Authoring & Playwriting

For all the authors and playwrights in our community, a place to discuss, share content and post tips and advice.

Debbie Elicksen
When you find your archives of TYPEWRITTEN interviews and stories

I wrote A LOT during my typewriter days. Even published a lot. I recently found my collection of stories and interviews, and while it seems like scanning them might be easier to keep them for posterity, some of them I can repurpose. I forgot how much fiction short stories I tried to write. Haven't w...

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Debbie Elicksen

Amanda Michel Thank you. I am digitizing, because, you know. At least if there is a fire, flood, or whatever, I can still have it in the cloud. Also, clearing space.

David E. Gates

That's exactly what happened to me with my memoir, Cinema. I started putting it together and thought it was a nice short memoir of my cinema-going and movie experiences coming in at around 10,000-15,0...

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Debbie Elicksen

David E. Gates It has to be done, doesn't it? :) Otherwise, knowing it's there makes you not sleep at night.

David E. Gates

Absolutely. The Roots of Evil came about from having "found" an old story I'd part-written but never finished. I revised it, expanded it, added to it... and now it has a sequel and will be part of a trilogy!

Thiago Carvalho

I believe that all methods that activate creativity and take us out of comfort, are welcome. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Deadline end of next week.

Emerged for 5 mins from the writing cave. What's everyone working on atm?

Ellison Kk

I'm working on fiction book

Cara Rogers

Nicole F. Burney, we have similar lives lol! I do have a lot of little plants in pots, just not in the ground yet. Dang allergies.

Lisa Penner Dang

Irish screenplay. Brigid of Dingle.

Rosalind Winton

Thank you Daisy, I appreciate your reply. I will pass all that on to my client :)

Jeffrey J. Mariotte

I'm doing the final polish on a mystery novel for a May 1 deadline. Then it's off to the publisher. I need to whip out a short story for an anthology, then get started on the third in the mystery series.

Marian Betts
Have you heard of Writers Value?

I have been approached by a gentleman from Writers Value to handle my first book and package it to present it to Simon & Schuster Publishers. Has anyone heard of or done business with them? Their website says they also option Film and TV rights, so I was hoping some one here had heard of them.

Emily J

Hey Marian Betts! I have never heard of them and looking at their site, it doesn't seem to be they option projects themselves so much as they create a platform for you to be discovered and helping be...

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Morgan Aitken

Aye, a net scrape and whois is all it takes to confirm it's a scam. Or just another self pubber looking to make rent.

Marian Betts

Thanks to both of you. Emily I sent you a private message. Morgan thanks for mentioning those. I had missed them!

Screenplay help

I have written a story that I would like to turn into a screenplay. I am a total novice and am looking for beginner level help.

Emily J

Hi John! We have some great resources that can help you. Lee Shargel wrote about his process in today's blog post and Mickey Levy taught a great webinar on this topic. ALSO, we have Adaptation Review...

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Morgan Aitken

John, why do you want to adapt your story for film?

William Schumpert
How do you advertise?

I have an annual sale for the holidays. My upcoming promo is for St. Patrick's Day. As I know my genre I like to use the old horror tongue-in-cheek humor. Made using Procreate and Canva.

D.E. White

Lol love this! I use the socials and PR for advertising but I would certainly consider Facebook or Amazon ads in the future. Or a Book Bub promo.

Jeff Kitchen
I sent this to my advanced scriptwriting students:

Go through your database of story ideas and find the ones that really grab you. See which ones have enough clout to make into a full script. Work on the Dilemma, Enneagram, and the 36 Dramatic Situations to pull the basics together. Bubble sort them to find which are your top 50. What grabs you abo...

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The Grey Zone... How's it going?

So I discovered that I am officially in the grey zone (books not hair), and it's been great to have so much support from fellow authors and readers for this new project. Due to an error on my part (but hey I haven't self pub'd for 12 years) the book came out yesterday. This is okay because not only...

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Amanda Toney

Congratulations Daisy, that’s great. I’m curious, too, what do you contribute the success to?

Shellie Schmals

Daisy, that's fantastic! When lining up your press, did you include critics in there too? Or only media outlets?

D.E. White

Haha The Grey Zone is apparently where you dwell when you are trad x self pub. I only just learnt this, so I'm waaaay behind lol. Press comes from a brilliant Facebook group called Lightbulb, and I ha...

