I'm Going to be a Writer

[Neoma]

You know, someday. After I become an Astrophysicist maybe, or now. Already figured out what the title of my future book will be and I'm going to get all the plot ideas I've put into a folder on my desktop tomorrow, and compile it into one big plot.

Should I go for it, or wait until I'm 30 years old or something?

[Ptah]

1. Paperback Writer

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fXOsi6gPvDs

[Neoma]

2. :o

Favorite song now.

[Orrex]

3. If you're 29 1/2, you might as well wait until you're 30. Otherwise, start now

Or you'll be sitting there when you're 30 saying "I wish that I'd started on this writing thing sooner."


I guarantee it.

[Neoma]

4. I'm 19.

[Orrex]

5. Okay, then you can wait until tomorrow.

But no longer than that.

At the very least, you'll have gone a long way toward finding your voice and style, even if you don't score that Pulitzer before you hit the big three-oh.

[Neoma]

13. I sort of have voice and style.

I've already had an interesting life and so on. Became a bookworm at a young age, became political at a young age, met fucked up people at a young age, been home schooled at a young age, been near death at a young age...and so on and so forth. So, I might as well write a book at a young age.

[khashka]

6. All I can say, as a published writer is

welcome to Hell.

Khash.

[Orrex]

7. Plagiarist!

You totally stole that from somebody else.

[khashka]

10. Talent borrows, genius steals

The rest of us just pretend we bought it cheap in a pub from some bloke who said it fell off the back of a lorry.

Khash.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. My dear Khash!

You got that right, sweetie!

And I haven't even published yet...

*sigh*

[Neoma]

14. Why's that?

[khashka]

15. Because writing hurts

if you do it right. And it doesn't get easier, it gets harder. Because as time goes on your standards mature, you have higher expectations, and you used up all the easy stuff in the early years. And then there's trying to get published!

I've gone back to working on a story I put away some time ago. Maybe I'm not the man to write it (as CAPeggy pointed out to me). The usual people I sell to, well it's not the sort of thing they would want. So it's like starting over.

But please do write - a lot of great stuff has been written by younger people. Some of my best stuff was written when I was 16.


Khash.

[Neoma]

16. Well, I do have a certain problem.

Every time I write a story, I only finish the first page. I figure that I can get around that problem by writing short stories first. Maybe actually use plot ideas.

[khashka]

22. I have a similar problem

I can't write a novel. I get to chapter 5 and it all falls apart. So I break it down into short stories.

Some things that may help.

1. Write a plot outline. It gives structure. I've never known a writer who actually stuck to one. But it helps you know where you are going.
2. Just keep writing no matter how bad it is. Eventually things will work.
3. Endings are the hardest part - easy to set up a conflict and drama, but how do you resolve it? So think it through first (see #1)
4. Check out Susie Bright's book "How To Write A Dirty Story". From the title you might guess it's about writing erotica -it is, but mostly it's advice for writers just starting out and need a few ideas about how to write.
5.The more personal you are, the more universal it becomes.
6. Just keep at it. Try anything. When it works you'll know it.


Khash.

[Neoma]

23. Nice advice, thanks.

[Lorien]

9. ...

If you want something you've never had before, you've got to do something you've never done before.

~ Drina Reed

[Chan790]

11. Start now

I'm saying that as someone who started a novel junior year of college and is still working on it weekly. (I'm 28 now)

It's a tome though...over 900 manuscript pages, and if you add up all the typing, notetaking, editing and erasing, it's probably closer to 3500-4000 pages of work at this point. Finished edited novel projects to 650+ pages typeset and published. It's my white whale, an over-in-depth epic of a novel about how friendships, relationships, and loves change over the course of exactly a year as a result of a tragedy and other people's responses to it. Mostly it's about endings. I've written other things and had success, but those things aren't my great novel.

Also, if you have a great idea...don't start with that one. Write something else, even something short, to get acclimated to your process. The great idea novel will be better for it. That's my experience. I have had moderate success on poems, short stories and novellas that I know are not as good as my novel.

Find a motivator to keep writing daily...if nothing else NaNoWriteMo works great to as a timeline to hold oneself to. Find your comfort space to write...mine is an overstuffed desk chair and an antique civil-war-era desk stuck in the corner of my bedroom...but it could be anywhere; J.K. Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potter novels in a 24-hour coffee shop writing daily between the hours of 11pm and 2am, James Joyce wrote the first 30 pages of Ulysses on the toilet, Jack Kerouac wrote On The Road on the move on a single roll of toilet paper, Margaret Atwood writes sitting on her living room couch.

Most of all, good luck and have fun. What's the point, if it isn't fun?

[WilliamPitt]

12. Here's how.

Just write.

Don't try to imitate anyone else, don't go get some writing degree, don't do anything except just write.

Period.

Well...get to it. Practice practice practice! Somewhere at the end of a long line of written words is your unique voice, and it's waiting for you to write your way there.

Find it.

Just write.

:toast:

[Neoma]

21. Right-o

[RetroLounge]

17. You already ARE a writer...

Just keep doing it now...

:hi:

RL

[Neoma]

18. Haha

But I haven't even written a short story. :P

[RetroLounge]

19. But you have written a page, right?

Keep a notebook with you.
Write everyday.
Don't stop.
Don't make excuses.
Just write.
Crap. Greatness. Journal. Poems. Stories. Ideas.
Doesn't matter.
Just keep filling up notebooks, and save everyone.

And read a lot too.

It is a skill that needs practice.

:hi:

RL

[Neoma]

20. I already read a lot.

No problem there.