That's an interesting question. Me personally, I just do entries in my private journal on my computer. Not sure if that counts as writing, but that's what I do. I do dream of being a published writer one day, sending my voice out into the world.
i may want to get published one day, but i don't expect to ever be published... however, i always have stories going on in my brain, and writing them out gives me a high, so it's a very rewarding hobby currently no one may ever read my books, but i'll still enjoy writing them.
I like to create characters and scenarios and act them out in my head. Gives me a great feeling. To be honest, I may be more of a poet than a writer, but I haven't done any poems, so I wouldn't know. (I've done some for school, and the teacher really liked them)
The idea of being published scares me, and I am not sure why yet. I don't like the publicity. But I do feel that my stories are publishable, so maybe one day. For now, it occupies a LOT of my time, and is very rewarding.. I love the creation, no matter who reads it. I write for me, completely. I think if I changed that, I would be writing for someone else, and I wouldn't 'feel' it as much. Any work I would put forward wouldn't have as much of 'me' in it. A story, for me, is lovingly crafted. Maybe I should get an agent who likes my work and let him handle it all, once I feel comfortable enough in letting go of my babies. Maybe one day...
I definitely plan on getting published. I've already been doing the research and I'm barely into high school >.< Being published has been a dream of mine since I was nine, but if it does happen, I'll prolly publish under an anonymous name. I don't want my family reading about any of the things I've written lol
...no, it's not my 'goal' but i certainly wouldn't mind if a 'real' publisher wanted to reprint my books [philosophical essay/philosetry collections] that i now pay to have printed, so i can give them away to all who want to read them... ...not a hobby at all... it's a totally serious, full time [non-religious] 'vocation' for me, as my 'day job' is being a practicing philosopher and the resultant writings are meant to 'enlighten'...
Well I'm counting on making half a living out of writing at some point. Beats the granny out of a real job. Comes with its own problems, though. A wise man once said "I wanted to be a writer far more than I ever wanted to write."
I do want to be published someday and it is a goal of mine. However I do not expect to be able to live off of it.(I don't think I have the skill for that) But as long as I can write and share my writing through the Internet I am happy. Not that I wont try to get published. Because I would love to walk into a store and see it on the shelves. Thats not to say this is why I want to be published. I just want to entertain and tell a story to people.
Absolutely. I take writing a little too seriously to consider it a hobby. I mean a hobby is something you do now and then for fun right? I devote to much of myself to consider it that. If I could make a living off sure that'd be great. There's other things I've always wanted to do as well though. I've always wanted to become a gunsmith and a luthier. Full time writing could give me more time to learn those things.
No publishing is not my goal. I only write for fun, but it would be very nice if one of my stories found its way into the public eye one day.
just realized i should have prefaced my response back there with 'now'... in my old life, of course i wrote to be published, as i was making it my career... but i dropped out of the material world over a dozen years ago, so i no longer do anything whatsoever for money, including my writing...
For now writing is a hobby. Someday I'd like to see my name in print, but it's not a priority for me at this time in my life.
To be fair, I intend on making a living out of it. One of my goals in life is to make a living out of something I love, and writing is one of my greatest passions... I just love seeing all the characters and their actions in my head, beats any movie by 10 miles.
I intend to at least self publish (given time to fully edit it to the best i can possible do). "real" publication would be nice.
I heard that self-publishing is not the way to go. I think if I ever intend to publish, I should go the tried and truthfu route of publishing companies/editors and stuff.
You say its not the way to go. I never said WHY i want to go the way to self publication, your assuming something. All i want to do is print off a handful of copies and hand it to friends in a professonal novel. Considering its not possible for an unknown writer thats got 7 books (fantasy) planned (all sized over 160k words), I'm never going to be published, thus why i myself intend to take that route. Not all want to sell thausands of books EDIT - By means of P.O.D.
When I started writing, my efforts were always focused on getting my work published. For my two cents, I've read a lot in this thread that (paraphrasing) many enjoy writing, write for themselves or for fun or as a hobby, but wouldn't mind if their work was eventually published someday. To this (and maybe I am reading more into it than I should) it says to me that the individuals do want their work published and to be out there for readers, but possibly don't want to admit it (to themselves or others) because it might not be achieved. It could be a lack of self-confidence or it is easier if no expectations are actually set, or maybe something else. Deep down, if you want your work published, at some point you'll have to be serious about writing and editing and preparing the best works that you can and doing the research necessary before submitting to proper markets. Better to buckle down and start sooner toward that end than later, as it's usually not a short, direct road. Yes, it's not easy, and there is no guarantee of success for all the time and hard work. But going at it in half measures won't help the cause any. If I can manage it at the moderate level of success I've had, I know that there are more than a couple here that can do better. Terry
I get "published" weekly, but yes, I'd also like to finally get down and get that book written, and in the future, set up a media company with publishing as well.
