Does anyone here write?

evenwolf · Sat 18/08/2007 19:27:09

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.

evenwolf · Sat 18/08/2007 19:30:19

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.

Babar · Sat 18/08/2007 20:03:19

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.

Tuomas · 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?

nick.keane · Sat 18/08/2007 20:48:41

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?! :'(

Stupot · Sat 18/08/2007 21:05:08

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?

voh · Sat 18/08/2007 22:28:33

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

evenwolf · Sun 19/08/2007 05:35:32

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.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Sun 19/08/2007 11:07:25

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.

Ishmael · Sun 19/08/2007 14:34:52

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...

lo_res_man · Sun 19/08/2007 19:34:56

Well I have pm'd the moderators for "Competitions and Activities" heres hoping.

Tuomas · Sun 19/08/2007 20:16:56

yeah, been there, done that... :

evenwolf · Sun 19/08/2007 20:56:31

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

Ishmael · Sun 19/08/2007 21:13:21

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.

lo_res_man · Sun 19/08/2007 21:36:25

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.

Redwall · Sun 19/08/2007 21:50:51

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 . . .?)

Ishmael · Mon 20/08/2007 00:15:56

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.

Paper Carnival · Tue 21/08/2007 15:49:57

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

Stupot · Tue 21/08/2007 23:31:49

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.