A Jedi Knight returns!

[JediKnightMuse]

So, I joined MythicScribes back in 2011 when I first saw the link on NaNoWriMo, I believe, but I failed at being super active after that. I've been lurking and replying to threads here and there so I figured I might as well actually try and officially come back.

I pretty much ended up going like eight months (from like January 2012 and on) without doing any real non-role play related writing (I run a Star Wars message board role play) and I think that's part of the reason I'm finding it hard to get started on a new story/novel/whatever it ends up being. I have plenty of ideas in my head, but one of the main things I'm having issues with is actually pushing myself to write without my brain going "no, this is stupid, how is this supposed to work?" etc. Which doesn't usually happen, really, so it's interesting.

Anyway...for those who don't want to read my old intro thread, I'm twenty-six (almost twenty-seven) and I write original fantasy. I tend to call it high fantasy/sword and sorcery. I thought I wrote stories for young adults, but technically my characters tend to be in their late-teens-to-mid-twenties, so I guess that doesn't really fall under young adults- the main thing that would qualify as young adult, I think, is the lack of any sexual or super violent description/scenes. I sadly do not have anything finished. I've been writing stories since at least third grade, but fantasy stories since my sophomore year of high school. Otherwise I used to write Star Wars fan fiction as well, back before I even knew the term 'fan fiction' existed.

There's a story I started writing for NaNo 2011 that I haven't finished but want to try and rework and continue at some point. Otherwise I just have a lot of ideas that I want to use but know that they won't all work in one story. So my hope is basically that this place will help push me into the right direction so that I can actually start working on a project again.

Hi! ^_^

 

[Cocytus]

A bit of advice from someone who's been writing for a long time and avoiding writing for just as long - take some time to just hammer out a first draft of one of your ideas without censoring or editing yourself. If it's terrible, let it be terrible - just let it exist. Once you have finished a draft, you can then start polishing it, revising it, or even discard it altogether. At least it will exist, and in the process of writing it you will have sharpened your writing skills by some measure. A number of atrocious clichés come to mind, so forgive me: do not be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try.

I have a Star Wars piece unfinished myself, but I'm not working on it right now. I intend to go back to it after my current project and worry about what to do with it much later.

 

[JediKnightMuse]

A bit of advice from someone who's been writing for a long time and avoiding writing for just as long - take some time to just hammer out a first draft of one of your ideas without censoring or editing yourself. If it's terrible, let it be terrible - just let it exist. Once you have finished a draft, you can then start polishing it, revising it, or even discard it altogether. At least it will exist, and in the process of writing it you will have sharpened your writing skills by some measure. A number of atrocious clichés come to mind, so forgive me: do not be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try.

I have a Star Wars piece unfinished myself, but I'm not working on it right now. I intend to go back to it after my current project and worry about what to do with it much later.

Yeah, I've been trying to do that, but the main problem is that every time I even start to write something, something in my head goes "no, I don't like this, this isn't right." But I think that's MAINLY because I haven't settled on a plot. I have so many ideas, some of which would work better as sub-plots or simply just scenes, I guess, but it's just a matter of pinning them down right now and actually focusing on one of them. I never used to really have a problem with an inner editor (I mean, I have over the last several years, but when I was younger I didn't and I would just write without thinking about things), or at least not this bad, so I don't really know where it's coming from.

I used to write scripts and stories. There's one story, I guess, based on a one-on-one role play, that I would love to write just because of how awesome it is (we've written three generations of characters together, basically) but there are certain things keeping me from doing so- mainly that I'm so far out of practice with fan fiction that I don't know if I could pick it up again, at least not seriously...and if I were going to write a story based on that role play, it would need to be serious (meaning that I would need to get from start to finish). But the other thing is that a good amount of the characters belong to my friend as well, so that's tricky territory.

 

[Chilari]

Welcome back, not just to MS but also to the world of being a writer. Good luck getting back up to speed. The Showcase might be very useful for you with that.

 

[Ireth]

Welcome back!

 

[Reaver]

Welcome back to the Scriptorium!

 

[JediKnightMuse]

Welcome back, not just to MS but also to the world of being a writer. Good luck getting back up to speed. The Showcase might be very useful for you with that.

In terms of showing examples of my writing or asking for help with things I'm writing, or...? I'm not sure what you mean by that because it looks like the showcase is mainly for showing pieces of writing. XD Unless I'm wrong.

Unfortunately I have the flu so making any progress toward actually having something to write has been put off until I'm feeling a bit better...which will hopefully be tomorrow.

Thank you for the other welcomes!

 

[Chilari]

In terms of gaining useful feedback. The Showcase isn't so much about showing your writing as asking for help with it. It's certianly helped me and plenty of others here, and can be a good guage as far as finding out what you've got down and what still needs work. Finding out what others think of your work will, I should think, be particularly useful when you've been out of the game for a while and might be a bit rusty.

Sorry to hear about the flu, it's a horrible feeling and I hope you feel better soon.

 

[JediKnightMuse]

In terms of gaining useful feedback. The Showcase isn't so much about showing your writing as asking for help with it. It's certianly helped me and plenty of others here, and can be a good guage as far as finding out what you've got down and what still needs work. Finding out what others think of your work will, I should think, be particularly useful when you've been out of the game for a while and might be a bit rusty.

Sorry to hear about the flu, it's a horrible feeling and I hope you feel better soon.

Ah, okay. Well, the lack of getting useful feedback isn't necessarily an issue- I have a Livejournal that I've used for many years and post excerpts (or whole chapters) of my writing there in friends locked entries, and there are some other sites I know of that I can get feedback at. I also don't think I'm going to have any actual writing ready for feedback for a while yet, especially if I can't narrow down any ideas. If anything I would post something old, like my 2011 NaNo there, but I wouldn't want any feedback on it because it would be so raw and unedited. I also only have a few chapters of it and I would probably be getting rid of some of it when I rework it anyway.

If anything, I think I might post...some form of some ideas in the brainstorming area, because bouncing ideas off of people- even though I've become a little too reliant on doing so- might be just what I need in order to break through whatever this is so I can focus on a project and write again.

It's also not that I haven't been writing anything at all, outside of role playing. I did attempt to do NaNo in 2012 (which I forgot to mention in my intro), but I didn't get very far. I think I wrote...2k? Which is pathetic for me. I usually at least get to 10k. But I was pretty much trying to do it by the seat of my pants at that point and I just wasn't prepared, despite having started to prepare in like...September. Ha.

Thank you. I'm on day four of it and finally feel better, so hopefully I'll be able to do some writing soon.