first book I've worked on while the rest of my writing has been 1000-word story snippets, one unfinished 'short' 10k story and multiple nonsense articles. I don't work on multiple projects at a time, but this book is my baby lol. Edit: How long have you all been writing? It seems like almost everyone that has posted has drafted multiple novels. It's taken an inordinate amount of effort for me to even get this one to 'almost drafted' status, almost a year of constant obsession on the book and waking up with scenes that demand to be written. How do you guys do it? I'm very inspired.
aim short. Anything of a containable size is better then none. A very short story is still a story. Poetry is another.
Currently working on my first novel, but I've done a fair few short stories! I've put my novel on a 2 week hold to work on this sci-fi short story competition...can't work on more than one thing at a time ><
I've started but not finished four novels. I wrote two children's books that I did finish. One when I was in grade 3 and the other for a course in college. I've finished a number of short stories. I've never been published.
ake... i'm a fairly full time poet... check out my site's 'philosetry' section to see the wide variety of forms i indulge in... cacian... lemex is right... manuscript really doesn't have a perfect synonym... a manuscript is simply the handwritten or typed version of what one hopes will become a published book/story...
ahaha! I meant to refer to the fact that poetry was thy main area of writing (as in hardcore metal bands, which refer to them playing rarely anything other than metal). And such people (deeply into poetry) are a tad difficult to find these days.
Just had a look at thy site. All i can say is, WOW! Will have to take some time out from the bland routine of mine to read them all.
It helps a lot to be old. I'm 50, and I started writing seriously in my twenties. It took me about three years to do my first draft of my novel. It's on the back burner now while I do more short stories and convert my screenplay to a novel (or maybe a novella).
I started writing in high school. Stopped for 10 years because of my job. Restarted recently. I'm 39. So its been a long journey so far and a lot of writing.
I finished something! The first draft of Salvage, my entry in the Science Fiction Short Story contest is complete, at 4785 words. It's not my best work. In fact, it's pretty bad. But it's just a first draft, and I know some of what's wrong with it so I'm sure it'll be better after a few revisions. Ahh. It's a nice feeling to finish something.
I have written, and destroyed, five or six complete novels as well as hundreds of short stories, essays and poems. Currently, I have a half dozen completed short stories and more than a dozen reasonably polished essays. I have several more essays at varying stages of completion and the outline for a series of educational children's novels but most of that is on indefinite hold. My novels are a rather more complex beast; I have a massive high-fantasy novel series comprised of a main trilogy and three separate books, as well as several separate, single novels. I have started five complete novels, with three of them being on hold and two of them being actively worked upon in preparation for submission for publication. I have very solid conceptualization for three more novels which flush out my high fantasy series, but I have forced myself not to start another work until I complete the two pieces I am finishing. The two novels I am currently finishing for publication are the first novel of my high fantasy trilogy, and a dystopian science fiction novel inspired by modern and recent historical events. So what else are you folks working on? - Toadling
My first drafts shouldn't really be counted, as they are so bare and confusing, I hardly have any idea what's going on. They are more like really extensive plot outlines, and are usually finished within a few months. I believe I have about 18 first drafts on my comp, most of which I have only bothered to do some slight revisions to to make them comprehensible, because I don't think the stories themselves are good enough for public viewing, but I like to read them myself. As for project juggling. I like to write a first draft on one project while editing another one. If I come up with another story, I make a document for it where I write down all my ideas about plot and characters and then I leave it until I’m finished with other stuff. Often I don’t even like the idea anymore when I finally get to it. Short stories I write all the time while working on other projects, because it kind of relaxes me and it usually helps for my inspiration to focus on something else for a while if I have worked on the same story for too long. I have two novels that I consider as finished as I can get them at this point. One is called the Fox Princess and is novel for (even though I hate this expression) tweens. It is about a princess who has been given powers by the fox gods to defeat an evil warlock. The story is based on east-Asian (especially Japanese, Korean and Chinese) mythology, as I wanted to expose my cousins who are “tweens” to different cultures. The second novel is one that I am very unsure of, because it is kind of experimental, but I absolutely love it nevertheless. It is a dark comedy called Children of Blues, and is about four children in a poor, blue-collar family. The experimental bit being that the whole story (120K words) spans over 18 years, because that timeframe brings the whole thing full circle. Naturally there are large time jumps, and each chapter is more like an episode and there is no structured plot in that sense. It is just the lives of these people and the struggle to make ends meet.
In my first draft I have 5 composition note books filled with segments of scenes and stories and I currently working on the second draft. I have a first draft of my science fiction book that is currently being torn apart and recreated. My goal is to get one of these published
