Writers

[catstaff]

Write on!

 

Got a ton of fanfic under my belt (see my signature, lol!) and one self-published novel on Amazon. Fantasy-setting romance novel - yes, it's explicit! As far as the fanfic goes, I'm all over the place. Lots of Harry Potter, thanks to getting pulled into a group that did a lot of fic prompt challenges, an Earth's Children trilogy, Phantom of the Opera, Dead Poets Society, and some RPF/bandfics. I've also got a couple other originals in various stages of progress.

 

Currently at 61K words for NaNoWriMo, spread between 11 different projects, as a bandfic-only site that I'm on has a thing for Christmas where you anonymously submit prompts for stories you'd like to see written. People look over the prompts, (hopefully) write something for one or more of them, and submit them, but they won't go live on the site until Christmas. I wrote a bunch of one-shots based off various prompts over there.

[AsymDoll13]

Oh wow. That sounds amazing!

[catstaff]

2 hours ago, AsymDoll13 said:

Oh wow. That sounds amazing!

It's lots of fun, that's for sure!

[_Terminus24]

That sounds great! Keep it up 🙂💪

[catstaff]

1 hour ago, _Terminus24 said:

That sounds great! Keep it up 🙂💪

 

Don't think I'll have too hard of a time keeping it up, lol, I've been posting fanfic in various places for over 20 years now!

[_Terminus24]

lol what I meant is you know 😉 Make sure you do a good job (I’m sure you will lol) if you have 20 years of exp 😜

[catstaff]

Yeah, yeah, I'm old. Middle-aged, anyway. Now get off my lawn, you young whippersnapper! 🤣🤣🤣

 

Off to finish one more prompt-fic for the Christmas gifting!

[Aries]

Topic is not about posting works, it's about what happens to all that is written.

 

Just from experience, and from what I see: - there are many talented people around me, and online, and everywhere. Lately every book I buy is huge disappointment and I just give it away.

Sadly, by my observation, writing is for people with money - from redacting it, the cover, the publishing and the advertising, you pay for all of it. And as everything it's a business and you would like to get some money for your work, not only recognition, if any.

Despite of this we have many famous worthless authors, and many great drafts hidden in files and boxes, some of them never red by anyone.

 

I find this pretty sad and illogical. Many and many new films, series and everything without a little taste in them, and people don't even watch. Same with books.

When my grandma died we clean some old stuff and threw away tons of books with ridiculous titles and content. And still published and sold.

Sometimes I think they want us to be stupid, not able to think and have personal opinion.

 

What do you think?

 

Would you publish your own work if you have a chance? Would you expose it to the audience? Once public - always public. Would you allow your characters and story to be adopted by other people, twisted, changed? Have you tried yet?

[Fuzzbucket]

Anyone can publish for free using Createspace.... Just saying. It's not all for the rich. But there is too much of everything out there,

[Aries]

Well, not so. I don't know what's your occupation, but art nobody knows about is a dead art. You may be the greatest most skilled and refined artist at the world, if you keep your paintings at your workshop and nobody sees them, what's the point of your tallent?

 

 

[7hippo7]

I don't think it's really for the rich, necessarily. More agents and publishers are going to want your book if you're a high profile person (like Prince Harry), but it's the publisher that puts all the money forward for printing usually. They take some of your profit, that's how they stay in business. They're not getting people to pay them to publish books. Though, you can self publish, and sometimes that can cost a bit of cash (depending on the route you take).

 

**Source: I have been published, and have worked with other peers who have been published.

[Fuzzbucket]

4 hours ago, Aries_Wild_Child said:

Well, not so. I don't know what's your occupation, but art nobody knows about is a dead art. You may be the greatest most skilled and refined artist at the world, if you keep your paintings at your workshop and nobody sees them, what's the point of your tallent?

 

If you use createspace, you get to sell your stuff on amazon. Not that I have have. You can also do so on places like lulu and blurb. I'm not a writer, but I have published a small art project through a POD printer and made some sales. Some do more in the way of promotion than others.

 

But if you want to publish in the same way authors like King or Binchy - you submit your work to a publisher and if it's good enough for them and fits their schedule - they do all the work and it costs you nothing; on the contrary, you are paid royalties on every copy sold. (I am not an author, but my partner is, a published one and it can take a lot of submissions to get into print. But it doesn't take money - unless you count postage.,)

[seventeendeer]

5 hours ago, Aries_Wild_Child said:

Well, not so. I don't know what's your occupation, but art nobody knows about is a dead art. You may be the greatest most skilled and refined artist at the world, if you keep your paintings at your workshop and nobody sees them, what's the point of your tallent?

 

 

 

The point of making art can just ... be to have fun? I don't show people all my art/writing, but I get to see it, be proud of it and enjoy what I've made. I spend tons of time rereading stuff I've written and looking at art I've made, and it makes me really happy! I don't see why my own joy at my work shouldn't be enough of a reason to make it. I'm the one who put in the labor, after all! I don't think I need anyone else's appreciation in order to justify its existence.

 

It is true, though, that getting traditionally published is much more achievable if you're rich - not just because you can self-publish, but because having more money = more time off work to write = more likely to actually finish your work, edit and browse publishing opportunities. Capitalism kills art, always has. Very few creative fields are actually about being good, they're more about being able to deliver a specific product. It's illogical because capitalism - a system built on Making Little Number Go Up At Any Cost - is illogical.

