I am writing a story that I characterize as 80% fantasy and 20% reality/autobiography. I am writing the story very postmodern. An editor can always change anything that isn't working. I have a story about my fight with PTSD with psychosis from the trauma I suffered to the challenges in healing. I hope to write a story to help me heal. But with the fantasy aspect of the story, I don't know how to merge the two worlds. Any help on which section to post in would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
I'm confused how you would combine autobiography with fantasy. Are you just taking elements from your life and incorporating them into a fictional fantasy story? Anyway, welcome to the forum. The By the Genre section is probably the place for this.
Hi, thank you for the greeting! So it's a rather postmodern story blurring the lines of fantasy with reality. The autobiography is about a trauma I suffered and the ensuing PTSD with psychosis. The fantasy is what if that "psychosis" was reality. (The psychosis is nothing more than believing my trauma to be a staged event.) So in a way, the story could be considered entirely nonfictional because it'll be about what goes on in my head as a result of the PTSD. So you think I should ask this question in the By the Genre section? I'm just struggling with how to balance the fantasy world with the reality world. Like what order do I present information? How do I present in the information? When do I introduce the reader to the fact that it's a mental health story at the essence of it? Do I just write it however I want and let a book sleeve cover that job? As you can see, I'm completely new to the writing process.
You'll have to wait 14 days before posting to the Workshop (which is the only place stories or segments thereof can be posted), make I think 20 posts(?) and 2 of those must be critiques on other people's work. Give me a minute and I can pull up the actual info. Here you go—Quick Start Guide.
Oh, I see. That's very cool. Don't sweat too much over where you post your question, I think the kindly mods will always be willing to move it for you if it's not strictly in the right section.
Oh, my bad! I thought you were asking where to post segments of your story. As for where to ask your question, I think you just did it right here!
Hi and welcome! Just click around the Forums or do a search and there's bunches of posts about this stuff.
Hi, EoA I’m one of the forum moderators, and I want to welcome you to the forum. If you're still working on your story, I'd say not to worry too much about what genre it falls into. At least not at the moment. If you're deliberately driving for a particular genre's readership—which requires certain conventions to be followed—that's a different game. But that doesn't sound like what you're doing. Instead, you're writing the story you want to write, but wondering where it might fit. You can write a love story that isn't a genre Romance. You can write about a murder that isn't a genre Mystery. You can write about something that isn't quite true without it being genre Fantasy, etc. Just get it written. I'd say wait till you get it done, and then see what you've got. The premise sounds intriguing. You seem to be 'what-iffing' your own actual experience, which, I'd say, is a very healthy way to deal with issues that concern you. Instead of just re-telling 'what happened,' you're asking yourself 'what if things had been different.' Not only does that tend to make for a more interesting story perspective, but it will lead you to learn more about your actual experience yourself—because you'll be examining it from a different perspective. I'm a big believer in the notion that 'healing' CAN come from writing, but it is more likely to happen if it's not just rehashing the hurtful experience. The healing comes from being able to move on, not from replaying the record too often. Anyway.... In order to help you get oriented and get settled, here are a couple of links I strongly recommend that you read at the start, if you haven’t already. They will give you a good idea of how we operate here on the forum: New Member Quick Start Forum Rules You will notice in the New Member Quick Start that in order to post your work in the Workshop area—the only area of the forum where you are allowed to post your work and ask for feedback—you will need to do at least two critiques for other people, in exchange for receiving feedback on one of your own pieces of work. This site is designed around the concept of members helping each other out by ‘paying it forward’—through our two-for-one critique system. So do two critiques, THEN you can post something of your own. This advance 2:1 ratio lasts as long as your membership here—although it is your own responsibility to keep track of your own ratio. The software doesn't keep track of it for you, beyond your first two critiques. In order to help you get started doing critiques, here is a link to a good article written by one of our former moderators: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/constructive-critiques.20627/ One of the popular areas of our forum is our contest section. There is a monthly contest running for Short Stories, Flash Fiction and Poetry. You can enter these ongoing contests, even as a new member. And we really encourage you to visit the site, read the current entries, and vote for your favourite when the voting period starts. This means a lot to the people who have written these entries. And it will also give you a good idea of what our members are capable of writing. https://www.writingforums.org/writing-contests/ While the Role Playing Game section is not new, it’s being given a revamp. So if you are interested in playing and writing Role Playing Games, you might want to visit this section and get in on the fun. https://www.writingforums.org/threads/resurrecting-the-dead-rpg-section-rebuild.165055/ I hope you have fun getting to know us and let us get to know you, via the posts you make. Please feel free to explore the forum. There is a lot under the hood. This site map might help you find your way around more quickly than the menu bars do, so feel free to use it. https://www.writingforums.org/faq/ If you encounter any difficulties, don’t hesitate to contact me or one of the other moderators, whose names appear in yellow at the bottom of the Community page. We will be glad to help. Again, welcome! Cheers for now, Jan
