Writing Your Own Book

[StormWizard212]

@hazeh that makes sense about the fanfiction. It's so much more motivating when you're getting regular feedback/interest, so I totally know what you mean.

 

I'm my own worst enemy with my writing and struggle to get things started and then commit to finishing them. I told myself earlier this year that I was going to get organised and actually plan a novel from start to finish this time, hoping it would mean I didn't get stuck and give up. I bought myself all these pretty notebooks to plan in and then... nope. Haven't written a word. I just don't know how to get started with my planning because I don't know what I want to write. I have too many thoughts and I don't know how to sort them properly.  Also procrastination.  

[HeatherMarie]

I really need to get my butt into gear now. April is Camp NaNoWriMo, I *always* do at least one of the two Camp NaNos, I didn't do the big November NaNo last year (and didn't do the July Camp last year due to recovering from the hospital).... I really really really need to do Camp next month. I feel like I've really gotten out of the writing habit and I hate that. But I still have no clue what to write... I have multiple works-in-progress right now, but they are all either stalled or just not really interesting enough for me. My fanfic sequel I have serious writer's block on, I feel like I've written myself into a corner because I do *not* want them to actually break up but I'm not sure how to fix the huge betrayal that I've written. I have two stories I started in 2016 and wanted so badly to finish in 2017 and then didn't even touch them last year, and one of them I would *love* to finish but it's been so long I feel like I can't really get into that character's mindset anymore. And then there's the sequel to Amanda's story, where I *thought* I'd written the ending, and then kept getting ideas about expanding the twist at the end... I can't decide if I want to try writing more and figuring out what would happen if things escalated after the twist, or if I should just leave it alone. 

 

.... Writing is hard y'all. 

[Whirlaway]

I lack any motivation to write fanfictions since late last year, so I cannot imagine actually writing a physical book. I like feedback and I never get it for my fanfictions and, when I do get feedback, it is for old fanfictions I don't care about anymore so I am not interested in writing much of anything anymore.

[RWyvern]

Was writing a comic, quit on that last year though.

[Cireth]

On 3/12/2018 at 2:42 AM, StormWizard212 said:

@hazeh that makes sense about the fanfiction. It's so much more motivating when you're getting regular feedback/interest, so I totally know what you mean.

 

I'm my own worst enemy with my writing and struggle to get things started and then commit to finishing them. I told myself earlier this year that I was going to get organised and actually plan a novel from start to finish this time, hoping it would mean I didn't get stuck and give up. I bought myself all these pretty notebooks to plan in and then... nope. Haven't written a word. I just don't know how to get started with my planning because I don't know what I want to write. I have too many thoughts and I don't know how to sort them properly.  Also procrastination.  

How about posting your original work on Wattpad? It might give you the motivation to keep going.

[Cireth]

I am a Wrimo too! Good to see so many hanging out here.  I've written two complete books. One was crap. No amount of rewriting would save it so I deleted it. Good riddance!!! But it was my first Nano project and it taught me how to write a book. So I'm glad I did it even if it was unreadable, cringeworthy garbage. I'm currently re-writing NaNo 2014 so I can edit it and hopefully publish it. I have 8,000 words of the re-write done and need to get off my arse and get back to it.

 

For those who want to edit and get feedback Scribophile is a great crtitque site. I really need to get back on there too. I'm far too good at procrastinating.

[Harebelle]

Yay, writing! Hello fellow writers.

I'm trying to write a children's book and I'm really trying to take it seriously. I've found the best time for me is before I go to work in the mornings, so I'm fighting myself to stay in a routine and write something every weekday.

