The Writer's thread

[Vodstok]

I have been writing a decent amount lately (mostly due to the increase in my reading :)), and I thought it might be nice to have a little roundtable thread for the writers here; to talk about inspiration, schedules, ideas, how you write, why you write, advice. You know, the works.


I'll start things off with why i started writing.

I became interested in writing when i was in 7th grade and I won a writing contest. Granted it was non-fiction, but it was a huge deal. I had played with writing before, but that set the gears in my head in motion.

Then, a few years later, when I was 15, I read Homeland, by R A Salvatore, and decided I wanted to write fantasy. I experiemented with fantasy for years, never finishing anything. Eventually, after seeing, of all things, Judge Dredd (yes, with Stallone), I began working on a sci fi world that would put star wars to shame in terms of complexity and characters.

And it grew so big, i still dont know where to start with it.

Around 19/20, i worte Bearwood and discovered I loved to write horror. I took a break for years while I found myself, started Gloom which as yet to go beyond the second chapter.

I have been writing seriously for about a year now, i went from 3 short stories to my name to 10 (one fantasy, the rest horror), and I am working on a second fantasy short story that is a precursor to a novel.

I have back-burnered my dreams of screen-writing for now, since straight written-word is my comfort zone.

And that is a short synopsis of me as a writer. I leave the floor open for the next person.

[Roderick Usher]

I had always been a songwriter and poet. I wrote silly depressing poems and thought of myself as a tortured artist and musician when I was a teen. I started making money as a songwriter while still a teen, but when the money stopped, I moved into acting.

I ended up in musical theater. I enjoyed performing for thousands, but always thought the stories were insipid and wished I had better material to perform, so I decided to write an opera - a bloody, gothic, horror opera. I had no clue how to do it, so I thought I should put it in screenplay format first...just to see if the story was strong enough on its own to sustain a musical adaptation.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed the process and realized immediately that I was meant to write in this form. I tried a few comedies, a family drama and a sitcom, and then wrote another gothic horror script and realized that THIS is where I belong.

24 feature-length screenplays later, I've finally moved into short fiction. Check out the link to my short THE FLESH SHOW

http://www.buried.com/cgi-bin/horrorfiction/fiction.cgi?action=view&id=611

[_____V_____]

24 feature-length screenplays later, I've finally moved into short fiction. Check out the link to my short THE FLESH SHOW

http://www.buried.com/cgi-bin/horrorfiction/fiction.cgi?action=view&id=611

That is really good work, Sean! Keep it up.

And this is a splendid idea for a creative and innovative thread, Vod.:)

[Disease]

My motivation has been lacking lately, It has picked up in the past month, but I'm referring to the last 2 years or so.

I sometimes think it is my relationship that is blocking my creativity and in ways I know that is true, I don't get a lot of time to myself.

But in the last month I have moved out of the flat and am getting some ideas flowing again, it feels like I'm on the way back.

I started writing in Primary school, I had a few story published in the monthly school news letter, The one I recall being the most popular was about killer Jelly babies.

I won a Scholarship for an assighnment on bike safty in Grade 6, Since then I have always written, but except for some self publishing back in the 90's I haven't done much with my work yet.

I'm never really happy with my endings, I find that the hardest part of the process.

[Despare]

And this is a splendid idea for a creative and innovative thread, Vod.:)


Very good idea, maybe it will help this ennui pass...


I've been writing since a child and have won some contests and awards but mostly when I was young. I have yet to get back into writing seriously, too many ideas and not enough drive to execute them. I'll be knee deep soon though, I feel it coming back.

[jenna26]

My mom loves books, always has, and I think she made damn sure I felt the same way. I had a library card young, and read as much as I could, whenever I could. Didn't exactly make me popular in school I'll tell you that. Oh well. I started writing in 5th grade, I wrote a short story for a class assignment, and I realized soon after I couldn't seem to stop. It helps me stay sane, well kinda....:rolleyes:

I have many finished short stories, even more short stories that I have started and still mean to get to. I have notebooks full of rather BAD poetry. :p I even have the outline of a book finished (back home at my parents unfortunately, I need to have them send it to me soon, so I can get back into it) and several chapters of another novel written. I write with a pencil and paper, it feels better to me. I honestly can't stand to sit in front of a computer and type out my ideas. Which means my notebooks are a mess, and probably wouldn't make sense to anyone but me.

