I personally believe that it is good to write your novel continuously on Facebook because every one going there can give you some comment while you write, and you can write according to what your readers want, right? As Facebook is popular, it sounds amazing to share your novel with your friends, right?
Well, it's your personal belief, so I won't comment on that, but what you're doing is also called 'writing by committee', where a writer allows outsiders to influence the story. To me, it sound like 'too many cooks'. I alone write my stories. When I'm in the editing phase, I have a few trusted bèta readers I allow to read my manuscript, with pointers on the kind of feedback I'm looking for, mainly emotional response to scenes, so I know if I touched the right chord. If more than one bèta readers reacts negative or lackluster on a particular scene, that may be cause for me to rewrite or delete the scene. If more than one bèta reader has questions related to the scene that aren't resolved later on in the manuscript, that might cause me to evaluate the scene to see if it needs elaboration. So my bètas can tell me something is wrong, but I decide how to fix the problem. That way, the story remains my vision.
i wouldnt recommend sharing your novel on a public forum such as facebook however as above post says, it would be good to have a couple of readers that you can trust who will read it for you
If you just want to tell a story, facebook or a blog would be okay. If you want to write a novel you intend to offer for publication, there are better ways to get feedback. And posting your story on facebook constitutes publication, so most publishers won't be interested if the First Publication Rights are gone.
The two inherent problems with this are the quoted, and also that people on Facebook are unlikely to care. Of the several hundred friends I have on Facebook, there's maybe twenty or so who would go out of their way to read something I'd written. I'd like them to read it in something comfortable that doesn't involve their eyes bleeding from staring at Facebook's horrid font choice for as long as it takes them. Seriously, the best way to share your novel is to write it the way you want and then ask people if they want to read it (if you're not trying to get it published).
Well then keep writing until it's finished, then revise it until you think it's ready to be read. Then let people read it. That's generally the order of business. Don't forget that revision step. And don't let anybody read it until it's finished. There is almost nothing more harmful to a writer's motivation than someone telling you that your unfinished piece of fiction is great.
Well, other than your betas Mine get each chapter as I complete it. But yeah, facebook doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Write your story the way you want it written, not because some yahoo you don't really know says they want this or that in it.
When I started to write again, after many, years I inadvertently found myself writing by committee. At that time, I was so tired of being ambitious, I was on a sabbatical leave and I never intended to write anything to be honest. It was the first time I had time to surf the internet (2005) and soon I accidentally discovered the whole world of blogs through stumbling across a couple of blogs written by the people from my old country, where I haven't been for many years. Writing sort of just happened - there were many different bloggers, and some of them were writing fiction. Having written quite a bit when I was younger, all of a sudden there were stories that I needed to tell, the stories that happened around the time of my immigration, and the war in my country. The way it happened was that I would write the story, they literally poured out of me, decent short stories 5-10k words long, and I would put them on the blog, usually in several parts (because blog doesn't really tolerate too much writing in each post, so each instalment was 1-2k). The stories became crazy successful, people were waiting for the next lot, guessing what will happen, devoted fans and haters the whole lot. Once that settled, I started getting obsessed with a new idea for a character, first person story which I wanted to test out. By that time, I was used to getting immediate feedback and was half-aware that I think I want to become a writer. But I've never written anything longer than a short story, so I felt that I just can't do it without the feedback. I moved to another blog service (but still in my country of origin becuase I felt more comfortable with writing in that language) because my writings by that time had enough devoted fans that I didn't want to live off of old fame. I wanted honest feedback and that is only possible if you are "unknown" again. So I started to write my first longer piece. Very soon, that became really popular also, lots of readers, exposure, comments etc. But the feedback I was getting was honest and once I finished that project (it made it to 50K words), looking back, I realised that with the readers feedback, I managed to write a perfectly structured three act story. It is then that I realised that stories follow a logical and predictable structure not because we are taught to write this way, but because this structure is deeply ingrained in all of us, readers and writers alike. This is when I finally dared to leave all that behind and seriously tackle writing an actual novel. Since then I haven't published anything on the blog. So for me, it was an invaluable experience, but there are limitations especially if you want to publish. With publishing what you write on the blog, I found that if people like what you write, publishing deals are not impossible. In fact I got offered publishing deals with both my projects (first to co-write short stories book with another 2 young writers, and the other as a book deal), but I didn't go through with it because it was not in UK and also I felt that the story was just a practice run, not really my best, and I didn't want to get bogged down in writing in my mother tongue when I haven't lived there in 20 years. But the deals were offered, which was a great confidence boost. But I found that writing on the blog results in a skeleton story, sort of equivalent to a really good first draft, but it tends to be influenced by audience's expectations which might be a good thing or a bad thing. Good thing because they'll point out plot holes and inconsistencies, but bad because whether you like it or not, you risk writing to please them thus undermining your own potential.
if you do that, no paying publisher will publish it and if you self-publish, why would anyone buy it, since it can be read for free?
Sharing it on Facebook is a bad idea, in my view. 1) As mammamaia notes, you've made it harder to have it published by a traditional publishers; 2) You've given up first rights in all likelihood, and that means you can't sell first rights to anyone; and 3) By posting it there, you've given Facebook " a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). " Those are the terms you agree to by using the site. Not a good idea, in my view
Positive, encouraging critique, sure. Who can tell if you're great. Surely not the non-professionals on Facebook.
As stated already; this is not a goo idea for a novel you want to get published, or are serious about in any fashion. However, I think this would be an intriguing idea for a fun not-serious side project. With say a novella.
I agree with Jhunter. If you're okay with not making any money off this particular project, then it could be a really fun and enlightening experience. I've never heard of someone doing such a thing, but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea. It only means it's inventive. Plus, if it really picked up, you could have some name recognition. I say go for it! I think we'd all be interested to know how it is going.
If you just put it up to have it critiqued to improve your writing and have no intentions of trying to get it published, as the others said, i guess it's ok. But I still think you should write the story as you want it, if you write according to what people think you should write, then it's basically not your writing they're critiquing. at least not when it comes to ideas, just the words you use to express their ideas.
But then again, YOU are the one writing it, aren't you? You take suggestions from everyone else, but you can't use all of them. You have to make decisions. Author and youtube celebrity John Green wrote his latest book, and got the title and basic concept of the book from his fanbase. He asked for suggestions on a youtube video, and took what he liked. I just don't get why so many people have been bashing an idea that has some potential to succeed. Just because YOU wouldn't do it, doesn't mean you should discourage someone else.
but then you'd have to share the credits for it with a whole lot of people I have never tried this, what's it for?
I guess I read the Op's post like he would start with his own idea and let the readers tell him how to proceed with it, and that sounds weird to me. of course if one would do like you said and get inspired by ideas of others before starting that would be a different thing, at least in my ears and i could probably do the same. Maybe i misinterpreted his post? I don't think people here are trying to discourage him, just telling him to be aware of the fact that he won't be able to have it published the traditional way once he does.
