Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

People definitely shouldn't mistake this for GTA or Red Dead Redemption. GTA and RDR both satirize the periods and place they are set in, whereas L.A Noire is a completely serious game that all but does away with the atmosphere of GTA and RDR. The game mechanics will be similar in many ways, but there the similarities end. Rockstar and Bondi are going to territories unexplored for both companies.

At 3/13/11 04:38 PM, 1NerdUnderGod wrote: What is the most difficult thing for you to overcome when you write?

For me, it is the point where you reread what you have just written and want to restart for the 12th time. That point is always the place where things go unfinished.

Always the most difficult thing about writing is taking on what you know are your weaknesses in writing. If you're used to writing huge floaty descriptions, the hardest thing is to turn your work into a concise use of language.

Just think of it this way kids.

If me and AdamCook can read whatever 10,000k words you dish out, you can at least read 1,000 or so words of ours.

I wonder if Fox will ever try to launch a non-sitcom animated show.

At 3/10/11 05:55 PM, EyeLovePoozy wrote: Have they?

I honestly quit watching ages ago. I haven't enjoyed a single episode that I happened across that my tivo recorded under suggestions. Really dull stuff.

Family Guy though continue to be very funny for me.

You should watch the most recent episode. Scorpion's Tale. Hilarious. Also features Director Werner Herzog as a pharmaceutical guy.

I feel like it's sacrilege to say it, and I've only seen the most recent two episodes. But the Simpsons has suddenly become very funny again. Mark the date.

At 3/7/11 07:13 PM, Jessprw wrote: How are you guys doing in terms of submissions? Are you drowning in them?

We're doing fine but we could always use more.

At 3/5/11 10:50 PM, DeftAndEvil wrote: It seems to me like the writing forum has really failed to gain any momentum. About half the threads ultimately end up with hardly any views or posts. Many writers compile many chapters or short stories into one thread, but it suffers the same fate. The only threads that do garner any responses are collaborative efforts or discussion threads.The Lit Portal sounds promising, and I guess it could be cool if you post a script or story and it is picked up. However, I wonder what the Lit Portal would be like or how it would even be handled. The traffic to the writing forum is meager at best, maybe the Lit Portal could be the catalyst to develop the NG literary community. Hopefully, it will eventually become a respected ground for writers to present their works.

I will tell you right now, a discussion forum, while better than nothing, is not an appropriate place to learn how to write or read literature. There are reasons that writing and reading conventions such as punctuation, indentation, and format exist. I don't want to sound like a snob, but this is not how culture or community grows. Most of the kids who get on here and post stories simply think of writing as the words you down in the thread reply box. You have to know that technology, besides basic typing, is the bane of writing. It limits what you can convey. The writer's job is just as much about the fight against technology. Just look at some of the crap-job ebooks that are published for use on the kindle or ipad, it's disgraceful. I think Newgrounds can help change this with the Lit Portal.

Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but I believe even on the internet, trends can become permanences, there can be revolution. Even after all these years, I don't think people realize the power Newgrounds wields. It is the home of a self-sustaining economy of creator-consumers. It is run by administrators that know how to deliver free content and still be a powerhouse. Most importantly, I think kids are inspired by some of the stuff they see on here. Now, not all of that is good inspiration. But I can't imagine where newgrounds would be today if Bitey of Brackenwood never hit it big on here. I know I wouldn't be animating for one. I think if we push the limits, and figure out how to teach kids to write and read in the ways that their middle school and high school english classes fail to do, the Lit Portal can do for online writing what the Flash portal did for internet media.

At 3/6/11 07:34 PM, BrianEtrius wrote:

Yes, I hope so too. What happens here is similar to what happens with politics; there are your hardcore regulars like ourselves who critique, there are the lurkers, and then there are the not so serious people. The problem is that the regulars are really the only ones are active; everyone else kind of goes, eh, cool story bro. Not to mention, this is a forum, not a portal. That being said, with a Lit Portal there may be more interest (like how some people only come to NG for the flashes, not the forums) but there would have to be some serious heavy promotions for the Portal.

I'm a writer, but my activity on NG in this forum has been next to nothing. I only just started becoming active here because I'm co-heading the Writing Anthology, which I hope will basically be a flagship for lit portal promotions. The first ten things I'm going to submit to the Lit Portal when it comes out won't be short stories, but articles and essays from my university classes on the craft of writing.

