Looking for draft readers [DUTCH ONLY]


_wb_

Microbe
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I'm currently writing a book on my Pandora -- it's by no means finished, there are still quite a few chapters (9 or so, out of 31 planned chapters) to be written, the chapters that are written could use some more flesh and texture, and even the plot is not fully finalized yet, but it's work in progress and some progress has been made already. The text is currently about 40.000 words, about 120 pages. Perhaps enough to start showing it to some people for some feedback.

This is the first time I write fiction. Of course, that does not stop me from hoping it will become an unexpected international bestseller, translated in 42 languages ;)

It's going to be, I hope, a rather thought-provoking and mind-blowing feminist science-fiction porn novel. Because of this rather peculiar genre, I'm a bit reluctant to show it to my family -- besides my girlfriend, none of them has read it so far. But maybe I can find some people here who are interested in the genre, and since I probably don't know you in real life, it's a bit less embarrassing for me as well :) .

The book is in Dutch, since that is my native language. So you have to understand Dutch if you want to help me. I guess that rules most of you out, sorry about that.

Let me know something in this thread if you're interested. I will then send you a private message with the first few chapters. Obviously I will ask you to not distribute my drafts without my approval, at this point. I have no idea yet how I will publish the book when it's ready -- could be anything from an old-fashioned publisher to a self-published ebook with a CC license. But at this point it's just an unfinished private manuscript.

You can choose yourself what kind of feedback you want to give. Maybe just "i like it" or "i hate it", that would be fine. Or maybe you have comments or suggestions about the plot, the characters, the language, whatever. Any feedback would be appreciated.
 
Unfortunately I don't speak Dutch. However I like your topic and hope I can someday read one of the 42 translations in German or English. :)
 
Unfortunately I don't speak Dutch. However I like your topic and hope I can someday read one of the 42 translations in German or English. :)
If it ever gets translated, English would probably be the first language to translate it to. That's the only language I know well enough to check the translation myself.

I'm still looking for candidates by the way. I've sent copies to dreamer and aTc, but dreamer decided proofreading is not his thing, and aTc still has to start reading.

How many Dutch speaking/reading Pandora forum users are there?
 
Jon, you could submit an excerpt of your work to someone you deem trustworthy after a time on these forums:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/

In any case, the members may have some helpful advice for you. :)
Thanks for the link! Looks like a useful forum, I'll take a closer look at it...

Still no Dutch/Flemish readers here?
You are most welcome. Once my health eventually returns to a manageable state again, I'll give you some competition. :)

If you don't mind, here's two books you may find indispensable:

On-Writing by Steven King

The Art of Fiction by Ayn Rand

Regardless of the author's philosophies, they are loaded with invaluable content for the burgeoning artist to find their own voice more clearly. Believe me, you won't regret owning both.

One last thing.

Besides always reminding yourself to have fun with the task of writing, the single most important book for your repertoire is the Synonym Finder. Inexpensive and worth it's weight in platinum. It'll bring colour to the pages.

Adieu.
 
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Besides always reminding yourself to have fun with the task of writing, the single most important book for your repertoire is the Synonym Finder. Inexpensive and worth it's weight in platinum. It'll bring colour to the pages.
Yes, I can imagine that a real good thesaurus could be very useful to find the exact right word and to avoid repetition. That particular one is not really useful for me since it's in the wrong language though :)
 
Besides always reminding yourself to have fun with the task of writing, the single most important book for your repertoire is the Synonym Finder. Inexpensive and worth it's weight in platinum. It'll bring colour to the pages.
Yes, I can imagine that a real good thesaurus could be very useful to find the exact right word and to avoid repetition. That particular one is not really useful for me since it's in the wrong language though :)
Your English is very good but that would be a problem needing to translate to and fro I suppose. Well, hope you find one that works for your needs.
 
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Looks like the best Dutch thesaurus ("Het juiste woord" by Brouwers & Claes) is currently out of stock in all on-line bookstores I tried. And it has not been digitized yet. Ugh.
 
