I'm one of these losers who likes to call himself a potential writer but rarely actually gets anything down. Procrastination, short-attention span, chronic writer's block, I don't know the reason but my output is pretty poor.
Does anyone else like to write? I'm mainly talking fiction but I suppose the question goes for non-fiction aswell.
[edit]
Haha, I start a topic about writing and spell the title wrong. Corrected now.
Quote from: Stupot on Fri 17/08/2007 10:45:57
but I suppose the question goes for non-fiction aswell.
I'm an editor for a textbook publisher, should I be counted in as well? :=
Quote from: Gilbot V7000a on Fri 17/08/2007 10:56:39
I'm an editor for a textbook publisher, should I be counted in as well? :=
I don't see why not. You're a word-fan. What kind of textbooks are they? Do you just have to correct spelling and grammar or do you get to add your own material?
What about your own stuff, do you ever sit down and start typing a short story, or a textbook of your own?
(I've always wondered about the term "Textbook"... When I was at school, most of the textbooks included pictures and diagrams as well as text. Any novel has just as much text. It's a bit like Americans saying "Football', when they use their hands as well as their feet).
Yeah, I'm a writer. Or a writer-to-be, or whatever you want to call it. I generally churn out a story or 2 during the course of a week. As a matter of fact, it's about time to go by the cafe and get a coffee while I sit back and write something.
I've self-published a book, well, I used lulu.com for that, anyway, with short stories, some poetry and other stuff. It's a fairly personal book and I sold about 60 of 'em to family and friends. Next book will be less personal and more accessible to people who don't necessarily know me or want to know me :P
Also, I'm working on a site (danwa) which is like a deviantart but purely for writers, with contests, a place to post your own stuff and an ingenious system of giving karma which can earn you a published story in a yearly 'best of danwa' book which'll also be published through lulu.com.
Is there anything specific you wanted to ask, or were you just interested in who was also writing? :)
I write. I once read that Stephen King is really annoyed when someone approaches and tells him "Oh! I' d loved to be a famous writer!" and he asks "but have you written something?" and they reply "No! I never had time to..."
So, that' s why I write. I want to die thinking "I was not good, and never published anything, but I least I wrote something".
If you started this thread looking for a writer who is better than you, to ask him/her for advise, then, that' s not me, for sure.
Blazed (Goldmund, and old member) is a profi writer... You might want to ask him.
I write a lot, I believe. It's been a lot of academic stuff lately, theses and essays and stuff, but when I have more time I usually write on a novel or some short story. Never published any fiction though.
Screenplays. None of them finished. I'm slowly learning the craft of structure so I hope to have the few I'm working on all done & ready here in a few years. I go to the coffee shop a few times a week & force myself through various exercises.
One day I'll draft a synopsis. Then I'll work on character backstories. And some days I just write scene after scene. What happens is I can tell its not coming together like the great symphony I want, so I sit on it & keep my eyes open for inspiration. I have a little pad of paper I keep with me at all times. I wrote short stories at various intervals in middle school & high school.
I might share some stuff later in this thread.
I used to write quite a lot of fiction in my youth, but I haven't been able to take that up for years.
Nowadays I more or less only do journalistic writing. Currently, I'm writing the "Legend"-column for swedish movie-magazine Allt om Film(Everything about Film), a section which focuses on dead moviestars/directors, etc.
I could think of worse tasks, for sure. Coming up in the next issue: Vincent Price.
Ahh, quite a few people into the craft then.
I agree with you Nacho. I don't want to die wishing I'd written something. I mean I have written stuff, I've just never really seen anything through other than a few poxy short stories which turned out to be pants.
It's a shame because I have lots of ideas, a good sense of drama and I know I can write. I just don't seem to be able to bring it all together and come up with anything better than average.
