Any writers here?

I haven't done much published writing myself- I've only contributed a little material to a couple of tabletop games here and there, one wargame, one RPG. Most of the rest I do these days are the reviews I do on this forum.

Heh, I don't know how awesome my drive is every day, but thanks. I'll admit I'm feeling like I'm in a little bit of a slump these days, where the words just don't want to come out, but I know the only way to get past it is to slog through and get SOMETHING written down. (And hopefully that SOMETHING doesn't suck....) And then I worry that if I'm writing under duress, then it's going to come out in that writing, and it won't be as good as it can be, and so on and so forth, whine whine whine....

This is why I'd never want to write full time. Ever. Even if my next book explodes in popularity and I acquire a legion of adoring fans, I'll keep my day job, thankyouverymuch.

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I mean, who wouldn't want to be named Gwynllyw?!

If it's got a similar root to Gwenhwyfar, then as a Jennifer, I basically am. Not a huge leap at all!

This topic made me think and I came up with a really neat idea for a short (15-20 pages) sci-fi story. I'll write it and post it here without any real publication ambition but it would still be nice to have some sort of outlet to share.

I remember that during the 1950s (the golden era of space opera and sci-fi), writers could submit their short stories to sci-fi magazines and this was how they were shared to the general public.

Is this still how it's done today?

Aeroprism wrote:

I remember that during the 1950s (the golden era of space opera and sci-fi), writers could submit their short stories to sci-fi magazines and this was how they were shared to the general public.

Is this still how it's done today?

I was actually curious about this myself fairly recently, and this sort of thing does still happen. I know for a fact that Analog is still taking submissions, and there are also at least a few others whose names escape me at the moment.

Yeah, Analog, Asimov's, and Ellery Queen still publish in print, I see them all the time in Barnes and Noble, but are increasing their online profile. Most magazines are now online. A number of the big names have recently shut down or gone online, so the trend is definitely toward digitization. One good thing is that the bigger online zines still pay very well. Tor.com pays 25 cents a word compared to Asimov's 8-10 cents. Of course, a minor miracle is required to get published in any of them.

Also, augmentedfourth, I had actually recently been wondering what the origin of the name Jennifer is, I can't believe I didn't make that connection, ha ha. I like Welsh, but it's been a long time since I looked at it. You have an awesome name, I mean, being cognate or equivalent to Guinevere is kind of cool!

I checked Analog out, looks fun!

I laid down notes for my short story to make sure I don't forget anything. Now I need to crack the whip and start writing.

Aeroprism wrote:

I checked Analog out, looks fun!

I laid down notes for my short story to make sure I don't forget anything. Now I need to crack the whip and start writing.

Its getting started that's the hard part.

Oh, I used to write, mostly fanfictions. I have published a short story in an anthology, and that is that. I used to have many projects, but I have lost interest and I don't feel like going back, at least not for now.

By the way, it reminds me that I need to get the more recent Thea Landen books now that I have a proper place to read (kindle). They are quite good

Moving the writing discussion over here, as promised.

I think we touched on it briefly, but what's your favorite point of view to write in and why? As I mentioned in the other thread, for years I wrote in third-person, but I gradually made the switch to preferring first-person. Not that there aren't great third-person literary works out there, but I do feel like it forms a more intimate connection with the character. When I think back over the books I've read over the past couple years and which ones were my favorites, I noticed that they're overwhelmingly written in first-person.

(That said, there are situations where third-person works better. And some of my favorite books of all time, including #1 on my list, are in third-person, so I'll just sit over here contradicting myself until someone else jumps in....)

I'm decidedly in the first-person camp in my own writing. It comes to me way more naturally, and I find that it makes it easier to play narrative tricks. My favorite writers, Gene Wolfe and Ursula K. Le Guin, often use fist-person narrators, and in my favorite books of theirs this is usually the case. Half of the fun in these stories is the attempt to discern what is true and what is authentic in the narrator. Many people don't like a limited or deceitful narrator because it's difficult, but I like the depth it gives to a novel or short story. I believe that life is layered, that perception is varied, and that literature should reflect this struggle to understand what is real and valuable.

That said, yeah, third person can do a lot of things first person can't. It's a lot easier to narrate information quickly and dispassionately; an omniscient, nameless narrator can explain the entire universe (of course, you can have an omniscient first-person narrator doing this too, but I can't think of any notable examples and it would be kind of weird). Some of my favorite stories are the Norse sagas, and they're told very dispassionately, creating a harsh, stark tone while also very deftly revealing something of the psychology of their characters. This is one reason why I've been forcing myself to use third-person more often.

So yes, augmentedfourth, we seem to have traveled opposite narrative paths!