 

@Cireth Congrats on finishing two books! I couldn't imagine ever deleting one though. .___.
Thanks for suggesting Scribophile, I'll check that out.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Harebelle

[hazeh]

On 10/1/2018 at 2:21 PM, Cireth said:

I am a Wrimo too! Good to see so many hanging out here.  I've written two complete books. One was crap. No amount of rewriting would save it so I deleted it. Good riddance!!! But it was my first Nano project and it taught me how to write a book. So I'm glad I did it even if it was unreadable, cringeworthy garbage. I'm currently re-writing NaNo 2014 so I can edit it and hopefully publish it. I have 8,000 words of the re-write done and need to get off my arse and get back to it.

 

For those who want to edit and get feedback Scribophile is a great crtitque site. I really need to get back on there too. I'm far too good at procrastinating.

This is strangely motivating for me, haha  I recently pulled up my two nanos that I won (2014 and 2016) and re-read them. I'm surprised they're not as terrible as I originally thought they were. Since then I've tried to re-write both of them several times and never got very far with the re-writes, so now I'm wondering if it would just be more productive to go through the original and edit it heavily, maybe cut and paste some new/fresh scenes into areas that need them. One of these days I'll actually complete them! 

[sakurakid]

i writing a book but i not pubblic this. I not have a good competence for pubblicate a book.
My write not have a good quality i think.

It a fantasy story, in a world fantasy

 But i love the write! is my life!

The emotion as you write is unique! Magic! Fantastic!

[Cireth]

@Harebelle Thanks and you're welcome. I say books, they were Nanowrimo length so not so much novels as novellas but still, rewrite, add in the detail I shed when racing to get the plot down ( I am awful for doing this), edit, and maybe I'll have a novel rather than a novella at the end.

[Caius]

Since I was 10 years old I've wanted to become an author and it's the only dream I've ever been able to hold onto ... And I have too many stories in my brain in order for me to not write at all. For one thing I completely re-worked one of my oldest; but as I saw it, one of my best short novels back in the spring 2015. That one I chose to have in the book me and my classmates published together along with one of my song lyrics.

          But other than those, I've stories that has been in the making for more than ten years now. I honestly have about four different stories that I'm writing at the moment. And it's not because I'm having trouble finishing them - it's because some of them are insanely long. Some I've lost the written work for because of old computers crashing, some I've simply re-worked completely and started all over with recently. One I have to finish by late January 2020 because it's my entry for a competition (I don't really intend to become the new Astrid Lindgren though, as the competition is about, it's more a way for me to actually have a set date to strive to finish the story for, and it's my only not-so-heavy-story which is intended for children around 10-13 years old, unlike most of my other stories). The oldest one I've been working with since 2007 and it's the longest story I'm probably ever going to write. Right now I'm writing the final version of the first part of the story once and for all, so I really hope I will make it this time - I know I've said it about the previous version that it would be the last, though I kept developing my own voice a little over the course of writing it ... Thus I felt the need to write it once last time when I had finally found my voice in the texts I write once and for all.

 

I also write manuscripts for both theatre plays, short movies and comic books - other than those four stories. So really, I have two theatre plays I could write (one which is in the making, based on ancient Egypt to make a difference in all my only-fantasy-writing), one which will be about two of my characters from the story that I've been writing since 2007 (honestly, I could as well go back and change all of it to write stories about the time before that story takes place, since some characters that are mentioned or appears in the story, are characters that I've pretty much already seen their past and how they got to the point where they are in the story. So I have an endless amount of stories about the characters from that world). Two comic books are in the making with their manuscript. Though, one of them I believe I never will actually be able to fully turn into a comic ... I'm far too insecure with drawing humans. The other one is about dragons though (one of the main characters are currently in my avatar, hehe), so that one I shall pull off one day, and it's also one of the longest stories I've ever written since there's so many characters involved in it and it's my only science fiction story that I've been working with.

 

 

 

And since I too (like many others) get writers blocks every now and then; that's the reason I always have many stories on-going all the time, in order to switch between them to find my writing flow again. Also, it's very good to write other short stories, descriptions for dragons or texts for characters behind the scenes - simply to keep the writing up and also to try to get rid of the block.

