Getting things started: Intros!
May. 4th, 2009 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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getpublishedHey everyone! To kickstart the community, I thought that the best thing to do would be to have some introduction posts! We're a really small community right now, so it'd be cool if everyone could participate. Let's get to know each other!
Name:
How did you get started writing?:
What are you working on right now?:
What are your goals for that project?:
Favourite novels/writers:
Name: Gillian
How did you get started writing?: I was big on reading, even when I was a little kid, but I first started writing stories when I felt the need to 'fix things' that I didn't like about what went on in the anime shows that I was watching. When I first started doing that, I thought that I was the only person in the world who wrote such things. But a quick search online showed that there were lots of communities for what I soon learned was called 'fanfiction'. For quite a few years I was active in the Fushigi Yuugi and Slam Dunk fandom, but gave it up when I I went to uni and stupid things like getting an education got in the way. I'm still in uni now, and am really busy! But there's this story in my head that refuses to let go of me, and I don't think I'll get any peace until it's all written down.
What are you working on right now?: I am working on a young adult urban fantasy novel entitled 'Thrall' that's set here in Melbourne. I'm kind of sick of the way that all the action (in the books now, at least) are going on in the U.S. It's time that Australia has it's own barely averted Apocalypse! I want to write a really culturally diverse cast of characters that actually reflects how Melbourne is today. This is very important to me because I am a Filipino immigrant to Australia, and think it would be nice to have main characters in a fantasy novel that are of Asian/Indian/Nigerian etc. descent.
What are your goals for that project?: I hope to get the first draft of the novel done by the end of this year and start sending it out to agents around February of 2010. I've got it all plotted out already, but am having a hard time just sitting down and getting things written because of my course load. Luckily, I'll have my winter break in June. I plan to really concentrate on Thrall then!
Favourite novels/writers: I love Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens! Best book ever! It's hilarious, and I have to read it at least once a year. Stephen King was the first author that I was totally obsessed with. His earlier work is what turned me on to the horror genre. I love the Wraeththu series by Storm Constantine, James Herriot, Poppy Z. Brite, The Harry Potter Series and the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. There are also many more authors that I can't really list right now because I'm supposed to be writing up my lab report!!!
Name:
How did you get started writing?:
What are you working on right now?:
What are your goals for that project?:
Favourite novels/writers:
Name: Gillian
How did you get started writing?: I was big on reading, even when I was a little kid, but I first started writing stories when I felt the need to 'fix things' that I didn't like about what went on in the anime shows that I was watching. When I first started doing that, I thought that I was the only person in the world who wrote such things. But a quick search online showed that there were lots of communities for what I soon learned was called 'fanfiction'. For quite a few years I was active in the Fushigi Yuugi and Slam Dunk fandom, but gave it up when I I went to uni and stupid things like getting an education got in the way. I'm still in uni now, and am really busy! But there's this story in my head that refuses to let go of me, and I don't think I'll get any peace until it's all written down.
What are you working on right now?: I am working on a young adult urban fantasy novel entitled 'Thrall' that's set here in Melbourne. I'm kind of sick of the way that all the action (in the books now, at least) are going on in the U.S. It's time that Australia has it's own barely averted Apocalypse! I want to write a really culturally diverse cast of characters that actually reflects how Melbourne is today. This is very important to me because I am a Filipino immigrant to Australia, and think it would be nice to have main characters in a fantasy novel that are of Asian/Indian/Nigerian etc. descent.
What are your goals for that project?: I hope to get the first draft of the novel done by the end of this year and start sending it out to agents around February of 2010. I've got it all plotted out already, but am having a hard time just sitting down and getting things written because of my course load. Luckily, I'll have my winter break in June. I plan to really concentrate on Thrall then!
Favourite novels/writers: I love Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens! Best book ever! It's hilarious, and I have to read it at least once a year. Stephen King was the first author that I was totally obsessed with. His earlier work is what turned me on to the horror genre. I love the Wraeththu series by Storm Constantine, James Herriot, Poppy Z. Brite, The Harry Potter Series and the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. There are also many more authors that I can't really list right now because I'm supposed to be writing up my lab report!!!