Looks like the best Dutch thesaurus ("Het juiste woord" by Brouwers & Claes) is currently out of stock in all on-line bookstores I tried. And it has not been digitized yet. Ugh.
Is this the correct book?

http://www.antikvariat.net/ROE66616.cgi
It's the right book, but that one is the 1990 edition while the most recent one is from 2006.

http://www.bol.com/nl/p/het-juiste-woord/1001004001806651/

http://www.bruna.nl/boeken/het-juiste-woord-9789071206528

http://www.nl.fnac.be/mp13923265/Het-juiste-woord

http://www.proxisazur.be/nl/catalog/detail/boeken/218811/kramers-het-juiste-woord-l-brouwers-f-claes-1415-p-hardcover/ean/9789002220296

http://www.athenaeum.nl/shop/details/Het+Juiste+Woord/9789071206528

The Dutch spelling changed slightly between those two years, so I would prefer to have the more recent one. Maybe there will be a new edition soon.
 
Looks like the best Dutch thesaurus ("Het juiste woord" by Brouwers & Claes) is currently out of stock in all on-line bookstores I tried. And it has not been digitized yet. Ugh.
Is this the correct book?

http://www.antikvariat.net/ROE66616.cgi
It's the right book, but that one is the 1990 edition while the most recent one is from 2006.

http://www.bol.com/nl/p/het-juiste-woord/1001004001806651/

http://www.bruna.nl/boeken/het-juiste-woord-9789071206528

http://www.nl.fnac.be/mp13923265/Het-juiste-woord

http://www.proxisazur.be/nl/catalog/detail/boeken/218811/kramers-het-juiste-woord-l-brouwers-f-claes-1415-p-hardcover/ean/9789002220296

http://www.athenaeum.nl/shop/details/Het+Juiste+Woord/9789071206528

The Dutch spelling changed slightly between those two years, so I would prefer to have the more recent one. Maybe there will be a new edition soon.
Pricey but I found it. Ships from Germany.  :)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9071206521/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=
 
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Hi _WB_ I am dutch but I live in germany and was raised there... So I can read dutch and can write simple sentences but I´m afraid I can´t help you with spelling etc...

But I can give you my opinion and feeling about the book if that is some kind of help. Just offering :D
 
Thanks for finding it! Rather pricy indeed ($65 for a used book?), so I'm not sure yet if I'll actually buy it, but perhaps I will. I'm still working on the plot, I have 42 chapters planned now (used to be 31, but that turned out to be not enough), but only as a very rough outline. I'm writing more or less linearly, and I'm currently writing chapter 24.

The observing reader will notice that the prime number chapters (2,3,5,7,...) are completely different from the non-prime number chapters (1,4,6,8,...), almost as if they are two completely separate stories. Until of course the two threads start to intersect, around chapter 14 for the first time, more clearly in chapters 18 and 19, to become one shared story around chapter 25, still with different perspectives depending on the primality of the chapter number.

That kind of geeky self-imposed constraints actually help for me :)

Hi _WB_ I am dutch but I live in germany and was raised there... So I can read dutch and can write simple sentences but I´m afraid I can´t help you with spelling etc...

But I can give you my opinion and feeling about the book if that is some kind of help. Just offering :D
I sent you a draft of the first 20 chapters in a private message. Have fun with it!

I don't care much about spelling and grammar, I'm pretty confident that that aspect will be OK. I'm not looking for typo correctors, I'm looking for feedback on the contents :)

I'm very interested in opinions, even though I feel free to ignore them. E.g. my girlfriend considered a lot of sexual descriptions "over the top", but I mostly ignored her complaints -- it's my artistic freedom to go way over the top, right? ;)

Also you can give your first impressions, chapter-by-chapter or even page-by-page. You don't have to read all of those 100 pages before sending me some feedback.
 
That this thread is in English amuses me greatly.  :p

Sorry for the interruption.
 
That this thread is in English amuses me greatly.  :p

Sorry for the interruption.
Well this is an English forum, and as a moderator I am a model forum member and follow that language convention :)

Also, even if people don't understand Dutch, they may or may not be interested in this particular Pandora use case.

Still waiting for the first feedback from a test reader by the way...
 
Also, even if people don't understand Dutch, they may or may not be interested in this particular Pandora use case.
Wait you write the novel on the pandora?
Is masochism part of the story?
 
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