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  1. #11
    Cheers and good times! Neo Emolga's Avatar
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    My writing journey used to be pretty strong, but it came to a screeching halt a while ago.

    I used to write a lot of relatively scrappy fiction stories that were never shared with anyone before moving onto Pokémon fan fiction. Those past novels were mostly fantasy, and I'll admit some of them got a little weird but were at least good for experimentation purposes and allowed me to test the waters. Most of them were lost, but they weren't really worth keeping anyway, as most of them never finished and I couldn't figure out where to go with them.

    I wrote a small few Pokémon fan fiction stories before Trial of Juno, but it was ToJ were it really took off and ended well. Since that finished, I haven't been able to pick up writing again. I come up with great ideas, but most of these ideas just end up as an RP because coming up with characters isn't one of my strong points (so when other people come up with the characters, it honestly makes my work easier). Hence, that's why I got more into RP writing and hosting than novel-writing.

    I think the big turnoff for me was finding out how difficult, time-consuming, expensive, and luck-dependent it is just to get a book published from my own research and reading personal experiences of published authors who made it clear they didn't think it was worth it. I really want other people to get the opportunity to read my stuff and I would love to see their feedback, but getting it out there is very difficult without getting stuff published. I have read a LOT of published stories that I thought were junk and personally knew I could do much better, but publishing stuff is just too hard. As much as I'd love to hold a paperback copy of a book I wrote with my name on it and awesome cover art right in a bookstore, it just feels like one of those things that's never going to happen. I just don't know anyone who works for a publishing company, and it seems like unless you do and have close friends in that line of work who can help you sneak past the chopping blocks, getting your stuff through the door will be too hard.

    I honestly don't know when I'd pick up writing again. But I guess the situation with publishing is what drove me to write fan fiction in the first place, as I figured since this stuff can't get published anyway, no need to care about using copyrighted material and trademarked characters. But yeah, I found doing it in the form of RPs kind of makes people need to read it in order to participate. Most people seem to really like my RPs, so that's pretty much the place I've settled into.

  2. #12
    The Queen of Shaymin
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    Is it bad that I interview myself using this question every time I take a shower? XD

    My writing journey? Well… I would have to say I didn't really take an interest until the sixth grade and even then I didn't really take it seriously until about half way through tenth grade. But I was definitely showing signs of my writing talent in the second grade. See, I kind of consider myself like Mumble from Happy Feet. Everyone around me could draw like amazingly. Like I mean you want them to draw the Mona Lisa? Done. The David? Child's play. You name it they could draw it. Me? You want a stick figure? You get a bunch of misshapen lines put together that might vaguely look like a person. I was always made fun of because of that. At my school, everyone had an artist inside of them, we just had to find it. But I didn't have an artist inside of me. Then, one day, I got bored. I was all caught up on My Little Pony and I had finished my homework, plus my neighbors were out of town for the week. So I decided, hey, I'll write my own My Little Pony adventure. So I did. Pinkie Pie went to space with Rainbow Dash (who, I will point out WAS NOT A PEGASUS at the time). I never finished the story and I have no idea where it went. But when I showed it to my mom, she realized that no I didn't have an artist in me. I was meant to be an author. However, if any of you have ever met me in real life and met my mom, you'll understand that whenever my mom pushes me to do something, she shoves me over the edge, to the point where I don't want to do it anymore. She pushed me so hard to continue writing that I lost interest. I didn't pick up a pencil again until fifth grade.

    In the fifth grade we got a history teacher who forced you to write essays at the end of every test. Everyone hated her, except me. I quickly became the best essay writer in the grade but I never really took an interest. Then sixth grade rolled around and I got the same history teacher plus my favorite english teacher of all time. It is because of these two that I developed the writing techniques I have today. My history teacher gave us a test on the fifth day of the school (the Friday following the monday we came back to school). When we came back on Monday, she handed out the tests. Everyone failed, except one person. This one person became known as the curve buster because they got a 100 on the first test. Care to guess who made that 100? Me. The history teacher bragged about me to the entire class and even went so far to say that my essay was better than any student of hers in the eighth grade. That statement right there made me want to write again. Had that never been said, I probably would not have been so receptive to my english teacher.

    Now my english teacher was a lot like me. She was somewhat aloof, goofy, and only seventeen (she skipped a lot of grades and get this, her older brother (who was eighteen) was a senior at the school she taught at. He made a mean Jack Sparrow impression). Everyday she had a writing period. Sometimes it was called a DYK, other times it was a Great Scott!, and one time I believe it was "a student's idea." Anyway, she would have a random fact or writing prompt on the board when we came in. We were to take out our journals and write about said prompt or fact until the music stopped playing. We could write in any fashion we wanted as long as we wrote. For some reason, I always write stories. I can remember doing something about flaming foxes, car races, treasure hunters, and more. I always had so much fun writing these stories and sometimes I didn't even realize that the music had stopped. My teacher loved my stories even though I never could finish them. She worked with me to get my stories to flow better and gave me many creative ideas.