I mostly write horror, or mystery. Some fantasy. I have never been published. And I can't swear I have any talent. But I write more for me than other people, and if that's all it ever comes to, I guess I will have to be happy with that.

[Vodstok]

But I write more for me than other people, and if that's all it ever comes to, I guess I will have to be happy with that.

I read an interview with the guy who got me started on writing (Bob Salvatore) and he said something that has stuck with me since then:

When he was aksed by someone how to write to sell, and how good a living you could make, he said the money can be great, but write as if you will never sell a thing, write what you want to write and would want to read, with the thought that you will be the only person that will ever see it. If you thik like that and still feel the need to write, then you have the first step at what it takes to be successful.

There are talented people out there with no passion, and it shows through. I stopped reading Koontz because it felt like he wrote for the paycheck, not the passion.

I write because the stories play out in my head regardless of if i put them to paper or not, so I might as well try to make a living out of it :)

[horrorchic]

I have been writing since I was able to hold a pencil. My ideas never seen to get on the paper fast enough, but this really became a problem for me in high school. I started with Fantasy and even did the dreaded Romances, but I've always had a facination with Horror. I've been writing a script for five or six years now. This is maybe the fifth or sixth time that I have rewritten it too. I really don't feel that I have a knack for writing Horror.

I think that when I was in high school and my ideas started to be bogged down with homework is when I saw a greater potentional for my writing ability. I wrote a short story on a group of soldiers in World War II. I brought extensive detail into their deaths and the tools used. My teacher, who was a veteren of that war, cried when he read it because it hit home. He posted my writing for all the teachers to read and I recieved a lot of infomation on writing workshops and contest. I felt bad because I was forced to write it, I didn't feel that it was worthy.:o

I think that I am great in short stories and quick tales, but I can never seem to really get what I want written down. I have thousands of unfinished half stories and several scripts started.

Thanks for reading this mess.:D

[Marley's Ghost]

I Write Some Poetry
Every Once In Awhile
Nothing Too Deep
Whatever Makes Me Smile

I've Shared Some With You All
When I Can Find The Time
Just Throwing Together Thoughts
And Hoping That They Rhyme

It Started As A Joke
One Aprils Fool Day
I Had So Much Fun
I Thought I Would Stay

I Wonder If A Screenplay
Would Be Accepted In Verse
I Could Get Uwe Boll To Direct
His Movies Couldn't Get Any Worse

And Johnny Depp Would Star
Hes My Kind Of Thespian
Or Maybe I Could Get Ellen
And Make It About A Lesbian

Yes A Lesbian Movie It Will Be
With Rhyming And Dancing As Well
And Juggling Would Be Nice
Think Of All The Tickets I'd Sell

And In A Years Time
When The Academy Comes To Call
I Shall Receive My Oscar
For "the Carpetmuncher's Ball"

[_____V_____]

About time you posted in this one, Marley. And I love that ^ poem.:D

[GorePhobia]

I started writing at a young age. In the third grade we had an assignment to write where we would be in 2010 and I said I would be in Hollywood making movies. My dream was to always write and direct my own films. In the sixth grade I wrote my first feature-length script called "Terror in Gloucester." It was basically a rip off of "Scream" but my friends and I loved to be able to make a movie when we were about twelve so it was fun.

When I got in high school I started to write poetry and such. Putting my feelings and mindset on paper in poem for helped me. For awhile I just wrote poetry and some short stories. Then in about ninth grade I was on the bowling team and a fellow student named Steve told me he was a guitarist in a metal band and I told him I'd like to be their singer. Starting then on out I was a singer/songwriter and to this day I have been writing my own lyrics for our band.

Then in eleventh grade I wrote another feature-length script entitled "Payback's a Bitch." I showed it to a bunch of people and they all enjoyed it. I was going to make it as soon as I had the time but then some how I misplaced it and without saving it or making another copy it was lost forever. My senior year is when I made a bunch of different short films and such. Some I wrote and others were improvised. The last short film I wrote was the one I posted on here that you all read called "Missing Persons." That was a fun one to write and I plan on finishing the other four stories in the anthology.

