✒️ Writers' thread ✒️

castra I know the feeling. There are so many things vying for your attention in addition to writing. It can be really hard to find time to write. ;w;

Meanwhile, I just remembered I ended my last writing session on a depressing scene. Now I feel sad. Oops. oh well.

Bump~

Also curious, but has anyone here ever participated in a writing contest of some sort before?

@page617 I noticed I get most of my work done when I should be doing my laundry or doing the dishes or literally anything BUT writing lmao 
But more seriously though I think the fact I draw super actively helps me find the mindset to sit down and write too, so often it isn't a really big deal for me especially nowadays? But being part of nanowrimo and camp nano have REALLY helped me to establish some sort of writing habit because those months have forced me to write almost every day so afterwards it kind of sticks with me ; v ; 

Word war is another super fun way for me to sit down and write because usually my friend who plays with me isn't very competitive and we don't actually care about winning, so basically we just sit and write for an hour as much and as fast as we can and then compare the word lenght. Some people take it super seriously but to me it's just a win-win because you get to write with someone sparring with you and you also get to know something about your friend's writing in the process! 

And for those who don't know, word war is the game where you and your friend/s set up a writing time (I usually use 30min or 1h) and then you have to write as many words as possible! And the one who has written the most by the end of it all is the winner. But actually everyone is a winner already for participating and writing 

@page617 I second what castra said. CampNaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo are excellent for building the discipline that helps you stay focused on writing. Things like the WriteorDie2 app are also great because they will alert you if you get distracted while writing. Writing with others through word war or word sprints is a really good way too as you can compare word counts at the end of sprints.  (I'm mostly repeating what was already said xD)

It really helps to set a word count goal for the day as well. I usually feel much more motivated to reach it when I've got an amount in mind, plus when I reach it... I feel productive. Even if it isn't a terribly big goal. Just take it at your own pace!

Now if you'll excuse me, I actually do have some writing to do that I failed to earlier. I must finish this short story :'D

A weekend at the summer cottage, did you mean: a weekend I kick my own butt to actually write 

Also, anyone here participating in July's camp nano? What kind of things will you be working on? 

I'll join this year as well and I'm going to finish writing this one novella + use the rest of the time for editing! I'll also work on some weekly things I'll upload on wattpad as first drafts `v´9 I figured instead of making a new story I should use this as an opportunity to work on old things and hopefully even get something finally FINISHED

I'll be joining Camp NaNoWriMo this July, but as to what I'll be working on... I've got no idea. I hope I have most of my revisions done on the current draft of my current WIP, that way I can focus on something else (and give myself a break). I do have a few ideas at least. ^^;;

Camp nano is here!! 

I wrote 2858 in one sitting, aiming for 30 000 words this month but hopefully being able to write even more! My bigger goal is to finish things rather than to get a high count though as I'm working on two novellas (although I feel like they might become novel lenght if I let myself too carried away, which happens very often). 

Here are my priority works for this month! Both are super experimental and not my Greatest Works but I enjoy working on them and exploring some aspects and writing conventions I normally don't use.

[Revenge Story]

During a stormy night in a small coast town a boy disappears into the sea without a trace. The townspeople are sure he drowned himself but Kenneth knows better: he and his friends accidentally drowned him while bullying him as always - or so he thinks. But when a creature that in many ways resembles the boy who died starts appearing at night to the coast, Kenneth is not so sure about his death anymore…

[Temple Priest]

A young man wakes up from a temple, memories hazy but comprehensive enough to understand this is not the place where he belongs. He is given the robes of a priestess and told to sacrifice to the goddess he has never heard of in his life. His circumstances are not disclosed: no information given nor questions answered, and no matter what he tries, nobody is willing to tell him anything about himself. With only a temple slave Aabel as his ally, he has to decide whether to seek for the truth or accept his life as it now is, no questions asked.

Camp has begun indeed!

Caine nice! That's a really solid start on Day 1! I'm hoping to hit around 2.5k and then head to bed (It IS almost 2AM here, so...) Both those stories sound interesting! I'm working on a Fantasy story that goes back and forth between 1st and 3rd Person POVs. It's something I know of, but am not familiar how to do well... so I'm nervous ono

The one I'm primarly working on is...

[An Untitled Story] (yes that is its name)

I was once a child who believed in Fantasies. The stories about finding a portal to another world, and going on grand adventures while falling in love. I dreamed of days like that.

Now I've grown up. I don't have time to entertain childish dreams. At least, that's what I thought. Then she appeared. A snappy girl from another world, and a member of a resistance movement that hopes to overthrow a kingdom. Now I'm stuck in the middle of this plot. I never expected to actually wind up in this kind of story myself, and I don't know what to call it either.

Who knows? Maybe this won't be so bad. Maybe I'll make it through and maybe I'll fall in love. I certainly don't know what to believe anymore.

=====

I'm also waiting on edits for another WIP, so I'll probably be working on that as well from time to time this month. With a 75k word goal and two WIPs... this'll be a busy month o.o

AHHH YES! A THREAD FOR WRITERS ON TOYHOUSE! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS TO EXIST

✒️ Who are you?

