2026 Motivation Thread

[RedMage]

If you're really feeling the writing itch, maybe banging out a short story that serves as background for a character or a scene that happens off-page in your latest or next work, in which you flesh out what happened. I find, when I'm in a lull, my writing isn't quite as dynamic since I'm forcing it a bit. So, spending the words on a short story that may or may not ever see the light of day scratches the writing itch without much in the way of stakes.

In short, I use these times to serve the bigger project in other ways.

That's not a bad idea! Thanks Jonas.

I did have a new idea on Sunday. By the time I was able to jot it down a few hours later, I had mulled it over enough to see that it might work as a second storyline in another project I'm still in the ideas phase on. They're separate atm, but I've included the note that they might be combined.

I have a number of other stories, things that are more than ideas/concepts, but which need a lot more work or even an overhaul to their plots and characters before I can do anything with them. And to do that I have to figure out just what to do. Lol

So any of those, or a short story... I like that idea a lot. Most of my shorter-than-a-novel ideas are for novella length stories. An actual short story though, that's longer than a flash but short enough I can do it in a week without getting too attached. Now, what prompt??

 

[Alan L]

@djv124 @RolandsFarblood @STEKI @EricJ @Alan L @Jonas Stark and anyone else.

I'm sure you've all noticed things are fairly quiet around here. Is there anything we can do to support you in your writing? Do you need an accountability partner? Regular motivation and/or inspiration? Critique partners? Somewhere just to hangout and chat about writing, be it story-specific issues or general ponderings?

Are there other things we can do to help you in your writing or provide you with a writing community and friends? Maybe regular, weekly writing sessions or writing contests or games?

Basically, what would you like to see from SFFWorld?

Maybe it's just the hot summer doldrums, or maybe it's just that forums aren't trendy anymore (which suits me just fine, I've got more than enough trendy in my life already.)

Personally, I had a rough couple of months where writing was a slog. Past tense. I just posted in some detail about this on the "New Post your Progress" thread. The TL;DR is I'm finally into draft 2 and hope to get that done relatively soon.

What do I want to see from SFFWorld? Since the days of BBSes I've used forums like this to build connections with like-minded idiots people, some of which have transitioned into friendships around the world. I'm not sure there's more to it than that.

Once my book is ready to put out there, I'll be going into production and marketing mode, but there are lots of niche sites that have the mechanics of that covered. I'm going to have to step out of my comfort zone and turn into a promotional monster, but I'm sure as hell not going to go spamming forums in the process. If someone manages to give it a review here, I'll be over the moon.

Maybe some of the people I connect with will be open to sharing marketing ideas and working together, but my impression is there's not a lot of folks like that here. If that's not correct, that's a bonus.

 

[Jonas Stark]

Maybe some of the people I connect with will be open to sharing marketing ideas and working together, but my impression is there's not a lot of folks like that here. If that's not correct, that's a bonus.

Funny you mention this, because I am strongly considering the self-publishing route and I am willing to put my money where my (book) is on this, and that includes my own marketing, etc. I will try the traditional route early next year after I've reworked the first book in the series that's going live, but I'll probably be working a parallel track for my own publishing effort.

So, if you find such a place where there's an exchange of ideas, count me in.

 

[RedMage]

Maybe some of the people I connect with will be open to sharing marketing ideas and working together, but my impression is there's not a lot of folks like that here. If that's not correct, that's a bonus.

And @Jonas Stark

We're a very small community of scifi, fantasy and horror writers these days. It's not that the people aren't here... Uh, well, they aren't. Either they've stopped writing, turned into lurkers rather than active members, or they've migrated elsewhere.

What I'm saying is that it's not always possible or sufficient to arrive at a place that already meets all your needs. Sometimes you must build it. Sometimes you must be the agent of change.

So, when the time comes, start a new thread about the topics you want to discuss. We want members to do that, just as much as we want them to jump into discussions in threads others create.

 

[Alan L]

And @Jonas Stark

We're a very small community of scifi, fantasy and horror writers these days. It's not that the people aren't here... Uh, well, they aren't. Either they've stopped writing, turned into lurkers rather than active members, or they've migrated elsewhere.

What I'm saying is that it's not always possible or sufficient to arrive at a place that already meets all your needs. Sometimes you must build it. Sometimes you must be the agent of change.

So, when the time comes, start a new thread about the topics you want to discuss. We want members to do that, just as much as we want them to jump into discussions in threads others create.

I'd be happy to start that, but I want to exercise some caution. I think one of the reasons the forums aren't completely dead is because promotional messages are well-contained here. A lot of similar places have been overrun with overt or indirect promotion and that turns people off (it certainly turns me off.) Any discussion of marketing runs the risk of alienating non-authors, especially if we start posting images and promotional copy. Can I gently suggest a sub-forum off of Promotions? Then people who want to avoid this sort of thing will have to go looking for it first.

 

[RedMage]

Well, there's a difference between "How do I do this?" And "Hey! I did this thing. Come look! It's so amazingly cool!!!"

Im with you: I don't like the flood of promotions, and neither do SFFWorld's owner or other leadership. That's why we have the Promotion Zone.

The Stories subforum of this Writing Forum has long been used as a place for our forum's authors to post their stories and receive feedback. It's primary use since I've been here (as far as I'm personally aware) has been for posting stories for forum contests. However, I've also posted non-contest stories to that subforum. I don't know if we can or should -- it's something we'll need to discuss more both with Writing Forum members and SFFWorld leaders -- but we may be able to use that for critiquing that too. Let's discuss more when you're ready.

