# Hi! I'm Otto



## Otto Gramm (Aug 10, 2018)

So far starting my exploring of this site. I write in Sci-fi and fantasy. Hope to find some good clues in here.


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## Ralph Rotten (Aug 10, 2018)

Sci-Fi rules!
Are you looking to publish?


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 11, 2018)

yes


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 11, 2018)

But I also would like to post a fragment here and to see people's opinion. Is the public active and fair here?


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## PiP (Aug 11, 2018)

Welcome Otto. Once you have made 30 valid posts you will have access to the private workshops which are not visible to search engines and new members. If you don't want to make 30 posts before sharing your work, you have the option of becoming a FoWF (Friend of WF). Full details <here>  And in answer to your question, yes, we are active and fair. However, in order for any workshop to be successful you must also be prepared to offer critique in order to receive.


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 11, 2018)

Thank you for a good advice. I agree that's fair. Anyway it will be useful to wander here.


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 11, 2018)

*Hello again! I'm Otto Gramm.*

What people really likes here and how (in big volumes or small stories or reading by chapter or they love links to blogs). Is there any word limit? What's the most convenient way to represent one’s work in public? And is it fine to attach illustrations?
Thanx:rabbit:


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 11, 2018)

How realistic or unimaginable the sci-fi or fantasy can be? How do the readers like get started? Plunging deep into unknown from the first lines or pushing off from something more common and familiar? Can the work scare away by its beyond-realistic line or get boring with something quite known at the beginning?


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## H.Brown (Aug 11, 2018)

Hello Otto and first let me say welcome to wf, you write sci-fi and fantasy that's awesome, maybe you will like to check out the prose forums if you haven't already, I'm sure you'll find plenty in there to have a read through. What type of fantasy do you write and read?


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## TuesdayEve (Aug 11, 2018)

Dear Otto,
I see you have a curious mind. I recommend looking 
around and getting familiar then begin reading some 
other peoples work and the comments for that piece.
I know you’re in a hurry but try to take your time...
there’s alot here. Plus word games and discussions.
There, you might find some ansewers.
Welcome


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 11, 2018)

Thank you for your welcoming. Well my work quite reflexes my vision at sci-fi and since I am a pragmatic Virgo, I love constant and crescendo-alike plot's rolling. I am quite a big fan of Lovecraft and Sanchez Pinol (although he's more a thriller-writer). My story is about space travelling that starts from here, from Earth, and goes spiraling wider and wider, revealing new characters, hew histories and new worlds. It has a lot of psychology and a bid if esoterics features, it touches friendship issues and enemies' plots. My writing was like walking on a minefield, risking to step on plagiarism. So I tried my best to create something unique, which I hope will be loved by public.

I've also made some illustrations if you like it)):redface2:


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 12, 2018)

Thank you. As I've said I'm a bid too realistic for a sci-fi writer preferigng psycology revealing to a dinamic polt with fighting and dragon riding at first pages. But that's my opinion.


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## Anita M Shaw (Aug 12, 2018)

> How realistic or unimaginable the sci-fi or fantasy can be? How do the  readers like get started? Plunging deep into unknown from the first  lines or pushing off from something more common and familiar? Can the  work scare away by its beyond-realistic line or get boring with  something quite known at the beginning?



I would say it can be anything you want it to be as long as it feels believable. Readers will follow the story however it's presented. They're looking for the writer to give them a great time away from their real world. The story itself should suggest how it begins. If you decide that it needs to start at a certain point then try it there. If it works, run with it. If it's lacking or lagging, ditch it and try something else. I know people say write what readers want to read, but really, you have to like the story yourself first or it'll fail anyway. I write for myself and tweak as I need to or want to, later on.

You can get away with the familiar if you can tell a good story and have fresh elements in it. You can fly with something beyond realistic if you make it seem real and believable. I once edited a story by a sixteen year old whose fantasy novel included a race of Tall Dwarves. My boys were appalled, this was sacrilege; but I was okay with it. She did a good job in explaining how this race began and they added to her story. So, just go ahead and create at your whim. Post for feedback, and tweak as you need to or want to.

That's my half cent for now! You're in good company here with the tons of fantasy writers here! Read some of their stuff and see how others do it. Then, do your own thing!  With your inquisitive mind and eagerness, I'm thinking you'll do something great soon!


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 12, 2018)

Anita M Shaw said:


> I know people say write what readers want to read, but really, you have to like the story yourself first or it'll fail anyway. I write for myself and tweak as I need to or want to, later on.