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Date: 2009-05-04 06:48 am (UTC)How did you get started writing?: I use to pretend I was a businessman and I would get blank pieces of paper and write squiggly lines on them and put them in my 'briefcase' and act as if they were the most important words ever written. As I grew older and more educated, the squiggly lines became real words and stories as I pretended to be Shakespeare...XD
What are you working on right now?: Mostly fanfiction, as I believe my writing is too terrible right now for an actual book but I've been working on a supernatural and 20s period romance novel.
What are your goals for that project?: I hope to have either one halfway finished by the time 2010 rolls around, along with better titles!
Favourite novels/writers: >.> There are so many! Can I pass? I might be here all night!
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Date: 2009-05-04 07:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-05-04 07:48 am (UTC)I think fanfiction is a great way to polish off your writing! Whenever I read my old fanfics, I'm always slightly embarassed by the quality. But at least I'm able to note some improvement from my writing then to what it is now!
Good luck with your original works, and I hope that you'll post about it here in the future.
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Date: 2009-05-04 07:15 am (UTC)I very much agree about what you said about the action mostly happening in the US and it's great that you are writing a story set in Melbourne. I've not been to Melbourne before so that sounds exciting. Be sure to keep us up to date on how you are progressing and how you go with the publishing. I have my fingers crossed for you!
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Name: I go by Meoryn online.
How did you get started writing?: I've been writing since I was in Grade 4 when I was inspired by Roald Dahl and wrote a book about a tough six year old lost at sea and having to fend for himself. I've always been an avid reader, moving through anywhere from 5-10 books a week. In those early days, Roald Dahl was one of my greatest inspirations and as a kid, his book "Witches" made a huge impact on my life. In high school, I continued to write but had moved from children's books to teen murder mysteries, inspired by Christopher Pike and the Point Thriller books. These days, I dabble in a host of different genres but my roots are definately in the fantasy genre - my biggest inspiration there being David Eddings and his belgariad series and later, Jennifer Fallon's Demon Child Trilogy gave me a love of the political aspect of fantasy and the roles women of strength and character played in a predominately male society.
What are you working on right now?: I am working on two projects right now, both are YA fiction novels. One is Urban-Fantasy and the other is Science Fiction. The Urban-Fantasy is in its editing stage and the science fiction is still largely in its planning, world building stage. The Urban-Fantansy novel is set in the small town of Winton and the Science Fiction is set in the bustling metropolis of Brisbane.
What are your goals for that project?: Firstly to finish them. I'd be happy if I can achieve that. I have a hard time finishing projects I start so I hope to finish this second novel by the end of the year and start on its editing in 2010.
Favourite novels/writers: There are so many but the bright stars that stand out in my mind are Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Isobelle Carmody, Jennifer Fallon, Scott Westerfeld, David Eddings and Fiona McIntosh.
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Date: 2009-05-04 07:59 am (UTC)Roald Dahl was also one of the authors that really got me into reading and making up my own stories when I was a kid! We actually share a lot of favourites. Scott Westerfield's Uglies series has been on my to-read list for a while now. I really have to start reading them, since they keep on being recommended by other ya writers that I know!
It looks like you're much further ahead on your project than I am! I'm so jealous! Keep us updated! Your Brisbane based novel sounds really interesting. I'm so glad that there's another Aussie on here!
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Date: 2009-05-04 09:41 am (UTC)Oh, that is fabulous, you've just hooked my attention right there. Every global region should have their own barely-averted Apocalypse of their own making. \o/
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Date: 2009-05-04 11:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-05-04 05:23 pm (UTC)How did you get started writing?: It's actually something that I've always done, ever since I was a small child. I was always telling stories, and as soon as I learned to write, I started putting them down, along with poetry.
What are you working on right now?: I'm working on several different things. My favorite is a series of vignettes based on folkloric creatures. Each piece is no more than 200 words.
What are your goals for that project?: A friend of mine,
Favourite novels/writers: This is such a difficult question. Let's see... Kurt Vonnegut, Victor Hugo, Susan Kay, Geoffery Chaucer, T.S. Eliot, Peter S. Beagle, Michael Ende, John Donne, John Keats, Sir Phillip Sidney, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, William Faulkner... I read voraciously. I'll just stop here lest I go on forever.
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Date: 2009-05-04 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-04 11:28 pm (UTC)Your project sounds great! I've always loved the old legends.