In the meantime, you might use the forum search function (it is what it is) to find other threads on marketing in order to see how forumites have handled this topic in the past.

 

[Alan L]

In the meantime, you might use the forum search function (it is what it is) to find other threads on marketing in order to see how forumites have handled this topic in the past.

I can't even find the search facility LOL.

 

[RedMage]

I've been there! I actually asked one of the mods! Back before I became one.

It's the text box that says Google at the top of the page. If you're on a phone, you may need to turn your phone on its side and make the app rotate.

 

[Alan L]

Oh. I was looking for the native XenForo search. LOL. I fondly remember when Google was a search engine. Nevertheless I'll give it a go in a private tab.

 

[Alan L]

Well my unscientific survey was pretty bleak. Aside from someone who came in earlier this year looking for a marketing agency that would work for an unspecified "reasonable price" (and was gently pushed in the direction of DIY, as marketing just ain't reasonably priced), most threads that are actually on the topic of marketing were one or two decades old, and even then they were very generalized or rapidly drifted off topic.

I'm not sure what would work here, if anything. I need to ruminate on this for a while.

 

[RedMage]

Well my unscientific survey was pretty bleak. Aside from someone who came in earlier this year looking for a marketing agency that would work for an unspecified "reasonable price" (and was gently pushed in the direction of DIY, as marketing just ain't reasonably priced), most threads that are actually on the topic of marketing were one or two decades old, and even then they were very generalized or rapidly drifted off topic.

I'm not sure what would work here, if anything. I need to ruminate on this for a while.

Darn! I was sure one of the old regulars had posted something in the last year or so. I'm guessing you tried a variety of terms and not simply "marketing", but things like "advertisement" and "ads" and other things that are different types of marketing?

 

[Alan L]

Darn! I was sure one of the old regulars had posted something in the last year or so. I'm guessing you tried a variety of terms and not simply "marketing", but things like "advertisement" and "ads" and other things that are different types of marketing?

Correct. Then again, Google might just not have indexed anything, preferring to stuff the content into an "AI" answer instead. [angry emoticon] The challenge I see here is that it's a big subject with many facets. A "Marketing your Book(s)" thread would become too diffuse to be useful in short order. I've got maybe 200 nodes of semi-organized information in my "Book Marketing and Promotion" notes across a couple of dozen sub-topics. We'd be better off with threads like "building your mailing list", "newsletter strategies" and "advertising on Meta" (and that last one maybe add "in 2026" since they keep making radical changes.)

Even then we might wind up with really long threads where it's hard to pick out the value.

Shifting back to the more general question and building community, maybe we could have a place where new members can introduce themselves in more depth than what we stick in our signatures. Readers could identify what they like to read, writers could talk about where they are in their journey and what they are working on. Then maybe existing members could say "hey, Hi, I'm working on solarpunk vampire mysteries too!" and form some kind of connection.

 

[RedMage]

Your message, @Alan L, appeared a lot longer on my phone. LOL

Those are great ideas for different threads on the separate aspects of marketing. We can definitely do that. I thought, too, maybe a single Table of Contents-style thread for the different marketing threads. That could contain links to the current, individual threads and be stickied and locked so no replies can be made to it.

Regarding the rest:

Shifting back to the more general question and building community, maybe we could have a place where new members can introduce themselves in more depth than what we stick in our signatures. Readers could identify what they like to read, writers could talk about where they are in their journey and what they are working on. Then maybe existing members could say "hey, Hi, I'm working on solarpunk vampire mysteries too!" and form some kind of connection.

I love these ideas! So, let's see...we have:

• Writers Introduction Thread
• Reader Intro Thread
• Writers Current Projects & Status of those

We actually have a site-wide Intro thread in the General Discussion Forum. It's the Introduce yourself and say 'Hi'. This is the thread to say 'Hello' in (v4)! However, I like the idea for a Writing Forum specific thread for our members to meet and get to know each other in more detail.

I also really like the idea of a Current Projects/Status thread. I often use this thread for that, and others use the Even Newer Post Your Progress Thread for status updates. That said, we could probably do with some changes, some reorganization of this Writing Forum -- if not in the threads themselves, then in how we communicate and talk with each other. Yes! I'm guilty of misusing threads!

So, would you like to get us started? Maybe a new Writers Intro Thread would be a good thing to start with...

 

[Alan L]

Your message, @Alan L, appeared a lot longer on my phone. LOL

I'm in an alternate universe when you access my stuff via phone.

So, would you like to get us started? Maybe a new Writers Intro Thread would be a good thing to start with...

A few years ago I set up forums for our local arts group (which has a lot of writers) and I had a clever name for the "get to know people" forum. It never took off and now I can't remember the clever name, which is unfortunate since it I bet it would probably make a good title for an intro thread. I'll let that recall task percolate for a few hours. It will come to me... and there's a 50-50 chance it will actually be of use. Either way I'll kick something off shortly.

 

[RedMage]

Is the local arts group's forum still active, or can you use the internet archive's wayback machine to find that thread with its clever name?

 

[Alan L]

Is the local arts group's forum still active, or can you use the internet archive's wayback machine to find that thread with its clever name?

Alas no, long gone, and the only thing search/archiving engines would have seen is a login page. I wound up building a country filter to keep the bots out. The forum died, but the filter evolved through three generations where it's now a full-fledged web application firewall and the staunch defender of my websites (1,405 address look-ups, 63 abusive addresses reported, 700 abusive requests blocked—so far today).

However the might be something in my mail archives...