[Terial]

Recently, I posted concerning a series of books I was writing. Well, I haven't been working on it lately because I've relapsed into school and work, but in about a week, I'll be back on track with my writing. I was told then that I should try writing short stories before working on an actual novel. I thought it over and had a few decent ideas, but nothing that really struck me as brilliant. I, as a writer, have trouble writing short stories. Mostly because I end up making the story into something much more complex than a short story should be.

Anyway, I was sitting in math today, letting ADD take over when I had an idea. I thought of another element to add to the plot of my books, and it developed into something that could run it's own independent story.(as well as several other plots in my books) I decided to use that idea to write short stories about a single character, following events that take place about 15 years before the present time of my books.

What I want to do with this, would be to post it online. Instead of posting my books online as I originally wanted, I could publish these smaller, connected stories. I hope that this will allow me to get real criticism from people about my writing style and a connected plot to my main story.

The problem I see though, would be that I could simply be wasting my time publishing it online, only to get no actual criticism of my work, and when I want to get my original books published, the publisher won't want to do so because part of the plot was thrown online for everyone and their momma to see. I also don't like the idea of being criticized for reworking something that I had already written into the storyline of the short stories, to fit with my (still forming) plot of the books. These stories will be meant to be a test and a training of my writing skills mainly. I want them to be seen as rough drafts, that are likely to get revised or rewritten altogether, but I also want them to be seen as a critisizable work.

I want these stories to be independent enough to possibly be collected into a "collected works" one day, along side my books, but I don't want to seem like my story isn't well thought out or preserved, which I'll end up retconning and reworking the original stories so much that it will definetly seem like I'm not taking care with the writing and plot.

Do you think that I should shoot my idea of publishing these stories online in the head, or continue thinking about it until I have some concrete work?

[Bongo Bill]

I think it'd be best if you hold off thinking about publishing until you've actually written anything. 99% of writers mostly take what they can get.

If you're serious about it, hire a literary agent. If you're not that serious, then there's no reason why you couldn't put it online, as long as you make sure that the copyright and all that is in a position that'll be favorable to you if you try to publish it anywhere else.

[kamoh]

You should focus your questions to this thread.

http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6328