    However, when my mom heard about my writing abilities can you guess what she did? Yep, she pushed. And I once again dropped my interest in writing. Then ninth grade came into play and I met my favorite English teacher to date. He loved my essays and encouraged me to enter writing contests. While I've never placed in one it has gotten my name out there. He helped me discover that I'm actually a great writer for plots of movies and such, which is why I win film awards every year I enter and I have been invited to attend a film camp from the New York Film Academy this summer.

    Then tenth grade came and my chance to become a full on writer came my way. I had the chance to attend a full on writing school in my area. All I had to do was audition. But guess what? My mom pushed, harder than I had ever seen her push before, and the audition didn't go well. I didn't get accepted. I was sad for days but then it was like the floodgates opened. I suddenly could write like never before. I have come to realize that the reason I can't have my mom pushing me is because when she does, I get SEVERE writer's block. Now, about half a year after the audition, I have started many stories that I plan to finish one day. Currently I am focusing on two stories, one fanficiton, Tri-Kappa Labs which has two chapters up so far and a third chapter appearing soon on this website, and one original story called the Knights of the Flock which has two chapters and part of a third written down but only part of one typed. It might be a while before KoF appears on here as a result.

    Never the less, my writing journey is far from over, but I need all the support I can get. I am still in a artist vs writer situation where about 98% of people around me in real life are amazing artists that can draw a picasso on their first try and I can barely make a stick figure. As a result, I still get bullied and don't have the self confidence I should. The more people that read and leave good comments on my stories, the more likely I am to continue them because I know that means I have fans that actively look at my stories and I have a drive not to disappoint them. So please, if you like Tri-Kappa Labs, please comment so that I feel motivated to keep it going. That goes for anything you see me write. You like it? Comment! An update should follow soon after.
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  3. #13
    Eldritch_Angel LKWayvern's Avatar
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    For a really long time I loved reading, but I never even thought of writing. I always associated writing with essays and book reports, and I hated(and still dislike) doing those.
    Then around fifth grade I got a netbook computer.
    It didn't go on the internet, but I could still type up projects and things on it.
    And one day, I'm still not sure why, I decided to write my own story. I tried to write several stories. Most of them were terrible. Pretty much all consisted of poorly thought out characters, rushed thought, and a Mary Sue-ish self-insert as the main character. At some point my netbook's charger stopped working, and it died. So I stopped writing, but I kept reading.
    Then I discovered the internet. I suddenly came upon fanfictions. Looking back, none were really REALLY good. But one particular Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fanfiction I read made me think 'That is so cool. I want to make something like that.'
    The night I discovered the internet, I posted the prologue to my first fanfiction, Mystery Dungeon: Dusk Storm.
    It was much better than my original fiction, but it was still terrible. The protagonist was an overpowered Fakemon, a self-insert, and a Mary Sue. The two partners were one painfully happy-go-lucky Eevee with no backstory or personality beyond 'cheerful', and a seriously overpowered Snivy that could conjure any seed she wanted out of thin air.
    I tried to continue MDDS, but the characters were just dead. They had no past. The plot was vague, at best.
    Eventually, it died.
    I wrote various other fanfictions in the months that followed, and I read fanfictions and comics like crazy. And slowly, my writing improved thanks to learning the do's and don't's of writing through both experience and observation.
    And one day, I started writing my longest fanfiction yet, The Path to Where I Stand. I had been RPing with two specific characters lately, and I wanted to explore their pasts througha fanfiction, since their pasts were rather poorly thought out. But TPTWIS became something more.
    For what felt like the first time I had defined, lively characters. A plot that I could follow. And then, suddenly, I got ideas for what happened after the history part stopped. For an entirely new adventure, with those two characters and their friends.
    Twists happened that I had no idea would occur, but in retrospect it really was inevitable. I brought back MDDS, but improved it dramatically, with much more fleshed out main characters, a much less overpowered protagonist, and all new characters who breathed new life into the stale old story.
    It gave me a kind of satisfaction at how my new and old stories were progressing. Like things had come full circle.
    But then a few months ago, I got a weird kind of writer's block. I knew exactly what I wanted to happen, but no matter what I tried I could not get it to come out right on the screen. I updated less and less, and got more and more worried about both the quality and quantity of my writing.
    I put both TPTWIS and MDDS on an indefinite hiatus about a week ago. However, I still wanted to write something. I asked a friend's permission, and started transcribing a comic of his into written form. The plot and the dialogue is already there, I'm just reiterating it. I feel like it's helping, somewhat, since I can write much more slowly and think less about the story.
    ...I guess that's the path to where I stand. When it comes to writing, that is.
    Avatar made by Neo Emolga.