I'll tell you the reason I'm asking. I'm currently living in a house full of foreign people, and everybody has a unique and interesting character, none of them stereotypical. Loads of little interesting events have happened since I've been in Tokyo and I'd love to turn my experience into some kind of work of fiction. So I've got the characters, and some great set-peices and some very interesting relationships and intrigues between my housemates which all make for good reading material. All I need now is a story to put it all in.
As soon as I get back home to England, I'm going to set about starting work on this novel. But I'm worried it'll turn into another half-baked abandoned project.
What do people do to keep their projects fresh and exciting? How do you stop yourself from losing the enthusiasm?
Well, the only thing I do to keep my stuff fresh is that when I notice I'm writing half-baked shyte, I let it rest for a while and come back to it later. In the meantime I make it a point to write as much as I can, even if it's nonsensical. I go to the cafe like twice or three times a week just to write.
It's a good thing for me to leave the house, with all its many distractions, to sit somewhere where I can observe people while not having to interact.
Gives me enough to write about :)
Anybody can post his own "writing tutorial"? I am curious about that, since I do a little sinopsis and try to write 5 pages per day at least. How accurate is your sinopsis? Mine is tiny, maybe a line per chapter, I allow the story "to happen" and it can even surprise me.... Dunno if it's very professional, if I should do schemes and such, but seems to work.
Anyone?
Quote from: Stupot on Fri 17/08/2007 11:15:01
I don't see why not. You're a word-fan. What kind of textbooks are they? Do you just have to correct spelling and grammar or do you get to add your own material?
Mainly mathematics. But our native language is Chinese here. ;) I now work also for English books too, but obviously grammar and spelling are not the strong part of me, I focus more on contents and concepts.
Quote
What about your own stuff, do you ever sit down and start typing a short story, or a textbook of your own?
Actually as editors, we are also authors of most of the materials.
Anyway, I probably can't help with your problems, I just asked that for clarification.
I write, in fact I'm writing right now! Hahaha!
But seriously for a moment, I write these weird RPG things on this weird RPG forum. However no one normally replies so it turns into just some weird Story.
Here take a look at them AT YOUR OWN RISK
Elvis the RPG
(http://rpgforumsonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php5570)
Star Trek: In Thy Eyes
(http://rpgforumsonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php5297&highlight=)
Power of the Puma
(http://rpgforumsonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php1272&highlight=)
I also am working on a movie script and a short story. Yay!
I forgot to mention that I also wrote the scripts for
Billy & Jenklin the Audio Drama
(http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=32111.0) Now they take a long time to write.
I do, some short stories here and there. And I've started quite a few novels. One reached 20 pages. Oh, and I write a blog, does that count?
Quote from: voh on Fri 17/08/2007 11:39:22
Also, I'm working on a site (danwa) which is like a deviantart but purely for writers, with contests, a place to post your own stuff and an ingenious system of giving karma which can earn you a published story in a yearly 'best of danwa' book which'll also be published through lulu.com.
sounds like a good idea, though hopefully it wont go the same way as deviantart has.
Oh, it won't. It'll have quality control (so lots of moderators, if you feel like lending a hand ^_^).
Though we won't be too naggy, we won't allow utter crud on the site. Because unless you mean something different, that's what I think is wrong with DA.
I write.
I'm about fifty pages (at 250 words/page, anyway) into the first draft of a novel at the moment. It's kind of shitty, though (but first drafts always are, I suppose). I just keep writing and hope that at the end there's something salvageable.
I write. Have done all my life. Published once when I was twenty-one.
No particular form or medium. Some of the things I've written include:
Screenplays.
Comic books.
A rock opera! ( ::))
Non-poetic poetry.
A childrens book about a corpse.
So much unfinished piddling crap as to even think about it gives me a headache.
Quote from: LimpingFish on Fri 17/08/2007 18:35:55
A childrens book about a corpse.
That's... intriguing. ;D
I used to write a lot but had to cut it down recently. I'd consider myself one of those guys who write for themselves, though often enough I was surprised that my friends liked my stuff. Once I did a short novel for my girlfriend. Now ex-girlfriend, but def'nitely not because of said novel.
