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“Stop scrolling! Are you ready to read the best story you’ve ever read? Great! You can read this piece of shit until you find it. Rape, snuff, MAGA”.

Yep, that’s why I still do it, I enjoy it. It took me dabbling in fanfiction to realize that I do love it, because I had believed my mother’s discouraging words before that (don’t confuse intent with effect here, she still thinks I don’t like writing, because, I’m definitely not showing her what I’ve been writing here!). Of course, now that I’ve got the halloween story into the hands of my beta, I’m starting to work up another story

Only one or two? I thought this place was filled with nutjobs! Myself included.

This is entirely unhelpful, but I was reminded of my college days when I was waiting tables in a bistro. We had a cat (in utter violation of the regs, but the rats were a bigger violation, and the cat kept those away) and she had a habit of wandering into the walk-in refrigerators. The headwaiter posted signs for us: “Don’t lock the cat in the walk-in. Cold pussy doesn’t do anyone any good.”

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ newbie writer here. i’m an artist and will probably lurk more than post, but figured i’d say hi, so... ~ HI!

The power to make vegetarians run away in horror but then on the flip side, you’d mesmerize the meat eaters and that would probably give you mind control powers.

I fell in love with words when I was small. My parents told me I loved to use big words, and I actually can’t remember learning to read. It just happened, I think. The symbols made sense. So, because I love words, I decided to try writing, and I was gods-awful. I mean, really, truly dreadful. But I loved it. Real life kicked into gear, there was work and being an adult, and then… I played a CRPG, and I hated the plot holes. I’d played earlier games in the same ‘verse, loved them, but this one? Craters in the plot. So I started to read fan fiction which tried to fix those holes, and fill in the blanks, and one day, I decided to write a fan fiction of my own. It was dreadful, really, but one reader asked, “What happened next?” and that was it. I still love fan fiction. I do. I always will. I write original works now, but there are those fandoms that will always feel like home for me, and I will never be ashamed of writing fan fiction. There is a distinct art, a skill in taking someone else’s world and asking “What if…?”

I write because its fun. In a weird sorta way. Its like I’m putting symbols together and those symbols enable communication to other minds. Other intelligences with different perspectives and different thoughts. Its frightening and exhilarating. These sigils of mine are communing with others that I may never get to met and if I’m lucky will do so long after I’m gone. So I guess in a sense. When I write I’m praying. I mean hell Grand Inquistion started on here and somehow became a blend of sci-fi and high fantasy with a male couple. The world maybe isn’t ready for such a thing. But ya know what? I’m going to try anyway.

By ‘the odd one or two’ I totally just meant you and me, DP.

I say, we get together, trap this ugly motherless chrak'tova (I am definitely going to start using Straxi in life now, just to get weird looks...) and send it and RL into the sun... Kill it! Kill it with fire!

I should probably reply to this thread when I’m not having one of those ridiculous crises of confidence that strikes every so often… but let’s pretend I’m not. So here goes: I think the two reasons mentioned in the article are a load of claptrap. It might apply to novel writers, but it certainly doesn’t to fanfiction authors, who can’t sell what they write, so therefore the second reason can never apply. As for the first, I don’t think many of us start writing (original or fanfiction) with a fully formed story in our heads. I think it comes to us during the process. Why do I write? Getting down to the nuts and bolts. I love the language. I like words, and I like playing around with them. I’m not educated, so I don’t always know the correct terms, but I know more or less what I’m doing. Also, despite the crisis mentioned above, I suspect I’m actually quite good at it, unlike, say… football. So I write. And I don’t play football. I like writing casually, sure. I also like writing less casually. I like writing where I take my time over word choices and put a lot of effort into building and maintaining a specific atmosphere. The horror story I wrote for JayDee is an example of that. There’s lots of water-based description going on there that happens when I’m describing ordinary things. i.e. her hope bubbled up in her. The S&M story The Hook I adored writing, because of the atmosphere of despair in it. Fanfiction is an art in and of itself. Lots of people who hate fanfiction will disagree with me here, and they’re free to, but I won’t change my mind. Let’s imagine I’m my usual confident self for one moment. I’ve now got years of fanfiction writing experience behind me. I’ve written in a lot of different fandoms. There’s a slightly different art to writing fanfiction for a literary medium, to writing for a visual canon, like a film or tv series. The echoes you need to include are different. At this point, I’m like a master art forger who can knock out a fairly credible da Vinci, but can’t paint for themselves. I’m not less of an artist. I still haven’t found that key that makes the original work sparkle in my head the same way as the fanfiction does, but if I ever do, I probably won’t look back. In that case, the second reason will probably seem to apply. But it won’t be the first why and wherefore. It won’t be the driving force. That is and will always be the need to play about with words, to use them to create a feeling, or an atmosphere, or to say something that can’t really be put into words, only alluded to by way of a story. If we could say these things out loud just like that, we’d never have made stories. Stories grant us power we don’t otherwise have. It’s a good feeling, even if you tend to write rather awful things. Ok… can I go back now? *huddles back under rock*

