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Young Writers Society


A study of writing, or more accurately, writers.



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370 Reviews



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Reviews: 370
Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:08 am
empressoftheuniverse says...



Reason for writing:
Selfishness and mind control. You ever read a book where you felt so swayed by the characters' philosophies you actually woke up the next morning and changed, maybe very slightly, maybe not?
I want my stories to move people like that, someday. I want people to read my work and go "Huh. I never thought of the world from a sociopath's perspective. How enlightening."
Rate Of Conception
I try to write once a week; usually a fifteen hundred to two thousand words. Lame, I know, but you got to start somewhere, right? on a good week I can pound out more, but I'm new to this game. I don't want to rush anything.
Inspiration
Inspiration comes from everything; but I receive the best ones in the forms of either a) a premise for a short story or b) the climax of a novel novella.
I've never tried to write out the whole novel/novella; I just write the climax and file it away. Hopefully that will end this November.
Method
I try to mix it up: short stories are organic; longer pieces are written with an outline; usually backwards; sometimes I start at a point of tension and work outward; other days I have a tragic ending that I need to build to.
A little bit of everything makes the writing process a lot of fun.
Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart.
*Le Bible
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374 Reviews



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Reviews: 374
Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:06 am
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tgirly says...



I'm an INF sometimes J, sometimes P myself.
I write because I can't remember ever NOT wanting to write.
Rate: It depends. Sometimes it's really fast and sometimes, I just think about what I've already thought of but haven't written down over and over again.
Inspiration: Usually it starts with a scene or a setting that I come up with and think is worthy of a story. Then it evolves from there. In the novel I'm writing right now, the scene that started it all isn't even going to make it into the novel. Ever.
Method: It depends. Novels: I write (when I do get around to writing my novels down, which isn't that often) from beginning to end. If I'm having writer's block, I'll write a short story or poem and then get back to the novel. Novel's are my passion, but the short stories and poems are nice too.
Hope this helps. :)
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
  





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11 Reviews



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Points: 1541
Reviews: 11
Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:35 am
Jelen says...



Reason for writing:
To understand. To me there has always been a certain unpredictability about life: little things are always slipping through my fingers. But writing them down lets me color my world a little better. Through my writing I can watch someone's eyes flash sideways and put the puzzle together. Too often in the real world I am left feeling cheated and confused.

Rate Of Conception
I write sporadically. It either comes or it doesn't, and more often it doesn't. I write when I need to, and stop when I don't.

Inspiration
I am not often inspired to write, and when I am there is no apparent source of it. Instead, it builds over time. Little bits here and there as I am going about my life until I have so much energy that I have to put it somewhere. I think that's why I write--seriously--so rarely. I have to wait for the breaking point, or I don't have any momentum.

Method
Bits and pieces. I have a hundred disassembled stories waiting to go to the glue factory. It's the ideas that I love: the execution is secondary to the development of the concept.
Данијела (Dani)
  





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Fri Jul 29, 2011 11:55 pm
Carlito says...



For me, it kind of varies from story to story and idea to idea.

Reason for writing:
My current novel, Purple is a romance roughly based on real events and real people (or more specifically my first relationship). This relationship didn't work out and it's been extremely difficult writing about all of these memories and this character that's based on someone I used to be madly in love with. So why force myself to do it?

I think it's because I don't want to forget about it. The idea came to me while we were still together. I started writing it then because it was fun and nice looking back on all of the memories with this guy. I took a break and finished it after we broke up which has been really hard. I think after a point, I was writing it just prove to myself that I can. I can power through the memories and turn this era of my life into something really amazing and long-lasting.

For other large projects I've worked on, I mainly want the satisfaction of getting all of these ideas that have been swarming around in my head, out. I want to write about these amazing characters that I've been living with for years. I want other people to know them too. I want to create something amazing and give people the same amazing connection to my work as I have with other people's books. I can't do that if I don't write anything.


Rate Of Conception
With Purple, it all happened pretty fast. I got the idea last summer and started writing it then. I wrote about three chapters over the span of three or four months (there are only seven chapters total) and then took a break and worked on other things. When I came home for the summer in May, I read over what I'd done and decided I'm going to finish it so I wrote the remaining four chapters in a month. I forced myself to write something every single day.

For one of my other large projects, Alana: The Life of a Martial Arts Master, I originally got the idea in 8th grade. I'm about to be a sophomore in college and I have yet to finish a draft. I sat with the idea for a long time and really tried to understand my characters well and understand the plot and world and where I'm trying to go with this. I'm still kind of figuring that out. I'm about halfway through writing the first draft, but now I've come to realize it should probably be in third person, not first. It's going to become my project this year and I vow to finish it.

I think for me, Purple came so quickly because it's something I know. It's based on real people and real events so I didn't have to take the time to really get to know my characters or figure out the plot, it's already been done for me. With Alana, I created a sport and world of sorts within this sport. Alana and the people she's around are unlike anyone I know. What happens in the book is unlike anything I'm used to so I need to think about it a lot.


