Writers

anksta

anksta

anksta

Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2005
Posts
2,722
How many people on here write? And I mean write as in for a purpose so no sarky answers like "does this post count?", aside from that anything goes. From that guy's thread about writing a novel, a lot of people came in chippin that they'd written things over the years.

What I want to know is, why do you write? How do you do it? What do you with it when its finished? Have you had anything published? If so, how?

All these things I'm well interested in because I've been trying to get somewhere for ages but havent actually done more than send a few emails around and its doin my head in. Been looking for competitions and things but not found much. I think we should start a little thing goin here where we can help eachother out.

I'll go first, so far I've written an entire movie script that has a good idea in it (I think) which takes up about 15 pages and then 95 other pages of crap. Also written a couple of short stories that aren't finished, about 20 pages of poetry which are crap and also started what I hope to be an ongoing story about a guy in an office in the style of Three Men in a Boat.

So lets hear what you've done etc. also any decent books etc. that might help any of us (me) along the way. Cheers.
 
New forum subsection TBH!

Poetry's my favoured area. Sometimes crack out a short story or creative essay when I feel like it. I won't explain or try to explain what my material is about as I think poetry is entirely subjective, so different people will see different things. For example, I am of the opinion *waves engorged e-peen* that my edited material is worthy of publishing. All I need is quantity at the moment, as I'd rather have a medium sized portfolio, than a collection of only things which are to go into my first anthology.
Why do I write?
I can't explain to someone I don't know nor can I explain on a public forum. I have trouble explaining why I do it to myself. It normally just comes out.
Normally, I don't like to go for conclusions. I like to encourage the reader to think and to imagine. Sometimes I'll spend 10mins writing say, a 14 liner and spend anything from 10-35hours fussing over sometimes one or two words. Sometimes I have to 'edit' a few times. I can think of a few which didn't need editing to be honest.
I'd be happy to share but never, ever in GD. sorry :(
 
Voltar said:
New forum subsection TBH!

Poetry's my favoured area. Sometimes crack out a short story or creative essay when I feel like it. I won't explain or try to explain what my material is about as I think poetry is entirely subjective, so different people will see different things. For example, I am of the opinion *waves engorged e-peen* that my edited material is worthy of publishing. All I need is quantity at the moment, as I'd rather have a medium sized portfolio, than a collection of only things which are to go into my first anthology.
Why do I write?
I can't explain to someone I don't know nor can I explain on a public forum. I have trouble explaining why I do it to myself. It normally just comes out.
Normally, I don't like to go for conclusions. I like to encourage the reader to think and to imagine. Sometimes I'll spend 10mins writing say, a 14 liner and spend anything from 10-35hours fussing over sometimes one or two words. Sometimes I have to 'edit' a few times. I can think of a few which didn't need editing to be honest.
I'd be happy to share but never, ever in GD. sorry :(
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no thats fair enough, I respect that.

I have heard a lot of people say things along the lines of "I need to get this much done for a portfolio" etc. things that suggest a person is working towards but what is that? Say if you finished your portfolio tonight, you stood back and looked at it and knew that even if you were to spend another 10 years combing through every line, letter and comma, you couldn't make it much better, what would you do with it?

Thats to everyone readin this, not just Voltar.
 
I know what you mean with regards to the statement;

Sometimes I'll spend 10mins writing say, a 14 liner and spend anything from 10-35hours fussing over sometimes one or two words
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It's one of the reasons why I hated doing my University coursework; I was so fussy about the little details that it drove me spare :(
 
anksta said:
no thats fair enough, I respect that.

I have heard a lot of people say things along the lines of "I need to get this much done for a portfolio" etc. things that suggest a person is working towards but what is that? Say if you finished your portfolio tonight, you stood back and looked at it and knew that even if you were to spend another 10 years combing through every line, letter and comma, you couldn't make it much better, what would you do with it?

Thats to everyone readin this, not just Voltar.
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This is what I refer to as 'social proof' - you need to prove that you are what you claim. If you tell people you are a writer, you need to give examples to demonstrate this fact. From here you can offer services to people on the basis of the idea that you are a writer
 
cleanbluesky said:
This is what I refer to as 'social proof' - you need to prove that you are what you claim. If you tell people you are a writer, you need to give examples to demonstrate this fact. From here you can offer services to people on the basis of the idea that you are a writer
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yeah I know what you're sayin but surely that is a by product of having the finished product you've been going for? Do you mean people like the ones you meet or the ones you're hoping it will be seen by if you can it some exposure? I suppose to an extent they're the same thing arent they.