When I joined this site about two and a half years ago, I had no intentions of submitting for publication. I had just finished the bulk of my college work, and I wanted to keep the momentum I had built up writing papers for school. To me, writing was a hobby, but not something I wanted to put in all the extra work to publish. I just wanted to become better at what I was already doing. But I got hooked. The more I was involved with the site, the deeper my interest in writing became. I've always been a short story writer, and I never really had that much interest in breaking into that market. But one of my short stories demanded a larger scope. As a short story, there were too many aspects that didn't fit well in a short story, but that I didn't want to throw away eiter. So I decided to tackle it as a novel. But a novel is a big project, and if I were to tackle that, I may as well commit to making it publishable. For the first time, I had a story that I needed to write, and wanted to target to publication. I'm still working on that one. I took a break last year to take a stab at NaNoWriMo, and now I have another novel in the works that I suspect will be ready first. I even have some thoughts for a possible sequel to that second novel. So, with all respect to Terry, I can honestly say that I really didn't start out wanting to publish, but I am definitely aiming for that now.
My goal is to finish my novel so I can honestly say I gave my dream of writing a full chance. I will try and get it published, but if I dont I wont be torn up about it. I feel the greatest accomplishment at this point is completion. I've made it alot farther than I thought I would, and I dont have much to go. After this first novel, I already have plans for more stories. I dont really consider it a hobby. I think a passion is a better word for it. But my begining and end isnt towards being published, it's just towards finishing my work.
I definitely want to get published. Writing has never been a hobby for me; i hated writing when i was little because i had a muscle problem. when i wrote, it strained my hands, and i could hardly write a page without having to stop and rest. Also, most of the writing i did was for school assignments, which meant that i didn't particularly care about what i was writing. It wasn't until the 11th grade that I was given a writing assignment that i really liked. The prompt was simply, "write a college acceptance essay. Any topic you find is fine." I found a topic i genuinely wanted to write about, and i had a great time. I want to get published because i love to entertain people with stories, and (let's be honest here) i want to get paid for my hard work. The novel i'm trying to write now has been in my head for five years. It started as an idea for a game, then as the story became more and more complex, I cared less about it being something to be played, and more about it being something to be remembered. I've worked for a long time on my story. My novel is just the first part of that story. Obviously, i would love for it to be published. But even if it isn't, i'm going to continue to write the series. I will also continue to rework the stories until I'm satisfied that they're perfect. If I still can't get them published, maybe i'll take my ideas back to a game or movie company.
I definitely hope my stories are published and well received. I imagine plenty of amateur writers share that hope. But I'll keep writing even if I'm the only one who ever reads it, because I do like to read my own writing. Especially the pieces I think are particularly good by my standards. Makes me feel accomplished.
It would of course be awesome to get published and i'm sure there are plenty who would like to but at my current stage i'm more concerned with pleasing myself with my writing before even thinking about getting published. I suppose it's one of the pinnacles of a writer's career and the ambition cannot be avoided.
I'm never really sure about it. The idea of my story being on a shelf at a book store is a bit strange to me. I mean, for one, I'm writing in a genre that I don't like in a style that's not common. I write in a genre of fantasy that's much more popular in video games, and I'm even studying to become a game designer. I write my story as a book, but it being a book seems to be the last resort. I either want it to become a game, or even a movie, and a book seems like the thing that I'll go to when all else fails. But at the same time, I do want something physical, something where you can turn the page. One of my early ideas involved the use of footnotes to make it feel more like a real world, but it's an idea taken from as much from Star Ocean as it is from House of Leaves. I've also thought about multiple endings, which is something you can't really do in a book (well, one idea involves different copies of the book having different endings, but that's something you can't do unless you have a LOT of money.) I wouldn't even know where to begin to get it published. As it is, it's just like I'm writing the Novelization of a game until I can learn the programming and get a team together.
