Slap bang at square one..and wide eyed with it

[Fitzchiv]

Wow. What a comprehensive group of responses, I'm genuinely shocked and delighted with that! This is the third or fourth forum I dipped into to try and get a bit of guidance - the search stops.

My plan that had been forming over the last month or so really was as follows;

Buy and read as many writing books as possible.
Likewise with fanstasy reference books, and a few historical books to aid with building enviroments in my own minds eye.
I mentioned I had a premise, I also have what I feel are the bare bones of the higher forces at play in a much wider tale. I am, of course, hugely vague about this though.

I am far clearer on who and what I want my central character to be - so I thought perhaps the best course of action would be to write a short story based on a single night-in-the-life of said character. The appeal is it gives me the opportunity to play around with dialogue and how he may move, think and speak - but also I can see how I feel about how that 12 hour scenario feels in the city/world/tale I think could well be forming.

Much reading to do before then, though! and more scribbling in my notepad - unbelievably on sunday morning I actually did wake up, roll over and write in my pad - the dream I'd just woken from introduced a pretty good idea for part of a story! What was odder was when I went back to sleep i carried on with that dream, woke later and wrote that bit down too! Every little helps.

I shall dip in and out of the forum quite a bit over the coming weeks, and maybe, one day, put up that first piece of work for Ultimate Judgement ;-)

Thanks again all

 

[Fitzchiv]

you're in Nottingham, I note: good place to start. Other Worlds 2 happens at the central library in less than 2 weeks (check here for details: http://altfiction.co.uk/the-programme ). get out and about; find like-minded people. There are two relatively local writing groups that i know of, one in Derby (derby scribes; here) and the Sheffield SFF Group (yeah, um, wait, i know this one....ah, we need a site update i think....). I'm not clued up on Nottingham, but i'll bet that if you go check out Other Worlds any local chappies will be present somewhere...

And i work shifts at Meadowhall. not nice. i write in my lunch-hour. it can be done.

good luck!

I wanted to thank you individually for bringing my attention to Other Worlds 2 - it would have completely passed me by and poses a really good opportunity to sit quietly at the back and just get used to the people and atmosphere. I am extremely quiet when meeting people face to face, and physically cringe from 'group interaction' type stuff at work or socially, but I think this is a pill I will at least try and swallow down with some sugar (Abbot Reserve) ;-)

 

[Anne Lyle]

Other Worlds 2 should be a lot of fun - Marco is always entertaining (well, I have to say that, he's my publisher!).

Don't worry too much about being shy. On the one hand it's accepted that geeks are a bit introverted, but on the other hand, I find there's a world of difference between socialising with fellow fans of the genre, and socialising with random people at work. I've learnt to be more outgoing as I've got older, but I still need the odd bit of downtime at conventions to sit quietly with a drink and check my email

Oh, and don't feel you have to read lots and lots of "how to" books before you can start writing. You've read novels, right, and seen plenty of films and TV shows? We all know how to tell stories, and honestly, nothing will teach you how to do it better than doing it. Use books to inspire and prompt you, but they can't and won't "hold your hand" as you make those first tottering steps. As others have said, the wealth of advice may hold you back out of fear of making a mistake. Just write, write, write! Short stories, fragments of a would-be novel, it really doesn't matter. Practise getting the images out of your head and onto paper, because that's what it comes down to.

ETA: Blog post from organiser Alex Davis

http://sffeastmidlands.blogspot.com/2011/07/other-worlds-is-almost-upon-us.html

 

[Hex]

Yes, and humanity breaks down here into those who just get stuck in and those who're always going to do a thing but never do ...

I did the second for about 20 years and then thought: I always think of myself as someone who wants to write, maybe I should do it.

 

[chopper]

I wanted to thank you individually for bringing my attention to Other Worlds 2 - it would have completely passed me by and poses a really good opportunity to sit quietly at the back and just get used to the people and atmosphere. I am extremely quiet when meeting people face to face, and physically cringe from 'group interaction' type stuff at work or socially, but I think this is a pill I will at least try and swallow down with some sugar (Abbot Reserve) ;-)

Not a problem. for myself, i found that going to something life this gives me "the juice" and the impetus to either get started or to keep going.

group or 1-1 interaction is always a lot easier when you have something in common. we geeks know this.

Anne - i know the feeling - i had to break off and sit quietly for a bit as well.

right: i have a first draft to finish....still.....