I'm going to start writing again

[Nikia]

I haven't done much writing lately aside from posting on DU and a few emails. I have been having many problems over this past year. I have been out of college for 5 years now and things have not been going the way that I have wanted to. I find my job unfullfilling and mind numbing. My life aside from work has not been that fullfilling either. In all, life after college has been a big let down compared to what I imagined that my life would be. It has occurred to me that it has been a let down because I am not doing what I want to do or hope to do. I am living other people's dreams and losing myself, doing things out of obligation and need.
I have always written. It has always been my passion. I told stories with my toys before I started to write. I wrote stories regularly on my own starting at around the age of seven. I was always writing. At times, writing became more important than anything else. I grew up being pressed into perfection in school, in music, in sports, and anything else where one could achieve. I was pushed into science, which I found someone interesting, but not most interesting. I quitetly wrote though, with only occaisional notice. Writing is my passion though. It always has been. It is mine alone. I have always done it because I have wanted to do it and for the that reason alone. For this reason, I believe that writing will save me.
I know that I am out of practice. I know that the moment that I hope to write a great masterpiece that my writing will fail. Perhaps someday, I will write professionally. That is actually what I had always wanted to do. For now though, I will just write. I will just practice, the way that a new musician practices the guitar or piano.

[lenidog]

1. AARGH!!!

I read your post and remembered this web site I stumbled across one time and I wanted to give you the link. The web site is an archive for original fiction written by like you. Basically what you do is sign up and then post your stories on the web site. People then can read it and if so inclined can post comments and reviews about you story. Like anything else on the net you would probably get your fair share of flames but you may also find some valuable criticism to help you improve your art. At the moment my memory is failing me and I can't find the place. That is what is frustrating but by hook or crook I shall and pass it along to you if you seem interested.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. My take on things like that

I have a real bias towards "criticism" from people you don't know. I think it's a dangerous and counterproductive effort.

My belief has always been that writing is a solitary practice, and, as I mentioned to my editor, if I were doing this in another time and another place - that is, sitting in a room, making up stories about people and things that never existed - I'd be burned at the stake.

It's solitary, and that's why the idea of "showing your work" to anyone is, in my opinion, a wrongheaded gesture. If you need the feedback and support of others to keep yourself writing, you're pissing up a rope. All you can do is trust yourself, and it's up to you to keep yourself going - no one else.

So, it's lucky you couldn't remember the URL. There are all kinds of angels extant, I think.

[oneighty]

6. Writing.com

I post there under the name 'voyager'. I have been a couple of weeks now getting used to the site. It is a very complicated and interesting site

180.

[oneighty]

2. So write us a short story

I have to write my little stories fast and short because ISP-dial-up keeps losing my efforts in space (Or where ever it is the words disappear to).

180

[Nikia]

9. Alright, I wrote one

It was based off a writing exercise in a writing workshop book. I hadn't written sudden fiction since high school, but perhaps I'll try it out.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

3. Here's what I did ..........

Maybe this will resonate for you. Maybe not.

I always wrote. Won prizes for things I wrote in school. Clearly, I was lucky. I wrote to entertain myself and others, to share information, because I never thought not to write.

For one reason or another, I became a lawyer and therapist. After that, writing was a different thing. I also went ahead and lived life, marriage,, family, all that. As John Lennon put it, "Life is what happens ... while you're busy making other plans."

Finally, as I was preparing for the biggest trial of my career, I began to write a novel, just as a way of unwinding after the end of long days. I wrote it because some things had been on my mind, because I needed something quiet to do when all the daily noise subsided, because something had so impressed me, I needed to tell about it.

When I finished it, it was about 400 pages long. The trial began, and I didn't think about what I had written. Afterwards, I mentioned it to a good friend of mine, a children's book writer, who suggested I send it to her agent.

So I did.

The agent loved it, sold it, the film rights went right after publication, and now that's what I do, with a family raised, the law practice running smoothly without my full-time presence, and my life mostly all my own.

But, I tell you this because what worked for me might not work for you. If you say your writing "saves" you, then what you're doing is therapeutic and what my agent calls "pushing away the pain to get to the light." That's good. That's very good.

Here is the caveat: do not ever let the notion of writing get in the way of your being out there living a brimming full, event-filled, even overwhelming and exhausting life. That's what makes a writer, and that's what will save you.

In the end, living your life will show you what you want to say as a writer. Until then, you write for yourself, as you said, as you get lost in your life.

I wish you all the best.

[lenidog]

4. I found the place

You might not be interested in posting on such a site but here it is

http://www.fictionpress.com/

At the very least you may find some intresting stories to read.

[pretzel4gore]

7. have you ever published anything?

fact is 'product' (as the philistines call prose poetry nonfiction etc!) is always in demand.....and if you can bend your muse to a specified result, there's probably work enough for anyone with the energy...newspapers have an endless demand for stuff, and with the net, you can sell to any english speaking setting...
remember, many great writers papered their walls with rejection slips (well only one guy actually claimed that, but that doesn't advance my thrust does it...) there are also writers' clubs at yahoo/msn etc

[Nikia]

8. Not professionally

My published work includes a poem and a King Day essay for my hometown newspaper, a short story in a regional high school magazine, and the high school prom poem. I also had written several articles in our short lived high school newspaper, which was disbanded because the principal insisted on censoring everything and taking a long time at it before each edition. I also had written one article for my college newspaper before deciding that I didn't have time for that.
My real passion is fiction writing. I don't mind nonfiction writing though and would enjoy writing for a newspaper or magazine.

[classof56]

10. Some advice from an author:

Recently I read a novel that had been recommended by someone on DU. When I finished, I emailed the author to compliment him on his book, and mentioned I was working on my own, hoping to finish it sometime soon before I exit this earth. He very graciously answered me back, wishing me luck with my book, and said it is a matter of doing it. He told me, "Five pages a day or whatever schedule suits you...figure out an outline, etc., but in the end, it's a matter of doing five pages a day, or one or two."

Hope he doesn't mind me quoting him--such excellent advice from one who's arrived at the place I would love to be. My advice: Join a writer's group if you can, where you can give and receive meaningful feedback from other aspiring writers. And do not be too sensitive about others' comments. Write for yourself, but above all, to share your words with others who will treasure them as much as you do.

Best of luck. You have done well so far. Never let go of your goal and your dreams!

[DavidDvorkin]

11. Yep. Never plan to write.

Just write.