Since then I haven't really written any movies or such just some poetry here and there and the lyrics to my bands music. I haven't really been in the mood to write. Nor have I had any good ideas for anything big. I hope to start writing again because I really want to be a filmmaker but it just seems like something that is too far away at the moment.

[ferretchucker]

I love reading but also do a bit of writing in my spare time. Poems, short stories and parody songs. I did most of my parody writing back when I was a member of habbo hotel so most are habbo themed.

www.freewebs.com/ferretchucker


Also, I do my own comedy sketches for school talents shows and such.

[massacre man]

I don't know if I'd really be considered I'm just a guy who happens to write from time to time. I took a Creative Writing class last semester but I didn't do too good at it because the teacher would always give us topics I wasn't interested in and I could never keep anything under 500 words. So now one of my friends and I just write short scripts for videos we plan to film (But rarely do). We're gonna start working on a feature-length one soon.

[horrorchic]

I Write Some Poetry
Every Once In Awhile
Nothing Too Deep
Whatever Makes Me Smile

I've Shared Some With You All
When I Can Find The Time
Just Throwing Together Thoughts
And Hoping That They Rhyme

It Started As A Joke
One Aprils Fool Day
I Had So Much Fun
I Thought I Would Stay

I Wonder If A Screenplay
Would Be Accepted In Verse
I Could Get Uwe Boll To Direct
His Movies Couldn't Get Any Worse

And Johnny Depp Would Star
Hes My Kind Of Thespian
Or Maybe I Could Get Ellen
And Make It About A Lesbian

Yes A Lesbian Movie It Will Be
With Rhyming And Dancing As Well
And Juggling Would Be Nice
Think Of All The Tickets I'd Sell

And In A Years Time
When The Academy Comes To Call
I Shall Receive My Oscar
For "the Carpetmuncher's Ball"

Just whipped it up didn't ya? I liked it. I know, I can't find enough poems that incorporate the horible Uwe Boll and Ellen. LOL


On making the movies it seems like time and possible in my case finding people willing to do it. I love making movies. The concept has thrilled me since I was in gradeschool. I filmed a comedy/parody skit with some friends in grade school for an assignment, but nothing serious came from it.

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

My 10th grade English teacher was sure I was going to be a writer, thank god he was wrong. :p

[_____V_____]

My 10th grade English teacher was sure I was going to be a writer, thank god he was wrong. :p

He simply had no idea it was Mary Shelley in disguise.

[Vodstok]

okay, people should still keep sharing how they started if they want to, but i figured i would move on (finally)

What inspires you?

it snowed here last night, but today the sky is clear. it is frigid outside and there is a strong wind, so the dry snow is blowing off of the tree limbs making it look like it is snowing with a clear sky.

Immediately my brain started mapping out a winter/arctic section of the fantasy story i am beginning (anyone who read Emberwind (http://horror.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27581) knows one o fthe characters ;)) I am heavily influenced by nature, with media being a close second (a single scene from a movie or a video game has inspired entire worlds)

What about you? What gets you/keeps you writing?

[Roderick Usher]

My boys inspire me

now I know what true horror is

[Haunted]

Really quick on the first part- I started writing free verse poetry, so that I wouldn't have to contend with the sloppiness of forced rhyme. I moved into stories as I got into my teens. These have been some of my greater successes. After I writer my book. I'm thinking about keeping balance between "non"fiction and plays. For some reason, plays have always called out to me. I have a deep rooted passion for drama.

Writing is my magic. It's my my mojo and the key source of my Witcherey. I call it "Story Magic." In someways we are creators, but not ultimatley. Ultimatlely the created is there, we structure the patterns.

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

Really quick on the first part- I started writing free verse poetry, so that I wouldn't have to contend with the sloppiness of forced rhyme. I moved into stories as I got into my teens. These have been some of my greater successes. After I writer my book. I'm thinking about keeping balance between "non"fiction and plays. For some reason, plays have always called out to me. I have a deep rooted passion for drama.

