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Joined: 10/19/2013
Posts: 8
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I've struggled now for five years on what I know to be an awesome idea and could very well be the next top seller. My problems are these. One, I can't seem to keep the idea straight in my head to get it on paper, because two I have so many more ideas my head that I feel are awesome as well. And then they begin to distract me beyond belief. So I must start with and outline and character building and then loose my excitement for the previous book. Ideas come to me very easy usually through dreams. So I was wondering are treatments worth writing? Do they pay well? And do I get recognized as the writer?
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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Erbil, you sound like me on an acid trip. Except I'd be way more coherent.
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Anybody up for this? I'm speechless.
--edited by Mimi Speike on 10/20/2013, 2:02 AM--
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Joined: 10/19/2013
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You weren't very helpful Mimi. The typos I'm sure you could have read through but instead you choose to be disrespectful. I simply was meaning that I needed to know if writing treatments would pay well,and if I would be recognized as the writer. I also was stating ,just in case you have that much problem reading typos,that many idea's run through my head. So while writing a book I get distracted by an idea and start with the new one. Therefore I seem to be into one to many project's and it is why I wanted feedback -that was good,not negative,on what to do.
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Joined: 8/18/2013
Posts: 31
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Sometimes that happens to me...what I have is several notepad files on my desk top. I open one for what ever idea is plaguing me and jot it down in there, and continue with the story at hand. Same concept I use when I am away from the computer, I carry a small notebook with me everywhere.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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erbil, it's not your typos that I am referring to. It's your moving from project to project, completing nothing. I do the same thing, but, I hope, in a more restrained manner. That sort of behavior can go on forever. I know it all too well. Focus on a piece and finish it. It will build your self-confidence, that you have been able to solve your problems, instead of shoving them aside. I should have said this earlier, but I am embarrassed to be so sturdily in your camp.
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By the way, don't you think that, on a writer site especially, it would be wise to proof what you've written? I recommend it. I hit that edit button again and again.
--edited by Mimi Speike on 10/20/2013, 3:06 PM--
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Joined: 10/19/2013
Posts: 8
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Aria, I to jot them down, my ideas that is. I guess I haven't reached the........... come back to the original book . It becomes very frustrating for me. Because I do know that if I could just get one book completed I would be very proud of myself.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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"Because I do know that if I could just get one book completed I would be very proud of myself."
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On this I agree with you completely. Full disclosure: I have yet to do that myself.
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Joined: 10/19/2013
Posts: 8
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I'm sorry I took what you said out of context Mimi. It is always a complete whirlwind when I'm writing. I need to learn to focus on the one book I've completed four chapters on. Also does anyone know about treatments? Do you know if I sell an idea that I still get some sort of recognition for it? Does it pay well? How hard is it to get into treatment writing?
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Joined: 10/19/2013
Posts: 8
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And in not completing a book and telling everyone I write them, I feel like a complete and utter failure, and a big fat liar. To say the least.....
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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I also feel like a fraud. I imagine that the Book Country community is getting damn tired of hearing me go on. Oh, my ideas! Fabulous new ideas!
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I am unfamiliar with the term treatment, except in relation to screenplays, as proposals for a script, and a sales tool with which to find studio/financial partner backing. I can't see writers paying for lightly developed ideas, we have too many of our own. Tell me where you've heard of these treatments offered for sale. I'm curious.
--edited by Mimi Speike on 10/20/2013, 3:04 PM--
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Joined: 10/19/2013
Posts: 8
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Treatments are in association with screen plays . Except they are purely for the purpose of the idea. It's about forty pages long and to the point. They basically take the idea and turn it into a movie/tv show. My girlfriend is probably sick of me telling her the ideas, because she too is like, ' just write it already'.
--edited by erbil on 10/20/2013, 3:11 PM--
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Joined: 6/18/2012
Posts: 228
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I think feeling like a fraud is something a lot of writers struggle with, and it's just one more distraction that nags at the ear when sitting down to write.
You are not fraud. Do you write? Then you're a writer.
Everyone works at a different completion method and pace. There are some writers who have one book in them and some who have 500. Both types are writers.
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Joined: 6/7/2013
Posts: 1356
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Hi @erbil--sent you a connection request over the weekend--I wanted to send you some info and links about Book Country over private message . . . Let me know if you get the request!
In the meantime, I'm curious about your idea, or I guess 2 ideas: 1) this idea for a book--I'm dying to know what it is! I wish you'd post an excerpt of your work to give us a taste! 2) this idea for writing book treatments the way that screenwriters do.
It doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility to me . . . anyone else ever heard of it, or have experience doing it?
Let us know, I'd like to know more about that!
Lucy
Book Country Community and Engagement Manager
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Joined: 10/19/2013
Posts: 8
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Tis true Brandi. ( I do hope I spelled your name correctly ) I am the writer who writes , as well as the writer who has twenty million idea's. I sometimes think to myself ' just combine all the books together Tracy and be done with it.' But I realize what a massing idea that is . On the same note not being able to write and finish a single book I just as maddening.
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Joined: 10/19/2013
Posts: 8
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Hello Lucy, yes I received the request. Thank you. And I could write an exert here yes. I think it's the fear of no one liking what I've written , that stops me from doing so. I have submitted one of my writings to the children's literary institute. And they want to except me into a course in writing children's books. Just as with my drawings perfection seems to be a must for me. And if it isn't perfect ,in my eyes, then I throw it out. My book is called season wrangled- winter wonderland. Book one of for. It is a fantasy book for young teens/adults. I have finally gotten four chapters written in going on four years. Yes I know along time. I figured selling my ideas would be a better way for me to get my ideas out. But at the same time I want to be recognized as the writer. Plus I want to be remembered even after death, through my books. Eternally immortalized through my writing.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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erbil, there is no way
to sugar-coat this: you have typos and misspellings galore, and odd punctuation
and flat-out wrong words. You need training on a far more basic level than the
Literary Institute.
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We writers need to be
in control of our tools or we will not find an audience for the grandest idea. I
can’t help but think that this is the reason you are so taken with the concept
of treatments, you understand the scope of the effort you have ahead of you.
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The work required to
produce a groomed rather than an indifferently executed narrative is daunting. Come to grips with the nuts and bolts of composition. There is no short cut to success.
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You will grow by reading the work of masters. That's the only schooling I've had as a writer since high school (fifty years ago). See, I'm giving you an out here. You can say, Huh! That old fogey. And I won't mind a bit. I am an old fogey. But I write nicely, although too extravagantly, I suppose. My structural choices are also a problem. These are the issues that I wrestle with.
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I read voraciously. I hope that you do too. Refine your thinking by immersing yourself in superb style. Steal what you most admire, (I do it all the time) as long as you ultimately make it your own. (Which, actually, is inevitable. The urge to tweak is powerful.) Reading is the most effective and most enjoyable education there is.
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Someone said - damned if I remember who, I read the line years ago in the New York Times and never forgot it - in order to have good ideas, you've got to have a lot of ideas. You're off to an excellent start. Now, work on your delivery. Of all the sites I'm acquainted with, Book Country is definitely the place to be in terms of feedback. It's easy to post your work, it remains available with no further effort on your part, and you can show as much or as little of it as you like.
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Be aware that the people here are tough. No one babies you. But, isn't that what you want?
--edited by Mimi Speike on 10/23/2013, 1:53 PM--
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