BronxWench

The biggest hang-up people have is the inability to reply to reviews in the archive itself. I see so many grumbles about it in authors' notes in the stories, and I frequently have to issue warns to authors for posting to their own review boards in the archive. However, when authors do take the time to create review reply threads here on the forum, or use the Promote a Story thread, or otherwise make their presence known in some way, it helps readers connect with them. Case in point? Magusfang. His review reply thread is lively, he and his readers chat in the shoutbox, and you can see the interactions drawing in new people. Of course, you can't make people respond to a thread you create, but his personality comes through his posts, and that works for his readers. I think you get out of the forums what you put into the forums.

Okay, because... My publisher moved my upcoming book to a new editor, and guess what? I'm getting the first round of edits on November 3. Yes, I will be doing NaNo while working on edits for my new book. This is because I am crazy. I am so crazy.

Go to the search thingie, type in my user name, and click on my author name when it appears. Then click add as buddy.

There's no downside. If you make the 50k words, you pat yourself on the back and have a first draft to work with. If not, you have what you'e written which can be cleaned up a bit and continued. I compromised with my inner Grammar Bitch . We can spellcheck, but we can't rewrite and tweak and polish until after November 30. I'd never finish otherwise, I assure you, but I have finished for the past four years, and I'll finish this year, too. And if you do decide to do it, and want to buddy, I'm MorwenNavarre.

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I don't see it as pressure. I see it as a form of discipline. I know I need 1,667 words a day to make the goal, but I also know that word count widgets can vary, and I hate last minute hysteria, so I shoot for more. 2,500 words a day, to be precise. I'm lucky enough to be able to work at home, which means that I can carve out time for writing. This lets me treat my writing like a proper job, and so it is. The more I publish, the more of a real job it becomes, so I need to be serious about it.

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I'm dong my 5th NaNo. Yes, insane as that sounds, I need the discipline of that deadline. Last year's NaNo is being published in February 2015 by Torquere Press, and the really amusing thing is that I should be getting the first runs of edits somewhere around the middle to end of November. I'm probably going to do another likely Torquere submission. I'd started outlining a story, took a half-hearted poke at writing the beginning, and then got lost in research. Who knew Wales in the 4th Century CE was so damned fascinating? So, with a working title of "The Hawthorn Prince" and a prologue to inspire me, I'm ready.

One thing I do want to point out is that there is the option, when registering for the forums, to make a "reader-only" account. However, the forums were always meant to serve primarily as a place where authors could find some community. I think every site approaches the issue of communication between authors and readers, or communication between members in general, on a different level. There are sites where the notion of community is non-existent, and other sites where members could engage in lively conversation right on a reply segment beneath the story. One factor that might affect how a site goes is moderation, and how the site chooses to approach things like negative reviews, trolls, flames, spammers, and so on. I do think the threads here on the AFF forums, where we could all find some common ground other than fandoms or genres, could be livelier. I'll have to plead guilty to getting caught up in things beyond chatting on the forums. (NaNo is coming, NaNo is coming!) So, if anyone out there, especially some of the newer folk, want to see if you can start some lively conversation going, I'm all for it. I'll do my best to chime in, and maybe we can make the forums as lively as they should be.

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