Bibliography ;)
Der Träumer (The Dreamer) - Wrote that at high school. About 300 machine-written pages dealing with an underdog youth entering a fantasy world. Him being a "fantasy nerd" he suddenly has to cope with a universe full of rules he thinks he should know, but that are upside down. He ends up fighting for magic itself (magic being a living thing) that is threatened by an evil entity that is in fact the real world (that our hero naturally brought with him.) Was a bit confusing, but I really liked it.
Der Drachenberg ("The Dragon's Secret") - Started this one half-drunk at some new year's eve and finished it a month later. My best stuff, and really something I consider a milestone. I'm currently translating it into English as some sort of personal exercise. Maybe I'll post it sometime. Low fantasy setting, damsel in distress, hero who can't die, big firebreathing things with wings. Also has a sword in.
Ticket Down - Wrote that when my dad died. It's a story about a ghost who wants to make a beggar girl happy, but who can feel no emotions, is unseen, unheard and needs to find a way to remember all the things that made him happy. Never really finished this one, though there are in fact three different endings in some drawer somewhere.
Zigaretten (Cigarettes) - A book that is a packet of ciggies. 19 short stories that all start with the main character lighting a cigarette, the first sentence always offering an attribute that set the mood for the story. Was a pretty weird experiment.
I.M.P.: Irrelavant Military Personell - This one's in the making; a weird story set in the future where each nation has an own "planetary station" hovering in space (called United Stations Of America). It has secret agents, secret secret agents and female robots in massive amount, cross-cultural clichee galore and the coolest space trucker since Lone Star.
In my experience I can best get a story running with strong characters, so often enough I start something with just a small cast of interesting and controversical characters and a basic situiation. Eventually some flow will form, and from then on it's nice to watch the story evolve.
Sounds like an interesting selection.
I particularly like the Cigarette themed book of stories.
I might give the coffee shop thing a go. I've never tried going to a coffee shop to write. I used to go up the rec to write, and once came up with a fairly funny zombie story which played on the fact that zombies are actually far too slow and easy to kill.... about a month later i saw the trailer for Shaun of the Dead and thought the bastards had stolen my idea.
Does anybody have any of their writing online? Share it with the rest of us, I wouldn't mind having a butchers.
I've tried going places to write... There are people that spend hours in coffee shops and all that but I find them MORE distracting than sitting at home with a kitty and some music on.
So I guess what I'm saying is, don't try to force the idea of coffee shop writing if it doesn't work. When I tried it [it wasn't a coffee shop but still] I was all ready to start drawing, had my pad and pencil, sat down, was all prepared but holy crap, people walking around, talking, the door constantly opening and closing. Took all the wind out of my sails and I felt like a fool.
Quote from: Stupot on Fri 17/08/2007 19:32:04
Does anybody have any of their writing online? Share it with the rest of us, I wouldn't mind having a butchers.
Can you read Russian? If so, I have some Fallout-inspired
crap stories, which I once wanted to translate, but then realized that I don't really give a damn.
I've written some goofy shorts, four chapters of a science fiction/fantasy novel called The Lonely Planet, and a rather crappy novel about anthropomorphic mice. I've stored most of the shorts and LP at http://moodyblues.deviantart.com.
I've written, for a period in my life. Occasionally I still do. Very very very short stories, lots of poetry and some dialogs and cutscenes for various games.
But I had to quit. As easy as it is for me to write (and it's always been rather obscenely easy, the hard part isn't *writing*, it's keeping it all in check as you watch your work *grow*), for some reason it's getting to generate a lot of anguish. Dunno why.
