Alright, so I'm going to go ahead and admit something truly horrible. Are you ready for it? I haven't written anything non-school related since my sophomore year in high school 9 years ago. I know, I know! I can hear your collective gasp all the way over here in my living room. Now to redeem myself, I'll tell you how much of a revelation the last two weeks have been for me. For years, I've been playing with many different ideas for stories; what-if situations involving zombies, nuclear attacks, being spirited away to Narnia-esque places, superpowers, escapes from planetary slave mines, you name it. Some of these ideas coalesced into an idea, a "what if" that I would think of daily at my place of employment. These thoughts kept me sane; kept me from walking out the front doors with two big middle fingers and a "F*$& YOU!" or raging on my hopeless, narrow-minded, husk of a human being co-workers. It's strange how terrifying a blank page can be. A few weeks ago, I sat down at my computer with purpose. I felt I finally had a thorough enough grasp on what I knew would eventually be an epic mysterious adventure that would bring its readers on a fabulous ride that would, hopefully, challenge the way they saw their world. But that damned blank page. It sat there, mocking me to fill its emptiness with something great. I balked, of course, and then spent the whole next day kicking myself for scurrying back to the safety of my Farmville and Whose Line Is It Anyways? marathon. That night, I came home from work and faced that blank page again. I had read somewhere that one should just start writing with no rewriting and no re-reading. Just write and not look back until you finished telling your story. And so I began. It has been two weeks since I started. I've created character bios for my MC's, a general outline of all three novels of my trilogy, and have the first book fully summarized. Tomorrow, I am starting on my 4th chapter. I feel like I've stepped up to that mountain top and started screaming, and I can't stop. The words can't escape my fingertips and my mind fast enough to be satisfying. It is a wonderful/horrible feeling that I can't wait to experience every morning when I wake up. My loved ones are getting sick of hearing me talk about it. My co-workers don't fear me quite as much. Unfortunately, wanting to walk out the door of my workplace hasn't changed, but now I want to leave for different reasons. Not just to escape, but to write. Writing has saved me from the last 9 years of my life. I wasn't born to be a 9 to 5-er. My destiny is to write!
Congratulations on getting to the "realization." I just recently went through the same epiphany, and I'm finally getting some headway on a story of mine. So Welcome to WF. Enjoy your time here
Hi and welcome Glad that you found writing to make you happy. I feel the same way, with the job and everything and the only thing that keep me going is writing. But something when I am in the shop on my own, I write. Two weeks, 4 chapter started, that excellent. All the best for you, in the future.
Het there. Just some advice- whenever I have planned out the writing of anything whether it be books scripts ect. I never get it done. And planning a three book trilogy out would not go over well with me at all. When people start to write books that become trilogies they rarely plan for that, they just reach a point where they decide it can't all fit into one book. The only way I could write something like that was if I started a short story and it just kept going. But thats just me
Hi and welcome HBAdams. It's great to have another writer along, especially one who has recently discovered her writing mode.
Hello HB, Welcome to the Creative Writing Forums. Please read How to Use the Writing Workshop before you post there. Posting your own writing for people to comment on should not be among the very first things you do here. It is worth taking the time to see what other people have done to improve their writing, and see if some of it applies to your writing as well. That is part of why we require members to review other members' work before posting their own for review. On the other hand, there are no restrictions, other than content and copyright rules, on showcasing your work in your member blog. Also, be aware that posting a piece of writing on any public site, including this one, will greatly diminish your chances of selling it for publication. Removing the writing later does not alter that fact - once posted, it is irreversibly considered published. So do not post anything more than a small excerpt of any piece you are planning to submit for publication. If you haven't explored the site yet, you should probably do so soon. Newcomers often gravitate to the Lounge, the Word Games, or the Writing Workshop, but there is much more to be discovered if you poke in the corners. Remember to check out our FAQ as well, and be sure to read through the forum rules, too, to avoid any misunderstandings or hurt feelings. Respect for one another is our principal mandate. As for the Writing Workshop, new joiners often wonder why we do things a bit differently on this site than on other writing sites. We emphasize constructive critique as a vital writing skill. Training your eye by reviewing other people's work helps you improve your own writing even before you present it for others to see. Therefore, we ask members to review other people's writing before posting work of their own. We also impose a two-week waiting period before you may post writing for critique, to give you time to become familiar with what is expected and how the site operates. The Writing Workshop forums on this site, therefore, are true workshops, not just a bulletin board for displaying your work (and on that note, please only post each item for review in one Writing Workshop forum). Also, please use the same thread for all revisions and additional excerpts from the same piece of writing. See this post, Why Write Reviews Before Posting My Work? for more information. And while you're looking around, don't forget to check out the RPG forum for improvisational fiction. Also try our Weekly Short Story Contest and Weekly Poetry Contest. They actually run more than one week apiece, but any member may enter, and all members are urged to vote for their favorites. Enjoy your stay here, and have fun!
Welcome! I look forward to seeing your story in the workshop at some point. Sounds like all the ingredients for an epic adventure are in your capable hands. All the luck to you, and your sure to be awesome story.
