There appears to be a flurry of writing threads in these parts. I wanted to start something that would bring together these disparate albeit similar parts in a practical manner to form a more coherent group so that we may all learn from one another instead of holding up signs with the dire want of acknowledgment.
This is a discussion thread hosted by Gantic (and the nonexistent Author's Guild). This will not be a discussion about a particular piece of writing by a writer but more generally about writing and the writer. I am hoping to get some productive discussion from writers here on Armor Games.
Discussion will be on various topics and may changed weekly, biweekly, however long a discussion needs. This will mostly (or most likely) be about prose but other forms of writings may also be discussed.
To start off: Why do you write? What do you want from writing?
The question is not "Why do you like to write?" Rather, it is "Why do you write?"
Please keep posts relevant. Posts should be relevant to the current discussion or a previous discussion.
Responses should be constructive. While we'd all like to be frank, there is a line between tactful and blunt. Keep in mind that not everyone is of the same disposition or age.
Also keep in mind that we're all amateurs here unless someone is writing professionally. Nevertheless, each opinion carries the same weight regardless of whether you disagree or not or how much you admire or despise someone. Please consider how something applies to you and not blindly accept or reject advice or opinion. An opinion is never a fact even if everyone thinks the same thing.
If you have any ideas for future discussions, leave a comment on my profile. Meanwhile, consider, discuss, learn!
I'll rephrase the question: Do you ever want to be published?
The idea is tantalizing. I am not entirely sure how I would answer it because I have mixed feelings over the idea. Having a hard copy of your own work just seems rewarding even if there's nothing to it.
Current topic: I have played with the thought, especially now that authors are using the internet to be seen, which makes it a little easier to become known. I remember not long ago, I was really tired, and was actually thinking out a plot (and a good chapter as well), but as I never got to write it down, it was just playing around in my mind. I would try for it, if I ever get to finish anything more than my assignments.
As for the authors.. Two off the top of my head: Jonathan Stroud. I enjoyed the Bartimaeus trilogy, and admire his courage with doing something.. The other way around, I guess. Dostoevsky... Yeah...
Gantic. . .I answered the question,. . .so did Parsat. . . .
No takers as in no one wants to be published.
Do comic writers count, btw?
I'd say they do.
I'm far more likely to be published as a medical researcher lol.
Your name with four others.
What exactly is publishable? I mean, beyond PODs and vanity publishers, what would make it publishable?
Sometimes I go through my old stuff and think "I wrote that?" It takes me forever to even get to that point. A year for a 2000 word short story with overwhelmingly good response? But it's already "somewhere on the internet".
I'm fine with a bit of it, but too much esotericism is annoying.
I allude frequently to other things in my writing, though. An old character in a story I wrote for school last year's last name was a portmanteau of the last names of Holden Caulfield, and his roommates, Ackley and Stradlater.
For the purposes of a community-based fiction with an emphasis on humor, I'd use it...but its scope is limited in works that like to take themselves seriously...unless you're a neo-modernist or something.
But honestly when you're getting to Joyce levels of esoteric, I think that kind of literature serves more purpose as a historical monument than anything else.
*it's 5,000$ bread and 2,000$ butter made from the milk of Japanese cows, hand-massaged all their life by indentured servants and fed only the finest grass, grown by the world's best grass-farmers
