The Soda Shop Message Boards

So how many of you peoples here want to become a writer or write in your spare time?
I write a bit. I am currently working on my longest book so far. 16000 words.

(PS. This is my 1,000th post)

I've always loved writing. Story ideas come to me all the time. I'd love to publish novels in the future.

I love to write! But I'm more of a oneshot kind of person (AKA, not ongoing stories). I've tried doing a few chapter by chapter stories, and they did well (I publish them on various sites), but I end up abandoning them. d= I usually write a chapter a day for about 2 weeks, then forget a day, then stop completely.

But when I do write, I like writing just a short story. Usually around 1000-5000 words, it really varies.

Blitz- congrats on 1000 !

I need to write. I'm kind of the opposite of you, Audrey, in that once I start a project, it just keeps going. There have to be sequels. It's hard for me to boil something down to 5000 words, much less 1000. The only time I have written short stories were when I had to, for a class or something. I liked it--but I'd rather write endless epics.

That said, the story that I published on amazon, Justice Lost, was more like a novella, about 20,000 words. I do have a lot more planned for sequels, but they don't seem to be taking off, partly because I have to plan them more in order to align with the first one and the planned sequels, and there's always something that I haven't considered, and so I can't just jump into writing like I did with the first one (although come to think of it, some version of it was in my head for like 2 years....).

Now that I am done with my AIO fanfiction, all sorts of ideas for different stories are popping into my head.

Thank you.
Same here. Short stories are the worst for me. I always like something a bit long. I don't find closure in one book.

I enjoy writing though I'm bad at it. I attempt to write books, but I've never finished anything.

I enjoy writing my longest book at the moment is a little above 5,000 words. I'm not great but hey I good I hope?!

I wrote one book when I was seven called "Alaska." It was about a family who went to Alaska on vacation. They met some friends there and decided to live in Alaska. I took pieces of paper and taped them together for the book. That's the only thing I've ever finished.

Micky wrote:I enjoy writing my longest book at the moment is a little above 5,000 words. I'm not great but hey I good I hope?!

Congrats on 5000 words! The more practice you get, the better you get, so it'll only get better as you go on!

Novatom wrote:I wrote one book when I was seven called "Alaska." It was about a family who went to Alaska on vacation. They met some friends there and decided to live in Alaska. I took pieces of paper and taped them together for the book. That's the only thing I've ever finished.

I used to write a lot of books when I was little. At first Mom would write them when I told them to her and I'd draw the pictures, then I'd write them myself. Mainly they were about horses and usually a girl finding a wild horse and taming it. Or taking a horse in a race and winning.

I love to write. I used to try to write books when I was little, but I never could seem to get past the first or second chapter (the farthest I ever got was 10,000 words, which may seem like a lot, but it was by far the farthest I ever got. Besides, it was a terrible story anyway. ). So, now that I'm older and wiser, I've switched to short stories for several reasons. 1. It will enable me to hone my craft and experiment with different genres quicker. 2. I won't have to really think about whether I'll finish it or not. I'll be able to get a similar sense of accomplishment to writing a book in less time, and it'll teach me to finish what I start. I'm also working on expanding my vocabulary by reading books in a higher reading level than I normally would, with a dictionary as my aide. I hope to incorporate some of those "higher level" words into my own writing whenever they seem necessary. I hope to write novels one day, but not today.

I can write, but my biggest problem is that I can never think of a good storyline.

My problem is that I'm more interested in writing character interactions than I am in actually making the story go somewhere; needless to say, I won't be writing any long-term fanfics any time soon.

Hmm, Tiger, I am kinda the opposite. I have to force myself to have character interaction.

I'm really disappointed right now because a story I sent in got rejected. I wrote it in a class and my teacher thought it was good and she said to send it in and I thought it was the right place to send it but--
maybe I am doomed to have only one story in a magazine (and a little online one at that) and fanfiction and "self published" novels such as they are.

Ameraka wrote:I'm really disappointed right now because a story I sent in got rejected. I wrote it in a class and my teacher thought it was good and she said to send it in and I thought it was the right place to send it but--
maybe I am doomed to have only one story in a magazine (and a little online one at that) and fanfiction and "self published" novels such as they are.

*cough* *cough*

Harry Potter? Beatrix Potter? Louisa May Alcott?

You can't give up after one rejection. If every writer did that, we would only have about 2% of all great novels that we have now. If you like the story and think they made a mistake, keep trying to get it published. Otherwise, work on something else. Above all, don't get discouraged. Virtually every great writer has to be persistent.

I don't how not to get discouraged. Anyway I'll probably resend it once I recover. But there's no way to know if it'll make it.

If you actually want to be a writer, you can't use the philosophy of "I'm not sure if this'll get accepted or not, so why bother?" as a way to excuse not trying to publish things. Rejection is just another form of experience. Perhaps you should post your story on here...

ArnoldtheRubberDucky wrote:If you actually want to be a writer, you can't use the philosophy of "I'm not sure if this'll get accepted or not, so why bother?" as a way to excuse not trying to publish things. Rejection is just another form of experience.

I know that--in my head. It feels like my heart's been slashed up. I am an INFP (be glad you are not one) With high introverted Feeling. The more I care about something, the more it hurts when it's attacked. And the more I feel like running away and not doing anything, ever. I'm not exaggerating. I am still so upset I could not remember how to write the word exaggerate.

If I am too sensitive for rejection, maybe I shouldn't write. But if I don't write, I don't know what I'll do because it's an intrinsic part of me.

However, I want something enough, I will push through the pain.

ArnoldtheRubberDucky wrote: Perhaps you should post your story on here...

If I post it on here, I won't be able to publish it somewhere else. It'll be like it's already 'published'.

A private message or email on the other hand....

Okay, sorry, I didn't know you were INFP. But there's absolutely no reason why you should fell bad about it. Some of the most creative and brilliant people in the world have been identified as INFP, including John Lennon, George Orwell, J.R.R. Tolkien, and William Shakespeare himself. And I'm happy to hear that you'll push through. A good deal of success depends on determination.

I don't really see your point about posting it on here. I don't think it would be "like it's already published" at all.