The Mer-Writers Thread

First off, I'm sorry to SurlySeaNymph, I kind of disappeared while looking at her second draft. Life was just... yuck.

But I'm itching to get back to work and would like to help anyone who would like me too.

Secondly, I've so far been published with my real name. However my future stuff I'm using a pen name, mostly because it's going to be creative non fiction memoir type stuff and I don't need my family to know it's me.

A Pen Name can be a character/persona you create for yourself. Or there are otherways, like the one I use is Middle Name as first name, and then the street you grew up on as your last name. That technique doesn't quiet work if you grew up on a numbered street.

I see Pen Names as a way of being able to put your stuff out there and not having people you know judge you on it's content. For a few Authors it's a way to write things that are normally not seen as suited for them. As JK Rowling used her pen name, if I remember correctly, because Harry Potter was a boy and felt that if people knew it was written by a woman initially they wouldn't respect it and give the book half a chance.

There are many various reasons to use a pen name.

No worries, the help you gave me on the first was still SO much what I needed. I'm coming from very little education outside of what I myself have read.

At this point, I'm reading about writing a novel synopsis. It's probably not that difficult, but I'm intimidated by it. lol

I think I will use a pen name, for sure. And I have it already. I don't know how most people come up with them, but I didn't want to make the mistake my BF's ex made... she chose a name that is the same as a children's book character- she self-pub'd two, 20 page, erotica stories. I haven't read them, but if you search her pen name, a kid's book comes up first. A little research could have prevented that. Maybe no one else sees that as an issue, but I would rather not choose a name that brings up anyone else much less a kids book if I'm writing erotica.

Hello all,

Just curious if anyone here has used Red Pen for Rent's services? They offer editorial, design, marketing. I have not used them, which is why I'm looking to see if anyone has.

http://redpenforrent.com

https://www.facebook.com/RedPenForRent

Can anyone recommend books that my company, The MerFriends, can keep in our "net of tricks" to read to groups of children? Ideally, these would be children's story books and I'd love it if there was a lesson buried within the story. (Story is most important.) We would read these at storytime events (libraries, schools, daycares), rained out events where the pool or lake is cleared, and maybe educational appearances. Most interested in lessons about water safety, environmental responsibility, and kindness. Titles, author, and a short description would be great. And if you know where I can buy them cheap- even better. I'll be buying 5 copies of each book (one for each member of the mer-troupe). Thanks!

Who here is doing NaNoWriMo? New member Mermaid Angelique mentioned it, reminded me I wanted to ask about it.

I had hoped to, but it's unrealistic for me. My daughter's surgery is tomorrow, we're going to be attached at the hip (no pun... since it's her hips being operated on) for about six weeks. I keep thinking I might try, but I prefer to set myself up for success.

However! I'd love to hear about the NaNoWriMo experiences of others.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo, and thanks to the drama at home I'm not having the best of luck... I'm hoping to catch up with my word count this weekend while everyone is at work.

Sorry to hear there's drama at home. :/ But you're sticking with the NaNo, that's good. Maybe you can even vent out some argh through it. lol

The main character isn't a mermaid. Her name is Monica and she has a small problem. She has a power she can't control. It gets her in trouble, and while it can be useful it is also really hard to navigate... She is forgotten. She sometimes disappears from a persons attention. They can sometimes not see her, they can forget that they are even talking to her, like stop midsentence and forget her.

It's useful for getting out of problems, as well as getting into problems if people do things when they think they have no witnesses. :P

Coral Sybil, that sounds interesting, fresh. Not done a million times. I hope it's coming along for you!


Writing a synopsis is far more difficult than writing the damn book was.

ARGH.