I'm Alexa (or Plat as I get called by certain groups of friends) and I am a seventeen year old girl who lives and breathes creativity and characters. I dream of writing a few books someday, but my biggest dream job at the moment is to create and write for my own TV show. Regardless of the specifics, I know I want to have creativity/writing in my life and career in some form.

✒️ How long have you been writing?

I've been writing seriously since I was about eleven... it started with fanfiction and then evolved into becoming detached from the source material, and nowadays it splits itself between things I write all on my own and things I roleplay. So it's been a long time, but I'm also still young...

✒️ Your preferred languages in writing?

I can only write in English, so it has to be English.

✒️ What kind of things do you write / enjoy writing?

I like writing drabbles/short stories and skits about character interaction and exploring different aspects of my various characters. I have yet to really make myself committ to writing multiple chapters of a story without dropping off, but that's a goal to work on for the future.

✒️ Favourite genres for your own stories?

My genre's not really specific, but the things I write tend to fall into modern or kind of fantasy.

✒️ Any current writing projects?

My titular/main project has been ongoing for a few years now, and in the awkward middle stages of having one foot in an existing universe and the other in being its own universe, before it transitions completely. It has no set real title but is about a family of six siblings who are trapped in the position of having to inherit a tyrannical monarchy from their emotionally abusive parents. Though the six of them have had nothing but each other to rely on for years, a plot to overthrow the monarchy tears the family apart and it becomes the struggle to survive and reunite themselves and choose their own path, despite the changing attitudes of family members and scars being created that may never fully heal.

Beyond that, I invest myself in a couple roleplay group worlds within the same group of friends, one of them being a modern pokémon gijinka based setting and the other being a semi-fantasy world about a world in conflict between humans and dragons.

I should honestly devote some time to making toyhouse profiles, but I like making them long and thorough, which probably explains why I've only completed five.

I'll also answer the other questions that have been posed in here,

What kind of site / sites do you use to upload your stories? Alternatively do you have a preferred site for reading user-submitted stories?

If anything, I use google docs and that's it. I share my writing mostly with friends, so the format is convenient for quickly pasting and showing off writing to others.

Ever participated in a writing contest of some sort before?

Once on a forum, but that's about it.

How do you get around to actually writing out your ideas into a coherent state?

Usually I write them down once they come to mind, no matter the state of coherency, and I think it over more and write a more composed, formal version of the idea from there.

I'm going to look over some of the things people have posted in here too! Glad to see a place where others can share and discuss their writing ideas ^.^

✒️Who are you?

My name's Java, I'm a 15 year old autistic trans guy who's just finished secondary school and roleplays over Skype.

✒️ How long have you been writing? 

I actually have no definite idea lol, probably since around 2012, since that's when I started to create OCs and read loads.

✒️ Your preferred languages in writing? 

English, but I'm learning french so hopefully one day I can write a story in french.

✒️ What kind of things do you write / enjoy writing? 

This sounds really edgy, but I love writing violence, fighting, gore, nerdy stuff and also really depressing stuff. I probably over-describe stuff, I dunno, adjectives are my favourite thing in the world. I also love writing fluff because who doesn't lol (i've written so many gay fluff ships you wouldn't believe -v-')

✒️ Favourite genres for your own stories? 

Fantasy, science fiction, and horror. The fantasy comes from the fact that, as well as many of my stories containing made up but carefully created species, almost all of my characters are either magicks or demons, or humans that study magick. For instance, my main story, Fate is calling, is literally about magicks fighting. The sort-of-protagonist, Keikan (she's actually a douche tbh), is the most powerful living magick, her mother aka the main antagonist is an abusive  rude magick, and almost everyone else who's not a different species is a magick of some denomination. 

There's a bit of science in a few of the smaller universes I have going on, ghosts and travelling through black holes and time travel and nuclear science, mainly space because that's one of my special interests.

✒️ Any current writing projects?

I'm in the process of (read: procrastinating on) writing a book/illustrated series based on an oc universe of mine.

Nice to see new people !! Also HeroofEnelios good luck with your nano, looks like we're both testing kind of vaguely new waters this month ! ; v ; 

It's time for another question mostly for my own interest:

What kind of sites do you use to socialize with other original fiction writers?

I have mainly just used nanowrimo but I find it somehow oddly... limited, somehow? Also the most active and social thread area there each year seems to be the one for the teens and I'm too old to go there lmao whoops. I have also tried to use wattpad but it's... uh, messy? It's the best way I can describe the way things work on that site. 

Caine have you tried using Quotev? I personally use it and like it a lot ;v; it's a lot less messy than Wattpad lol

@teddy-bear Ohh, no I haven't! Or actually I have used it to make one personality test when I was advertising Sinfonia, but I didn't actually realize people use it for stories too. I totally need to check it out, thank you! ;_;

Caine yeah, you can use it for stories and quizzes of all sorts! it's pretty neat
you can also actually indent, which you can't do on Wattpad last time I checked so that's pretty helpful :'D
if you do end up using it, I'd love it if you could send me your username/account so I can follow you ;v;