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Date: 2009-05-04 05:30 pm (UTC)How did you get started writing?: I've been reading and writing for as long as I knew how. I compulsively write essays on everything. I started getting more serious about fiction writing a couple of years ago, when I felt my drawing ability was improving faster than my writing (and as a comicker, I want balance). The ways I've been working on improvement has been writing a lot of fanfiction, and I recently took a creative writing course.
What are you working on right now?: Besides a long fanfic that won't die, I recently decided to focus on The Eyes, since I got a good response from my class on a section of it. It takes place in a fictional world, in a fictional country, focusing on a fictional religion. I feel the concept's a bit strange, and haven't worked on properly explaining it to others yet.
What are your goals for that project?: Finish it. I've yet to complete a novel, and the longest thing I've written is 40k words and still unedited. So, yeah, finishing is a good start.
Favourite novels/writers: Novels - I love The Time Traveler's Wife, Margaret Atwood, and Tamora Pierce. I have a hard time finding books/authors I really like. Comics - Ai Yazawa.
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Date: 2009-05-04 11:03 pm (UTC)I have the same problem with finishing projects too. Good luck with The Eyes. It sounds very intriguing!
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Date: 2009-05-04 11:33 pm (UTC)I can't imagine getting up in front of a bunch of people that I don't know and reading it out loud. I know I should get over this, but I don't even let family members read what I'm working on now!
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Date: 2009-05-04 06:27 pm (UTC)Name: Jazz (not short for Jasmine, Jazzlyn, etc.)
How did you get started writing?: I wanted to be an actress as soon as I could walk and talk so as a child I would act out stories for myself. Whenever I was near a computer or a typewriter I would write whatever came to me, though I didn't keep any of it. Once I got my own computer, and met the girl who was my best friend throughout middle and high school (also a writer), I started working on a fantasy novel born out of my original roleplay character. The work I did on that project is lot, but I have had many new ideas since then. Now I'm an undergrad majoring in English Writing - Fiction with a certificate in Children's Literature and a minor (possibly to be made into a second major) in Studio Arts at the University of Pittsburgh.
What are you working on right now?: A YA vampire novel called 'The 7 Steps to Becoming a Vampire' that was inspired by my best friend from middle and high school who I became best friends with because she told me she was going to complete the steps to become a vampire.
What are your goals for that project?: To finish the first draft by the end of August, then to finish the revision by the end of February 2010.
Favourite novels/writers: Dianna Wynne Jones, Ursula K. Leguin, Kristin Cashore, C.S. Lewis, Diane Duane, Ayn Rand, Gregory Maguire, J.K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Flannery O'Connor
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Date: 2009-05-04 11:03 pm (UTC)It's great to see some YA writers here.
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Date: 2009-05-04 06:29 pm (UTC)How did you get started writing?: that's something i've always done since i learned to write in school. my first major project was a gay novel when i was fifteen and reached 100 pages or so in word, before i deleted it because it was awful. after that i got into fanfiction and have stuck to it since then as a way of improving my writing, testing ways of writing and ideas, as well as developing my english skills (i'm not native).
What are you working on right now?: i'm working on two big things. one is a 23k words/14 chaptered fanfic that i'm converting into original fic (changing names, expanding, clarifying, etc) but i've been stuck with that for about 6 months now. it's called That Kind of Dirty and is about a young gay musician struggling with relationships and drugs. the other is yet another fanfic, possibly more epic than TKOD, and i'm comtemplating not posting it as fanfic when it's done and rather save it for publishing. it's called Passion Colours Everything and the protagonist in this one is a gay university professor who ends up having a fling with a student.
there are a few central elements to my fiction, most predominantly sexuality and psychological development/non-development. i want gay fiction where the gay is not an issue, no coming-out clichés, clashes with people, other things that you see so often. it's interesting, but my main interest is the development of the characters, how their minds work, why they work like that, how it can be changed, do they seize the opportunity to get a better life or are they tragically stuck... i don't fancy romantic stuff and "happy endings", so most of the time my stuff won't have a happily ever after, but a crucial point of self-realising and acceptance (of whatever the situation is). as for PCE, the professor lost his family in a car crash seven years prior to the beginning of the story and has a fear of getting emotionally attached to other human beings. he meets a guy that could potentially help him out of that, start a proper life instead of being an antisocial creature, but the professor cuts it short and pulls out, going back to his shell. anti climaxic ending, probably, but also (IMO) realistic.
