Writing thread

We create a story only using three words each post. I'll start:

Today I had

>>25575192
picked up girls

>>25575192
the alien's attention

>>25575318
again. Its breathing

>tfw you will never publish that ASOIAF rip-off fantasy novel you've had in your head since you were a teenager

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I finished my saga already, and now im writing a new novel.

I also have like 54 short stories done, and some poetry.

>>25575409
Get them published.

>>25575375
>You will never write up your idea because it's basically a rip off of another but it's how you would have personally done it.

Why can't I write? I have the ideas. I know where the story is going to go. I have outline the complete fucking story. Why can't I force myself to write it out? God, I hate myself.

>>25576444
Just write anything out. I mean anything. I find it's mostly the preconception that what you finally write should be good. No, it should be complete shit, complete and utter shit, but finally written out so you can work around it.

The first draft is always horrid, you just gotta get the ideas out on paper. There's this idea that you should edit as you go. Nope, you don't go back to edit at all on the first draft until the end.

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I'm better at writing essays and vignettes than full stories. I've done a few in the past, but they're all mediocre anyway. Poetry is my biggest shortcoming, so I've been practicing that lately as well.

>tfw entire world built but no stories to put in except for short stories, no big arc.

Well,i wrote something but in italian,so i dont know if it's ok to post it here

I'm a playwright. About to start the hopefully final draft of my first full length play, working on a few others in various stages.

I'm also in a punk band and I've spent most of my writing time the past few months working on songs.

I'm going to catch a lot of flack for my play because it's very autobiographical and the people it's based on won't be pleased with their portrayal, even though I turned myself into a complete monster.

>>25576444
I realized how difficult it is to actually construct a story that went somewhere.

learn how to do that.

>tfw you were always good at writing
>tfw everyone always told you to pursue it as a career
>tfw simply too depressed and lazy to ever start anything
>tfw all these ideas that will always be ideas
Kill me now

>>25577620
do it italbro

Writing is just another thing I am sympathetic enough to to regret my incompetence at. Like drawing, composing, programming.

To those too scared to show your writing to others - Don't for now. Just put it to the side after, at least you wrote it and maybe improved your skill, nothing changes seeing as how you're not showing anyone, nobody knows about it. The only difference is your finally have a completed work you can go back and work upon or edit.

Same thing with trying to get stuff published. What changes? If you get rejected you're in the exact same position as before, it's not like they force you to leave your house or ban you from writing because one publisher rejected you.

>>25577871

Se fosse il deserto
vivrei piangendo
su granelli di sabbia.
Ma in me e' il vuoto cosmico
eterna mancanza
d'ossigeno

Hope you like it,im not good with poetry but i cant just bury all my feelings

>>25578000

This is my biggest hold-up. I can write the stories, construct plots and characters, and even finish the damn things. Then I start to think, "Hey, everyone's going to accuse you of ripping off xyz or abc." Paranoia wins the day and I throw away completed works, never to send them in to agents or publishers.

How do I move forward from simply being an ideas guy? I'll sit down to write something and suddenly it's like I'm 3 and have no idea how words work. I can see it all in my head, but it won't move from my head to paper

>>25578497

Have you tried building an outline first? I don't mean doing everything that's in your story, but fleshing out the main characters and their personalities/views/desires/fears/weaknesses and constructing a basic skeleton of the plot and any subplots allows you to have a much clearer picture of where the story's going. Then you have a foundation to build upon as you pump out the writing, rather than just flailing at the page.

>>25578231
But there's no negative really. They reject you, you trash the letter, you're still where you're at. Still like 50 publishers to go.

At this point everything's been ripped off, especially when it comes to fantasy, fantasy stuff will be compared to stuff from the 40s - 70s all the time, even if you avoid Tolkeinisms. Someone else has done it.

Worst thing to do is google your plot, because you'll find you've accidentally ripped off something, but it's inevitable. It doesn't mean it won't be a success.

JK Rowling said Harry Potter is just your typical old boarding school story just with magic, The Hunger Games is a rip off of Battle Royale, ASOIAF barely does anything original it's just a ton of typical medieval fantasy things based off the War of the Roses.

>>25578641

I suppose you're right. I guess I put the cart before the horses (right usage?) when I do this - I think all the way down the line where it somehow gets published and then, bam, lawsuits galore.

But then again, Hunger Games didn't get sued, and that series is pretty blatant.

Thanks for the advice, anon. I needed some encouragement on this kind of thing.

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>>25578497
You need a beginning, a middle and an end. A definite start to the story, a definite conflict to throw the hero into the story, knowing where they are in the middle of the story, a definite climax and knowing what your final scene is.

Then after knowing those, you just write towards them, filling in the gaps. Maybe the gaps get filled in later, when they come to you or you realize what's needed in your story.

>>25578497
>>25578542
Other tips

1. Your first draft is gonna be shit. It just is. If you think it's shit, keep writing because it's meant to be. If you don't think it's shit, you're wrong, it is. Nobody's ever published a first draft before. Except maybe self publishing and they're always the unsuccessful ones. If you send your first draft to a publisher and it gets rejected, don't be sad, it needs major refining. Well, actually be annoyed because you were dumb enough to send a first draft. Don't edit when writing your first draft. Just keep writing. Editing comes in the editing phase and I think thats where people get confused and end up scrapping it. Nope, you just keep writing until it's done. Congrats, a finished story, you now have your characters fleshed out, a plot and a structure to work on. Now it's time to actually write your story. The second draft. Entire characters will be written out, merged together, scenes added, extra scenes to connect that scene, names changed, concepts written out. Then the second draft is done. There. THAT'S your actual finished story. You used the first draft to find a structure and a plot. Then comes the editing phase for spelling and grammar and slow moving parts that can be cut down etc.

2. Everything's been done, so don't worry about that. Nobody's gonna care that your idea for a race you thought was unique was copied in some comic book nobody's read or that the plot twist has been done before so people who have read that other book may guess it. Why does typical medieval fantasy keep selling and why does typical sci-fi big spaceships in space keep selling? When they're not original at all. It's because people can't get enough of it. Also, it's because even if the idea's been done to death, each writer has their own interpretation of things, they'll see something differently to another author that has the same concept. Your story won't be original, but that doesn't mean it won't be good.

>>25579984
Oh and the average number of drafts you end up with (e.g. more than just spelling/grammar changes) is usually around 10 before it's considered complete.