You guys might think I'm in over my head, but shit I have one life and I see this as a one huge opportunity.

There is always a deadline, even if it's not a date.

The deadline is when we have enough acceptable submissions (12-15) to create a good collection.

What does this mean?

It means that AdamCook and I have been tapping the shoulders of known writers on these forums, and many have responded with promises to write stories. I expect that we will keep in contact with these guys until they pull, write a story, or something else. That basically, is the deadline. You need to write a good story by the time we get in that 12-15 story range. We have about 6 or 7 right now. So estimate that takes about 2-3 months.

Does that mean you should wait to the last minute to write your story? Absolutely not. Once spots are filled, we will be less likely to accept additional entries. You are many times more likely to be considered if you submit a well-polished story in a month, then when we have it side by side with the best these forums have to offer.

Hope that clears something up for you.

At 3/5/11 10:29 PM, DeftAndEvil wrote: While it would be exciting to have a work appear in the NWA, I am not a professional writer and I do not aim to publish or enter the writing profession; I write purely for pleasure. Still, you might hear again from me, depending on whether I concentrate my efforts unto that story.

If you put the effort into a story, it doesn't matter what you aim to achieve with it, doesn't matter if it's your profession or hobby.

If you do find that you've written an interesting story, why not send it in to get our take? Nothing to lose.

At 2/28/11 02:10 AM, PeterBarton wrote: So what happened to all the old stuff that was given to gum?

He sent us the stories that he had already accepted. Those were auto-accepted by us. You're welcome to resubmit yours for further consideration.

Hmmm... I have already bought CC. And I haven't bought Scott Pilgrim.

So Tom, I will do this only if you promise to not make us wait two year after everyonhe else for the next game.

Voting

When do we get another update?

At 2/21/11 07:35 PM, Deathcon7 wrote: To amend to the publishing discussion, if money becomes an issue I'm sure a kickstartr page would be able to generate appropriate funds. At the very least having an initial batch would encourage Tom and Co. to make the investment depending on how well it sells.

Also, if we're going to publish we'll need a good designer to put everything together. An illustrator would also be a great addition, perhaps multiple illustrators, to really bring the stories to life. It would be another great showcase of Newgrounds' local talent. Lulu has all the dimensions we'd need for this to get a simultaneous effort going. Perhaps bringing this to Tom's attention closer to the completion of the Anthology collection would be prudent.

bump

At the end of this, we're going for a cost-effective and practical way for every ng user, not just us for this project, to be able to do this for their work. We would love to figure out how to help the self-publishers on the site out.

Rest assured, we will have Tom's support on this. Basically, we can get by with asking him for two or three front page mention I think. One of these I'm sure will be in promotion of an art contest for a front and back cover design. I have self-published before and have an idea of how go about with the actual design. This is a writing anthology, which doesn't mean that we would exclude art from it entirely, but I don't think we need alot of illustrating beyond the covers.

I like your enthusiasm for the project, Deathcon. What you're saying is not new to us, but we appreciate the feedback. I'm excited to see what you submit.

Currently making a LBP level of The Yuyu. I have like twenty little sackbots as the Yuyu. I am recreating the timing and look of every shot in the flash.

At 2/15/11 11:34 AM, Yokumashu wrote: Did you try setting it to Wumbo?

Errm what?

You know! I wumbo, you wumbo, he, she, me wumbo. Wumbo, wumboing, we'll have the wumbo. Wumbowama, WUMBOLOGY? The study of wumbo? It's first-grade Yokumashu.

Oh and I think that unless you can make some sort of exception in the router, you'll need to turn it off. The console should be accepting the password though if you're setting th econnection up right.

At 2/14/11 10:28 PM, MisterRPG wrote: Out of curiosity, what exactly is the incentive to the writer to take part in this anthology? From my understanding of what is presented here, the writer is not allowed to retain nay rights to their own work, not allowed to present it any place where it might prove ownership, will not be entitled to any proceeds from their own work, and is basically acting as nothing more than a cash cow for this "publishing house". These are all expectations, and there doesn't seem to be any reward to it other than the hope of getting better at writing and having one's work read by others, something we can do simply by posting it on a blog.