If you want to read any of my stuff, here's some of my stories
http://www.danwa.net/junk/stories/
Custard, Free and Quite the Fall were actually entries to the writing competitions on here, when they were still held (I miss those immensely, but ya know, not enough entrants, no contest...). Frenzied and Publisher are really short, but they're coffee shop stories. The Awkward Hero is a story which symbolically details my vacation to France. Yeah. Symbolic :P
Anyway, that's some of my writing. I'm not saying I'm good, I'm saying I'm decent. I'm happy with what I write and if I continue writing I can only get better :)
Quote from: MrColossal on Fri 17/08/2007 19:38:21
I've tried going places to write... There are people that spend hours in coffee shops and all that but I find them MORE distracting than sitting at home with a kitty and some music on.
I motivate myself more with a little movement around. At home, I find I get distracted by the internet or TV but I've done my fair share of work there too. Usually when I work the hardest at a coffee shop is when I'm "controlling" my surroundings with my ipod. I'll play music depending on how I feel, sometimes lyrically intensive but usually not.
One interesting note: mom and pop "hippy" coffee shops are full of LOUD people in my opinion. People who blab and blab for the sake of blabbing. I actually enjoy the atmosphere at Starbucks where you have people stopping on the way back from work.
We don't have coffee houses here, all we have are coffee shops, and good luck getting a decent cup of joe there (snicker).
Hence why I said I write in a cafe. During the afternoon it's fairly calm there, the coffee is good and the music is louder than anyone there. Also, it's the kind of music I'd listen to on MP3 player anyway, so I don't need to use one.
I think the key is to find a place you're comfortable and not distracted. I had a period where I'd go to the woods and write there. Doesn't do it for me anymore, but just to show that even I've switched to something which works better for *me*. If a coffee house works, that's awesome. If not, at least you'll have tried, and that goes for both coffee houses and whatever place else.
Nobody can tell you the secret of writing, as that's so incredibly personal I doubt any of our (well-meant) advices are going to do you much good.
Other than the following, of course, because it's an absolute truth (and the universe just so happens to agree with me). Write as much as you can, as often as you can, about as many different things as you can.
The only way of becoming a better writer is through writing itself.
Hey, just follow that and you can't really lose, now can ya? :D
I don't know why but I find Microsoft Word inspiring. unfortunately I don't own a copy, which really sucks because something about it helped me write SOMETHING. Maybe it was the really good spellcheck or the blankness of it all. No distracting pretty colours. Don't know, it just made want to write. Jarte is amazing, but it's not as inspiring for me.
I do have some stories 'published' on elfwood.http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/libr/j/s/jsinc86/jsinc86.html These are the only ones I've really completed ( and two aren't) so phooey. I love writing, I just can never seem to finish stuff or I try way beyond my range. Like a journal type story were a female scientist perfects cloning, and clones herself. How would I know how to write about a pregnant womans anxieties? But that was one of the first stories I ever wanted to write.
Quote from: lo_res_man on Sat 18/08/2007 08:28:59
Jarte is amazing, but it's not as inspiring for me.
Though you just dropped the name, I'd like to thank you for pointing me to a word processor that convinced me so totally that an hour after installing, I feel I've used it all my life.
Quote from: lo_res_man on Sat 18/08/2007 08:28:59
I love writing, I just can never seem to finish stuff or I try way beyond my range... How would I know how to write about a pregnant womans anxieties?
Interestingly enough, many writers constantly write about stuff that is beyond their range. I remember an article where Stephen King explained that for a short story where a woman kills her man by luring his car into a building site, into some hole, and fills sand into it) he had his brother making him a small model explaining the physics. A trite example, but still: One strength of a writer seems to be the ability to slip into people's skins, understanding situtations, and then sounding as if he's dead right. Of course, in fantasy and scifi, you can usually have it all your way by making up things as you go along. For my IMP story I introduced "ModBots" that are actually nanobots- but since I happen to have not too much of a technical background, I just made something up and presented this as my reality.
As for feelings and emotions, I can defenitely say that up to the age of maybe 18, I've been careless, content and happy, and it shows in my stories. You need to have experienced some anguish to be creative, it seems.