That Outline: So KYBCLM are out in the snow. All semi naked and shit. There were more of them originally, but giggles cause avalanches. They toss a few snowballs and talk about the innate sexiness of frostbitten labia. Or whatever the point of the specific fetish is. Is that right? A solid six or seven minutes in which their skin begins to take on lovely blue tones. Wind chill’s minus 30 or so. Numbness begins to spread. They stumble inside and get hit with pins and needles as nerve endings start getting blood supply in surrounding tissue. Groans, moans, squeals. The odd detaching extremity. Then, play time. Out comes the Trivial Persuit. Kim wins because she’s like the best. [/Scene]

And… I’m back home! Two CT scans later, after a panic by the doctors where they thought I didn’t have appendicitis, but instead a much more serious inflammation ofthe main artery that supplies blood to my legs (scary), they’ve finally settled on a painful disease that isn’t life threatening (or at least, not yet). I’ve been knocked out with morphine and codeine and shoved full of antibiotics. What a performance. While I was there, I discovered why I never write longhand. I love my computer. Thank you for all your well wishes, everyone. Most appreciated, even if I did have a load of trouble getting online whilst I was there. Normal service shall now be resumed. After a good night’s kip. And a decent cup of coffee. And a couple of days rest, probably. And a shower to get this horrible hospital smell off of me.

Do I get brownie points for not plunging a fountain pen through someone’s carotid artery at a budget committee meeting?

Yeah, summaries are tricky things. Ideally, you’d know the audience well where you’re posting or publishing. Or at least have an idea of the general demographic you want reading your story so you can play to them. Like, posting on an erotica site, you probably want to stress the erotica side of your story. But in general, as @Tcr (and @BronxWench?) said, make sure the summary describes something you want to read. Don’t focus on telling the passersby everything you think is important about the plot or the characters. They don’t need to know everything. They just need to know whether they wanna bother clicking on it. Pick out the most interesting points to draw them in. Touch on the romance (If there is any) and the main character’s conflict. I say the main character’s conflict rather than the main conflict of the plot because I tend to be attracted to summaries that are more personal. More character focused. What the elven warrior is struggling with will draw me in quicker than a world in peril, if that makes any sense. That’s how I try to think about it, but it’s by no means a one-size-fits-all thing.

Well, I have the same problem with regards to my own, so I do understand. Not going to lie, even with the advice from the thread I started a while back, it’s still a hard thing for me to do. But, some of the advice has helped. I’ve been working on trying to pick out important parts from the actual story and develop them into a workable summary. For example, if your story is about intergalactic space pirates who raid the wrong colony and are consequently hunted because of it, it could, for example, read something like: One wrong decision. A raid on the wrong colony leads to the crew of the Fortune in possession of a weapon of mass destruction. Capable of destroying any planet in the known universe, Captain Shey Charlton must resist the urge to play God while the Fortune has to outrun the entire might of a galaxy united, hunting them to the ends of the universe and back to reclaim it. But each side of the allied forces have their own dark plans. And the only ones in their paths are the unscrupulous raiders. (...Damn, now I have another plot in my head that won’t go away… lol) I believe it was BW who said that the summary should interest you and make you want to read it as you, yourself, are the one you need to sell it first (paraphrasing of course... And if I messed up the paraphrasing, that’s on me).

Found an article on one of the writing pages I follow where the writer explores the two reasons people write a novel, and I was like, “WTF?! Only two?!” Apparently, we fall into two categories. 1: We feel we have a good story to tell, and 2: we feel we have a good story to sell. I may be simplifying the point of their article a little, but I wanted to bring the discussion here. For me, it’s neither of the two options. I don’t always feel like I have a story to tell. Sometimes I just have characters or events in my head and a story forms as I’m writing. Sometimes I don’t even have that much, but I just need to write because the options I have to read just aren’t satisfying a specific need or craving. So, as the title of this thread asks, why do you write?