Generally, when it comes to writing, there is an expectation that acceptance by a publishing house will grant the writer one of two primary benefits, a financial reward or widespread exposure. As there appears to be no actual monetary reward, and the final work will be published solely through the Newgrounds shop, I'm not seeing either of these happening.

What are you offering us that we can't get simply by posting here for free? Is this like one of those novelty writing deals where someone tells us how amazing our poetry is, offers to publish it, and oh, you'll have to pay for your own copy?

I think alot of the confusion for you is well-founded since they pertain to topics that haven't even been fully discussed between the editors.

The closest thing Adam and I will ever approach in terms of a contract will be in the extremely unlikely event that the anthology turns a profit and we send an email that requests "that you don't republish your story via your NG blog or on the forums, for the benefit of the rest of the authors." I don't think anyone sees this as a cash cow.

Adam and I are totally new to this. What's more: Newgrounds is totally new to this. It's not like NG HQ has a printing station set up for the mass production of books. We know about zilch as to how we're going to pay for this if we actually want tangible paperback copies. We would need a third party to print them, and then the question is how the hell are we going to distribute them? There is a 99% chance that the primary method of distribution will be an e-book downloaded from a link on the ng-store, which means that we will have to competively price it anywhere from $.99 to $9.99. Trust me, you don't have to be an economist to understand why the publishing industry is in such trouble right now.

I want there to be no question in this matter so I will put it in big capital letters: ANY DECISIONS REGARDING SHARE OF PROFITS WILL NOT BE MADE WITHOUT THE DIRECT INVOLVEMENT OF ITS FEATURED AUTHORS.
While you're mulling that over, consider that there are going to be 15 or more featured authors.
Frankly, I would love to see any profit from this thing go directly to putting a paperback copy into each author's hands.
But we are nowhere near that point in the decision-making process.

But back to the main point, the sole purpose of this Anthology is to showcase the literary talent of newgrounds and help its writers. Newgrounds exists as a moment of opportunity for the creative type, especially in thid period of expansion into other artistic endeavors like the Art Portal.

Perhaps you see this kind of reasoning as novelty, but I see it as trailblazing.

Like deathcon says, this is an egotrip.

At 2/14/11 06:49 AM, gumOnShoe wrote: I might have something for this eventually. In the meantime I'm trying sink a hole in one with out having ever played golf before. I have the opportunity to meet the lead editor of Penguin Books. If I can have a mostly finished Novel by May, I might have the opportunity to present it to her. So I'm about to sink my entire being into a project, which I haven't done since college. Here's to hoping that works out.

If it doesn't and this is still going, I'll whittle down my novel/novella to an appropriate length for the anthology. If I do get published by some strange crossing of the fates, I have a few back burner stories I could work on. Understandably, I don't have time for those right now...

I'm glad to see this project is in capable hands. I'm sorry I couldn't pull it through on my own, but hey, this is like a relay race. At least I didn't drop the stick AND lose it.

Gum, I don't think I've had the chance to personally thank you for this opportunity. It's weird how life twists like it does and suddenly you find yourself in positions you wouldn't dream of six months ago. Good luck with that novel man. Hopefully, come May, we'll both be able to measure up to some success with our respective ventures.

At 2/13/11 11:58 PM, Deathcon7 wrote: Second: the goal of this anthology is to be sold in the NG Store. The anthology is also requesting particular rights to the story. What this means is that posting, in any state the story may be presently, is considered publishing it. Putting it in a blog/userpage, or a thread, is publishing the story and as such, disqualifying it. If you want your story reviewed you need to approach someone on a one-on-one basis.

I was going to address this but decided to let it go simply because people are really serious about engaging in this sort of project will take the time to comprehend the instructions and rules. This is not a critique thread. If you just ask us to go to a blog post of yours with a story. No show of editing, proofreading, proper formatting. The plain fact is that Newgrounds doesn't support proper document formatting. There's no point in wasting the space on the thread.

Bump

Haha. Drnk

So why should worry?
Why should?

At 1/31/11 10:01 PM, PillowPenguinz wrote: With the editing process in mind, if we settle on a final piece but have a few ideas in our heads about what we might or could do differently, or what we have considered adding, would you prefer we did or did not communicate that in our submission e-mail. I know that I personally have had many documents open at once with different parts added or moved around, trying to find the right combination with the right flow. If we have any personal input on how we might go a different direction with our work, I could see how that might be helpful for you guys in suggesting edits, but obviously I can't be sure that you would want that, or if you would, how you would like it presented. What would you guys prefer?