[Yandere_Blood18]

I'm currently trying to write a billion stories, but most of them are fanfiction and/or general stuff that I may never fully complete. But I do have one story that I'm planning to publish at some point, it'll be a full novel series that is largely fiction and ultimately made up of different 'viewpoints' that expand into a much larger universe that is across multiple different timelines. So it's really a mix of different genres, with some books being short stories and others being full-blown novels. I'm really excited for this, mainly because it's a combination of literally all my ideas and I don't have to create separate worlds for them to happen in - everything is connected.

 

But that's all that I'll say about it, don't want to spoil anthing.  The only reason I haven't published it anywhere on the internet (yet) is because I'm paranoid it might get plagiarized by some ****** and it'll start a huge war. Plus, it'll deal with some heavy subjects that may end up causing a lot of anger to be directed at me. But I am starting on the first part to this series, which I may post at some point (if I even get it done).

[skwerl56767]

   I did it! I finally published a single book! Just one though, and my first scif-fi one too. Can't make all of them at once, of course. Here's a sample if you guys want to take a peek!
   The writing process... well, in all honesty, that part was fine. I did alter a few things here and there as I edited, and the first couple of drafts had the most "little" changes. The final drafts only changed the formatting to make it compliant with the guidelines of the platform I published on. As far as content goes, because I chose to self-publish, I barely edited the content at all, since there wasn't a publisher or editor telling me what will or won't sell - which is both good and bad, in its own way. I had outside help from friends and family to catch typos, especially sneaky ones that form actual words, like "he" instead of "the" and "and" instead of "an". That's pretty much all I needed to do to make the manuscript! Just wrote what I wanted to write.

   I've proven to myself something about writer's block, too: it's mostly just brain boredom. With the first book I actually ruined my sleep schedule because my brain was too active to sleep. I also kept it occupied with other stories and games, listening to new music, reading books on the histories of physics and math, funnily enough, and finally just being enthusiastic about my book in general. That kept me going well enough to write most of the second book, too! Then I made the mistake of stopping production to work on editing the first book, making it a cover, doing research on where to sell it and how much to sell it for... that, combined with in-life circumstances that kept me from finding new things to do, and the fact that I exhausted myself from the things that used to be new, has caused me to fall into a pit of lacking motivation. Now the second book just sits there, waiting for the ending to be written, and I have to finish it because it's the next in the series.
   Learn from me. Keep your brain occupied, and don't stop if you're in the middle of writing a book. You can stop once it's written, but any time beforehand and you'll have half a book and have forgotten most of it by the time you're interested in it again. Now I have to climb up out of this pit, and it has not been easy. Most of it is mental stress, since I'm one of those people who hates having half-finished projects laying around, and that loves to fight with my laziness. Fun times.
   I've at least learned quite a bit about the publishing process in my writing hiatus. I won't ramble about that stuff though, unless any of you are interested in self-publishing. My other books that were unfinished since my last post here are, well, still unfinished, since I kept myself hyper-focused on the one. I also came up with a number of new stories - one of which actually has a full plot! That never happens - so... I pretty much have my work cut out for me, hah hah.
   I plan on running a sale around Christmastime for my first book, too. I can only run a sale every couple of months, it seems, so I'm being really cautious about when I run them, else I'd do promotions all the time. I'm also looking for sites or mail lists, things like that, so I can show the story to more people. If you guys have suggestions there, or places you go to learn about new books, I'm all ears!
   I have to say, all this marketing stuff is less fun than the actual writing, but it has to be done. Part of being an author. Well, a self-published one, anyway.

[Swifthawk]

I'm in the process of writing my own book series. Its a medieval fantasy books about giant bird companions. That's all I will say about it for now  I'm excited about it!

[Ruffledfeathers]

I have many ideas, I just get stumped when it comes to actual writing! I am over protective of my work, over critical and when it fails to come out right I get annoyed.

Idk how to make conversations seem natural sometimes as well, maybe I need to read more to get better ideas.
 