Thank you for so great words. Well it's better to say one must write not even for himself but for his characters, for he's telling their story. And quite often my work gets really outa control and I don't know what to expect from the next line. You are right, the author mustn't depend on public though their critics can be painful...

Well actually we in Russia say: Everyone's tastes are particular. Someone loves watermelon, the other adores pork cartilage.


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 13, 2018)

If I want to post a small tale or a poem I still must have 30 posts?


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## Darren White (Aug 13, 2018)

Yes, I am sorry, but you will have to wait until you made your 30 posts. It seems a lot, but when you comment on other people's work, and participate in discussions, it's done in no time. You're halfway already


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## PiP (Aug 13, 2018)

Otto Gramm said:


> If I want to post a small tale or a poem I still must have 30 posts?



Yes. If you want to share your creative work for feedback prior to making 30 posts, you have the option of becoming a WF Subscriber Monthly subscriptions starts at just $3 per month (A price of a cup of coffee)


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 13, 2018)

That's all right with me for I find it right to go exploring stuff before plunging into it. So I am in no hurry, doing my investigation around the site. Thank you again.


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## bdcharles (Aug 13, 2018)

Otto Gramm said:


> But I also would like to post a fragment here and to see people's opinion. Is the public active and fair here?



We’re active. Fair? More ... passionate, I think. No, I’m kidding, I’m kidding!  please do, though it’s always nice to put responses of your own up too (which you may have done) Then there’s our monthly short fiction comp too, that I curate and am always looking for fresh bodies for...

Glad to have another sci-fi and fantasy person here too. I’d turn this place into a SFF stronghold if I could 

PS for some reason - possibly due to a long-festering synth-pop obsession - my mind reads your username as ‘Autogram’. Welcome, anyway. Don’t mind me. As the mad clown said to the terrified protagonist, you won’t even know I’m here.


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## Anita M Shaw (Aug 14, 2018)

> Thank you for so great words. Well it's better to say one must write not  even for himself but for his characters, for he's telling their story.  And quite often my work gets really outa control and I don't know what  to expect from the next line. You are right, the author mustn't depend  on public though their critics can be painful...
> 
> Well actually we in Russia say: Everyone's tastes are particular. Someone loves watermelon, the other adores pork cartilage.



Lol! I am definitely not a pork cartilage person! Pork chops, pork roast, pulled pork, yes! And watermelon all the time!

Yes, I suppose one writes for the characters, but all that starts with the writer. That said, I've often found that when I'm brainstorming an idea, a name will pop into my head that is one I would likely never use in real life. Like Francis/Frances - but here's this guy/gal in my head telling me that is his/her name and I'd better run with it! Sometimes it even tells me what sort of person this character will be. 

Hmmm . . . when I wrote the time travel for my youngest son's fifth grade class, I did write that for the class. They wanted a novel in which they ALL could appear. Took me the rest of the school year to finish for them, but I got every one of those 26 kids in there somehow. Some had a bigger part than others as I featured my son and his best friends - and their teacher . . . and mom  Anyway, I ran off copies of it for them right before school ended for the year. I really need to get back to it and do the edits so I can publish it. The kids want their names left in it, but it'd be too hard to track them all down now to get permission for that. I have recent spoken permission from a few, so I'll probably change last names but keep first names intact. We'll see. Did they suggest a time travel? No, they just begged for a story, any story with them in it. A couple of them later suggested it should be a series . . . Be nice, but no plans for it right now!


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 19, 2018)

Aw! Passionate is even better for me! Though my style might be a little specific for I'm not good in action writing or fighting scenes inventing. My work is... what it is. I'm not really responsible for what my characters were doing. I fell more like a listener for their stories and retailing them. Sometimes the scene would not go any further if I picked a wrong music for some of my folks.
But I've made quite a big story that is faaaaar from its ending.
I hope you'll like it.
P.S. I also made illustrations:wink:


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## Otto Gramm (Aug 19, 2018)

Ha-ha! I understand you so well!
That's the good thing of being a writer. You can take any person and place him or her in a totally new environment, create your own world around. I used to write funny comics and my friends asked me to do the same thing - to put them into the story which was actually about my school where I put a lot of famous characters like Rambo or Xena or even Luke Skywaker to defeat my history teacher who was almighty, immortal and very cruel. Our company still shares some time together flapping once again those old pages and laughing all night long.


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