@taylorclogston
Active 4 weeks, 1 day ago-
Taylor Clogston started the topic Heads Up: Google Docs Comment History Size in the forum General Writing Discussions 1 month ago
Hey all! I just found a quirk in Google Docs and, since I could find hardly anything else about it online, wanted to share.
I’m in the middle of a line edit for a friend’s manuscript, and as of last night, the total number of comments in the document’s comment history (including all previously resolved comments) hit about 5100. When she tried to…[Read more]
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic New book blurb – thoughts? in the forum Fantasy Writers 1 month, 1 week ago
@daeus-lamb Having read a previous draft, this sounds like a blurb for the second or third book in the series, not what I read. Unless you’ve changed the book in character, tone, and content to be at least three or four times more Mistborn-ish, I don’t see this actually describing the story.
As far as its job selling the reader, I find it pretty…[Read more]
-
Taylor Clogston started the topic I Published a Short Story! in the forum General Writing Discussions 1 month, 1 week ago
I finally published the short story I started writing in response to my initial frustration with COVID around nine months ago! It’s about two guys in a fictional post-Soviet state creating the ballot for their country’s first-ever election.
If you’d do me the honor of checking it out, you can read it here:…[Read more]
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic Editing a Post in the forum Guidelines & FAQ 1 month, 1 week ago
@josiah Can you take a look at the issue Linyang described? The same thing happens to me.
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic Fresh Perspectives Appreciated 🙂 in the forum Characters 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Why is Arrowood a villain? Almost everyone on earth has memories they would get rid of if they had the chance, even if it’s just the memory of something embarrassing they did that keeps making them cringe years later.
But plenty of people have far more serious memories they want to escape. It’s a cliché that a character drinks or uses drugs to f…[Read more]
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic Book Recommendations?? in the forum Themes 1 month, 4 weeks ago
Dostoyevsky does that thing where every character symbolizes a different answer to a thematic question (or at least a different variation on a basic theme like “love”). His books are very PG-13, but excellent examples of thematic writing taken to the extreme. I recently finished his book The Idiot, in which the main character represents Christian…[Read more]
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic Disappointment in the forum Themes 1 month, 4 weeks ago
I haven’t written a story about this, but I need to some day. I have the question, but don’t yet have good answers.
I’ve seen a lot of friends thrown into hopelessness by the church.
Usually it’s because they experienced or witnessed emotional, physical, or (it was this one in most cases, let’s be honest) sexual abuse perpetrated by their par…[Read more]
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic Another Writing Question! in the forum General Writing Discussions 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Unless rebirth is a major theme in your story, if you want readers to believe your characters actually die, it’s almost universally recommended to keep characters dead.
When you bring a single character back, you are then an author who brings back dead characters.
As to your specific question, I think the sadness of a dead character lingers and…[Read more]
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic Perfectionism vs. writing in the forum General Writing Discussions 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Fantastic advice from @bama-rose .
My productivity increased when I started setting deadlines for myself.
If I have eight total hours to edit this draft, then I sit down, start my timer, and work at it for however long. When I’m done with a session, I log my time in a spreadsheet. When that time adds up to eight hours, I’m done with that draft…[Read more]
-
Taylor Clogston posted a new activity comment 5 months, 4 weeks ago
@e-k-seaver Excellent! I sent the beta application.
-
Taylor Clogston posted a new activity comment 5 months, 4 weeks ago
@e-k-seaver I saw it! Thanks for getting back to me. I made a similar sheet to your content page:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-laezYu2QuF0HVt1Jf1a4WBUlM71FFn1iEXsaWNPhWY/edit
If you’re comfortable and interested enough in that, let me know and I’ll fill out your beta application. Have a good night!
-
Taylor Clogston posted an update 6 months ago
@e-k-seaver Hey, I saw your beta request thread. I have a lot of critique experience and could have your critique finished by the required date. I’d need you to be able to commit to critiquing about 90-100K of a trilogy of fantasy novellas after I was done with your critique, though. Before I go into any more detail, is that something you’d be…[Read more]
-
Yes, I do believe it is something I’m able and willing to devote time toward– however, could you provide me with more information on your stories before I commit to anything?
-
@taylorclogston, not sure if you could see that last message without me tagging you.
-
@e-k-seaver I saw it! Thanks for getting back to me. I made a similar sheet to your content page:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-laezYu2QuF0HVt1Jf1a4WBUlM71FFn1iEXsaWNPhWY/edit
If you’re comfortable and interested enough in that, let me know and I’ll fill out your beta application. Have a good night!
-
-
@taylorclogston, your story sounds really interesting! I’d be happy to read it!
-
@e-k-seaver Excellent! I sent the beta application.
-
-
-
Taylor Clogston joined the group Sci-fi Writers 6 months ago
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic A Little Help with Free Marketing? in the forum Publishing and Marketing Nerds 6 months, 1 week ago
@hobbitchild I want to warn you that what you’re describing sounds like one of the most classic definitions of spam—you’re promoting your work in communities where you aren’t already ingrained. That goes double for commenting on blog posts asking people to download. In fact, most spam filters exist specifically to remove that kind of c…[Read more]
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic My Writing YouTube Channel in the forum General Writing Discussions 6 months, 2 weeks ago
@josiah Thanks, Josiah. Yeah, it’s dim line with blurry boundaries. I might need new glasses.
@writergirl101 Thank you! What’s your story about?
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic Which Comes First… in the forum General Writing Discussions 6 months, 2 weeks ago
@zee Great question!
I usually start with a mood, build that into a setpiece (usually the climax or very beginning of a story) with arbitrary placeholder characters, and then try to reverse engineer a plot in both directions. As I write the characters into scenes, they take on a life of their own.
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic My Writing YouTube Channel in the forum General Writing Discussions 6 months, 2 weeks ago
@daeus-lamb Thank you! Trying to figure out what I should have done better after beta-ing for you was a huge part in making it.
-
Taylor Clogston started the topic My Writing YouTube Channel in the forum General Writing Discussions 6 months, 2 weeks ago
Some of you may remember that I used to upkeep a YouTube channel focused on writing critique. A few Story Embers members kindly submitted first chapters and short stories for review. After submissions dried up, I turned toward other topics when I felt like it.
Today, for the first time in over a year, I posted a new video containing three…[Read more]
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic Impactful Books in the forum General Writing Discussions 6 months, 2 weeks ago
The Redwall books by Brian Jacques have been the most impactful to me. I’ll be the odd one out and say Lord of the Rings hasn’t been very impactful to me, because they bore me to tears and I’ve never properly read all of Return of the King =P I love the Hobbit and Children of Hurin, though.
The Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer, the Dark is…[Read more]
-
Taylor Clogston replied to the topic Connecting to Villains in the forum Characters 6 months, 2 weeks ago
“…I pretty much based my character [in God’s Not Dead] off of these guys that I see who are just angry — they’re just filled with anger and hatred.” -Kevin Sorbo, who wasn’t a very good villain
“Once you know what people really want, you can’t hate them anymore. You can fear them, but you can’t hate them, because you can always find the same d…[Read more]
- Load More