Are there any other (amateur) writers here?

drothgery wrote:

Michael Everett wrote:The reason for the brackets is that on this site, we have one of the best Sci-fi writers deigning to speak with us lowly mortals.
Yup, the Mad Wizard Weber (aka Runsforcelery) himself.
My query is this.
Are there any other writers here?
I myself tend to dabble mainly in fanfic and have my own page but I have written and posted one original story, although it does rather brutally highlight my literary limitations.

So, are there any others here who have entered the realms of literature (fanfic or other)?
And are they willing to let us see their works (with the risk of laughter)?

I've got lots of unfinished fanfic and a few barely-started original stories, but I did just finish one in our humble host's universe that could probably use some reviews. If anyone wants to take a look, it's here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10209025/1/Bridge-Building

I'll point out a quick critique since I'm working. Don't start with a word like "uninteresting," because it will transmute disinterest to your story. If you are talking about an uninteresting or dull something in your first lines/paragraph, your reader is going to assume your story isn't interesting and move on.

You need to grab your audience somehow. I would also be wary of front-loading too many details into your opening paragraph. Spread it out a bit. I don't need to know what the name of the system, ship, captian, planet, and so on right off the bat. Treat it like a presentation; present it gradually instead of blasting all the details out at once.

I'll give a more in-depth critique once I get off. It's not bad, other than that.

Uroboros wrote:

drothgery wrote:I've got lots of unfinished fanfic and a few barely-started original stories, but I did just finish one in our humble host's universe that could probably use some reviews. If anyone wants to take a look, it's here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10209025/1/Bridge-Building

I'll point out a quick critique since I'm working. Don't start with a word like "uninteresting," because it will transmute disinterest to your story. If you are talking about an uninteresting or dull something in your first lines/paragraph, your reader is going to assume your story isn't interesting and move on.

You need to grab your audience somehow. I would also be wary of front-loading too many details into your opening paragraph. Spread it out a bit. I don't need to know what the name of the system, ship, captian, planet, and so on right off the bat. Treat it like a presentation; present it gradually instead of blasting all the details out at once.

I'll give a more in-depth critique once I get off. It's not bad, other than that.

Yeah, that's definitely a problem; you don't actually meet the people who become the key characters of the story until a few chapters in (largely because they weren't supposed to be, it just grew that way). And when I realized that I'd written the first major battle scene of the story mostly from the viewpoint of someone who never appeared previously, I went back to add at least a little face time for him, but I don't think I did enough there either.

Have a couple of stories on FFN, about 130k words so far, and a oneshot.

Another half million(?) or something words worth of maybe 20 or so stories that are as yet not suitable/ready enough to put on the site.

Which reminds me, i really should get the next chapter out for the crossover fic, it´s mostly done after all...

And are they willing to let us see their works (with the risk of laughter)?

As i´m posting on FFN under my "nice" online name, it´s not something i will give out in public from this name, but if anyone is really interested, i can be persuaded to PM it.

I´m not a great writer however, it´s just that i realised that there´s people who like just about everything, including stories that are written MUCH worse than anything i would ever post. And i go by the thought that putting out ANY story is better than not, even if it´s not great.

No offence to anywhere here who enjoys it, and I do see a little bit of pleasure in it, but I can't really feel any urge to write non-canon material in someone else's universe when I have universe after universe in my own head begging for text space.

petercharters wrote:No offence to anywhere here who enjoys it, and I do see a little bit of pleasure in it, but I can't really feel any urge to write non-canon material in someone else's universe when I have universe after universe in my own head begging for text space.

Well, that's what fictionpress is for.

petercharters wrote:No offence to anywhere here who enjoys it, and I do see a little bit of pleasure in it, but I can't really feel any urge to write non-canon material in someone else's universe when I have universe after universe in my own head begging for text space.

This is where I am on it, so many stories wanting to be written down so little time.

But as long as those others are not trying to profit from someone else's work, I've no grump about it, though I would encourage them to listen to their own inner storyteller and take off into the wild blue otherwhere of their own stories. I've only ever written story in someone else's U once, long ago, for myself only, because I loved a book -not by RFC- that shall remain nameless but loathed the ending. So... in a fit of pique I wrote my own last chapter and stuck it in my copy of the book. heh. Made me feel better and I could let it go then.

There are few things like the joy of having your very own characters begin to speak to you and unfold their tales for you to write. Nothing...well... the births of my kids, falling in love... like that

I had one short story in Baen's Universe. I have a novel on Toni's desk. I finally concluded that Chris Nuttall has it right, and started publishing on Kindle and Smashwords. I guarantee the sales are greater than zero.

well, except for a dozen or so soft-porn stories I wrote when I was a younger (and more-testosterone driven) man , I'm more a reader than a writer.

I had once thought, after retirement, to write the definitive Biography of George H. Thomas, an American Civil War general of great accomplishment and little writing--unfortuately, somebody beat me too it.

I've written "snippets" for missing scenes in the Honorverse, and even posted 1 or 2 years ago but stopped lest the Wrath of Duckk fall uponst me.

My work requires a lot of formal letters and presentations, so I guess writing something that can be used to brief Generals effectively gives me all the writing thrills I need for now.

I stand (well, sit) in awe of the writing skills of people here.

Well, back to work--one letter and a presentation to my upper command today.

I'm probably going to publish a short (chapbook length) collection of poetry as an E-book later this year (likely June) through Kindle Direct Publishing and probably Smashwords (I can't find any publishers willing to do speculative-type poetry chapbooks in print... but I'd probably get more people to see it as an e-book anyway, so...)

I wrote some Harry Potter fanfic a few years ago. Want to write some other stuff one day but life etc.