Howdy! Hope everyone is moderately stable after a dumpster fire of a year. I'm a first-time "author" assembling a family history story based on the life of my great-uncle, who was a clandestine fighter in the Cuban Revolution. I work with words for a living, but this is my novice's attempt at a full-length, cohesive story. Heard good things about this forum on Reddit; looking for polishing tips and feedback. Thanks for reading. = ]
Hello and welcome, you've come to the right place to help develop your writing. Please make yourself at home. If you have a question about writing, post a thread! Looking forward to seeing you in the forums!
Welcome to WF.org, @CXavier! Yes, I can totally relate to a dumpster fire year... How far are you with your book? Is it biographical, or fictionalised? Have you written anything similar before?
Hey CX, I didn't think about world events in books, mostly as I'm just getting started in recent years in non-fiction works, you're idea is one I'd love to see created. How far have you gotten in it?
As further testament to the dumpster-fireiness of the year, I haven't had a chance to get back to this forum until now! It's a biographical with some fictionalized elements. There are simply too many details left unknown that my family can't fill in (they're dead or were too young to know) and the factual data on revolutionary activity in Cuba has yielded in a large part to the myth-making that happens when countries tell their creation stories. I'm several chapters in, but struggling with some elements around his demise. Aside from that, my biggest struggle in in finding the time. Looking forward to sharing stuff on here. Thanks for your reply!
Yeah this is a pretty special story to me and my family. Because my great-uncle helped Castro win the revolution, there's been a tension in how his story was told to the younger generation (now in our 40s and 50s). There's so much legend and fiction intermingled with fact; I'm trying to find the balance between telling the true story and filling in the gaps where I don't or can't ever know what really happened. About 10-15% done I would say. How's your work going?
I've mostly been doing small works in the genre of fantasy that is closer for a younger audience right now. If my guess is correct, I may be working on the final book in the series. I do admit, as this is my first series book series I'm working on, it's not my best work by any means. There are a few ideas I've been working out in recent months that I'm much more proud to have been working on and would love to see them published through a publishing company, if they can get through the screening phase of course.
Congrats on getting as far as you have! Since you're working on the last book, I'm assuming the previous ones have been published already? If so, have you gained much traction with them? And if not, I'm guessing you're waiting until you're done to shop the whole package around...
I did publish, only through the self publishing means of amazon and barnes and noble, with no traction to speak of. To be fair, I don't expect much traction from this one series. I at least wanted it out there so it won't be one of those books that constantly sits in the back of my mind with the question of "Should I have published it?"