Quote from: lo_res_man on Sat 18/08/2007 08:28:59
I don't know why but I find Microsoft Word inspiring. unfortunately I don't own a copy, which really sucks because something about it helped me write SOMETHING. Maybe it was the really good spellcheck or the blankness of it all. No distracting pretty colours. Don't know, it just made want to write. Jarte is amazing, but it's not as inspiring for me.
You can always download a 60-day trial copy of Word 2007 from Microsoft's website! it contains all the spontaneous inpiration of a thousand wild hogs doused in syrup and sent on a crusade against the pope - viciousocity, devoutness, and bacon for all!
QuoteI remember an article where Stephen King explained that for a short story where a woman kills her man by luring his car into a building site, into some hole, and fills sand into it) he had his brother making him a small model explaining the physics.
I believe you mean a man kills another man, who has killed the first man's wife. I recall that article, it might even have appeared on On Writing. Incidently, I've always found that story (Dolan's Cadillac) a brilliant hommage to Poe's "A Cask of Amontillado", but it really bothers me that it's nowhere credited as such. When people hommage and credit, it's an hommage. Hommage without credit (and this kind of hommage, in this context, means "blatantly using the concept, story, almost even the structure and even some lines") is too much like plagiarism.
QuoteNo distracting pretty colours. Don't know, it just made want to write.
For this reason, I've found that you just can't beat good old pen-and-paper. A killer combination.
Quote from: nick.keane on Sat 18/08/2007 10:49:11
You can always download a 60-day trial copy of Word 2007 from Microsoft's website! it contains all the spontaneous inpiration of a thousand wild hogs doused in syrup and sent on a crusade against the pope - viciousocity, devoutness, and bacon for all!
Though I own Word 2003, I often just use WordPad. It's simple and clean and doesn't distract me with a million options I don't need.
When I have some time, I'm writing short stories and novels, all being in fantasy or parallel universe settings, mostly adventure stories or thrillers.
Quote from: Rui "Trovatore" Pires on Sat 18/08/2007 11:20:45
I believe you mean a man kills another man, who has killed the first man's wife.
Ah, my foggy memory again; thanks for clearing that up. Do you by any chance remember the title of that story, too? I just remember it was in one of his short story collections...
Again, Dolan's Cadillac, first story in Nightmares and Dreamscapes.
Thanks. It was the name of the collection I was after.
Rui mentioned Stephen Kings On Writing. I read that about a year ago when I was feeling a bit like I am at the moment. And it inspired me to really get cracking for a few months, then I lost the enthusiasm again. Maybe the secret (for me at least) is to just read that book every few months.
Or maybe the lack of enthusiasm is just a sign that I actually don't enjoy writing as much as I would like to think I do, and that I should stop fooling myself and buy some colouring books.
I haven't read anything by Stephen King except On Writing. Yes, it is great.
I write on a laptop... sitting next to my desktop. I have no idea why, but it helps me focus. Sometimes I take it to a park or something, which I like but I can't usually see the screen well enough to make it worthwhile.
Quote from: nihilyst on Sat 18/08/2007 12:09:20
Though I own Word 2003, I often just use WordPad. It's simple and clean and doesn't distract me with a million options I don't need.
I can tell you one thing. You haven't used a Word Processor until you've used 2007. It's indeed an inspiring program, and if you make the ribbon disappear until needed, it's not distracting at all. Besides, all the functions are located on exactly the right spot (after a couple of days of acclimatizing).
Honestly, I write with pen on paper or in Word 2007. There simply is no other option anymore :)
Quote from: lo_res_man on Sat 18/08/2007 08:28:59
I don't know why but I find Microsoft Word inspiring. unfortunately I don't own a copy, which really sucks because something about it helped me write SOMETHING. Maybe it was the really good spellcheck or the blankness of it all.
