Struggling to get back into writing

Hi everyone, I'm new here but not exactly new to writing. You see, I lost my writing some years ago and have struggled to get back into the activity, since. I recently wrote a mash-up of my previously lost writing in a very short story, so short in fact that it constitutes a scene. Doing this hasn't accomplished much, but it has given me some sense of closure to my now non-existent drafts.

I began writing at a young age, even before computers were a thing everybody had. And now I'm a little better off for having one, and having taught myself to type. Only today, I continued to work on a romance story but have struggled with that, because I don't normally write romance, and nor have I ever done so. But the purpose of doing so is to find out what genre I'd like to write in, as it's been so long, and my previous drives have changed.

I've been reading a fair number of thriller, mystery, and suspense novels lately, beside the odd action novel (which I've also enjoyed), but haven't found distaste in some romance novels I've read. One a Mills and Boon. There are times I get bored with reading -- like now -- and want to do something else, but that's marginally due to what I'm reading, namely the quality of the work I'm engaged with.

I recently joined onlinebookclub.org where I've been reviewing books for small amounts of money, and so have been subjecting myself to all sorts of poorly written or otherwise less-than-interesting stories which I wouldn't otherwise be reading. In between reading these, however, I'm finding new release novels by proclaimed authors' and enjoying them immensely. I would read several books "at a time" but found it disorientating. So I stick to one at a time now, besides that one by Bryce Courtenay, Tommo & Hawk which has sat idly holding a bookmark for quite a long time. Although, I do read a chapter of it in my down time between books.

So there's my story, and what brings me here. The blogging just wasn't cutting it (I have zero followers, I think), and having found myself needing some feedback, googled writing forums, and found this site. I signed up, and uploaded my profile picture, happy that there wasn't a minimum post count required to achieve this, and had a short browse of the writing which has been submitted by members here, which I couldn't do - until I signed up. Did so, and posted my introduction, so there we are.

 

Really, you get paid to rev. books? I suppose that can be a bit challenging
when you don't want to utterly tear apart a really bad written one.

I feel ya on the blogging front, I have zero lookers (though I did skip all of 2018).
Hope you get your mojo and get some writing done.

Good luck and have fun.

 

Hi, Unencumbered
Welcome!
It's hard to get back into writing after a dry spell. I'd start with something small and fun. And don't expect too much. Maybe just work on something to post when you can post it and get some feedback. That's what I did when I joined here. I spent my waiting time writing a short story and it worked out pretty well. I'm still here years later, met a lot of great people and … improved my writing!

 

Thank-you all for your thorough welcoming. The consensus here seems to be that I should start off with smaller projects. I'd like to re-work, and edit that "scene" I mentioned I'd written, and post that to submissions. It's funny, there was a time I would have been afraid of my ideas being stolen, or something like that, but now-a-days, I'm just concerned with improving as a writer, and becoming more robust and determined to sit at length. I get restless, partially because I'm a smoker, partially because I'm taking medication, and because of the combined effects of being a smoker and taking this medication. I've reduced my smoking dramatically, and have become less restless, and hope to have quit entirely over the next few weeks. Tomorrow is the day I don't smoke at all - lol, wish me luck.

Cave Troll:
Yes, I'm doing paid reviews on books at onlinebookclub.org It's nothing exclusive, all you need to do, to become a reviewer, is fill out a form where you provide your linked Paypal email address (for payments to be made), and select one of the books you feel like reviewing, and then get reading. Oh, there's also a couple of pages (more or less) of information you'll need to read on info to include in your review, and other info you'll provide after submitting that review - basic stuff, like the location of the first use of profanity, and the extent of sexualised content. I could easily write all the parameters required here, but that would be pointless, since you basically need to read them for yourself when you sign up for the "job" anyway. Thanks for your supportive comments.

dbesim:
Helpful pointers for the site, thanks! I think some helpful advice is all I really want to offer among my critiquing of others' work. Editing is something which I find arduous to some extent. Although I don't mind doing my own editing, doing it for others can be frustrating since they don't want their work re-written. I suppose I'm curious about the writing contests, and these prompts you mentioned. Is it similar to nanowrimo's pep-talks they email out to you? I'm not sure whether you participate in the nano challenge. I have done. Years ago, that is. But I lost my email account associated with the site, and thereby my certificates of completion. I'll check out those writing contests sometime tonight. Thanks again.

peachalulu:
Love your enthusiasm - it's contagious somehow. Writing sometimes becomes more difficult when we take it too seriously. I think I'll write shorter things and maybe stitch them together into one work. I was thinking of using that 'scene' I'd written, and simply writing another scene completely separate to that one, but with the same setting, tone, etc to see how I might write something that would eventually join them all together, like the movie "Go." In case you haven't seen it, it's a sort of take on a single night shared by a group of friends who each go their own separate ways. Each version of the night is different so you get a different perspective of each persons events. Unlike that movie though, I don't intend on making them all run concurrently but would (just like the movie) have them all meet up before the end.


Take care everyone, and btw, are you all familiar with the nano-challenge? I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it this year. I'd like to have a few participants (or more, Lol) in my "friends list," so to speak, for conversation on writing ideas, and all that sort of thing. Let me know if this is something you might be happy to get on board with me on.

PS.
I recognized the nanowrimo board, here but figured on asking you all, since it came up earlier.

Take care, everyone

 

Hello. I'm one of the forum moderators, and I want to welcome you to our forum.

Yikes. I screeched to a halt, momentarily, when I read that you'd lost all your previous work. That must be ever so slightly soul-destroying. I take it from what else you wrote that this was handwritten stuff? Oh, wow.

At least now that you're writing on a computer, you can back up your work so this never happens again. You can even email it to yourself, if you have an online (not computer) based email account. That way if your house burns down or your computer turns belly-up or you get it stolen, you can still recover your work by signing into your email.

Anyway, I second what the others have said about the difficulty of getting back into writing. However, I'm very pleased that you are also reading a lot ...and your review/critiquing skills will be VERY useful to the members here, who are always looking for feedback in our Workshop section of the forum. Once you have fulfilled the requirements for posting work in the Workshop (see New Member Quick Start) you can post your own work for feedback as well. (The Workshop is the only place on the forum where you are allowed to post your own work.)

Anyway, while you're here, you might also want to read Forum Rules. This will get you off on the right foot and let you know how the forum operates.

Take your time, browse the threads, get to know us as we get to know you. Feel free to jump into any discussion that catches your eye, and makes you want to say something. The more you participate, the more you will find kindred spirits and feel at home.

If you encounter any difficulties, don't hesitate to contact me via a 'conversation' (just click my avatar and follow the signs) and I will do my best to help.

See you around the threads? And do have fun.

Cheers,

Jan

 

Hi Jan, thanks for your welcome and helpful thread links/advice. Regarding my lost writing it was all saved to USB drives, and external hard drives. It was actually stolen by a housemate. It was simply unfortunate that my internal laptop hard drive crashed only a couple of weeks prior (I wasn't writing at the time), and that hard drive was discarded, and replaced - but not backed up with my writing. The loss is soul-destroying, to some extent - haha - all I can do is try to move on, and I think I'm getting there. I'll check out those links now, and maybe peruse the boards for a short while, before I attend my appointment this afternoon.

Thanks again, Jan