But still though, are people hoping that they can get their work some exposure in the long run or are they satisfied with just having a nice clean portfolio sitting on their desks for when their friends come round?
 
anksta said:
freelance? How did you get into doin that? If you dont mind me askin
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I wanted to start a webzine of my own and had no idea if including album covers with my reviews would breach copyright [I didn't know anything then]. I asked an acquaintance of mine who already owned an online music store in the USA, and he said he liked my style of writing enough for me to write for the magazine section of his site rather than on mine. Before long other magazines were asking me to write for them.. and it just snowballed.

If you want to do something similar go and look for webzines or print zines that are looking for writers. Interviewing is important also - and face to face/phone interviews are far better for getting a reputation for yourself than email interviews, which won't do anything for you if you're looking to get somewhere.
 
Lysander said:
If you want to do something similar go and look for webzines or print zines that are looking for writers. Interviewing is important also - and face to face/phone interviews are far better for getting a reputation for yourself than email interviews, which won't do anything for you if you're looking to get somewhere.
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Are you talking about pitching to editors or interviewing artists?
 
anksta said:
yeah I know what you're sayin but surely that is a by product of having the finished product you've been going for? Do you mean people like the ones you meet or the ones you're hoping it will be seen by if you can it some exposure? I suppose to an extent they're the same thing arent they.

But still though, are people hoping that they can get their work some exposure in the long run or are they satisfied with just having a nice clean portfolio sitting on their desks for when their friends come round?
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Now you're getting into the murky world of marketing - which is not writing. You're talking about people seeing your portfolio but what situation might they get into whereby they're going to see it? In my experience, your profile as a person is more important than your skill as a writer - why should it be YOU that writes a specific article?
 
cleanbluesky said:
Now you're getting into the murky world of marketing - which is not writing. You're talking about people seeing your portfolio but what situation might they get into whereby they're going to see it? In my experience, your profile as a person is more important than your skill as a writer - why should it be YOU that writes a specific article?
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er I'm not really sure what you're askin or even referring to here.

What I'm tryin to say is, for everyone who considers themselves writers, who are currently in the process of writing somethin. When they are finished, and satisfied with it, will they put it on the mantlepiece and take the self satisfaction, or will they photocopy it 50 times and start sending their material to literary agents, magazines publishers etc. to try and get some recognition for their work?
 
Anksta:

in response to your question, I'd say that if by some miracle I decided that I'd finished my portfolio tonight, I would fly back to England and start trawling through literary agents and publishers. I would even go in person to offices of publishers in London, if only to ask them about the standard procedure when it comes to publication.
I don't think that I will put my work on the internet to be honest as I'd rather see my work in tangible print that online. Even if that meant the difference between being published in an e-zine or whatever or being palmed off by publishers.

Would honestly love it if a kind Mod considered making this into a new sub forum, as I don't personally feel comfortable talking about this in GD, and quite frankly there just doesn't seem to be a place for it in the Music+Lit forum either :(
 
Voltar said:
Would honestly love it if a kind Mod considered making this into a new sub forum, as I don't personally feel comfortable talking about this in GD, and quite frankly there just doesn't seem to be a place for it in the Music+Lit forum either :(
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I reckon thats a longshot, good idea though. Got my vote.

That was the kind of answer I was lookin for though, with regards to your finished portfolio I mean. What sort of realistic expectation do you have of yourself though?

I mean, do you have a point in your minds eye where that will happen? And you will try and gain recognition? Or is that on a par with what will happen when your 6 numbers come up?
 
I have massive self-belief in this. In fact it's one of a very few things that I genuinely believe I excel in. Moreover, I fully expect to have a good shot at publication, as long as the whole commercial marketing aspect doesn't let me down.
As I write poetry I don't really care about the J Scum K Rowling kind of commercialism because her writing is utter pap. She is someone who lacks literary ability and thinks she's a great author. She is one of the reasons that it will be possible for me to get published but at the same time the obscene market that she has created might just make it harder. My point is that publishers and agents look for a place for you in the current market, regardless of your intrinsic capabilities.
However it is those abilities that I am riding. Also I'm working on a literary thesis which I hope to gain a bit of qudos for amongst the academics of the literary world.
In short: I want critical and academic acclaim, not bags of money and hundreds of retards queing up outside waterstones at midnight for a hypothetical release.

I have set a target by the end of this summer for a whoring of my work to publishers and agents alike. From there who knows ;) ?
 
I've had at least four seperate lecturers suggest that I get into some form of writing recently. Once university is out of the way, I'm going to start writing a novel as a hobby, which I would like to get published, but I really don't know how feasible that is. I've been told I have a talent for the English language, but I guess it still remains to be fully realised. As for the novel itself; I've been jotting down notes and ideas for the past year. I ran by the idea for the story to a few friends and even gave them a short section to read and I've only got positive feedback. We'll see how this pans out. ;)
 
@ Nix:

What uni is that? Sounds very positive indeed. I've got respect for people who can actually sit down and write a proper novel.



And no, that doesn't mean I respect a certain female atrocity.
 
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