Writing is my magic. It's my my mojo and the key source of my Witcherey. I call it "Story Magic." In someways we are creators, but not ultimatley. Ultimatlely the created is there, we structure the patterns.

hey, where the fuck have you been? :p

[newb]

Really quick on the first part- I started writing free verse poetry, so that I wouldn't have to contend with the sloppiness of forced rhyme. I moved into stories as I got into my teens. These have been some of my greater successes. After I writer my book. I'm thinking about keeping balance between "non"fiction and plays. For some reason, plays have always called out to me. I have a deep rooted passion for drama.

Writing is my magic. It's my my mojo and the key source of my Witcherey. I call it "Story Magic." In someways we are creators, but not ultimatley. Ultimatlely the created is there, we structure the patterns.

"Great Caesar's Ghost"...its Haunted. Welcome back missy.....still off the cig's?

[_____V_____]

Whoa...Haunted is back?!?! Welcome back, you sexy witch!!:D

See newb, lamentations do come true.;)

[Haunted]

'Lo! Cigs are gone, Newb, old friend. Cheers, V.

I'm writing that book I've always said that I would write. Currently, my project is stepping back and doing some reading, because I've lost my perspective on "how to write." It's worse than "the block." It got started because I withheld all reading materials while working telling myself I didn't have time. Bad move on my part. Reading is as integral to writing as breathing oxygen. So now I will just have to make that time to read while I'm not actually at work.

[Vodstok]

'Lo! Cigs are gone, Newb, old friend. Cheers, V.

I'm writing that book I've always said that I would write. Currently, my project is stepping back and doing some reading, because I've lost my perspective on "how to write." It's worse than "the block." It got started because I withheld all reading materials while working telling myself I didn't have time. Bad move on my part. Reading is as integral to writing as breathing oxygen. So now I will just have to make that time to read while I'm not actually at work.

Welcome back, witch. :)

I came to the very same conclusion about 3 months ago. I hadnt read an actual novel in years (almost 5), then decided since Bree was reading several novels in a row, that i would give R A Salvatore a go since he was the person who got me started in the first place. Bingo, 2 books later, I was so overwhelmed by the number of ideas i had banging around in my head, i started writing again, hardcore.

It has been all fantasy, I'm a bit horrored out after cranking out i think 5 or 6 in the past year (short stories, horror themed). Turns out Brieze is in another short, and is one of the central figures in a novel. So now i am stuck, i have a fantasy world coming together in my mind a couple of spreadhseets, and I cant stop thinking about them :)

So i am on book number 5 from Salvatore :)

[Vodstok]

Wow some handsome gent started this a while ago so yeah. I have a serial over on Jukepop:
https://www.jukepop.com/home/read/148/?chapter=1&sl=962

And I have my first draft of my second novel up on my site:
http://zombiechops.com/wordpress/web-of-ruin-chapter-1/

Let me know what you think :)

[mikezxcv]

Miskatonic Press is looking for additional authors for its upcoming Anthology, "The Asylum Within." $0.01 per word. Looking for short stories around 1,400 words. Send to porterassist81@gmail.com

Story sample at The Authors Club (http://the-authors-club.com/all-products/the-asylum-within-sample-chapter/)

Thanks for Submitting.

R/Mike Porter
Miskatonic Press

Sign up for updates at http://eepurl.com/Q7bXP

[John Moralee]

I’ve been writing horror fiction since I was in primary school. The first horror story I remember reading was Slugs by Shaun Hutson. I found it disgustingly horrific. It gave me a life-long aversion to the slimy things in my garden that sneak into the house in the middle of the night leaving trails on my carpet and walls – but it also made me interested in writing my own horror stories.

My early stuff was all gore and death - emulating the horror I read in books by James Herbert and Guy N. Smith – but I’ve mellowed over the years. I still enjoy bumping off characters in gruesome ways – but some of them survive to the end of some stories.

There was a long time when I stopped writing horror because there was practically no market for horror short stories in the UK – but I’ve reKINDLEd my interest thanks to the self-publishing options now available. All those stories I wrote and stuffed in drawers - or left on my hard drive gathering virtual dust - don’t have to stay there any longer. I dusted them off and revised them and self-published a couple of collections just to see how it would go.

[MichaelMyers]

Argh!! V: how do you embed tweets?