For publishing, Idk, scared of bad reviews I guess  Maybe Id release it to some trusted people first.

[BlackMagicRose]

I had started a fantasy type of deal years ago and stumbled on it the other day. I really need to knuckle down and write it. Another one I have wanted to write about the

narcissistic abuse I suffered from a so-called friend and my boyfriend at the time. I just thought it might be healing for me to tell my story.

Edited June 20, 2023 by BlackMagicRose
typos

[psibomber]

I'm reading this thread and wow congratulations for those of you who finished work or got published I feel like that's a form of graduation when it comes to being a writer. I've written ever since I was 13 but I've never finished or gotten anything substantial published just some articles on the school newspaper, things like that. I just talked the other day in a forum where people compared me to Bukowski for not writing -.- But I never have stopped writing for long I just don't publish. I've written two 245k word length stories recently just privately by myself but it's always a struggle to edit and I don't know what genre I want to debut with. Everyone has opinions about writing, expectations for me, demands, and it's pulling me in all sorts of directions haha. Like the universe is watching me. O_o

 

If anything this thread has shown me, just write and write and write, everybody haha. The more writing, the more stories, and the more creativity that is out there, the better. It's like a whole multiverse of worlds exist in each writer or creative artist's head and just get it out there. As for marketing, business, and all of that stuff there are people whose entire jobs are that and they are willing to help or there are plenty of resources available for free to help writers. I wish I had thought about that before getting a degree in Creative writing what a waste of time and money they just teach you to be upset at life  Just write and don't get scammed by the for profit university system like me(And I did get a real degree but I feel fundamentally it had problems). 

[Impulsive_Egg]

I have aspired to become an author since the first time a teacher gave me positive feedback on my writing. Like, she praised my writing for years and I've been chasing that high ever since. Actually currently majoring in creative writing with a focus in fiction and I'm saying this because I need to put it down somewhere: I am having so much trouble writing short-term fiction. Every story I've been putting out for these workshops/classes have been related to bigger projects that I have and the one time (this semester) when I tried to make a short story from scratch my little goblin brain activated the autistic-obsession-with-worldbuilding neurons. I've been writing it all week for my advanced fiction workshop, only 1/4th of the way done typing it up and I'm already at 2.3k words. I haven't even finished the plot yet.

I'm absolutely nuts.

[Zonnedauw]

So, I have written and published a book, and I feel like it'd be good to share my story.

 

First of all, I'm seeing a lot of the same things here. Having amazing ideas, characters, plotlines, ect. But no motivation to actually sit down and write. Lads 'n ladies, I feel ya. You want to hear some pro tips? Strap in!

 

So in my case, the stars had to freaking align for me to be able to write a book. I was very young, this was in high school, and the first draft was 80 pages I wrote for an assignment in Dutch class. I was very excited about the prompt, an old-timey animal fable, and the deadline was months ahead. Probably the only time I've not handed in an assignment last-minute. I was bored a lot in high school (at least, at the start, before I got a proper social life (and discovered video games)), and had already written stories before that. So my little kid brain just took the prompt and ran with it.

 

Needless to say, I got a 10. A friend pushed me to try getting published, and my family helped. I had a both friends and family beta-read for me, and spend a lot of time working out the kinks (which was a bit bothersome, but educational). I too went to an on-demand printing company, got through the screening, and there I went.

I had to make art for the book too, and a cover, and a blurb. I had a picture taken by a real(!) photographer, and had to sign a contract (well, my parents did, I was too young to be allowed to sign myself). Eventually, around 150 copies of my book got produced and distributed. For lil' 13 year old me, this was super exciting!

 

Besides the fun experience and confidence boost, it didn't really change my life.

