Have you tried writing fiction?

I write a lot of fiction, sometimes to share with friends, sometimes just for fun. I’ve written two novels that are unpublished, I’ve had two short stories published, and I’ve recently started on my first serious attempt at a publishable novel.

Sure, several times. I’ve never really done anything with it, though. Rarely do I even finish it. :(

As it turns out, I seem to be better at writing essays, newsletters, and blog posts. You all get to see some of those here. :)

Yes. I’m pretty good at writing. My sister wants to get one of stories published. I think it’s stupid. I write fiction and nonfiction, and I think my nonfiction is better

Lots. For classes,for publication, for myself. When I was in advertising, that’s all I
wrote. ;-)

Yes. I’ve tried quite often over the years. My fans tell me I’ve succeeded fairly well. But what do they know?

Yes! I got started with poetry, and pretty quickly moved on to short stories. When Senior Projects went around in high school, I lengthened one of my short stories, developed the world a little better, and wrote a novella – about 119 paperback pages. That was lost to my insane religion (Satan was clearly speaking to me in Elvish) and now I’m trying to reclaim some of it from what I can remember.

Nowadays I spend so much time on world development and character profiles that I’m spending very little time actually writing the story. But that’s okay. It’s all in my brain, I just have to get it on paper. Or… the screen, as it were.

I’m one of those writers who has several projects going on at once and rarely finishes a damn thing. I like to cut myself slack saying “I’m still in school. I have all the time in the world to finish those novels” but I really should finish something. The last work of fiction I completed was a short story about a girl who wants to break up with her best friend (it was based on an amusing anecdote a friend of mine told me: she went to breakfast with her best friend with the full intention of “breaking up” with her, until she noticed the piping hot cup of coffee on the table. She decided not to break up because she was afraid the coffee would be thrown in her face.)

I’m supposed to be working on a short story for a convention at the moment. The theme is “Beyond Words” and my piece is about the Dnepropetrovsk spree killings in Ukraine. It’s not even close to completion. Procrastination is not good for writers.

As best I can gather, I have around five novels going at once (one young adult fiction, three books of children’s literature, and one or two adult works.) I am going to choose one and work through it for NaNoWriMo. Last year, I hit forty pages of one novel and haven’t touched it since then. I’m not sure which one I will end up working on this year. I just want to get something finished for a change.

My goal is to be a published fiction author, but I’m not there yet.

And how!

I wrote a story in 4th grade about the what would happen if the world turned inside out. I drew little pictures of my imaginings of buildings being crushed, people running around on fire, volcanoes erupting and so on. At a normal school, I would’ve been sent to see a therapist. But this was a creative arts, pseudo-Montessori school, so instead I won a prize for best short story for the 4th grade. At a different school in 6th grade, each student in my G&T class was required to write a story every week and present it on Friday mornings before our lunch period. At the same school in 8th grade, my class separated into groups and we wrote “radio plays” to be presented over the PA system for the rest of the school over the year. The so-called normal kids thought we were all weirdos.

Yet for years after 8th grade, I refused to write outside of school projects. Somehow, I thought I wasn’t talented, that I had nothing to say, that no one would want to hear what I had to say anyway, because… I didn’t know why exactly, but it “felt” selfish and indulgent to write or perform. So I stopped. Only when I sat in an office cube 25+ years later, scheduling yet another CEO shoot for a Fortune 500 company (and feeling utterly miserable that this was my life) that I allowed myself to question the validity of the “doing what you want is selfish” belief. So I started taking acting and improv classes, and I began writing again.

I just started a blog late last month devoted to super-short stories, dialogues and free writing based on photos I’ve taken. I also am finishing my first drama pilot script and am doing research for another. I have loglines for some feature film ideas that I have. I wrote a 10-minute short late last month that I’m looking to shoot soon. I’ve written a ton of comedic sketches, some to be filmed, some that are better for the stage.

I wrote two feature screenplays which were probably very bad and a pilot that’s most likely really good, but I neglected to save them onto DVD. The hard drive that they’re on went kablooey a couple of years ago. One of my goals when I’m working again is to have the data pulled out of that drive. I want those scripts.

Of course I’d like to sell my work and have people see it/read it. I didn’t move away from the Midwest to be an administrative assistant on the coast. Hell, could’ve stayed put if I wanted that.

Not really my thing, I am a humorist and that is my writing strength.

Lots of people have encouraged me to write a humorous novel but my talent is more off the cuff and not very disciplined. lol

I’d probably do best in comedy routine writing and my everyday life is a great source of humor. haha

Oh yeah, I like to call it my C.V :¬)

Tons of times. I got 60,000 words into a Lovecraftian horror novel before I fell out of love with the story and set it aside. I’ve written dozens of short stories and started a few other novels as well. Currently, I’m working on writing a young adult novel that I’m very serious about. After I finish this one, I’ve got another YA idea that I’m going to pursue.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard – That’s the biggest problem with long stories and novels: by the time you’re half-way through, you’re sick of the story and just want to move on to something new. And if you’re like me, your brain generates new plot ideas faster than you can write the stories down.

@HungryGuy, that’s exactly my problem. Halfway through the YA book I’m working on now, I came up with the idea for my second one. I sucked it up and told myself that this one needs to be finished first, so a little discipline helped me, that’s for sure.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard – I think that’s a lot of writers’ problems :-)

I have, but I’ve never “finalized” anything. I have completed stories, but I’ve never gone back and edited them. Then I have several stories which have been edited, but they haven’t been finished! Hopefully I’ll finalize one soon. :)

I write it just for myself or for my friends. I write horror/mystery and I have friends who are interested in that and like to read what I’ve written. I haven’t ever considered publishing anything.

Yes
But my stories were always too weird and too “far out” for anyone in my English classes to understand.
I recall writing a story about a bisexual on drugs eating in a restaurant with her boyfriend.
@HungryGuy I love “Cum sponge”!

@Michael_Huntington – Thanks! And thankfully, a lot of females like it too :-p

I am not that good at it. I can’t type that well. My friend Bippie , who just joined fluther, though had written two books. One is fiction , and a wife who sleeps around, Another is about adoption of a chinese baby. She is working on another. She is really good. I wish and admired people that can write well..

Yep, I’m strong on beginnings, and ends, it’s the middle that takes work! lol

@Coloma – I agree with you there. That’s why I often write the endings of my stories first, then the beginning, then figure out how to connect the two :-)

I wrote a fanfiction about Final Fantasy VI before, where Shadow resurrected Rachel so that Locke would go back to her and Shadow could move on Celes.
Just about everyone died in the end, and Setzer, for some reason or another became a vampire. It’s online on a site but I’m too ashamed. I was 19, shut up.

When it comes to actually sitting down and writing, I have the attention span of a rabid squirrel on crack. I have tons of napkins and receipts with ideas or one or two lines of dialog on them. If I’m somewhere really really boring, like the waiting room at the doctor’s office, then I can get a couple pages written, and I keep those in a file in my computer.

@HungryGuy I’m the exact opposite. I rock at the middle. It’s the beginning and end that are the hardest. ^_^

@Symbeline Oh! I wanna read your teenybopper fanfiction!

@Symbeline – I never played FFVI (6). But after playing 7 & 8, I noticed that the writers of FF games love to kill off sympathetic characters during the game.

@Seek_Kolinahr – Sometimes I get stuck doing it my way, and find it a long complex route to connect the beginning to the end :-/