Forums » Smalltalk » Any other writers?

I wasn't sure if this would go in the Art and Creativity forum or not, but I was wondering who else on this site writes as a hobby. I figured since a lot of people are here because we love writing, we could talk about our work outside of this site. I've met some good writers on this site, and I'm sure some people here are published in real life.

Personally, I don't do it as often as I should. (I enter contests, but I don't win, and I'm not exactly published.) But I make a consistent effort to improve my work.

Anyway, what are some things you have written? Maybe if we get a few people together we could start an OOC group for people to share their work.

I haven't personally gotten around to doing a lot of writing recently. Although, the majority of my writing is currently going towards writing my own book. I'm planning on finishing the thing before the end of this year. Though it's seeming less likely that it will happen and the process is becoming drawn out.

Originally, I had hoped to be able to get through it easily. That didn't happen though and I ended up changing a lot of my ideas. That's where the whole problem is currently and because of it I'm currently recreating the whole idea.

I consider the book that I'm working on right now... Hmm, how would I say this. I consider it to be the building block that will test my fan base, if published. If it ends up being a somewhat successful book than, I can make it into a series. Technically, it's already planned to be a series and I know the events that will unfold. I just need to test the water with the first book.

Of course that would be the best possible outcome and I can't expect it to happen.

Technically everyone on the site is a writer for participating in roleplays.

I've written some fanfictions before, especially when I was in my mid teens and crazy about Animes. I wrote an erotica original story that's uploaded on Fictionpress.com a couple of years ago. Currently I also do a lot of semi-ghost writing for my job (which I have things queued up for currently, actually), mostly articles and manuals.

For the past month or two I've been toying with the idea of writing a Skyrim fanfic too, as I'm having trouble meeting my creative story needs through RP for that particular subject.

Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo?

I'm a casual writer. Actually, whenever I mention RPR as one of the two friendliest and most community-driven sites I've come across, the other is Writing.Com. There was a time when I wanted to be a career writer, and for awhile my goal was to be published before reaching adulthood. Closest I've gotten is a rejection letter (and looking back at what I wrote thank goodness it was rejected; I was considered a good writer for my age, but I was still a lousy writer).

And don't worry, writing counts as an art too!

Curious: have you seen these?
http://www.rprepository.com/community/forumthread.php?t=8239
http://www.rprepository.com/community/forumthread.php?t=10896

This is where the internet comes in handy. If you self-publish fiction online and gather a fanbase within these communities (Fictionpress is a good example) then your chances of making a name when you get published through a publisher are bigger. Of course you probably shouldn't post your works online for free if you want to make money off of them, but often your writing style and creativity is exhibited in multiple works. Write short stories or articles or whatever you're focusing on, publish a couple for free, then community with potential fans.

It's a hit and miss of course, this also depends on your themes, your abilities and the refinement of your works. But if you manage to have people following you before you publish, you already have a foundation that you can ask to help you spread the word. It's very valuable!

I write casually, but I've never actually finished a story. I have a few started on my laptop and uploaded the beginning of one to wattpad.com. I'm hoping to finish it before I graduate high school.

I write often, in fact I write every day, I have like 5 different stories I've been fleshing out, it's a bit of a workload for myself

I'm working on something right now. (: Im really excited to see how/where it goes.

Outside of role-playing, I really only get the focus properly together during Nanowrimo. Unfortunately, my 2011 completed Nano-novel was lost to the winds of Xanga quite some time ago, but I have a few half-started stories that I may come back to after a little spring cleaning and dusting off.

I write stories and poems; a few of my poems have been published. One of my stories (that I consider halfway decent, anyway) is finished, and I have about... three other ones that are close to being done. I have a deviantart and a wattpad account (Nin0thing as the username on both, though two of my stories aren't on either of those accounts).

Yay! Lovely to see others write too outside of the RPR I'm currently working on a novel, that I'm determined to finish this year. (Yes, I've been telling myself that for two years) The truth is, I've learned a lot of things since I first started. I know a lot more about structure, thanks to books on the subject, and about the publishing industry in general, so now, at last, I more or less consider myself ready to start this as my career.

Aside from the main novel, I've published an essay on Smashwords, and I'm also working on a short story/novella -depends on how it turns out- based on a song in spanish called 'Hijo de la Luna'. It's actually a beautiful story in a song.

So yeah, keeping my fingers crossed here.

I've had a short story published in an anthology, and one of my plays has been produced twice in local theatres. I can confirm what Novalynn wrote. Half the battle of being an author is marketing. These days traditional publishers are getting harder and harder to get in with, and some people are speculating that with the rise of amazon etc, traditional publishers are on the way out. Self publishing requires you to do all the marketing yourself. When I finally do find the time to work seriously on more longform fiction, I plan to try and develop a following with a blog FIRST.

That sounds cool, Ben. What was the story about?

*Abrupt subject change to talking about me*

So a few weeks ago I made a tough decision. I had been working on a book for a really long time and it wasn't really going anywhere. After nearly a year of not-very-diligent work, I had only 150 pages of rough draft. I was falling into that trap where you edit the same 3 pages over and over again until they're perfect, and then look back 2 days later and change everything again.