 

Around a year after I published, my parents got me a hand-me-down drawing tablet and I was sold. I dove into digital art, and pretty much dropped writing. I feel like a lot of people around me were kind of disappointed in this. I was seen as a prodigy, and some teachers and family members tried to get my parents to encourage me to keep developing my 'writing talent'. They didn't. My parents just saw me still making art and were happy I was exploring a new medium. They let me be and I am eternally grateful for them for doing that. I feel like bad things happen to kids who are 'encouraged' like that.

 

So that was me at 13. I am 27 now and I have not published a book since.

 

Is this a failure? A disappointment on me or my parent's part? I don't think so. I kept making art, and after a while I did get back to writing, just not in the form anyone expected. I did comics for a while, even professionally for the website of a local business. I kept making digital art and got pretty good at that, also doing it professionally sometimes. Art sites on the internet were fast paced, and it was easy to find friends and communities there. Looking at drawings is much quicker than reading stories, so it's easier to get engagement and feedback. I drew a lot of dragons (heh, who would have guessed).

 

I did later also get into fanfiction, which I had very bad opinions about when I was younger, but luckily some friends set me straight. I do feel like fanfiction is easier, in a way, since you don't have to create or introduce characters, and can kind of cruise off of people's previous engagement with said characters/settings. But whatever, you can still tell your own story through existing characters, and it isn't like people haven't been doing this for our entire history (in the form of myths and fables). Why reinvent the wheel every time? Why not take the easy way to tell your tales?

 

Nowadays, TTRPGs are my main creative outlet. Dungeons and Dragons, but also others. There's a lot of niche TTRPGs out there, for every genre of fiction you can imagine, not just classic fantasy. I love trying out weird new ones! I have a bunch of friends that are also into it, and we have amazing adventures together. I even got some of my colleagues at work to try it, and am now in a campaign with one of them and their friend group. I feel like this is my favourite way of telling stories. It's ultimately so much more satisfying to tell a story to a group of friends (or soon to be friends, TTRPGs are great for making friends) and have them enjoy it and interact with it and tell it with you. Writing for the masses seems glorious but ultimately it's a lot of effort for empty fame. I'm much happier as a dungeon master than I was as a prodigy published author.

 

 

I think the main takeaway from my story, for anyone reading, is to not give up on making art, but to maybe consider giving up on writing a book. I see so many people struggle and ultimately fail, and I don't think it's worth it. Most of the time they don't even enjoy the process! And even if you make it, the end result may not even be as satisfying as you think. Even if you finished writing it, getting it published and promoted is a horrid hassle. Are you ready for that? How many positive reviews from people you don't know will make it worth the struggle?

 

And the most important one: do you genuinely enjoy writing when the end goal is a book? If that is the goal, every step towards that will read in your mind as a failure if you don't reach that ultimate end goal. Don't do that to yourself!! This world needs creative people. We need artists! If writing a book doesn't work for you as a creative outlet, just ditch it! Find an outlet that works for you! Hell, invent an outlet that works for you! It's art, you can do whatever!

 

 

Now, having said all that. I feel like I should illustrate my tale with where I started, and where I am now. First off, my book is in Dutch, so I don't feel too weird sharing it: sluwe dieren

For those wondering: Yes, i did draw that cover using fine-liners. Why no one thought to give 13-year-old me a freaking marker remains a mystery to me till this day (although the drawing tablet made up for it) (also yes, that is my real name, don't wear it out).

 

Now, here's me 14 years later. Here's my most recent art in my current favourite style and medium: Celtic Tribal and also, here are the dragons.

And, to really top it off, the fanfiction (and some original short stories) I don't feel shy about sharing these, because I do think my writing and storytelling have greatly improved since I was 13. Mostly because I've kept doing it in some shape or form, through the years. I'm very happy with where I am at now. 

 

 

So, in summary. Yes, I've published a book. I don't think I'll ever publish another book, and I am 100% fine with that. It wasn't for me.

 

I do hope this story helps at least some of you. Art smarter, not harder! Do the things you enjoy and stop staring at that unreachable end goal. Future you will thank you for it, I promise!