Might be a little late... Sounds like my usual, but… Star Trek kind of started it for me. I started originals and loved the process and creativity in school and used that to get out of the bad situation. They were mostly vicious shorts, blood she'd and violence galore... (Has anything really changed?... ...) Then I started writing in the Star Trek universe for a little, expanded outward from shorts into novels... Which in turn became originals again... (A full circle, weird and crazy, but yeah...) Sci Fi has always been a part of my writing, I've just expanded out… And I ramble on...

I find AFF forums/chat to be a good repellent to those demons. I’ve tried loads of garlic, but that just offends the co-workers.

That demon is an asshole. It’s never been a problem to me, but I can be a bit on the arrogant side when it comes to feeling entitled to do things that make me happy. But I see it a lot in the people who are close to me. We gotta slay that bitch. To me, even if someone aims to sell their books, if the passion and love for words is there, they will never seem to be writing purely for the money. And I can honestly say that not a single person on AFF seems motivate purely by money… Maybe the odd one or two motivated purely by their genitals, but there’s nothing wrong with that either!

You are so excellent at it! You’re one of only fanfic writers I love because even when I’m not familiar with the show or book you’re writing about, I can still enjoy your stories. You make it feel like it’s not just an offshoot of something else because you make it your own and are so damn good at it. And football sucks anyway.

It's fun and inexpensive (compared to one of my other hobbies where it's easy to burn through/ruin thousands of dollars in seconds)

I agree 100%. I have a hard time believing writers write just to sell books. I mean, of course a lot of writers want to make money off something they put so much work into. That’s just natural. But for most of us, I think there’s more than just the possibility of monetary rewards that inspires us to put pen to paper that very first time.

When I started writing it was because I had a story to tell, I had no idea it would be one that would sell. Now, I write because I can, because I like to, because it’s the one thing I can do that’s just for me, because Tahn likes my stories even if no one else does, because there are still stories to be told, and lastly and least important to me right now, because my publisher wants another book. I think there are as many reasons for people to write as there are people who write. No one has the exact same motivations or things that drive them to put words on paper and saying there are only two is being very narrow minded about it.

Firstly, in my quite possibly not so humble opinion... Two reasons are a little bit of... Well, Ian Malcolm said it best: That's one big pile of shit. To lump people together greatly cuts out others... At least I think so... I fall into neither category, too. I had a pretty bad childhood, so the writing allowed me to escape elsewhere and live in wondrous worlds of crazy, bizarre things away from reality. As time progressed, I just liked to write, never showed anyone, never wanted to. It wasn’t a "tale to tell/tale to sell", it was just something I did. Now, it's a relief and definitely stress reduction technique... But it's still mainly because I enjoy it… Do I want to be published? One day, certainly... I'd love to see my name at the bookstore... And walk around anonymously... Because I'd like to point out things... And slap people upside the head...

Yes. Truly a test of skill to see which Bob is capable of Bobbing for apples the best. Usually around Boboween. Or All Bob’s eve.Many casualties can result as many Bobs try to out bob one another. Same for Bobmas. Santa Bob typically unleashes Krampus Bob on foolish Bobs bobsledding around this time. Survivors get gifts. -Other Bob

Just my humble opinion, but having the characters put on hats, gloves and scarves to begin leads the reader to expect play that’s a little rougher than your scene needs if the erotic content is going to work… that’s where you’re going to run into trouble. Ditch the accessories. By using them, you create a peculiar mental image, and call attention to the parts of the characters that aren’t covered up, and that makes the reader feel the cold. You want the play to be very light. You want the snow to be extremely light. You want the the Oh, but that’s cold! to be a perfect counterpoint to Oh, but you’re warm! That’s how this scene would work. I’ve written it before, more than once. And I’ll write it again, because… Ahhh… they’re going to end up in the snow. Poor buggers. Even the wildling is going to hate it by the end. I am so evil. *shakes head at self*

