I find it enormously cathartic and has been a really good vehicle to help my mental wellbeing in the last 18 months or so. Last year I produced a couple of Fanzines for Hendon Football Club that were well received and I also wrote 95% of a third edition which, hasn’t as yet seen the light of day.
At the moment, I’m writing a series of pieces about my travels watching Non-League football this season, about people I’ve met, places I’ve been, clubs I’ve visited and what it is that makes them so special. If I carry on as I have done so far (completed 9 pieces, have 3 part-written and one other to begin) then I’m considering releasing an e-book for anyone who might be minded to purchase and have a gander at. It’s a bit niche, but there are saddos (like me) that might be partially interested.
I’m not particularly gifted at writing, but I thoroughly enjoy it. I really want to write some fiction, short stories, perhaps, but not really sure where to start with that.
Anyway, are you guys writing anything at the moment? If so, what’s on the page at the moment? Fiction? Non-Fiction? Freelance stuff?
Do you find it easy or difficult to write? Do you ever get writer’s block or work on the basis that any old shit on the page is better than none, at least you can edit a load of bollocks a lot easier than you can an empty page.
This morning I wrote a letter to a patent examiner where I used the word “respectfully” too many times in an attempt to hide the fact that i) they’re an idiot and ii) that I’m seething about point i).
I had an idea for a Future Shock (4-page short with a ~twist~ ending) that I was going to write up and submit to 2000AD as they were taking open submissions. I wrote and re-wrote two pages and haven’t gone back to it.
I was really into the idea of developing a sideline in writing about stuff related to my professional field, but because of my job I’m restricted in what I can say publicly on a lot of those areas, and the main one (housing) is so toxic these days I wouldn’t want to go near it anyway.
Probably should get some hobbies that don’t involve playing Civilization.
I write reviews and the odd interview for Echoes & Dust mainly these days. I also have the novel I’m working on but I’ve had one novel or another on the go for the past 15 years and managed to never finish any of them so y’know.
I like to do bits of short fiction but haven’t done any of that in ages. Music has taken over as my main creative outlet for the minute.
I find it difficult to start writing. I’m a believer that getting your ideas down however terribly written is much better than procrastinating and waiting for inspiration to strike but the act of getting going always feels like a herculean task.
I have found contributing on here has improved my writing quite a bit (not my grammar). You can see if what you have written is received how you intended and you have to think about what you write as you will be held to account.
As a result I have gained some confidence in my writing and have written a few letters and bits for work that I wouldn’t normally have.
I very much find this when trying to write something fictional, it’s a lot easier with what I’m doing at the moment since I know how the story is going to start and end. With something fictional, even if I have a landscape of the story in my mind, transferring that to page is so hard - finding the right entry point, working out how to transition and reach the intended end point. I guess a lot of it must just come through practice and not being put off by what ends up on screen being a load of old cock initially.
Good stuff, man. That’s really good that contributing here has given you confidence to branch out with letters and what not.
With letters and emails at work more than any other time I will draft, read, re-draft, re-read etc often four or five times to try and make sure the point I want to make comes across clearly and succicently.
I am supposedly dyslexic ( I am not sure if I believe in it myself) but I definitely think that things like getting your ideas down then worrying about ordering them later helps me, and its not something that was encouraged at school.
Been trying to write a novel for children for a few years now, but dip in and out. Difficult to get the time to devote to just getting a first draft completed without going off the boil and then coming back to it and thinking the whole thing needs changing.
I’ve had a few stories and poems published here and there though - smaller pieces are easier to finish (even if they’re still not easy to write)
I imagine this would be the best way with dyslexia to contend with - spelling and grammar can always be cleaned up afterwards and if you’ve got the essence of what you want to say onto the page you’ve got the clay to mould however you like later. So long as the first draft makes sense to you nothing else matters really.
I rely heavily on spell check and re-reading too.
Its great that you have started a few larger projects, you should just give the fiction a go and see where it takes you - I know there are few websites out there where you can submit short stories and see what advice the wider community give you
I have more success when I give myself permission to be terrible and take the pressure off. But I can’t convince myself that’s ok nearly as often as I’d like.
Writing some short stories now (mentioned it in another thread), really enjoying it but go through productive stages then don’t touch them for yonks. They’re mostly rubbish I think, but I’m enjoying the process and it’s good to flex my creative muscles.
I’m very much the same. I go through stages where words flow out of me readily and others where they’re so difficult to come by. I don’t have a lot of confidence in what I write either, a lot of it is guff, but getting some nice feedback on the fanzines which were both pretty word heavy, has certainly helped with my current project. Also, knowing that I need to get things written so I don’t have a backlog of half a dozen matches to try and write up is helping keep me more disciplined.
I occasionally write reviews for Echoes and Dust, my own music reviews, some random left-wing politics/ecology stuff and the main other thing I’m writing is a sort of rolling commentary on housing which I’m eventually hoping to turn into a zine.
FWIW, I think your writing is pretty good - always been impressed with whatever I’ve read; it’s got a definite sense of personal style to it without being wacky.
I think as with most creative projects, it’s difficult to get a clear sense of perspective on your own work; most people either have an almost sociopathic level of confidence about what they do or struggle to see anything good in it. Usually the truth lies somewhere in the middle
yeah i do music reviews and stuff, ive got the new Doe album outstanding atm but my heads been up my arse with adjusting to anxiety meds, basically finding that:
i think im going to take a couple of months off, usually only do one or two articles a month anyway but im struggling atm so i need a break to get my shit together. maybe trying to write different things would be good for me, maybe i should dig out that screenplay i started to write ten years ago. prob wont but you know
The moment I try anything ‘wacky’ it just comes across as very try-hard and not at all natural. I like to try and entertain as best I can, perhaps the occasional wry observation rather than writing anything that I would want to be LOLsome.
you know