What are your goals for that project?: i want to finish converting/polishing up TKOD and then see if I still think it's worth sending out. by now the oldest parts of this story are 1½ year old, the newest are from september. it's horribly mixed. as for PCE i'm not sure. i'll send it to a friend who's always been good at giving honest constructive criticism and see what she thinks, and if we both think it's worth anything, i might try to send it out.
i'm not aiming at becoming a bestseller and i have no world-changing ideas, but seeing a book of mine on the shelves would be amazing. :)
Favourite novels/writers: many... i used to read a lot as a kid, ranging 7-15 books per week. i have had less time to read since 2003 as i then started extensive schooling and have focused more of my attention on writing, but i still occasionally grab a book. recent favourite is Stardust by Neil Gaiman.
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Date: 2009-05-04 11:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-05-04 07:20 pm (UTC)How did you get started writing?: I've pretty much always loved writing, and coming up with ideas for stories. When I was younger I mostly wrote short stories, but I first started working on something novel-length when I was twelve (that particular project has since been abandoned, but I'd like to go back to it someday).
What are you working on right now?: Lots of things! One of my main problems with writing is actually getting everything down-- I can come up with a general idea for something really easily, but writing most of it down is something I struggle with. Basically, I have bits and pieces of a bunch of things (almost all of it being realistic fiction) in various Microsoft Word documents, but I don't really have anything substantial.
What are your goals for that project?: I'd love to actually be able to finish an entire first draft someday, or at least make some decent headway on something. Even if I never actually get published, it'd be amazing just to finish a book.
Favourite novels/writers: I have way too many favorite books to list here, but my favorite writer right now is probably Jodi Picoult, because I love the issues she deals with in her books.
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Date: 2009-05-04 11:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-05-04 07:48 pm (UTC)How did you get started writing?: I don't really know...i feel like I've always been writing. It's something I've always done, reinventing the world in my head to make it better, or something.
What are you working on right now?: Fanfiction, mostly, zith my best friend and co-author, but e're planning, the second we find the right idea, to go on writing our own original fiction.
What are your goals for that project?: get publishedm I guess?
Favourite novels/writers: I'm big into fantasy, and David Eddings owns my heart.
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Date: 2009-05-04 11:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-05-04 08:00 pm (UTC)How did you get started writing?: Creative writing in elementary school. From the moment I started, I just couldn't seem to bring myself to stop.
What are you working on right now?: A collection of bedtime stories with a wicked bent and a young adult novel.
I also do about 4 fanfic pieces a week from various fandoms.
What are your goals for that project?: One to be published for fun and funds, the other to be the sort of novel that changes lives like many have changed mine.
Favourite novels/writers: Above and beyond all else, Francesca Lia Block. Her mixture of fantasy and frankness is life changing and life affirming to me.
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Date: 2009-05-04 08:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-05-04 10:35 pm (UTC)How did you get started writing?: I hated reading and writing until about grade seven. I was the typical tomboy. I grew up on a farm, surrounded by boys (brother, neighbours and cousins), so I fell into the roll of trying to be just like them. Then my friend forced me to read Harry Potter and I fell in love with the entire world of writing. My exact thoughts when I finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was that I wanted to evoke that kind of magic in someone when they would read my work. So, I started in fanfiction. I didn't write anything original until about grade nine, when I started attending writing camps. I still writing fanfiction, but I am writing original fiction as well.
What are you working on right now?: I have a few novels lined up (a wide range, from YA novels to a religious post demon-apocalypse plot), but I am focusing on a YA novel I started two years ago called We Folk. It follows a group of high school seniors in a small town; it's basically just how their lives tie in with each other, the obstacles they face and just a basic YA novel, but I'm trying to put something more into it. It's getting there :)
I'm also working on a media/culture analysis based focusing on internet fandom. That's pretty self explanatory :)
What are your goals for that project?: I hope to have my YA novel and fandom book completed and sent to publishers by 2011. Around that time, I will be writing my English honours paper, so I would like to concentrate on that, but I want to be published young as well.
