Does anyone here write?

[Stupot]

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.

[Gilbert]

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?

[Stupot]

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).

[voh]

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

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?

[Nacho]

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.

[Andail]

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.

[evenwolf]

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.

[Rincewind]

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.

[Stupot]

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?

[voh]

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

[Nacho]

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?

[Gilbert]

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.

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.

[Obi]

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


Star Trek: In Thy Eyes


Power of the Puma


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
Now they take a long time to write.

[Tuomas]

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?

[Hammerite]

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.

[voh]

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.

[Redwall]

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.

[LimpingFish]

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.

[Ghost]

A childrens book about a corpse.

That's... intriguing. 

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.

[Stupot]

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.