I can only speak to my own experience, which was being published via a small press with a targeted readership (LGBTQ). The original owners of the press are tremendous people, authors themselves, and I absolutely adore them. They sold the press, though, and the new owners were not as dedicated to readers or authors. The press is gone now, and I’m the process of having my stories republished with another press. I have never self-published, so I’ll let those with more experience speak to that, but I can tell you why I went the small press route. First, identify the publishers in your genre. Don’t pitch a slash romance to a het-oriented publisher. Keep in mind most publishers won’t touch pedophilia, incest, rape for titillation, necrophilia, bestiality, or stories that discriminate against a particular group. Some won’t want graphic sex. Most want happy-ever-after or happy-for-now endings. One of the keys to being successfully published is a polished, edited, proofread manuscript. One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking they can self-edit, or that their dear friend who beta-reads their fan fiction is going to make a terrific editor. What you need is a professional editor, especially when you’re new to publishing, and it can get expensive out of pocket. A good editor makes sure you don’t leave loose ends, that your chronology makes sense, and characters don’t change names mid-scene. Same thing with the proofreader, who looks for the technical stuff like punctuation, verb tense agreement, and all that good grammar stuff. They aren’t as expensive as editors only because they don’t spend as much time with your manuscript. There’s cover art, and the ISBN numbers, which aren’t very expensive if you buy them in bulk, but most of us aren’t going to purchase them that way. Ten ISBNs can cost $125, and you need a separate ISBN for ebook and paperback editions. Many publishers will send books out for review, and maintain relationships with review sites and blogs for their genre, and some even take out banner ads. But most small presses expect you to help market your book actively. Publishers provide those services for you, and in return, they keep a portion of the royalties from each sale. Given that the publisher’s just spent good money on the gamble my book will sell and return their investment, I’m very happy to share royalties, and tweet my ass off, blog, and even buy a banner ad myself. Just read your contract carefully, and don’t be afraid to ask about anything that isn’t clear to you. Are you contracting for ebook rights only, or print rights? For how long with the contract run? Most are two to three years. Make sure you understand how to have your rights revert to you, if necessary. Investigate how royalties are paid, and how often. Third party sellers pay the publisher, who pays you, and that means those monies lag compared to a direct publisher website sale. How often do you get royalty reports? How are you paid: by check or Paypal or other means? Get in touch with other authors who publish with that small press, and ask how they like the publisher.

And I now have a completed rough draft to my Halloween story! Yippee!

Don’t be afraid to mix up the stages too… nobody reacts quite the same to similar situations, How the character reacts can define them.

I love October! Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime have the best scary movies in October. I have been watching them all day!

So, the answer to avoid a multi-chapter halloween fic is to add in a well placed flashback. Seems to do the trick, summarizing the mood (with a nice bonus of not having to add in the minor1 tag).

Happy dasseshra everyone. May good always prosper over bad. May all our wishes come true. Wish

I’m in…? Yeah, I think it’s a go… Instead of wiping out everyone, I’ll be a little more light hearted this Trick O’ Treat season: a good ol’ fashioned Halloween party! Wait… that’s how it started out the last time… didn’t it…? >.>

“Rigg’s and Mortis Discount Mortuary”.

My characters better not if they know what’s good for them.

awww thanks guys, I really mean that. So other than it being wet rainy and cold, , its good to be home LOL. Have started writing again but slowly, amazing how hard it is to get back in the groove when you stop for a few months. Oh well, not like we’re in a hurry right so just wanna give a shout out to anyone in Texas or Florida, keeping you in our thoughts and hoping everything turns out well. I rode Katrina out so I know how horrible it is, not just the storm but putting the pieces together afterwards. Stay strong, you may no believe it, but it will get better.

I always have a good story to tell and in doing so I am gratified with my own creation of a narrative that maybe one or two others will also partake in.

Well, confidence matters to me because I think a lot of people already have decent summaries that successfully communicate to the reader what their story is about, but their self-doubt gets in the way. Or ‘successfully communicates’ isn’t good enough, they want their summaries to be awesome, to whet the readers’ appetites. Which is a totally legit desire. So that doubt becomes the problem a lot of the time more than the summary itself is. Or the ambition to get better gives them/us the motivation to learn more about techniques or learn more about their readers.

