• Member Since 1st Aug, 2014
  • offline last seen Aug 20th, 2021

LegionPothIX


Discomfort is the feeling of horizons expanding against a closed mind.

More Blog Posts15

  • 135 weeks
    Visual Reference Guide

    From time to time various bits of imagery are sufficiently important warrant a physical representation, since MLP:FIM is primarily a visual medium, so I've created this listing to be updated as the need arises. Typically, this will include cutiemarks of characters in my stories as I publish them. Since this was growing larger than my main page needed, it's now here as projected.

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    0 comments · 106 views
  • 417 weeks
    CA: Theming

    A continuation of my Cumulative Advice for Writers blog, introducing one of the core elements of writing.

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    2 comments · 609 views
  • 418 weeks
    Still alive, still writing, and still kicking and screaming.

    Many may know I say that I write, and write, and write, but find I haven't published anything like the amount of stuff I've claimed to have written. Well, there's a reason for that, but I thought it was worth mentioning what it is I am actually working on, and what I'm working on is three stories at the same time; which can be

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    0 comments · 324 views
  • 418 weeks
    Outline: To Cure Deception

    Continuing on my work of providing examples for my Cumulative Advice blog, no advice is in need of examples more than Outlines. My previous outline posted for DotFR followed the format I call "Proof of Concept" being structured very much the same way a mathematical proof is. Different stories need different styles of

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    0 comments · 457 views
  • 420 weeks
    CA: Three Roles

    This extension of my Cumulative Advice for New Writers Blog helps distinguish and disambiguate three frequently used terms: Pre-Reader, Proof-Reader, and Editor. The goal of which is to help identify what each term means (through reference), so that when a writer is seeking help they know exactly what kind of help they

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    2 comments · 490 views
Aug
19th
2015

CA: Publishing · 1:56pm Aug 19th, 2015

The first entry in my recently revamped Cumulative Advice blog has me reminding people to never, ever, ever publish part of your work before the entire story is complete.

There is a common misconception that creating a new chapter is the same as publishing it, for the purposes of exposure. This is false. No matter how long a chapter sits on your story unpublished it will still, once published, give you your front page bump. As evidence, I can point to my own stories as the chapters were all created at once, but individually published on a scheduled.

Note that: Viewing a story's index page (description and chapters) does not constitute a view for the story, only when an individual chapter is viewed does a view get generated for the story (relevant to "hotness").

As the author, you have all the time in the world to create, edit, and perfect your story before publishing it. That leaves you the grace to make any changes to a story that you need to before an audience sees it. Then once it is finished you can stagger the chapter releases so that it still gets that exposure, and your audience gets its regular content updates until the story is completely released.

That said, the story does not need to be published for editors, or proof readers, to take a look at it and some don't even like looking at it if it has been. Just provide them a link and the story's password if you've created one. But individuals filling such roles (to be discussed later in this series) often prefer versions they can annotate directly.

The consequences of publishing a story before it is complete are many and varied, and all of them have been discussed in The Writer's Group forum at some point or another. A short list includes:
* Needing to ret-con a previous chapter to make the next chapter make sense, which is normally fine, but not wanting to because someone has already read it.
* Inadvertently creating a poor expectation or one that is not maintained through out the story, which earns it a great deal of negative feedback, and potentially even many downvotes.
* Puts a lot of pressure on you (the writer), which prevents you (the editor) from really shining, and that is something that really shows through to a reader.

A lot of research has been put into this topic, though I can't verify Ocalhoun's findings, the post can be found here referenced in the TWG's forum post.

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