I know some people who still write with a good old typewriter. This because, I think so too, you might at times write too fast for yourself. I find myself writing faster than I think often. It's like you're getting the ideas from your own text. And most professionals recommend, that you really think before you write anything. Dunno then. Anyway, when I write, i use OpenOffice writer. Imo, it's the best text editor the computer world has to offer. MSWord just gets me frustrated.
we did have a writing contest at AGS forums. I tried reviving it a few months back, but no-one really expressed their interest in it. I'd love to go about writing again. Sure, a time limit restricts a lot, but the best way to develop is to write write write and write, as much as possible. Same goes to the poetry contest. I mean, at least it'd give some people an inspiration to write.
I often write when I feel bored. In the train or in the army, I would just take my pen, and you know, think of nice things for a while. Then I'd write them down, and yeah, we were supposed to study the bazooka, and I wrote a short story about a river. It was much more interesting. My friends thought I was a weirdo for making so many notes about the bazooka.
Oh, and Voh. Let me know immediately when you get the site up and ready. I'd really like to see something like that and be a member at least :) (even though it would mean writing in English, unless it would have native language sections too).
How about we have a Writers Club? Instead of a strict contest, we each write something within a certain time limit, maybe even have a topic, post our pieces, and then discuss them and critique them. And then we start again.
Writing with a typewriter is grueling. My computer fizzed out and I had a typewriter. My short story was due in class the next day so I did it. I typed on a typewriter.
But let me say this, no matter what medium you "write" on YOU BETTER DIAGRAM SOMETHING STRUCTURALLY first. Note cards or a big white board. Give yourself some form of a skeleton before you try to flesh it all out. A lot of people try to lay out all the words before they even have a vague idea of structure. Structure is your friend.
You don't have to know what the ending is. But it helps to have an idea. But think about symbolism, foreshadowing, themes, all that. How are you going to properly integrate all that stuff if its the last thing you come up with? Its got to be layered in there in disguise.
lo res: I joined short story circles in college. I enjoyed it because it motivates you to write. It was even more valuable than my short story class because my class required TWO stories for the entire semester. Which was lame.
If you can get a group of friends to write stories together, DO IT. Its really valuable to have that kind of honesty in your face and from someone you admire. But this is the best online crowd I could think of. You know, to try.
Count me in for at least the first deadline.
I just write for the hell of it. If I'm bored at home, or if I'm waiting for the professor to come to class I open a rough-work notebook, check some random person nearby (known or unknown), and write-up a character sketch. Sometimes it's just a particular phrase or two that I thought 'witty' and it fit them, sometimes it's a pageful. On very, very rare occasions, I show them what I did.
Other than that, I do journal-type thing (occasionally, doesn't get done everyday), where I tranform all the boring everyday things I do to another completely different environment (like writing about my adventures in the spirit realm instead of what I surfed for on the net).
As a kid, I always wanted to be a writer. Somewhere along the line, I realised that being a professional writer (and nothing else inbetween) would probably be impossible, so now I write on occasion, just for the fun of it. 'Structuring' everything is definitely the right way to go about it, but I'm too impatient for that. And I really dislike using the computer to write. It's pencil and paper for me.
Quote from: lo_res_man on Sat 18/08/2007 19:25:00
How about we have a Writers Club? Instead of a strict contest, we each write something within a certain time limit, maybe even have a topic, post our pieces, and then discuss them and critique them. And then we start again.
You wanna be there to organise it first? I'm in anyway :). Just, how to proceed?
Quote from: Tuomas on Sat 18/08/2007 20:17:58
Quote from: lo_res_man on Sat 18/08/2007 19:25:00
How about we have a Writers Club? Instead of a strict contest, we each write something within a certain time limit, maybe even have a topic, post our pieces, and then discuss them and critique them. And then we start again.
You wanna be there to organise it first? I'm in anyway :). Just, how to proceed?