The worst part was that looking back over those pages, there were some genuinely good moments that I loved, but most of it was... bad. That day, I came to the startling realization that teenagers are, by default, terrible writers. And while I'm better than most, that still puts me on bottom when it comes to real writing. It's going to be a fun climb up.

It made me see that I had made a huge mistake in trying to write a long, complex series to start with, and I had nowhere near the amount of experience required. It was a very sad day. Anyway, I'm putting longform writing on hold for a bit so that I can get some more experience writing short stories and doing daily prompts and whatnot. I really want to come back to that book, but if I do, it won't be for a long time.

*Another abrupt subject change back to you*

So Ben, to get your short story out there, did you write it with the anthology in mind, or was it for a newspaper or something? (Or just your own entertainment) I'm curious as to what it takes to get a short story published.

I think the only mistake you can make is giving up. You won't get anywhere if you quit and slink back and not finish what you started. Your first novel, your first drawing, your first painting, your first costume, everything that is a big undertaking and that is a 'first' will always suck. I've taken up a lot of hobbies, crafts and what the heck not in the past couple of years. I knit, I bake bread, I've been drawing since I was 12, I sing, I've acted, I've created website designs, I make RPR templates, I've done many things. And for every single item on the list above, I can safely say the first things I did sucked. Terribly.

And in some cases, the worst thing I did was quit because I realized I sucked. My first knitting project was horrendous, but I kept challenging myself and pushing myself to finish a project even though I wasn't happy with it. Finishing it gave me tremendous amounts of XP, so to say. Even if the outcome wasn't particularly nice to look at, I learned many things. If I'd unraveled the project before I finished it, I wouldn't be planning a full sweater now.

I guess my point is, you're going to suck, you're going to write a lot of things that aren't up to par, and that's okay. Every famous and respected novelist has been there. They needed that to get better, and so does everyone else. Nobody magically writes an amazing novel with flawless plot and a streamlined story flow at the beginning. It takes numerous bad novels to understand what you're doing wrong. In order to understand what you're doing wrong, you need to do it wrong first.

If you finish your book and you're unhappy with it, at least you'll have finished a book. You've gained knowledge, you can refer back to it and see what you've done wrong. You can rewrite it from scratch and take the bits that you need from your first draft. This is why NaNoWriMo is so important for authors. The step you're taking is what holds most back from going through with it and publishing something publish worthy. Don't hold yourself back!

But that's the problem: I don't want this book to suck. It's meant to be the first installment of a series, and there's no way in hell I'm writing 4 more after I made a complete mess of the first one. I've gotten far too emotionally invested in these characters to ruin them with a shoddy book. My plan is to get experience writing short stories, then one or two other novels, and when I feel like I can tell a series, then I come back to this one.

Not trying to be defensive or anything, but I just want to say that I'm not giving up on this novel, I'm just setting aside so I don't ruin it with beginner mistakes. (Besides, rewriting the same story until it's perfect has begun to lose its effectiveness)

Right now I'm working on a different book, and depending how well it goes I might publish it, but it's mostly just for practice. Like everything I write, it has aliens in it, because I obviously have a one-track-mind. I obviously want it to be great, but this is the kind of book where I won't mind screwing up, instead of the start of a series where the first one has to be absolutely perfect.

((Sorry if I'm derailing this with Me talk))

My short story ended up being a modern fable about the sandman, the more classic version not the Neil Gaiman one >.<

Thumb, I have a blog to suggest: http://www.indiesunlimited.com/
This blog is chock full of great advice, plus a weekly flash fiction competition with a writing prompt. Even if you don't enter the competition, the writing prompt can be useful.

Here's the thing, every writer ever has looked back on their writing and gone OH GOD THIS IS TERRIBLE WHAT HAVE I DONE? We all go through it. It may be that you need to put the project on hold, or just take the gems from it and rework them. I've done that plenty of times. But read the info that's out there, and get people to read it. Usually when I start a new project I give the first 500-1000 words to someone and say "I don't care about editing, just tell me if you would read on." You need to find someone who will be brutally honest with you about this.

Getting the short story published was quite easy, I sort of cheated. I ended up knowing someone (from Furc, weirdly enough) who started a publishing company with a professor of theirs. They were working on an anthology, and didn't have enough submissions, so they asked me to write something. 9 hours and 5,000 words later I was being published. It's not a crazy big deal, they're not exactly a large company, but it's nice to have my writing in print.

When I write, it is because of a passion. Because there are ideas in my head that need to come out. It really isn't about wanting to get something published, I have trouble letting people see my writing because to me it is something very personal. To be judged on my writing would feel like I am being judged on my imagination and my ideas. There are a few poems from about ten years ago that I have published, but they are not things that I am proud of. I understand that is part of being a professional writer, so there is a good chance I will never do it professionally. For now, writing my book is more like a brand of therapy and meditation. I roleplay and write with my friends to feel inspired, improve my vocabulary, and to read their wonderful ideas.
I hope that you can find a place of peace with your writing where you do not feel the need to alter it every time you see it and where you are satisfied. And I also hope that someday you find the recognition you desire as a writer.

This. Very much this. If you're doing this, then everything else you can learn. This is the core of engaging with an audience.

Hey, I checked out the blog you linked. I love it! I don't have much practice with flash fiction, but they make for good writing exercises and warmups.

Thanks for the helpful advice.

No problem. You can always send me a PM if you want to run ideas by me.