Inspiration
This is always a little tough for me to figure out. What inspired Purple is pretty obvious, it's this amazing, first great love I had and all of my friends and everyone in my life. They inspired all of the characters and made all of the memories. For other projects I'm really not sure. An idea just comes to me, I think about it for a while and then go with it.

I suppose I can say I'm inspired by my own dreams. I would really love to publish a novel and have fans, the whole nine yards. If I don't write anything, that obviously can't happen so I need to write something and it needs to be good.


Method
A character or two usually come first and I think about them for a long time until I feel like I know them and stuff starts happening to them. Then I have my idea for a story. After the idea comes to me, I usually think about it for a while. With Alana, it's been years. With Purple, it was a couple of months. But in any case, I think about it for a period of time. After a point, a spark will come. It's usually scene or an opening line or something like that and I have to write it out at that very moment. Then I just go with it.

I can't write by hand, I always type. I'm not an outline person. I have a rough idea of what I want to do in my head and sometimes I'll write out what I think a good progression of scenes will be as I'm writing so I don't forget, but I usually just go with it. I also generally write from beginning to end. Sometimes if a scene that's going to be later in the book comes to me all write it out and save it in another place and then add it to the rest of the story later.

This summer I've been writing every day and I'm going to try to keep that going once school starts but I feel like it probably won't happen. :)

-Carly
It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

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6 Reviews



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Thu Aug 04, 2011 4:52 pm
Balaczter says...



Reason for writing:
Because I love my characters. And I want to find out more about them; what they're like, how they react in situations, what they do, how they speak with other people, etc. Writing is the best way to do that. Alas, this brings a problem of my hopelessness and upset at killing of characters. D: I really hate doing it, even though I know their time has come.
Also because, of course, I want to get published. Writing and creating is what I love most, and if I can get money from doing that, why not? I want to share my stories with the world, and maybe even get a fanbase. But that's way far ahead. xD

Method of writing:
Usually, when I get an idea, I just bash my keyboard until it's all out, leave it for maybe half and hour, then re-read and edit mistakes. Then I come back the next day, do the same, then write a little further. After maybe two days I go into serious depression, thinking, 'What the heck was I thinking there, how the hell am I going to advance the plot further, why did he do that,' and so on. But it's mainly trying to get it all out and push through until the end of the novel. Sometimes I get inspired to write a certain scene, so I go off and do that, then string it into the chapters at the right time.

Inspiration:
Music. Music music music music. Music is my love.
Apart from that, Skulduggery Pleasant has heavily influenced me. It gave me the idea that, no, magic doesn't always have to take place in fantasy lands. What if it came to our streets, except hidden and out of sight? And loads of other books, I guess.
Mainly it's just looking around and imagining characters doing stuff that mainly inspires me. Going to various horse shows inspired me into making one of my characters a horse rider, Assassin's Creed added some Renaissance flair into some of the cities in my world, stuff like that.

Rate of conception:
I go walking a lot, and ideas pop into my head sometimes. But usually it takes a long time for me to come up with ideas, and it's a very long and painful process to get them out of my mind and onto paper. Or a Word document. I haven't had a plot device or, well, any ideas crop up for about two months now. And it's killing me, slowly but surely. ;___;
There is no signature. This is your imagination.
  





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180 Reviews



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Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:50 pm
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Cspr says...



Reason for writing:

I want the world to love my characters as much as I do? I don't know. I suppose I just love writing and would love to be published, remembered. Of course, how long does an author's memory last? I don't know--and I know I'm not Dickens or Austen. I'm definitely not Socrates or Plato. I don't know. I suppose I'm selfish, too. I just crave it. I need an outlet for my crazy emotions and voices in my head and writing works pretty well. -nods-

Method of writing:

I'm a lazy bum. I write everything up on the computer, generally. I tend to write out some basic character sketches, maybe draw out a map or a few of the characters, and stew on plot lines a little--then dive right in. Sometimes I'm writing from nothing at all--just putting words onto a screen, or onto paper (rarely). Otherwise, I tend to edge towards speculative and third person, though I've been testing the waters of first person (and vaguely hating it).

Inspiration:

Hm. My inspiration tends to come from random stuff. I doodle a map, or doodle a character, and suddenly it's like someone hit me over the head with a shovel and Ideaville. Otherwise, I find watching well-thought out television shows and reading books keeps my brain sharp. The more I read, the more I tend to write.

I've also found being outside and being alone helps me be inspired. My brain in Alpha State is an amazing machine, too.

Rate of conception:

Depending on what is going on in my life, I can pretty much write ten chapters of a novel in two weeks. Of course, the characters have to be good, engaging, and I have to have plenty of good ideas--but it is possible! Otherwise, I tend to sit and stew a lot, mind running over old plot threads again and again, flitting to old characters, settings, and flash images, and then BANG, Ideaville. I then write like a maniac and rarely plot. I'm trying to get better at plotting.
My SPD senses are tingling.
  








fun fact i hear my evil twin once wrote a story about a hacker who used the name fyshi33k bc there are 33k-ish species of fish and she liked phishing so fyshi-33k made sense but then she got super embarrassed when someone forced her to explain
— VyperShadow