Wait, do we even have a
contest devoted to writing in the AGS forums anymore?! I checked out the Competitions and Activities thread and there hasn't been a recent writing competition. Well, there's MAGS, but that's really just making a game as a whole - we need a competition into which grande tales can be weaved. A good story is important as all hell in an adventure game, and all there are now are art competitions.
Where the English Composition love at?! :'(
I'm up for joining the writer's club. I think good honest criticism from your peers can be very helpful. Who wants to set the first theme?
So, we're gonna do like, a guerilla, illegal writing comp?
Seeing as how I'm Dutch, I'm all for illegal stuff! Count me in :D
Nick Keane: no one said anything about a competition. I think awarding prizes for short stories means that we'll get less short stories. I'd rather have it be people who want to just share their work and receive comments.
We do have the crits' lounge. I've used it myself, more than once. I always got plenty of feedback, and once I was nearly given an unexpected course.
I like to write, but I usually loose the main point halfway to the end of anything, because I let the story stretch too far. I think I should learn to let it end when I run out of ideas, no matter how short the story is. I have a few unfinished stories laying around, and am currently starting on a longer one. I'm doing way more planning on this one than I have done on any other, so I have a feeling I might actually finish atleast a draft of it.
I've written some movie scripts and a number of short stories, but the quality hasn't been amazing. I think I can write, but my problem is that I let everything slip to 'ready' after the first draft, I'm too impatient to let it lay for a while, read through, and mend the things that seems like they need it. But as school started again, and I have a lot of free times between my lessons I've noticed getting a cup of coffee and sitting at the silent hallway with a pen and paper works miracles on designing things, which has always been my weakest point. I've never really planned everything, just written ahead, letting the plot develop as I go, and then suddenly hitting a wall in everything.
I'm also in a for a writers' thing, but I'm no organiser of any sort...
Well I have pm'd the moderators for "Competitions and Activities" heres hoping.
yeah, been there, done that... ::)
really don't care for a competition. How are you going to effectively critique someone's story if you are competing against it for a pixel trophy?
this would even work if it wasnt on the forum. if the interested folks just emailed each others stories to each other the day before. and then meet in a chat room
I wouldn't mind a competition if it could be carried out objectively enough, but I have a slight doubt that if we for example decide on an artificial winner of each round by voting, the reasons behind given votes could vary a bit too much, say, for liking one person over the others to having read the cleanest correct English spelling and grammar from another, either of which are no reasons to vote for someone.
But instead a chat room meeting could work, and we happen to have an IRC server where to meet up for such. We could arrange the sharing of stories here, and then have a chatroom meeting for the ones interested. Or something like that... Make it an activity, not a competition.
I don't mean a competition, it would be an activity, we just write within a time limit, with some kind of topic, then we present our work, and then we all discuss it. No winners and no losers. Sure we could agree some work we like more and there will be some better then others but this idea is more to improve everyones writing, rather then compete for a pixel trophy.
Haha, people tend to forget the "activities" part of "competitions and activities". (Besides the MS Paint Game, what isn't a competition? There's Helm's fill-in-the-comic every once in a while, and the occasional Artitude or whatever it's called, and . . .?)
I wonder if it had any effect if the board was renamed to "Activities and Competitions"... Although, the current name rolls off the tongue much smoother.
I don't know if I could consider myself a writer, but I'm currently working on a (to be long?) epic fiction story. However, I don't want to ruin it with my average vocabulary, lack of talent or experience. Most of the time I just think about it (its plot, characters, locations, etc) So I'm writing a semi-draft version when I have time, hoping that someday I'll find someone who likes it enough to help me fix it up a bit.
Some people have told me what I've written so far is actually good, but I don't trust their judgment so much because they are probably just trying to be nice :P
You sound like me... I have ideas but don't want to waste them with poor quality writing... best thing to do is practice as much as you can and keep your big project in your mind the whole time... one day you'll be ready to write it. and good luck to you when you do.