i think that what ever works for you is the way you should go ....as long as i get to read the rest eventually ill be happy ...and im sure so will the rest of your fans.

i would volunteer being a proof reader but i suck at stuff like that

I've heard that what tends to work best is to find a small group of friends that you can show the updates to, but keep it from the general public until it's a bit further along. I don't know though, my writing is awful anyways :P

Creative hobbies work differently for different people. Do whatever YOU want! If you read somewhere that you "should" do something, just take that as advice and decide if that would benefit you and your project at all. If not, then look for other options or continue the way you have been.

To be creative, the project has to be fun, work or not, otherwise, it will just be work.

Have fun! :)

Good advice! :D I may keep posting it; it doesn't matter to me whether or not people read it right now, honestly... it IS keeping me honest >.>

I agree that you should stop. If you're anything like me then you will definitely lose the desire to not just keep writing but to edit it in the first place. Before I came to realize I was like this, I used to show people my work all the time and rave about how I was going to send it to publishers and become the next Stephen King! Sadly and slowly I began to realize that whenever I would show someone my work and they would always give me good feed back no matter how terrible it was, I would just get comfortable. TOO comfortable, even, and my feelings towards the story would change. If I wanted to change something I would pretty much say to myself "Good enough!" and leave it. Eventually I would just get bored with the story and move on to something else.

I consider it to be "bad luck" now to show people my written work before it's complete. If people even ask what I'm writing, I just say "Words" or something sassy. :P

I don't know. When it comes down to it, do whatever you wish! The only other warning I will give you if posting your story gives you a LOT of room for theft. I learned that when it comes to posting online, whoever goes to the patent office first will be the winner in any court case.

ANY. COURT. CASE. It fucking sucks. So be careful!! D:

Yeah, you've just caused me to look up some information on the Poor Man's Copyright and realize that it's pretty much not capable of being protected... so just to be on the safe side, I'm gonna go ahead and take it all down ._. My readers have gotten interested now and I know who they are, so I can trust them with the final first draft after I've put some protection on it. Thanks! :D

I do think it's probably bad luck to share before it's done; my dad's mom always told him that if he shows someone his writing he'll lose the drive to touch it again, and it hasn't been the case for me, but there's not much reason to share it if I can get by without doing so.

You're welcome! I didn't want to cause a hub-bub and such, I just wanted to make sure you knew D: When I first learned that, I was pretty much freaking out (it was back when I used to post stories and poetry online a lot). It's good your readers are interested!! :D I know I am! And I wish you the BEST of luck!

It's just my own personal thing... XP I just think it's bad luck! I would share it with people you know will be honest with you c:

:D Don't worry, that's information that is very much worth sharing, and all it took was a quick Google to prove you were right :D I appreciate it when people set me straight! Better safe than sorry, and I can share it with a few people to keep me motivated without worrying that my OH SO AWESOME IDEA (*snicker* not) is gonna get stolen.

(I'm one of those people who just always assumes no one is going to bother to steal her stuff, but people have told me that that kind of humility can actually cause you problems if you aren't careful. This is one situation in which being somewhat protective is probably better than not being protective at all.)

I hope those who are willing to proofread for me are in for the long haul, because it's gonna be a doozy... >:D

Here's my advice: Share the drafts of the novel only with friends and people who can help you proofread and edit it, but no one else. It's always helpful to share your work with trustful friends who can help you work out all the kinks, and having a different perspective on it than you will also help. But, posting it online where anyone can see it before it's finished and ready is indeed asking for trouble. People can easily plagarize your idea and claim it for their own without giving you any credit whatsoever.

All right, fair enough :) I'm going to take it down and keep things to friends and open up a journal soon that will let people apply to proofread for me. I'll be more careful ;3

I am an editing machine when it comes to everyone's writing but my own. If you need me, let me know. I am like an error-seeking missile.

Believe me, I am going to need it, and when the time comes I will happily accept any missles you want to throw my way. :) I don't get it; I can be touchy about my art -- perhaps it's from years of protecting myself from critique, a bad idea but a reflex -- but when it comes to my writing I am eager for any and all corrections. I feel like if someone reads this and tells me it's just crap I will want to do everything I can to work on it until I change their minds. Perhaps it's because I've had less experience writing, so I'm less tender, but trust me, I hope to get all I can out of anyone willing to proofread for me.

If that is what works for you, than go for it!

I've already volunteered to proofread. Posting stories chapter by chapter makes it harder for me to finish what I'm writing. The only exception is the chapters that can stand alone as short stories.