[Impulsive_Egg]

17 hours ago, seventeendeer said:

It is true, though, that getting traditionally published is much more achievable if you're rich - not just because you can self-publish, but because having more money = more time off work to write = more likely to actually finish your work, edit and browse publishing opportunities. Capitalism kills art, always has. Very few creative fields are actually about being good, they're more about being able to deliver a specific product. It's illogical because capitalism - a system built on Making Little Number Go Up At Any Cost - is illogical.

THIS!! Say it again!

 

I really respect people who make art just because they want to and for no other reason. Cormac McCarthy has said that he writes because he feels like he has to for his own mental health, he doesn't care if it's good or not. Capitalism makes it so difficult to make art just for the sake of making art because (in the US at least) the cost of living just keeps going up and wages stay stagnant, so working class people need to work more just to make ends meet, they don't have the time to do what they love.

 

I myself am a writer and I've aspired to be an author since I was a kid because I know writing is something I'm good at. I have stories to tell that I want to share with people, and they may not be everyone's taste but that's okay. At the end of the day, writers tell the story that they want to tell - no one has to be a master to share their art.

[animatedrose]

On 1/31/2023 at 10:08 AM, Aries_Wild_Child said:

Well, not so. I don't know what's your occupation, but art nobody knows about is a dead art. You may be the greatest most skilled and refined artist at the world, if you keep your paintings at your workshop and nobody sees them, what's the point of your tallent?

 

Aaaaaaaand this is why THAT mentality bothers me. You think creatives need to be in the spotlight, need to be slaves of the people, in order to rightfully exist. That our own enjoyment isn't enough. Some of us don't care about "the audience" or "the people". I write because I have something I want to write, I write it how I want it--not how someone else declares it must be written--and MAYBE I don't want someone random to barge in, stare at it, and then tell me why it's garbage. BECAUSE I KNOW!! I write to improve my craft, to have fun within my own control, not glorify myself to the world. I'm not perfect. I'm not a big shot. Few are. Will I ever get there? Who knows because capitalism drains time, but I'll keep trying and dreaming until I'm in the ground.

 

A talent doesn't NEED a point. It can just exist. Do I need to know the little Timmy down the road can do six hula hoops on a unicycle while juggling bears? No. That doesn't invalidate his skill just because I don't see it. One person's "worthless talent" is another person's "omg that's so cool" moment. I'm sure the authors of those books you threw away thought the same of the skills you're trashing as "no taste".

 

Not everyone wants worldly attention. Some of us just want to do what we love until we (maybe) hit a point of being okay with people seeing it. If you can make a profit off it, cool. Money is always nice, but so is time. I'd love to sit and write or draw all day without fearing for my living situation, but that's not going to happen. We're all different and of differing opinions. Declaring that people unwilling to dive into the public ring are "worthless" or don't "have a point to their talent" is rather rude and won't help anyone take that first step. If you're trying to coax people into being more public with their work, maybe you should take a step back and rethink your approach. I know I, as a writer, was pretty put off by this and I'm willing to bet other creatives were too.

[Fuzzbucket]

On 2/1/2023 at 7:13 PM, animatedrose said:

Some of us don't care about "the audience" or "the people". I write because I have something I want to write,

 

This, so very much. I remember seeing Margaret Atwood speaking once, and she said when the thumb from the sky presses down on you, you HAVE to write that poem, whether anyone else will ever see it or not. It isn't even necessarily wanting to, is it - it's having to. It's in there and it needs OUT !

[CandraCat]

I think up a lot of fanfic stuff, but I don’t really take the time to write it down. Like Lore for dragons from games, and stories that go along with songs, or side stories from other peoples literature works 🤷‍♀️ 

I write cringy poetry too 😂 most of it gets deleted because I’d be embarrassed for my husband to see it just how bad it is 🤦‍♀️ 

 

I found a way to keep my writing more unavailable, so I can edit it freely. The program I was using before, if I changed anything it would move it to he top, which makes it more likely to be noticed and read. They might get better now that I can edit them freely without fear of embarrassment.

 

 maybe one day someone will read some of my stuff 😂 🤷‍♀️  if it gets any better that is 😂 

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by CandraCat

[Impulsive_Egg]

Currently majoring in Creative Writing in college, I've been writing for a really long time otherwise. I mainly do fantasy and a lot of self-reflection journaling. I've been thinking about making a thread in the original works to place some of my writing dumps, but something's holding me back. I don't mind sharing my work, just kinda concerned with how others might use it?

[ShadowMistaken]

oh hey I write fanfics too haha

 

mostly in the (inactive and practically dead) Lost in Space fandom lol

[G'lant]

On 10/3/2021 at 7:05 PM, AsymDoll13 said:

Hi guys! I like to write (mostly fiction and fanfics, just boring stuff). Anyone else??

 

Question: Does anyone write horror? I'm not good at it, and I was hoping for tips~ ^^

Have you read some of proximal flame's work on spacebattles. He writes some decent horror moments in most of his stories. All the little lost boys and girls in particular is horror themed. Very good quality of writing and excellent characterization of antagonists without making caricatures that are boring.