Absolutely, if you have anything to say about your piece, whether you want to bat around ideas with us or have questions about future edits, you should state them outright. It helps us get some perspective as to what you're aiming for and thus allows us to give better advice on how to improve on it. That said, if we reject your piece initially, that's not the time to send us massive rants about "a version that might be better". Show us that you deserve a spot in the anthology by writing the best story you can. A good writer is one who can discern the quality of his own work.

Upon seeing TomFulp's new post I have revised my story to make it less creatively restrictive.

The Golden Nutcrust

"Jeremiah and his son, Issac are two tiny people on a man's upper thigh who have been searching and finally found their people's Holy Grail, The Golden Nutcrust. They try to swing over to the Nutcrust using the man's ballhair, but are killed by his hand. The man then scoops up his nutcrust with his hand and then sucks on his hand."

The Golden Nutcrust

And then, across the Great Drop, Old Jeremiah did see it. The Manna of His people. Nestled in the crease between the Sacred Scrotum and the Inner Groin. It sat in its crumbly glory as would a Holy Grail, radiating with glowing aliveness, upholding the potential for infinite growth. Old Jeremiah then did grab upon the tunic of his son, Isaac. To his son, Jeremiah did point it out and exclaimed,

"My Son, Harken unto me now! We have found it! The Golden Nutcrust."

"What, where?" Isaac replied lamely. Jeremiah's son was as of yet too young to have experienced the Golden Nutcrust in past pilgrimages.

"There boy-o, see it now! Within the cranny, below the Valley of Pubes!"

"Ah, I see it."

"Come Isaac, we must reach our goal, lest the hour grow late."

With Isaac at his side, Jeremiah cut across the Upper Thigh to the edge of the Inner Groin, where the lengths of Ballhair and Pubes grew more sparsely but were longer and could bear the larger burden.

"We must swing Isaac!" shouted Jeremiah, bending down and grabbing two Ballhairs. Jeremiah passed one onto to his son. Without hesitation, the two men leapt from their purchase, and using the strength of the Ballhairs, swung over the great void below. As the wind rushed past them, they heard a roar of rage from Larry of the Sky. Larry of the Sky did not take a liking to those who would use his Ballhair for rope and his Ballsack for ballast. Thus, Larry of the Sky sent his most devastating weapon, the Big Hand to defend the sanctity of the Ballsack.

The first swipe of the Big Hand took Old Jeremiah's life. Despite the terror and sorrow in his heart, Isaac remembered his father's instructions and held on until the Golden Nutcrust was in front of him. Isaac saw his chance and released the Sackhair and let his momentum carry him into the very heart of the warm and gooey Golden Nutcrust.

Was Isaac, son of Jeremiah, so entranced by the Golden Nutcrust, so overcome by the temptation to revel in his victory, that he did not notice as the Big Hand rushed to him from behind and dig into Issac's position. Poor Isaac never stood a chance against the beast.

Thus, the Big Hand not only scooped up the broken body of Isaac, but also the whole of the Golden Nutcrust. The Big Hand rushed up to the heavens to meet with the face of Larry of the Sky, who was sitting on a chair.

Larry of the Sky looked upon the Golden Nutcrust with great interest. He lightly sniffed at the substance on his hand. Immensely intrigued, Larry of the Sky looked around to see if anyone was watching. No one was so he decidedly stuck his entire fist in his mouth sucked greedily upon the Golden Nutcrust.

At 1/24/11 08:24 AM, tinytim12 wrote: Just curious, are you guys knee deep in submissions or do you only have a handful on your plate?

Also, how many submissions have you accepted?

The short answer is no. We timed the release of this thread so that we would not get bogged down by a flood of submissions while our main concern right now is editing the good stories we already have.

Part of the reason an entire month went by between gumOnShoe handing the anthology over to us and us going live with this thread was that we wanted to get a better grip on the stories that we have already. As we already said, we have about 6 or 7 entries that have already been accepted into the anthology. All of these except for two were accepted by gumOnShoe. For the past month, we've been contacting and workshopping with the authors. Right now, we are not so much knee deep in submissions as we are heavily invested in one or two back and forths with writers about their stories. We're on I think it's the fourth draft with one of them so yeah we take workshops very seriously.