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D.E. White

Interestingly, and I have no idea if this could be related, but my agent also just heard back from a TV production company regarding one of my other books so fingers crossed.

D.E. White

Oh, also the categories! If you self pub with KDP you get offered 3 categories but if you email support you can pick up to 8 more, so I researched my target market before I picked, but it's like having another 8 shop windows the book is now displayed in (virtually obvs).

Souvik Chakraborty
Other than Kindle, where else have you self published your books for free?

Hello writers, just needed to understand what are you using to distribute and promote your books. Platforms, sites or channels. feel free to link me through. I am an independent writer and filmmaker.

Sam Sokolow

Sharing your work here on Stage 32 in any ways that you can is a great tool to always have in your toolkit.

David E. Gates

On my own website, and bookstore. www.davidegates.com and on Smashwords and Draft2Digital (which are now merged). Draft2Digital is very good and gets your book effortlessly into a lot of online stores...

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Julia Warren

Try reaching out to blogs and websites that host giveaways - there's a few on Facebook that share information and links about giveaways, one is actually just called Book Blog Giveaways (https://www.fa...

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David P Perlmutter

Hi Souvik Chakraborty of course Amazon. I would suggest promoting your book/s for free on here, your own social media platforms and a blog or website. Personally, I’m on Instagram, Facebook, Linkedln...

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Karen "Kay" Ross

Hey Christina, this is Karen from the Stage 32 team. I just wanted to let you know I moved your post from Distribution to Authoring & Playwriting, as it fits much better there. Let me know if you have any questions, and all the best to you!

Christina Patjens

Hey Karen! Thanks for your help. As there's not much interest for the link I've put down I'm asking myself if it would be better to copy and paste the whole article in the respective lounges? Let me know your thoughts. Best, Christina

Daniel Lyddon
Twenty-one Years In The Making: How The Devil Came To God's Doorstep

This year I self-published my first novel, The Devil On God's Doorstep, via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, after twenty-one years of working on it. It was a huge decision - one that I made last September/October, and then spent months agonising over. I learned to be ruthless with the editing proce...

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Twenty-one Years In The Making: How The Devil Came To God's Doorstep
Twenty-one Years In The Making: How The Devil Came To God's Doorstep
The best stories show up when you least expect them The cover of my debut novel One March 14th, 2001, a little over a fortnight before I turned 18, I found myself flanked by my parents at a Cardiff Un…
Daniel Lyddon

Geoff Hall Thanks Geoff - it hasn't been an easy ride. A lot of time spent, at high cost, both financial and mental/emotional and it has yet to make any kind of significant sales. But the fact is, I f...

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Daniel Lyddon

Debbie Elicksen I've learned the hard way not to compete with - the Canadian capacity for alcohol consumption! Especially at sports fixtures

Geoff Hall

Daniel Lyddon and that is a great measure of success. You had a story to tell. You told it and you got the book out there. Promotion is difficult with and project, as we have to figure out how to cut...

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Daniel Lyddon

Geoff Hall Definitely - I've done the leg work in creating the book (my second book is out next month) and now it's about cutting through the noise. It's also been a HUGE learning curve for me - about...

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Debbie Elicksen

Daniel Lyddon Lol. True that. Especially if they are Ukrainian Canadian. (Whistling and looking away, innocently)

Joanne Done
Publication Day!

My second short story was published yesterday! I'd love to connect with anyone who adapts prose for the screen, and can offer me any tips.

Bill Albert

Congratulations. Keep up the good work.

Joanne Done

Confingo 18 - it's a literary journal based in Manchester, UK

Niki Hayes

Joanne, congratulations! What a lovely validation. If you're interested in screen adaptions, you should post this in the Screenwriting lounge as well. You can check out our webinars, there are several...

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Jeff E. Gregory

Register a copyright at copyright.gov, and get an agent.

Paul David Brazill

Congratulations! I also find adapting my stories really hard. I wish someone could do the heavy lifting for me!

Sydney Summers
Next Friday Stage 32 Is Hosting A Webinar With Our Very Own CEO RB For Ask Me Anything: The State Of The Industry - Where We Are Headed!

It's exciting time for you as a content creator - whether you work in film, television or digital - and it's equally exciting for content makers because the world has opened wide to international voices traveling beyond borders. This free webinar will go over all things film, TV and new media! Bring...

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D.E. White

Brilliant!

Debbie Elicksen

I have it in my calendar.

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