Favourite novels/writers: Harry Potter, obviously. Sarah Dessen, Ian McEwan, Chuck Klosterman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, JK Rowling, Christopher Hitchens., Annette LaPointe. If I were to name my favourite books, we would be here a very long time and I have rambled enough :)
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Date: 2009-05-04 11:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-05-05 01:57 am (UTC)How did you get started writing?: I've written stories since I learned to write
What are you working on right now?: I'm currently revising my first novel
What are your goals for that project?: Fix my thrice-cursed male viewpoint character and polish the rest, then find an agent and hopefully get published
Favourite novels/writers: LE Modesitt, Michelle West, Melanie Rawn, Elizabeth Lowell, Stephanie Laurens. um, it's possible that I might read a lot in a number of different genres.
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Date: 2009-05-05 04:54 am (UTC)How did you get started writing?: School assignments, I think. In 6th grade, we were supposed to use the semester to write a story - first through final drafts. Well, my story was so long I spent the whole semester writing the first draft - the teacher accepted it as final. about 40 pages long, I didn't think it was long enough to be a novella, so one of my classmates nicknamed it a "Vidya-story." Probably started writing before that in school, but that's the first one I really remember, and kind of let my imagination run away with. Wrote a bit of anime fanfiction in late high school, and then after graduating, my friends and I started a message board RPG, then decided to turn it into a book. I've ind f taken over that project, and it's in stasis now, but I haven't seriously stopped writing since. Well, you know, aside from hiatuses and writer's block.
What are you working on right now?: Other than studying for law school finals and wishing the answers to magically appear in my brain? Divinity (novel/editing); Past Returns (novel/planning); Past Begins (short story/writing); Trath(series/planning/writing). Oh, and various other random little writing and art projects.
What are your goals for that project?: First, finishing and polishing them up. Then, getting them published somewhere eventually. ^_^ At least the novels, if not the short.
Favourite novels/writers: Oh, where do I begin? Guy Gavriel Kay, Patricia C. Wrede, Steven Brust, JK Rowling, George R.R. Martin, Chronicles of Narnia, fairy and folk tales, legendry, mythology. Currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, and it's excellent so far!
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Date: 2009-05-05 01:24 pm (UTC)How did you get started writing? I honestly don't remember. Writing is just one of those things I've done for as long as I can remember. When I was little, I used to write a lot of stories about dogs (I was way into animal books at the time), and a little later on Tamora Pierce fanfiction, before I knew what fanfiction was. I used to spend all my free time in school (and a lot of time that... technically wasn't free) writing or worldbuilding, which had the advantage of looking to teachers like I was taking notes. XD
What are you working on right now?: On a Saturday, a modern fantasy trilogy about the Department of Magical Affairs, a less-than-secret local governmental agency that deals with all the magical shit that tends to happen a town called Kilgate, which lies on a gap between this world and the next. The first book involves zombies. So many zombies. *Grin*
What are your goals for that project?: I'm hoping to finish it in the next few months, and have it edited by the end of the year so next year I can start sending it out to agents and publishers.
Favourite novels/writers: Neil Gaiman, Tamora Pierce, Philip Pullman, Geoffrey Maguire and Terry Pratchett are old favorites. And I've been tearing through The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher lately - that's definitely working its way onto the list of favorites.
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Date: 2009-05-05 04:58 pm (UTC)My name is Liz Schechter, and I've been writing for a long as I can remember. I currently have three credits to my name (two fiction, one non), and I am working on finding an agent for a novel that a friend of mine and I have written. That novel is the first of a six-book series, and we're revising book two before we start the fun of writing book three.
Currently on my plate (other than that series) are a steampunk erotica novella and an urban fantasy novel where the two main characters keep throwing really great short stories at me, but haven't given up the outline to the actual NOVEL yet.
My favorite authors are Robert Heinlein, Jacqueline Carey, Anne Bishop, and just about anyone else I can get my hands on. I'm a voracious reader. My only problem is that when I'm writing in a specific genre, I cannot read ANYTHING in that genre, or I start having things creep into what I'm writing.
Nice to meet you all!
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Date: 2009-05-06 06:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 06:13 am (UTC)How did you get started writing?: I've been writing all my life; I don't remember a time when I wasn't weaving stories.
What are you working on right now?: A paranormal thriller called Unidentified.
What are your goals for that project?: I'm working on what's probably the third revision of the novel, and will be querying agents starting in June.
Favourite novels/writers: Stephen King, China Miéville, Michael Crichton, Orson Scott Card, Amy Tan, Philip Pullman and Lisa See, among others.