These are just my THOUGHTS.1
I don't need comments, unless you disagree or agree. Not looking for acceptance or arguements. Just writing my THOUGHTS. 2
When I first get on here I start out with a very good attitude, but by the third or fourth story I read my attitude has changed. Either I find really bad stories or I just can't understand some of them. So I get frustrated. Not everyone can write...and not everyone on this site can write...but everyone believes they can write. And some of them will write and continue to get better. And others will go on blissfully unaware (but how can they when we tell them?) that they can't write.3
For most of us this is a way to keep sane. You know you must write when strange and unexplained thoughts and images clutter up that part of your mind that has other task there that need to be completed and they interfere. For most of us we either have a computer file full of half finished thoughts and stories or a notebook just as full. I know I have both.4
For others writing is more for pleasure. I started out just writing for my kids. I still do that of course. And I really try to stay directed towards the tween and childrens stories that have cluttered up my notebook, but lately I've been thinking along the other lines...horror, erotica, crime???? Can you see it? Me childrens writer turned sex goddess? Nooooo I really don't think so...but just maybe...once. 5
As I've said before writing is for most sanity. I'm a mother and heaven forbid I should think like I'm twenty again. Maybe I just need to write my fantasies out...maybe I need alittle excitement in my life.6
Here I am rambling again. Some say that's a good sign for a writer. Others disagree. Me...well...that's just who I am. I'm a rambler...one subject just leads to another and then another and another...so on and so on, etc...7
Well I think that's all for my THOUGHTS just now. Who knows maybe someday I'll get this urge to just ramble at you again. 8
Oh I do have a question, if any want to answer...What makes you think you are a writer? Answer truthfully9
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I'm only a writer because I know how to press the right keys and string them together so that they make words, sentences, paragraphs, etc. I am a yarn spinner, just a story teller. Occasionally, this lovely thing happens to me: I hit the 'sweet spot' and a story falls out of the computer; it's as if I went to another world and just picked it up like a wildflower and brought it home. That's why I keep pressing the keys.
I really appreciated your thoughts, I wish mine were more organised like yours.
beginning: 5, language: 5, plot: 5, dialog: 4, characters: 4.
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Mine don't feel organized
I can go from one subject to another and then back to the orginal without skipping a beat. And then I think where did that come from.
I wrote after reading to many younger writers stories. They aren't bad stories I just got tired of trying to figure out where one paragraph stopped and another started or capitalization or punctuation, etc...well you get my drift.
Thanks for reading and for answering the question
Brooke
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well said
"Not everyone can write...and not everyone on this site can write...but everyone believes they can write."
I've encountered a couple of these stories.. sometimes, the ideas are good, but the exectuion is flawed... other times, everything is just.. *will not comment*
What makes me a writer?
I often write to release emotions
I write to touch and convey my thoughts and feelings to the readers - I think that is essential as a writer. I don't write to get published - though, I would LOVE to be published
I go crazy when I don't write - I think of crazy tings when I'm bordering on on sleep and awaking
wah.. did I make sense? x.x
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My word, I was really on a roll that day. I think I had just read too many bad stories. And you are right the plot or storyline was good but the writing just stunk. How can you say that in a nice way? I've yet to figure that one out.
So you are like so many of us. Sanity, you write for sanities sakes. Believe me you are not alone. I hope you keep a notebook by your bed at night. Some of those strange thoughts can be story worthy. lol
Thanks for reading this and for answering my question.
Oh and btw my muse doesn't like me much either. lol
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WOW
Hey,
I feel your frustration as well and I myself wonder the same things. I joined a real life writing group and I had the same sort of bell going off in my head asking if I was really as bad as some of the stuff I was hearing. I have written in just about every genre from the time I was ten; horror, erotica, science fiction, comedy, poetry, love, saddness whatever hit me at the time, and while I think my stuff is great, I have had well over a dozen agents tell me they are not interested in what I have written. Which is fine. As long as it is out of my head and on the page, I feel as if I've done my "job."
With the site, I didn't like much of what I read either, which is why I wanted to only read children's stories. Because to me they seemed a bit safer and material that I would be more inclined to engage with. Things that I could actually comment on.
I like it more when I see potential in writers, and I have been impressed with some of the yonger writers I've come across and I have seen one writer in particular improve from the first story I read to the last stories they've been posting. And that to me a little exciting to watch someone start to "get it." And yes, hone and tailor their craft.
Why do I think I am a writer? In real life I am very quiet and I don't keep friends. Meaning I make friends easily, but keeping them is a bit of a challenge for me because I find it hard to open up. Where as in my writing, I can project a good chunk of my thoughts and feelings onto the characters.
