Charley

What Are You Listening To?

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Hello.

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MxF. 18+.

Writing, casual to low advanced.

My current thoughts are romantic adventures and sort of in tune with the ideas below, but I'm versatile with plots - eras pending. Here are some base ideas we could work from:

Before: The gritty, romantic atmosphere of the antiquated medieval era. Strong, fearless and quick to use physical violence, yet introverted, intuitive, and a man of principles. He's a loner and travels with little more than the clothes on his back, until he wanders into the town where he finds her. The woman he will do more than kill for.

Hereafter: Post-apocalyptic. In a world left behind for devils and the dust of memory's dregs, some things are worse than death. Longer nights. Unforgiving days. Groans in the darkness. Pleasure and pain can be the same.

For those of us who knew the pain of valentines that never came: When you discover that beauty is not what they told you. Plot, era and genre wide open. Needs considerable fleshing out.

In addition, other genres like Fantasy, Sci-fi/Space Sci-fi, Western, Modern and Slice of Life can be a lot of fun.

It would also be very nice to hear any ideas you might have.

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PM me if you're interested.

Charley ~

What Are You Listening To?

What Are You Listening To?

What Are You Listening To?

Wannabe Writer Needs Help

@Zeroth

You're welcome, and there's nothing to forgive you for. I understand.

While I was reading your reply, I was reminded of a story I once heard about Stephen King. Now, it doesn't matter if you don't like the guy, the writer, or enjoy his books. Hell, you don't even have to respect him. But the fact of the matter is that he is one of our worlds most accomplished authors, and since he has become a household name, I figured I'd use him as an example. What you may not know is that King struggled with what you are going through with his first novel "Carrie". I didn't do a lot of research to refresh my memory of what King thought of his first book, so a quote from Wiki will have to do for now: "King believed Carrie would not be successful, thinking it would not be marketable in any genre or to any audience."

Here is the full extract

King believed Carrie would not be successful, thinking it would not be marketable in any genre or to any audience. He also found writing it to be a "waste of time" and found no point in sending out what he perceived as a failed story. King only continued writing it in order to please his wife and because he was unable to think of anything else to write. When King finished the first draft, Carrie was a 98-page-long novella that he detested. In December 1972, King decided to rewrite Carrie and strive for it to become novel-length. He wrote in fabricated documents that were purported to be from periodicals such as Esquire and Reader's Digest, imitating their style accordingly; a process that King found entertaining. After Carrie was accepted by the publisher Doubleday, King revised the novel with editor and friend Bill Thompson. The original ending of Carrie had Carrie growing demon horns and destroying an airplane thousands of miles above her. Thompson convinced King to rewrite the ending to be more subtle.

It is easy to understand why King thought maybe people wouldn't care about Carrie, or why she wouldn't be relatable, especially back in the earlier 1970's. A schoolgirl with superpowers? Please.... But now, look at what entertainment around the world has become.

In my own first book, I antagonized over whether my characters would be acceptable and appreciated. I worried about whether my plot would suffice. At one point, I destroyed an entire first draft out of fear of failure. But no amount of worrying helped. Eventually, I ended up rewriting what I had destroyed almost to the letter. Despite my concerns, it got published. It took the advice of a long-lost friend to get me over it. And I quote her now: "Just write your story. It's YOUR story." She even used a severe, angry tone, which made me pout. I guess she was fed up with my complaining and worrying. Bless her heart. But it did the trick.

Unfortunately, Zeroth, finding something more concrete to set your concerns at ease may not happen. What I was trying to say in my first reply, is that no one can tell you how to write your characters or devise your plot, or even what language to use. It won't matter how much you antagonize yourself over what others might think or how they might feel about these aspects because, no matter what you do, you can never please everyone, and you can never be guaranteed to please the most people that you can please, either. Write your story. It is your story. Remember, we are all made of the same stuff. So, put your heart into it. Put everything you have into it, and don't hold back. By doing so, your characters - no matter who or what they are - will affect the reader, they will care, and maybe in ways you had never imagined.

Write your story and mean it.

Wannabe Writer Needs Help

quote from Zeroth

So like a lot of us in the narrative roleplaying community, I've made numerous attempts to write my own stuff. Novels, short stories, tabletop campaigns, etc. Recently, though, a recurring problem I've been wrestling with really just has me doubting, on the whole, my ability to ever make any of it successful. I've always felt that I have a lot of strengths in different areas of writing. I feel confident in worldbuilding, designing stuff like magic systems, making characters, and writing direct action (like arguments or combat). I think my ability to describe things and pace events is okay.

But when it comes to an "overall plot," especially one that has a strong meaning or theme, I feel like I'm falling short. I always reach a point in my writing where I'm asking myself "Why would the reader care about these characters? Or about what they're doing? And what value does this story really have to anyone who's not me?" I can sometimes come up with smaller scale plots, that basically boil down to "Character A wants something really badly, but can't have it for reasons. So they do XYZ about it." But then, when I start trying to string those plots together with some kind of overarching structure, it feels really slapdash even if I try to keep all the events focused around the same thing.

I don't feel like I can really "grab" a reader, or give them an experience that leaves them with the "just finished a book blues." I don't feel like there's any "point" to reading a particular story I, specifically, wrote versus any number of other stories out there on the shelves. I'm not sure "why" I'm writing these things beyond just a "wouldn't it be cool if..." idea that pops into my head. Like, I'm not trying to change the world with some ground-shaking philosophy or anything, but I feel like there needs to be some kind of strong message that serves as a kind of glue to really make everything else in the story fit together.

Has anybody else experienced this struggle, or gotten past it? Those of you who have successfully published your writing, or at least finished a draft or two, do you have any advice? Anyone else feel free to chime in of course, but I'd be especially interested to hear from those who have become "pros," in a sense.

@Zeroth

Hi @Zeroth.

I'll start by saying that all the doubts and fears you experience are rather common for writers, or any type of artist for that matter. If every writer who encountered these struggles decided not to continue their story, there wouldn't be many books on the bookstore shelf. What you feel is natural, and we are all our own biggest critic. As for plots, they don't need to be fully developed before you start. Sometimes, it takes writing to have the plot fall into place.

From someone who has had their work published, I can tell you it's okay to restart, restart again, to angst over your story, its characters, to want to do better. Even in the reading of your own work, you can only speak for yourself when it comes to what is liked and not liked. In my own opinion, the best thing you can do is really enjoy the journey, the story, for I firmly believe that the best stories out there were written by those who truly loved writing them. Throw what others might think to the wind, and just love what you do. Love your story. Love your characters.

For me, if after a session I feel like I'm waking up from some surreal dream, then I know I've done well.

It's easy to say, "don't have doubts", but we both know they will come when they do. I think you should just breathe into your work. Give it life. Give it your heart. Don't hold back a single thing. Become a part of it and punch it out. Then, your best will come. No regrets. Clean it up later.

Don't stop. Keep going.