Just got my digest and I don’t think this can be a binary for love or money question. Nor are these mutually exclusive goals. I’ve written up story ideas I hoped would be marketable, but I sincerely doubt I could write an assigned story. My muse rarely takes requests, and less often orders. One of my worst trainwrecks of a NaNo was trying to write a mainstream mystery. I had setting and a trace of plot, but these carefully planned characters were flopping like dead fish. I didn’t care about them or the story, but I was hoping to write something sell-able. Bad, bad writer. If there were only two reasons, it would be a sliding scale. The reason slides from end to end depending on finances and story involved. So different days and different works might move the marker up and down that bar. I think Bujold’s Spirit Ring was much of the way is it is because business reasons were choking her muse. It’s okay, but far below her other books. Paladin of Souls has similar themes, but love of writing dominated. Actually, I’m sure there are many more reasons. Some stories, my conclusion is clear from first inspiration. My one active looks to take at least a dozen chapters to get to the climax that got me started. My first long form, I had the characters set, but I didn’t know where it would end for them personally. But most of the time I know the ending crisis I’m aiming at. I like words, wordplay, and puns, but spent a very long time as only a avid and greedy consumer and sometime con writers’ groupie; I only started writing at about 42. I want all my brain cells working so I can write, so I avoid the pigskin. That communication is probably the best thing. My favorite comments are when readers manage to express that they got that I was expressing. The most frustrating when it is clear they haven’t comprehended, like when they request a canon death not happen three chapters after it did… (critics can be amusing or I revise if I wasn’t clear.) The grammar I hated as a kid is so necessary to send those images and feelings into my story. Yeah. Choosing the best word was always important to me. I don’t remember family comments, but I saw comments from elementary report cards where the teachers were alarmed by my 35-year old vocab. I was too busy reading to realize they were upset. This comes to a third reason for writing: frustration at bad writing. It doesn’t really matter why to my muse, but when characters or plot jump the shark in a broad and profound way, my muse jumps up and down shouting, ‘I can do better than this!!!’ It has to be a character and setting that I care about. A lot of shows, movies, and games have disappointing turns. But it takes a special level of meta-writing that breaks with common sense to put my foot into the door for a new fandom. (and break said door) There’s more supporting reasons: accomplishment in finishing a story, challenges/competitiveness, an idea that won’t go away, and others I will remember later when I fall asleep… So the slider bar becomes a spider web with the writer moving between different drives. I would like to shift a little closer to monetary, but originals demand more uninterrupted work time than I’ve had. I can manage fanfic and sometimes original shorts but not the original novels.

lol definitely not alone. I’m sure there are writers out there who are 100% confident in their summary skills, but I have yet to meet one.

Ha! You know as well as I do their answer to everything is codeine. That’s not happening. I’ll concede to paracetamol... when absolutely necessary. I don’t want people breaking into my house for the street value of my medicine cabinet. Sod that. At least they sent me away with some more heavy duty antibiotics after all the IV ones. So that should finish the attack off for now, and for a while with any luck.

I tend not be as prolific with longhand on paper. Heck, might not even write like I do if I had to suffer. Paper, though, is okay at work when I need to quickly jot an idea down (and don’t, for obvious reasons, want to use my work computer). Well, welcome back from that doctor induced panic disorder

Just posted my first thread. [ ✪ Artist looking for Writers ] Please consider giving it a peek. Thanks! (◕ω◕人) ⋆’✧

I ship Bob 69 with Bob 89 =p Bobageddon happened. The day everyone became Bob or perhaps catastrophic devastation as a result of every non-Bob simultaneously exiting reality. Only Bob Prime remembers the Pre Bob times. Perhaps it was both. The Bob world is too different from the world it was. With the Bobwars finally coming to a close as the Bob Hegemony and the Bob Sovereignty destroyed perhaps the Confederacy of Bob will have a chance at peace. Even as the alliance of independent kingdoms of Bob struggles to reclaim what was lost. I shall do my best to chronicle the events of Post Bobageddon. On my sacred honor yours dutifully-Bob the 3rd

"Hi, Bob." "Hey, Bob?" "How's it going, Bob?" "Not bad, Bob. How's the wife, Bob?" "Bob's not doing too bad, Bob. How's the kids?" "Oh, sorry, Bob. I thought you were talking to Bob. Has anyone noticed the high number of Bob's working here?"

What is the antagonist for? What genre is the story in? How complex is the main protagonist? What are the interactions between protagonist and antagonist? Are they friendly and jovial? Or are they die hard someone is going to die the moment one of them sees each other? Sometimes the story just needs a complete monster. And sometimes the whys are much more interesting than the antagonist themselves. The most interesting questions come to mind if the main character is the villain of the story.

Add in the “me too” there, hope it turns out to be nothing to worry about.

Hello, Hide_My_Sins As a moderator of the archive, when I saw this post I had to respond. I’m so sorry that these reviews have been left for you. After reading your post, I did go to check them out, and see if I could identify the user at all. I’m sure the lead moderator will have something to say too, but we take a very dim view of flame reviewers here. As long as a stories’ tags are correct, this archive is against censorship of any kind. That includes those who leave flame reviews, since often the aim of them is to stifle the free creativity of others. If you want those reviews removing from your stories, we can help you with that. You can also turn off anonymous reviews in your preferences, which would force this person to log in, and therefore stop them from hiding behind anonymity. Lastly, I hope that this experience won’t put you off, and that we’ll continue to see you making use of AFF and the archive for a long time to come. That’s what we are here for. We are all of us, together, a community, though we all write different things for lots of different reasons. When you joined us, you became part of that, and you are as important as any other member here. As I say if you need any help or guidance, just let us know.