Just wondering - we have a lot of creative souls around here - has anyone ever tried writing a book?

If so, how far did you get? What genre was it?

If you've ever thought of writing a book - what kind would you write?

I am considering resurrecting a story I started a couple years ago. I seem to be getting pushed by people around me to continue writing it and I'm starting to feel that maybe I should.

I had a good 100 pages written of this story. My creative hangup is always with names. I've even thought about entertaining names for my book (or line of books) from people here much like you did with your script(s). I pretty much have a last name, just need to feel comfortable with some first names.

The genre was sci-fi/adventure. I don't wish to go into it any more as I don't need my ideas populating.

Anyway, I'm still pondering whether to continue what I have, start over or even start writing again period. I would rather be writing scripts for movies, video games or TV though, but maybe I need to start small and get published and see where that takes me.

Yes.

Finished the book. Working on publishing.

Info at my web site, if anyone is really interested.

First; names should never slow you down. Jut put in Joe, Moe, etc, until you're done, then go back and figure out good names. This is an excuse that your inner demon is using to keep you from writing.

Second; talking about ideas is one of the best things for stirring creative juices. The fear of people stealing other people's ideas is like most fears - pointless. I understand maybe you don't want to post an entire storyline here on a public forum, but don't let that "fear of theft" thing keep you from bouncing stuff off folks.

Every writer in this town has a story about being ripped off (including me). But, as the great Robert Benton said, "If that's the only idea you can come up with, you have no business wanting to be a writer."

Third; Write what you want to write. Don't try to figure out what would be best for you career-wise or business-wise. You want to write video games? Write them. You want to write screenplays, write them. Oh... you want to get paid first? Nope, doesn't work that way.

As an artist, you will never be able to create anything worthwhile as long as you have the "market" or "biz" or "what's best for me right now" caRp in your mind.

<small>Empty your cup so it may be filled. Bruce Lee. Or Dr. Phil?</small>

Not slowing me down. I was just saying that is the one part of my creativity that is not so good. I dropped the book years ago because I was bored with writing a book. Nothing keeps me from writing, I do it today (I'm a reviewer here and at a video game site). I have no problem writing things for those two sites and even enjoy doing it.

Do I want to start writing or continue writing a book now? I guess I'll have to see.

I don't need to bounce stuff off folks. I understand the concept, but I do not see any need for it. As it stands now there is nothing to bounce off of folks. I still haven't decided whether to even start writing a major thing, whether it be book/screenplay/video game again.

I have multiple ideas. There are more ideas floating in my head than only this sci-fi/adventure story. There are always ideas floating in my head, it is just a matter of grabbing onto one and wanting to write it down and continue to write it.

One idea my friend and I had years ago was not "ripped off" persay, but it was kind of funny when a video game came out that had many parallels to what we were thinking about. We never shared the idea or anything and we thought it was pretty funny when a game came out that was a lot like it.

Currently I am writing what I want to write at no pay (except free DVDs from time to time) for this site and am reviewing games for another site that has no free review system yet (i.e. I pay for the games I review). Would it be great if someone saw my writing and liked it? Sure. Do I think it will happen? Probably not. However I am enjoying what I am doing and that is the important thing.

Will I write the other things? Who knows. Maybe I'll write a game storyboard or a screenplay to start off with. Maybe I won't do a thing and stay with what I'm currently doing with my job and the reviews I do. That's up to me and me alone.

oh.

That's all the reply you could give back? I'm disappointed

I've started at least 4 books - short stories and never completed them.

I now have little time to read, so I've resorted to books on CD.

I would like to start again in the near future as I have quite a few good ideas.

I started one a long time ago. I had a long multiple-book plot line detailed out, character histories/tendencies, details on various governments, religious factions, countries, etc. I also had various parts written, instead of writing linearly. Then...I discovered that L.E. Modesitt used the same pretext as background for his Recluce series! I suppose a lot of ideas I had were still good for other story lines, but a lot of what I wanted to do was based on the same idea. Plus, his writing is much better than mine.

nope

One Star Trek based book (not completed) and one collection of short horror stories (not published).

First post in the Book Forum... this thread looked too interesting to pass up.

Ever since I was a child, I wanted to write . I had numerous ideas, almost one a day. The problem was, I would quickly get bored with one idea for a story, and quickly move onto another - the thrill of imagining the vague outlines of some new and exciting plot was more appealing than the drudgery of fleshing out some other work that now seemed banal compared to their newer brethren. I had mystery, sci-fi, and horror novels - well, the first couple chapters of them, at least. In fact, the longest complete work I was able to complete was a 6000 word historical short story for class (if anyone's interested, you can read it here - it's pretty bad, but I wouldn't mind constructive criticism )

However, slowly, I've been getting better at it. My moving on to a more concrete goal of being a scriptwriter/director has helped me to build a focus on a singular project and hammer away at it until it is done, to anchor myself and perform the work necessary to finish it. I've finished three short films, and am working on a fourth. Thought it might be putting too much on my plate, I'm also working on a play set during World War II (I like to think of it as Pulp Fiction at Normandy) and hopefully can get it produced locally. And I've got my book with 12 to 14 viable feature film ideas... I'll eventually get around to those.

I write all the time. I have that annoying habit of carrying around a note pad and pencil. It's gotten worse since having kids. Now I carry paper and colored pencils or crayons as a tool to keep the kids occupied at local eating establishments. And my writing method has changed as well. I use to laboriously agonize over finding the perfect combination of words but now I do a Kerouac kind of stream-of-conciousness brain dump thing. This does create some problems because when you write such a large amount most of it is utter crap. I think I found a work-around. I bought a large bucket of sidewalk chalk and now I subject the residents of this fair city to my lunatic rants without having to print up a 'zine filled with childish scrawls. This has also helped me circumvent the usual distribution channels in publishing. I did try to write a book once using only spray paint. It took forever to dry and I kept getting lightheaded.

I got pretty far into one in college (about 190 pages, single space, 10 font), working title The Green Eyed Monster. I fell out of the habit of writing senior year when I started looking for a job, figuring out where to live, etc. etc. That was two years ago. I pulled it out and reread it with the intent of finishing it a couple months back, only to discover it was utter crap. It kind of threw me for a loop because I had convinced myself that it was pretty good. Since then, I've been sifting through all my old story ideas and trying to find one good enough for me to commit myself to doing it. On a slightly unrelated note, I happened to catch Frailty in the theater two nights ago and it was remarkably similar to an idea I'd put down on a couple pages 3 or 4 years ago. The main character I had was the same as Bill Paxton's, but instead of the two sons, God showed him a guy in his late teens that he was supposed to pass his mission off to. Only 2 or 3 friends ever saw my little write-up, so I'm obviously not trying to make any claim to the story. It's just funny how you can think you've come up with something pretty original and chances are, somewhere, someone else has thought up nearly the same exact thing.