Yeah. It hasn't given me much trouble, since I've just grabbed the last three day's worth and posted it, but no one's reading it at this point anyway (not a big deal! I understand, like I said! :D). I'll just hold onto it til it's done. Today was rough -- once again I left myself with three day's worth of writing to catch up on, but I stumbled through it without faceplanting, for the most part.

Cool, if you can catch up, you'll be fine. The hardest thing to deal with is when you get behind and can't imagine ever catching up. If that ever happens to me, I completely redesign my goals so that I can still finish.

I did manage about 400 words yesterday, but I was still 1600 behind, so today that put me at 2600, but I pretty much slogged through it. It's sloppy, but it's done -- the point is to just keep pushing forward! Having your inner editor locked in a cage is amazing when you've accumulated that much word debt. >:D Hell, some people will enact a name change halfway through their manuscript and not even bother to go back and change it until they're done. I wouldn't, since a simple find-and-replace will keep me from losing sleep at night. But some even write their daily word count in e-mails to themselves and absolutely refuse to even look at what's done until it's over.

I'm not THAT detached, but I try to keep it to a brief daily recap and a few word changes here and there, maybe a thesaurus for one word that was bugging me before. But I keep myself from wasting any time editing. It's fruitless, anyway, until you've distanced yourself from the writing for a few weeks, minimum. So I try not to waste valuable time going back and editing, now. Instead, I could just go on and get further into my first draft!

Yeah, it's good to stay focused on the stuff that really matters, the plot, characterization and the dialogue. The other stuff is easy to go back and fix. Changing a major plot point can lead to a lot of extra work. I have a problem calling my characters by the wrong name. I think it's funny when someone catches me calling a character by the name of another character in a completely different story in one of my drafts.

LOL, I've done that with two of my side characters -- one of them, Edevi, needs a name change badly, as the God of the story is named Eturi. Too close. But I haven't taken the time to change it because I know who they are. He's gonna get a name change, though. X3 The courtesan in my story has the working name of Aura -- from Azelyn -- though it may only last as far as 3/4 through the novel. The important thing is to just get them named until you come up with something better.

I was out and about today when I realized that, during the big switcharoo scene I'd written where Reve and the soldier change out the artifact in the hallway of the temple with a fake, that the soldier hadn't even passed Reve his letter to his lady-love in Virandene. A small thing, but you have no idea how I stressed over it! My phone was dead, and I was like I HAVE TO MAKE A NOTE OF THIS OR I'M GOING TO LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT TO MY PROOFREADERS AUUUUUGH. But I fixed it. :D One line, fixed. Still crazy how worked up I get about a plot mistake.

I have asked people to borrow a pen and paper while I was in a checkout line at the supermarket. I have a great memory, but some ideas demand to be written down because forgetting them isn't an option. Your approach to writing is very sustainable.

Absolutely. :D I just hate pen and paper, because my handwriting is so poor... writing actually depresses me! I need a better PDA. I hate my phone. I absolutely hate my phone.

I am looking into getting a Google Chrome netbook if I can swing it, because I think it might make doing this whole novel thing even easier... you know, a very pared-down writing system that keeps my focus on writing only. I dunno. My current laptop (the one I'm on right now) is a gaming laptop, VERY heavy, and it is pretty much just a PC because of that. It has tons of things attached to it and moving it is a job of work. So I never move it. I need something more lightweight for writing.

Then again, I'd have to have someplace else to go to write to justify that... I want so badly to add some pretty lanterns and tiki torches to our backyard, get a good mosquito-proofing system, or something, but turning our backyard into a pristine writing mecca isn't really realistic. My office, right now, is pretty conducive to my writing; I have beautiful, dim lights -- blue christmas lights and a red string of rope lights around the back, as well as a lamp I dim with a piece of pink cloth. It smells of flowers because of a candle warmer (which I can switch out with any of six or seven candles at will), has an overhead ceiling fan as well as a tower fan and a desk fan (it gets hot!), and I am going to set up a little mini coffee-station with one of those single-use dispensers sometime this month.

Why the coffee? I realized today -- a lot of writers have a sort of "totem", something that they put on or look at that puts them in the mode to write. I was sitting there going, "God, why don't I have one of those! Why don't I have something that sets me into writing mode?" I realized this as I was holding my first cup of coffee for the day, and I realized -- COFFEE is my totem. :D So it's totally on, now. I'm setting up a station in here.