At 1/17/11 02:00 PM, Coop wrote: Just a quick question really, seeing as the anthology is under new management.

Back in the day, gum was the one that accepted my contributions would be a reworking of one of my entries for the Monthly Writing Contest, so I wondered if this was still game, since the only place that they had ever appeared was on the NG BBS.

Of course, if this isn't the case, then I understand and we'll just have to see if there is time in my schedule to create something brand new. I'm not sure there is at the moment, but I'll be willing to give it a shot, should my circumstances change.

Right now I'm not seeing any entry in the stuff gum gave us by you. Could you resubmit it and point us to its location on the bbs. We can determine then what we want to do about it.

Hey everyone! So I wanted to discuss some of the history of this anthology. The idea behind the explanation is for each writer to understand just how important this anthology could potentially be to the site should it be published.

In early 2010, gumOnShoe began a push to showcase the literary talents of his fellow Newgrounders through a collection of prose, poetry, and other creative writing. Under his editorship, sponsorship, and organization, gumOnShoe hoped to publish this work and have it featured on the Newgrounds Store. This anthology would combine the user-motivated creativity Newgrounds is already well-known for with a level of professionalism rarely seen outside the commercial publishing industry. Most importantly, it would send a clear message to the Newgrounds Admins:

"The Newgrounds Community is ready for the Writing Portal. We have the talent, we have the motivation, we have the ability to do 'Everything, By Everyone' proud. We are ready to Read, Write, and Share."

Unfortunately, gumOnShoe (understandably) found that the pressures placed by the anthology and the "real world" were too much to bear for one man and thus had to step down as Chief Editor of the anthology. Thankfully, gumOnShoe stuck around long enough to pass responsibility into the capable hands of AdamCook. Adam and I (Ekublai) have since joined forces as Co-Editors and begun a voracious campaign to see this important project to its completion and publication. gumOnShoe will be missed, and we would gladly welcome him back to the project in the future should he ever want to. All three of us agree that the release of the NWA is important to the future of Newgrounds and will be time and money well spent.

SO AGAIN, WELCOME TO THE NEWGROUNDS WRITERS ANTHOLOGY!
EVERY MEMBER OF NEWGROUNDS NOW HAS AN OPEN INVITATION TO WRITE, SUBMIT, AND POSSIBLY BE PUBLISHED!

Mission: The Newgrounds Writers Anthology is a collection of creative writing designed to highlight the potentially high caliber of writing that one could expect upon the opening of the long-awaited Newgrounds Writing Portal. The project will be a literary milestone that will set the bar of quality writing on the site, inspiring, educating, and motivating the future authors of Newgrounds and of the Digital Age.

Have fun writing everyone. Adam and I are doing this in order to get the best effort out of you guys and deliver a steller book!

Fame, Fortune, and a smile from Tom Fulp awaits. Okay, only one of those is a guarantee. :D

Good Luck!

At 1/15/11 10:55 PM, tinytim12 wrote: Will you contact us if we don't make it?
I can't stand the suspense.

Yes. However, not hearing from us within say three weeks of you submitting may be an indication that we are considering accepting your submission. Of course, it might be that we are just busy with the quantity of entries, but we will try to PM you as soon as we are certain that your entry won't make it.

At 1/16/11 02:05 AM, TheFarseer wrote: Can we make multiple submissions? And if its poetry, do we send you a collection? (Like 5-6)

There is no limit to how many submissions you send in as long as they are original, first-run entries, and meet our standard of quality. This goes for stories and poetry. At the moment,
Adam and I are envisioning poems are inter-calorie chapters, little pauses between bigger entries. You can send a collection, but each will be reviewed individually. However, we can't say at this point if we would group are your entries together or spread them out across the publication.

I'm talking about the ads for RIFT and such. I realize this a new implementation and so is still in an experimental stage, but my two cents is that it is really inconvenient and useles to put them top and center. Mainly because the only time I activate them is when I going to go to another tab I have in the browser (I assume many people use the tab system nowadays). So the only time the ad activates is when I'm actually going to leave the Newgrounds homepage. This is a negative for two reasons. First, when I actually do click another tab, my internet slows and suddenly I have an ad playing in another tab for no reason. Next, it means that the ad is never actually seen because it is out of the way and only activated when someone is leaving the site. So... the company advertising is wasting money.

Any other thoughts?