-Neopian Times Writers Thread (Storytelling writers also welcome)

[chubit]

Hello there, I'm blueberry.
Across neopets I've been known to go by Natalie, Hana, Chubit.

(This is the problem with being so involved in roleplaying, you end up with so many aliases!)

 

As someone who has become a savvy writer outside the neopets world, I thought I'd finally try turning this skill to neopets. Although, I am aware that getting published in the Neopian Times is far harder than getting published in the Guardian (especially if it's a 50th edition) it's still worth a shot.

 

This board is to welcome anyone and everyone who has ever written for the Neopian Times (doesn't matter if you actually got in or not) or is just thinking about it.

 

Advice, ideas and general introductions are welcome.

Feel free to post the name of stories & articles you've gotten published, as well as links to any works-in-progress you have that you'd like some feed back on.

 

If you're dropping in, why not start off your first post with answers to the following questions:

 

-) Have you ever been published in the NT? (How many times? Have you made it to 10 yet?)

-) If not, have you ever tried to get published? (How did the rejection make you feel? Are you going to resubmit?)

-) What type of submission do you/would you submit? (Article? Short story? Long series?)

-) Why do you want to submit? (Do you just love writing? Avatars? Trophies?)

-) Have you ever tried your hand at other writing contests? (Storytelling? Poetry contest? Caption contest?)

-) What's your general feelings about the NT?

 

 

-Feel free to answer as many or as few questions as you'd like, they're just suggestions.

 

 

Useful guides for those writing for the first time, or just trying to better their writing:

neopets.com/~prince_rondalm - "Becoming a NT Star"

neopets.com/~Countersuit - "Talia's Writing Guide"

 

Add any guides you've used, or think others might find useful, in the comments below.

[leverhelven]

-) Have you ever been published in the NT? (How many times? Have you made it to 10 yet?)

Yes, once! But then again, I've only tried once :P I still wanna get inspiration to be published more and, eventually, get the 10 times avvie!

-) What type of submission do you/would you submit? (Article? Short story? Long series?)

I submitted an article about the AC with a feminist tone to it. I'm probably gonna write more articles, since my ideas of stories are usually too dark, creepy and/or inadequate in general, lol

-) Why do you want to submit? (Do you just love writing? Avatars? Trophies?)

The trophy is pretty, but I want dat avvie <3 Also I enjoy writing!

-) Have you ever tried your hand at other writing contests? (Storytelling? Poetry contest? Caption contest?)

I've tried the Poetry Contest twice. Both times it got held... and I never got any other answer after that. Oh well :rolleyes_anim:

-) What's your general feelings about the NT?

It has way too good stuff for me to compete with D:

[chubit]

Thank you for the response! I just realised that I myself never answered the questions. Haha.

Before I do, I just wanted to ask if you'd be up for posting a link to your article? Because 1. I love feminism & 2. I'd like to see just what kind of 'politics' stuff you can get away with on neopets, seeing how the type of articles I write in real life are on religion, politics & feminism most the time, I thought I'd have to strip all that back for the NT.

-also, one more question, should I refer to you as leverhelven? policialmagaly? I've not really picked up the TDN name etiquette yet. :laughingsmiley:

 

-) What type of submission do you/would you submit?

I'm definitely going to go for a mix of short stories and articles. My article writing skill is definitely better, but I'd be worried the topic would keep being too 'serious'. Short stories you can weave in 'serious' themes without actually being serious. Thus still neo-friendly.

-) Why do you want to submit?

Avatar & trophy mostly, but as I said in my first post, I do a lot of writing for my real life job.

-) Have you ever tried your hand at other writing contests?

Today I submitted my first ever story telling contribution, but other than that, no :)

-) What's your general feelings about the NT?

It took me WAAAYYY too long to get into reading it and thinking about contributing. Sometimes it feels like a bit of a hidden gem.

Edit to add an update:

I recently completed my first article & submitted!

Pretty excited to hear back, but apparently it will take a while. I'm going to add to the first post the guides I used - feel free to comment with any guides you've found/think would be useful.

Edited August 27, 2014 by chubit

[Lamppost]

I know it's been awhile since anybody posted on this thread, but I just found it and thought I'd put in my two cents.

 

Have you ever been published in the NT?

Yes. I've published over 15 articles. (That includes a 10-part series, so that really helped with numbers!)

 

How did the rejection make you feel? Are you going to resubmit?

I've had a few articles get rejected for "too many good entries." I really hate that reason. Some of them I have edited and resubmitted successfully, but more often than not I submit them 3-4 times and then give up.

 

What type of submission do you/would you submit? (Article? Short story? Long series?)

I've only published articles. I've considered trying for a long series but I haven't written a good enough story yet. I like articles because they're straightforward. I don't have to get too creative, mostly just research and share advice.

 

Why do you want to submit?

It started out as just trying to get the avatars. After that, though, it was more about the satisfaction of getting published as well as the opportunity to express some creativity and exercise my writing skills. Also, I kind of want to get my trophy to a round number (though I'm not working on any right now).

 

Have you ever tried your hand at other writing contests?

Yes. I've entered and won the storytelling, poetry, and caption contests. I have the most success with Poetry. Though I've had many poems get held over and not published, I've had 3 poems published. I've tried the STC several times and gotten selected only once. I just recently started trying the Caption Contest. I won once (but so recently that my trophy hasn't come through yet) and I'm actually in the current contest, but it looks like I won't have enough votes to win this time. (I didn't try as hard to get votes like the first time. And maybe my caption just isn't as funny!)

 

What's your general feelings about the NT?

I read it every week, but just the editorial and articles. I always check to see if there are any interesting articles but usually there isn't. I think a lot of what gets published in the NT isn't really publish-worthy. There's one user who publishes article after article that's really more of a narrative than an article, and it drives me nuts. x.x Plus some topics just seem somewhat silly to me (including some of the articles I've published). They're more about Neopets or items and they're not really useful information, but hey, it worked. But every so often a really interesting article comes through, and I learn something, and I appreciate the NT for that.

[chubit]

Thank you for the really awesome response!

Your words actually gave me some real perspective.

 

I think you're right about articles, sometimes the topics are a little silly, and I wonder if it's because they prefer that writing style, or they rarely get very functioning articles come through for new topics (I can't imagine how many avatar guides they've received)

 

My first article that was being *held* has now been published!

http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=563738&week=663

 

I'm now currently working on a new article, and also a comic series with an artist.

The latter is more for fun, so I don't mind if I don't get author credit for it, but does both the *writer* and *the artist* get trophies/credit for comics?

[Lamppost]

What a creative idea for an article! Congratulations on your first publication!

 

I'm glad my words gave you some perspective! And I'm glad somebody agrees with me about some of the silly articles. I'd guess it's a combination of the preferred writing style and lack of choice. They don't want to be publishing game guide after game guide. Plus, they are trying to appeal to a wide range of audiences, especially in age range. It's probably a little about expressing creativity, too. This is certainly a site that values creativity!

 

And to answer your question, with a comic, both the writer and the artist do get credit, as long as the name of the collaborator is submitted in the comments.

[chubit]

Thanks, it just came to me & was my first every attempt.

I'm working on another one right now, but I have so much University stuff on my mind, I find it quite hard to focus on writing.. When really I should be writing an essay.. Or an article for the actual newspaper I work for /laughs.

 

Thanks for the advice on the comic thing, I just wrote out the *screen play* and dialogue for a comic and sent it to the artist, hopefully they'll remember to include me and that'll be another credit.

 

Are two people allowed to collaborate on a story as well?