Writing to me is its own reward. Some people like it, others not so much. So, write whatever you want to write and share it with the world. The worst thing people can say is, it sucks. But, critisim does make us better.
So, keep writing and if you come across things you don't like... Especially my stuff, tell me. I take all comments into consideration. -
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Your stuff is amazing. I really can't believe that not one has picked you up. Their lose.
Thanks for reading. And I'd let you know if I didn't like it. What are friends for?
~Syren~
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Personally, I've been writing umpteen years, so its just natural. However, there are several other answers. I'm in a wheelchair and so this is an opurtunity to share my ideas on the same level as everyone else's, a way to get around whatever sympathies the person has about me.
It also is a way for me to string out nebulous thoughts. Something I can't define exactly I often try to nail it down and learn the words I need to express the idea fully.
Third, its escapism. I can transport myself from this world, where I have little control, into a world where I have ultimate control. I can create freinds or enemies that do what I want when I want.
Some who have read my writing think I'm good. And so writing became one feild where I could compete and win against others. I gess its not supposed to but that feels good.beginning: 3, language: 3, plot: 3, ending: 3, dialog: 3, characters: 3.
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Writing has always been my way of expressing also. My mouth can sometimes work faster then my brain so I found at an early age to write it out first. And now I've got a family with a couple of little ones so I really need the outlet.
Thanks
~Syren~
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Long, long answer
I feel your frustration. I started reading on this site, trying to comment on everything, but...well, alas, I discovered that often my thoughts weren't anything I wanted to share. It made me take a long, hard look at my own efforts. Am I delusional about my own work? Eh, maybe. I am not the type to simply say "Oh, wow, great story, you're really nifty" just to make someone feel good. I decided not to comment unless I could say something complimentary and give useful (IMO) criticisms. I don't comment as often, now, and I don't read every story posted. If I run into too many errors, my brain short-circuits. My left eye twitches. I back out and try not to be too exasperated.
Still, I believe in giving the opportunity to learn, to grow. I certainly hope for it, myself. I would like to think that the people posting on this site are doing so to improve, to hone their skills in writing (although one wonders, sometimes, given the responses to critiques one receives).
As for writing something besides young people's tales, well...why not? Why should you be pigeon-holed? Why should anyone? I don't believe that anyone should be stuck in one genre. Even Stephen King wrote a children's story...albeit, in his own dark, moderately horrifying style. Two, if you consider "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" to be a children's tale. I write whatever comes to mind. Used to be, that was poetry, and music. That's where I am strong. Stories frightened me, intimidated me, for many years. I enjoy them too much to be willing to do poorly at them.
Why do I think I'm a writer? There's a short answer: Because I write. Do I think that makes me a GOOD writer? Nope. I don't claim to be, at any rate.
It's more than that short answer, though. I write because I am driven to, because people and places clamour to be let out of my gourd and be given life on the page. I never feel I've done them justice, who live such three-dimensional lives in my head. In there, their tales play out like films, and I see them so much more clearly than when I write them. Still, I have to try. My noggin would likely burst if I didn't empty them out of it from time to time. Also, I think I am a writer because words and I get along so swimmingly. I love them, and they love me enough to forgive when I misspell (which is more often of late, with the toddler taking up so much of my capacity). (Which reminds me of another small peeve. With the advent of spell-check, there really isn't any excuse for all of the errors to be found in the writing world. I understand homonyms [there, they're, their] to some extent...but there are some blatant mistakes being left as is. Ugh. Yes, ugh to me, too, when I do it. I believe in thorough spell-checking, more than once, and reading and rereading until one is cross-eyed. And still, there will be errors, but at least they'll be the exception rather than the rule.) In the end, I think there is something indefinable about the urge to write, the desire to call one's self "writer".
One day, I hope to be able to precede "writer" with "published".
There is so much more I'd like to say, but...dinner's almost ready, I think the rice is burning, and I've taken up enough of your time. Thanks for the thought-provoking thoughts.
Shade and Sweetwater,
K
"Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him to the public." - Sir Winston Churchill
beginning: 4, language: 4, ending: 4.
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It's good to hear and read that others on this site have deep thoughts and can relate to what I have and had to say.
I loved the quote. Isn't it so true.
Thanks again
~Syren~
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Mom,
You are a strange one sometimes. I don't think I'm a writer I just have all these stories in my head. I'm a storyteller like that guy in Eragon.
~Phoenixflower~ -
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I can be not I try not to let that show to you. lol
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