Heh, you have a good setup. I don't really have a writing place, writing laptop, or anything dedicated to writing. I'm weird in that I don't really like always being in familiar surroundings and such. I don't have a totem. I've composed chapters in gmail drafts while I was sitting at my desk at work after I punched out for the day. Right in the middle of people walking back and forth. When I'm focused, it doesn't matter what else is around me. I used to be more sensitive when I was younger, but now, I think there could be firemen going in and out of the building and I wouldn't move until one of them put their hand in front of my face and told me to get out of the building. It's not good that I can focus like that sometimes. I've almost gotten frostbite because I was too focused on other stuff to notice that my feet were freezing.

I have terrible handwriting and when I take notes about a story, I write down only basic words that will allow me to know what I was thinking. I write them with large letters so that I don't misread them.

I should mention that I don't think that having no regular writing place or writing stuff that grounds you is necessarily a good thing. Because I don't have those things, it takes a lot of willpower for me to start writing. I have tons of things that I could get engrossed in before I even write. It took me a while to deal with that, but I think I'm okay now. There are times that I wish that familiar surroundings/conditions grounded me. It would give me one more way to feel relaxed and calm.

Hell, I envy your ability to get "in the zone" like that. I still have a great number of distractions, even in my own office with the door closed. I've realized in the past few days that my best writing hours are RIGHT as my husband gets home from work, and he misses me a lot, so he opens the door and tells me about this or that funny thing that happened or tells me we have to go to the grocery store or to some other place or asks me to go get food and I'm always like GAH WHY NOW because I'll only have been writing for 15 minutes. I mean I will wake up at 5:00 AM and only get into writing mode at 5 PM when he's asking me to leave the house.

Hmm... The one thing that I've noticed the most is that meals can have a huge affect on how focused I am. I researched this phenomenon and found out that most people get into the zone a couple to a few hours after eating. It seems that focus is strongest when you are hungry, but not starving. That period where you initially feel hungry, but tell yourself to wait and then forget about being hungry for a while. This is also the best time to exercise. Changing your routine around might help you have inspiration at a different time. You could just try it for one week. Wake up earlier or later, have your coffee earlier or later.

i think you should do whatever sounds best to you (which it looks like you've already figured out), but i just wanted to let you know, some of us were reading it still! at least, i was x3

<3 I might send you a copy every so often, if you like :) Just so you can read it before it's actually done.

ooh, i'd definitely like that! i love reading this story, i think you're doing quite well with it, and i love how it kicked my butt back into reading, too! X3

Saved a new PDF and noted it to you, ESPECIAL <3

and i just read it, thank you!!

I like to keep my novel projects private. I stick to just a few close friends (sometimes only my wife) that I let look at them until the first draft is completely finished. My short stories and the like I post online all the time in various states of "done." I thrive on feedback and positive attention. Since writing is the only thing I do, if I want any kind of encouragement I have to produce something to show off. I use short stories to break up my longer projects.

Oh, I'll also vouch for  lolitaofthevoide. She is a great person, and has a sharp eye for catching the mistakes that a lot of people will miss.

 lolitaofthevoid .....with no "e" this time to mess it up. >.< Been a LONG day...

I believe it. :D You two are two proofreaders I really, really hope to acquire when the time comes. If I gotta pay you in money or art, I will. I want it to be a rewarding experience for everybody.

I love art... I would gladly do some proofing for art. I'd like to read your story anyway, so that would be double awesome!

Maybe I could con you into letting you tell me what to draw from the novel. *rubs hands together* Buuuut that would be cheating, right? >:D

Hehe, we could do that, or I could force you to read my books, and make you draw something from them. :p

Oooh~ Totally doable, as well. :D <3 Sounds like a deal, then.

:O I was only half-serious, but that would be pretty awesome.

My recommendation is that you keep your novel to yourself until you have the first full draft finished and have read through it yourself 3 or 4 or 5 times. All that proofreading will help you spot problems, inconsistencies, and typographical errors so you can correct them before submitting the work to public view.

Also, let's say you have a plan in mind for the story, plot, characters, settings, descriptions, etc. You publish a couple chapters online for people to read and one or more come back with criticisms about how they think things should be. No matter how firm you are in wanting to keep things as they are and continue writing as planned, those criticisms will eat at you, gnawing at your mind every time you write something that conflicts with those criticisms. It could reduce or ruin your enjoyment in writing. Instead, if the work is finished before publishing online, it's done and petty criticisms will be easier to ignore. Glaring problems can still be fixed but the structure of the story will be set as you want it.

Thanks for the advice, but as I said days ago, I already took them all down for just that reason. I did have a disclaimer up asking that people hold their criticism til the end, because it wouldn't be any good before the first draft was complete, as I am not doing any editing until then.