Having dabbled for years around forums but never sticking to anything, I've spent the last few weeks writing and reading and really making time for the craft, as it were. Aside from reading and critiquing, and peacocking with enough bravado to post my own stuff, I hope to really get to grips with taking the step from writing, writing, writing, to submissions and editing. A lot of editing. More editing than I could ever fathom. Anyway, it's a pleasure to be here and meet you all, and hopefully we go together like white on rice.
Howdy BayView, or is it just Bay or BV? Why thank you. Well I've been working on a sci-fi world for the last two years, with 30 short stories just as a way to try different things. Doubt anyone bar myself will ever read it though as it's quality in some of the earlier attempts is somewhat lacking haha. However, I've spent the last month or so working on an espionage story heavily influenced by K. Dick and Neuromancer, although I'm steering as far from cyberpunk as possible since I'd just end up writing Ghost in the Shell, the first draft version! Do you guys regularly write books/novels and look to being published or more of a casual past time?
Some people shorten it to Bay or BV - whatever works for you! And there's a pretty wide range of writers on the site - some are pretty casual, others are working on a career in writing... I don't think we've got anyone currently making a living from writing, but I could be wrong. I think most people on this site focus on novels, but there are short story contests that people enter on the site, so I guess at least some are writing short stories! I've never really gotten into cyberpunk, but William Gibson is a friend of someone I used to be friends with, so, really, I consider myself an expert on the subject!
I'll have to keep switching it up. Christ, don't think I could manage the output required to ever make a living from it; GRR Martin syndrome without the original success. That's good to know because it seems like short story writing has fallen off a cliff wherever I look. A local writing group used to be all about poems and short stories, but since a NANOWRIMO a couple years back it's nothing but novels. Nothing against novels, it would be my primary writing avenue, but there's some exciting things a short story can do that a novel never can. I remember reading 'Nightingale and the Rose' by Oscar Wilde, and very few other combinations of words have ever hit me like that did. Ah, I've only read the one book, blasted through it, but not something I'd pursue. I'm dabbling with sci-fi as Phil K Dick has really opened my eyes to how good it can be as a genre.
Blog!? Didn't even know there was a blogging option haha. Currently experiencing Asimov for the first time, and clearly need to fix my output given that he has over 500 published works in 9/10 main dewi decimal categories.