Hi everyone! I'm new to the forum and super glad that this thread exists - I can't wait to read all of these mermaid stories! I participated in NaNoWriMo, went to the Night of Writing Dangerously, and won a Kindle Voyage as one of the top fundraisers, so I'm super excited to find some books to put on it! I've been writing mermaid stories for...pretty much as long as I've been writing, and the novel I started in November was one that I'd been planning since I was about 10. I managed to get to 50k, but I'm only nearly halfway through - on chapter nine of twenty. So it'll be a lot longer than I had thought it would be to start out with, but that's alright! The short synopsis of it is that a mermaid princess, Arell, goes out on a journey/adventure/quest to summon the Goddess of the realm to put a stop to the Blue Mountain volcano erupting and destroying her home/Clan. (To do this she has to gather representatives of each of the eight Clans, which is tough because two of them are extinct, and one of them gets kidnapped and hurt in the middle of their travels.)

Also, Laura - if you're still looking for kid-friendly books about merfolk, definitely try to get your hands on Helen Dunmore's Ingo series. There are four books in the series - Ingo, The Tide Knot, The Deep, and lastly The Crossing of Ingo. The last book was tough for me to get my hands on, but they're really great - they're about a young girl (probably somewhere between 10-14) called Sapphire and her brother, Conor, as they discover the existence of the Mer (who have tails more closely resembling those of dolphins or seals than fish, but it's a modern twist on merfolk) and find out that their dad may not have died after disappearing when they were younger. The books talk about a lot of the stuff you mentioned being interested in - water safety, environmental responsibility, kindness. Another series you might be interested in is Liz Kessler's Emily Windsnap books, which are about a girl named Emily Windsnap who lives on a boat but has never been fully submerged in water until she starts swimming lessons in seventh grade, at which point she finds out she's half-mermaid from her father's side. She goes off to rescue him (and find out why her mom doesn't remember him), and so on and so forth. I think there are currently five books in the series, and according to Google it's ongoing, so Ms. Kessler isn't finished with Emily yet. Again, important topics like environmental responsibility (that's mostly in the last book, if I recall correctly), kindness, good communication, trust, etc. are discussed, so you might find them useful. I hope that helped, and wasn't too late!

Awesome! I discovered Emily Windsnap when they were doing a charity book drive and that was in the stack of books I "bought" for a needy kid. I ended up going back and buying myself a copy. Haha. Story is good, writing is juvenile and eh. I'll look into that other series, sounds good. Are they chapter books or children's story books I can read at events?

Ahh, shucks, they're chapter books. I remember being a kid and having an obscene amount of children's/picture books of The Little Mermaid, but I have no recollection of where they came from or where they are now. There's GOTTA be some picture books about mermaids, though, or at the very least some "be nice to the ocean!" books. Hmmm...

In case any of you haven't seen it, Coradion posted a nifty writing challenge here: http://mernetwork.com/index/showthre...o-January-31st!

I had seen that, deepblue - thanks for posting about it! I've written something, but then got an idea for something else, which I think will work better, so I'm writing it out now... It'll actually be tough for me to keep it under a thousand words. :doh: :headdesk: I'm up for the challenge, though!!

I know what you mean- I NEVER write short stories. But I did a quick 1000 words for this, because I've been in a writing funk. It was fun.

The Writer's Circle FB page posted this, I think it's worth posting here.
It won't apply to everyone.
My thoughts on #6 - Although I never was an outliner before, I have actually found doing some, even after the first draft in order to refine it, has been really helpful.

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Hi all,

I'm wondering if any if you uses an editing program. These are two I'm looking at right now.

AutoCrit - https://www.autocrit.com/

ProWritingAid https://prowritingaid.com/

They both seem to have great features that could come in handy, esp for those who can't afford to hire an editor and want their manuscript professionally cleaned up before submission.

You know what I hate?
When you spend hours writing only to find out you haven't actually written anything new, but just editing little minor things from previous things you have written already. #NoProgress >_____<

^True, but as Chrichton said...

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Oh and to follow up with that post I made about editing software- I have been using ProWritingAid, and it is WONDERFUL. It's been extremely educational for me, personally, it's really helped and I do believe my writing has improved due to it. Well worth the purchase price.

So glad to see other writers on here :) I'm about to start planning out some ideas for a mermaid story/novel(depends on how my writing goes really). What are some of your favorite genres to write in? Has anyone tried to do a horror type mermaid novel?