Wow. Ok, well somehow I managed to miss reading this post but now I've come back, spotted it and read it all.
*huggles*
I totally understand. What was fun about elfy -- the mad commenting sprees, the lemming/poppet wars, the GBmen and GB selkies, drunken character parties, etc. all with multiple people involved seem to have peetered out. Added to that, no one really seems to update much any more -- on LJ or elfy.
Over the past few months, all I've been reading is Becca's stuff (Tempest, Song, Sea Fever) and Shanra's stuff (Tides), plus Joelle's 2nd book via email. Maybe that sounds like a lot, but it isn't really. Not that I'm blaming anyone at all for not writing or for not updating. Anyway, that would be mighty hypocritical of me, seeing as I'm one of the worst offenders of the lot. What have I written in the past month? Nothing. In the past three months? Nothing. In the past 5 months? Well, I've started Rowan and started a random challenge and finished neither. I've also got a Shaiel-challenge a waiting that I really can't think of anything to write about.
I am terrible.
Sometimes I wonder if I really should be calling myself a writer at all.
Ok, so I've been thinking about WtF recently. And I think that pretty soon --namely after my exams-- I will probably start back on writing that, starting from near-scratch again. But still, a writer? Me?
Why did I write before? Well, purely for the fun of it. I wrote (and write) purely what comes up as I'm typing. Yeah, I play around with the world at other times, and plan it through a bit, but the plot is mainly just random inspiration hitting at the moment. I love the tingle of something snapping together, something becoming clear. I love having twisty plots (although mine may be rather thin -- but never mind, I am a beginner, I accept that) and, maybe even more than people praising my work directly, I love seeing people keep reading because they care about the characters, or because they really can't see what's coming ahead, or what their past might be, and so they have to read on.
Briefly, minutely, I felt that with WtF. Hopefully, when I start writing it again, I'll feel that again. We shall see.
As for memes, discussions, co-authoring and general messing around. I would love to. I would love to do more challenges -- small things, though, at least for the main of it -- ok, I started real real late on Rowan, but the fact remains that I still haven't finished it.
I think we should use talechasing more -- put up challenges, questionnaires to be filled out by characters, do mini-writing challenges like drabbles and the like, etc. etc.
Theirvoices could be used too -- I'm sure it would be loads of fun (and helpful writing-wise) to really try to get into a character's shoes. And people could do those character interview-things like someone (Shanra?) was thinking about doing a while back.
As for co-writing or muck-about writing worlds that everyone can use. Well, for what it's worth, I've got the very basic beginnings of an angel-based world that people can use if they want. Ok, so technically it was meant to be for a book of mine, but hell, like I'm ever going to even finish WtF any time soon, let alone another book. If you want to know what I've worked out for the world of that (which is very minimal, I must say, so it's very open to people playing around with it if they like) then just ask.
The fact is, elfy isn't fun any more. It's pretty dead really. We don't really post there like we used to, we don't have fun there like we used to. The people who come by my stories (ok, admittedly, I haven't written updated in over a year, so obviously you guys can't be blamed for not reading and commenting since you've DONE IT ALREADY) are random people, almost always people in their early teens who are just starting out writing, and you feel obliged to go back and read and comment. But you're not really doing it for fun. Not really for the reading either -- it's not that good, and more than half the time they don't appreciate or return your constructive crit. YOu just do it cause it's what you do. Which is no fun at all.
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Date: 2006-05-20 03:22 pm (UTC)*huggles*
I totally understand. What was fun about elfy -- the mad commenting sprees, the lemming/poppet wars, the GBmen and GB selkies, drunken character parties, etc. all with multiple people involved seem to have peetered out. Added to that, no one really seems to update much any more -- on LJ or elfy.
Over the past few months, all I've been reading is Becca's stuff (Tempest, Song, Sea Fever) and Shanra's stuff (Tides), plus Joelle's 2nd book via email. Maybe that sounds like a lot, but it isn't really. Not that I'm blaming anyone at all for not writing or for not updating. Anyway, that would be mighty hypocritical of me, seeing as I'm one of the worst offenders of the lot. What have I written in the past month? Nothing. In the past three months? Nothing. In the past 5 months? Well, I've started Rowan and started a random challenge and finished neither. I've also got a Shaiel-challenge a waiting that I really can't think of anything to write about.
I am terrible.
Sometimes I wonder if I really should be calling myself a writer at all.
Ok, so I've been thinking about WtF recently. And I think that pretty soon --namely after my exams-- I will probably start back on writing that, starting from near-scratch again. But still, a writer? Me?
Why did I write before? Well, purely for the fun of it. I wrote (and write) purely what comes up as I'm typing. Yeah, I play around with the world at other times, and plan it through a bit, but the plot is mainly just random inspiration hitting at the moment. I love the tingle of something snapping together, something becoming clear. I love having twisty plots (although mine may be rather thin -- but never mind, I am a beginner, I accept that) and, maybe even more than people praising my work directly, I love seeing people keep reading because they care about the characters, or because they really can't see what's coming ahead, or what their past might be, and so they have to read on.
Briefly, minutely, I felt that with WtF. Hopefully, when I start writing it again, I'll feel that again. We shall see.
As for memes, discussions, co-authoring and general messing around. I would love to. I would love to do more challenges -- small things, though, at least for the main of it -- ok, I started real real late on Rowan, but the fact remains that I still haven't finished it.
I think we should use talechasing more -- put up challenges, questionnaires to be filled out by characters, do mini-writing challenges like drabbles and the like, etc. etc.
Theirvoices could be used too -- I'm sure it would be loads of fun (and helpful writing-wise) to really try to get into a character's shoes. And people could do those character interview-things like someone (Shanra?) was thinking about doing a while back.
As for co-writing or muck-about writing worlds that everyone can use. Well, for what it's worth, I've got the very basic beginnings of an angel-based world that people can use if they want. Ok, so technically it was meant to be for a book of mine, but hell, like I'm ever going to even finish WtF any time soon, let alone another book. If you want to know what I've worked out for the world of that (which is very minimal, I must say, so it's very open to people playing around with it if they like) then just ask.
The fact is, elfy isn't fun any more. It's pretty dead really. We don't really post there like we used to, we don't have fun there like we used to. The people who come by my stories (ok, admittedly, I haven't written updated in over a year, so obviously you guys can't be blamed for not reading and commenting since you've DONE IT ALREADY) are random people, almost always people in their early teens who are just starting out writing, and you feel obliged to go back and read and comment. But you're not really doing it for fun. Not really for the reading either -- it's not that good, and more than half the time they don't appreciate or return your constructive crit. YOu just do it cause it's what you do. Which is no fun at all.