Do you write stories?

[atv_chic_18]

That I do but right now I have a writer's block going on with both of the stories I have been working on.

 

[Deacon Cole]

I used to. I probably should again since I still come up with ideas. I just get discouraged easily and the idea of putting something out in the world fills me with the sort of dread that should be reserved for being eaten by a walrus. I am relatively thin-skinned. It is probably best I just stay silent than act like a jerk when people criticize my work.

 

[G1eet]

I write stories, but they involve such horror I couldn't dare link them for you.

Mine end up like that too... probably completely unrelated to all the zombie media I've seen/ played.

 

[photog212]

I used to do a lot of freelance writing for magazines, and I wrote a couple stories that got published in a book on short stories. I won a couple of awards (minor ones) but for some reason I don't do it as much anymore. Maybe, I'll spend some more time writing this summer.

 

[Kajin]

I've been really heavy on fiction writing recently. I used to always dabble in writing but due to short attention span was never able to get any particular idea off the ground.

I'm about 53 pages into my most recent work, the most I've ever written on any one idea. I have high hopes for it right now.

 

[Fairee]

Sometimes I write. But I constantly have ideas for stories. Anything can spark me off - just the most basic and tiny detail - and in my mind I can keep expanding it into a novel.

 

[Baby Tea]

I just wrote two recently!
Part 1
Part 2

Short, but I'm hoping to do more that are longer.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

In my spare time, but I stopped when it was starting to interfere with my school work.

 

[killgannon]

I try to, always lose interest after a chapter or so :/

 

[Sevre]

I just finished a short story for a competition, I only had a week to do it so its not up to my usual standard but I will rewrite it in the future.

 

[internutt]

I haven't written for a few months now. The last story I wrote was about a game hunter reflecting on his biggest catch in a speech to the public. He basically went insane with obsession over finding the creature and while he gains millions from the press for its capture he realises the poor Unicorn he caught ruined his life. During his speech he gains flashbacks of the times he was truly happy with his female colleague and ignored all the signs telling him he was in love with her. By the time he is making the speech the woman is with another man.

A fun short story. I completely demonise the Unicorn, only to turn the main characters view of the creature back onto himself when he realises how much of an asshole he's been to everyone.

 

[deathless14]

yes i am currently working on a novel about three girls escapeing from a jail. it is very cool and i hope it gets published some day.

 

[soren7550]

Oh god yes, I love writing my own stories but:
-I don't get a lot of time to do so.
-I easily get distracted.

But apparently, I write good stories. A bunch of teachers and students at my school seem to like my work well enough. Some time last year for my english class, I wrote up a Celebrity Jeopardy parody (much like the SNL ones) and the teacher ended up making up copies for all the teachers in the school. About a day or so after the copies were distributed, a whole bunch of teachers walked up to me and told me how funny they thought it was.

 

[Grimm91]

On and off. I like writing but I get the worst writer block after 50 pages.

 

[UltimatheChosen]

I write my own short stories, but they're mediocre at best. Most of them are outright bad.

 

[chromewarriorXIII]

I write and I am using a book that I am writing as an independent project for school.

My novel is called Red Crow.

 

[_Janny_]

I've tried a few times to write a novel but always just get a few chapters in and then lose interest in the story (not because I think the story is boring but because I start thinking about another story I want to write).

I have the exact same problem, is there any way to get passed it? Cookie for anyone that can give me an idea on how to solve this annoying bit...

 

[Buffoon]

Yeah, I write. I have genuine hopes of being published someday. That's not to say that those hopes are realistic, but... eh, I can only try.

I did write a novel a while back, only a short-ish one (80,000 words or so). I'm working on another one now (50,000 words in) but I doubt I'll finish that one.

 

[floppylobster]

I write stories, but I can't do dialogue. I can do lyric language, good characters, plots, and settings, but I can't do dialogue. As a result most of my stories are narrated in the first person and have only the main character. Can anyone give tips?

Do several drafts - Write what you need them to say. Then write what they would say. Then write it how they would say it. Then try and use words to reveal even more about their character. Then do a massive edit.

Good dialogue can take multiple drafts and lots of layering.

Also do lots of editing, but it's important to go through the earlier steps first. Good dialogue is a line loaded with meaning, then stripped back to the bare minimum. It may even appear cryptic to a reader if it wasn't for the fact we know something about the character from your story.

You?ll probably only really get to know your characters once you?ve finished the story, so put in functional ?temp? dialogue until you?ve finished, then go back and work on the layering once you know them better.

That's my advice but everyone has their own methods.

 

[Labyrinth]

I wouldn't call it "writing" in the same way as scrambled eggs is hardly five star cuisine. I prefer to think that I occasionally come out with something legible amongst the random smacks of fingers to keys.