  4. #14
    d r e a m e r Felly's Avatar
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    I started writing when I was about 10. I would do RP on the first forum I'd joined, and I eventually discovered a site called AnimeSpiral. That site ended up closing down, unfortunately, but I moved over to FF.net where I post most of my stuff nowadays. I've mainly done fanfiction, but I've dabbled in original works as well. When I was in high school, I discovered NaNoWriMo thanks to some friends, and I started doing that too. These days, I've been dabbling in Pokemon fanfics for URPG, and I do my original works for NaNoWriMo. I have a Harry Potter fanfic I've been working on for some time too, but it's dropped off recently. I might pick it back up again eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later, and finish it eventually.

  5. #15
    Unbowed, unbent, unbroken Homura's Avatar
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    I remember looking at some Pokemon fanfics as a high school student and thought I could do better. Looking back, a lot of my stuff was actually just garbage. Haha
    What is happiness?
    It's being called by someone
    It's being able to call someone
    It's when someone is thinking of you
    But Heaven has none of this
    A lizard girl took pity on God
    So the lizard girl tore God in two and brought a half from Heaven to Earth

  6. #16
    growing strong Pokemon Trainer Sarah's Avatar
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    Wow this is an oldschool thread. Cool topic though :O

    I remember writing my first story in like the first week of grade one. The teacher read us a book about a farmer and a cow or something, and we had to write what happened next. I filled up the whole page and then I wasn't sure if we were allowed to use the next page of the exercise book (xDDD) so that story ended very abruptly. The next story I remember well was in grade four (10 years old). I pretty much spent the whole year working on the same story and filled up two exercise books. It was about a magical school (this was before Harry Potter was a thing) where the kids made potions to do different spells and I ended up being a scientist, wizard and astronaut. XD I used the kids in my class as characters and ended up getting in trouble as one of them got turned into a massive beetle and was entered into a race... so had to change their names. xD After that I REALLY loved writing! In grade six I had a story I'd written published in the school newsletter which is still one of my proudest moments. And shortly after I started writing Pokemon fanfics and really getting into that community. I wanted to be an author in high school but I knew that wasn't really a good career choice and decided I'd just keep it as a hobby. My writing really dropped off maybe 5 years ago or so when I had to focus on my PhD. (I still do a LOT of writing but now it's boring sciencey stuff xD). I'm constantly reading, having ideas for stories and dreaming of publishing something one day though! I keep waiting for that ONE IDEA that's really gonna make me wanna write again, but it's hard. I'm definitely gonna focus more on it from now on though.
    GCEA


  7. #17
    Cheers and good times! Neo Emolga's Avatar
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    Hmm. Forgot about this thread. Interesting to see what I wrote several years ago and how I feel about things right now. I was on the brink of giving up back then. Now... not so much.

    I haven't gotten agent representation for Wildcaster: Secret of Taika, but I haven't given up. I still have several other agents I could try and lately I've just been pretty busy with a lot of other things going on. Job interviews, my brother's wedding, and several other things. I NEED to get back on that.

    Originally, I was going to continue Wildcaster with a sequel called Wildcaster: Season of Darkness, BUT... I'm thinking of pulling the plug on it. Secret of Taika is funny, interesting, comical, and has plenty of great adventure, action, fantasy, and all that lovely jazz. I still think it would make an awesome novel and a lot of heart went into it to make it as good as it could be.

    But this attempt at a sequel is just killing me. I have a whole playbook for dealing with writer's block and the number of times I've had to resort to it for this thing is just abysmal. It's gotten to the point where I originally felt like gripping it by the neck and pulling it back from the very beginning and make the entire story, which was about half-written by now, take a completely different direction. But that would mean nuking more than 60 pages worth of stuff. Essentially the entire story save for the brief recap stuff and the exposition. What would be the plan? There is none. That's the big problem, but what I have now just feels bland, mirthless, and there is an alarming amount of nothing much happening but "it has to or else it just wouldn't make realistic sense." I'm thinking of just letting the original do its thing but letting it be that.

    In Secret of Taika, oh, there's plenty of juicy, fun combat scenes, great humor, and fun fantasy elements. The only thing is two of the characters, including the main viewpoint character, learn Taika (magic) quickly, but they pay a lot of money for it and they essentially pay the price by using a contraband method of learning it. Otherwise it would take them years and that's not very interesting to read about nor does it fit in considering the whole story is a race against time. And the illegal form of training only takes them up to an intermediate level. I figured this was fair. It bites them in the back later on when they're found out about it.

    In Season of Darkness, just filler, filler, filler. There is only ONE brief combat scene and it doesn't happen until page 55. I also find the characters stay put in one location for way too long. It's such a slow buildup and I've tried to change it so many times but it still ends up being the same kind of mess. I don't feel like starting over and honestly, I think I'd rather work on something completely different. It just feels too much like a sequel was never meant to be and over the past few months of having not added a darn thing to it, I've come to terms with the reality and just feel it's time for something else.

  8. #18
    HIS TUFFNESS AD's Avatar
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    I have a lot of unfinished stories.

    My journey is a trail of those stories dating back to the 90s...


    ·»Your focus determines your reality«·

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