Thanks for the replies :3 So, I don't have to feel super bad if my first proper review attempts aren't the best? Haha. I've only done a few in the past. Like Cutlerine says, it's often the same kind of errors authors here do. I doubt I'd take the time to correct every spelling error, rather I'd just tell them to double check again. I'm worried myself that if I post a story, someone will remark on my grammar. Since I know I don't fully grasp English and possibly never will.
Of course! Don't feel bad at all. I mean, there's no reason why you'd
have to do a fantastically detailed review. It's just as valid for you to leave a few words of feedback, as long as you mention specific things you liked or disliked. No one expects anyone to go around dissecting every story minutely - that's great if you want to do it, but it isn't necessary. Your review can be as basic or as complex as you like.
(The guilt builds. I must review some things this week.)
As for posting your own stories here, a reviewer probably would remark on the grammar, as well as everything else - but if they're doing it right, they won't crucify you for it or anything. No one expects your work to be perfect, but if a reviewer can give you any help in getting it to a more perfect state, then that's what they'll do.
And um, I'm usually hanging around the Roleplay Corner but I've... Lost my spark. So, I thought I'd try to write something on my own to try and find it again. I know how I want to feel about writing, and I'm struggling to not expect too much from myself because then it becomes hard work rather than fun.
I wouldn't worry about it. It happens to everyone now and again, and I can say from experience that
these things do pass. You just work on something else, or take a break and then try to work through the barrier - honestly, there are a few different ways of surmounting the problem, and I've no idea what will work best for you in this case. But if you want to write and share here, that's as good a place to start as any.
I've been lurking these forums for quite some time now and have read many a fiction. I'd certainly like to write one of my own but I've been struggling to come up with original idea, or maybe my obsessive pursuit of originality is stifling my creativity. Perhaps a good story is not necessarily born from of a single moment of inspiration but rather many smaller ideas all cleverly stitched together to form a cohesive narrative, but even is this is the case, some definitive starting point is still necessary. I'm going round in circles here and most probably over thinking things. Hmmm...maybe I should just start writing and see where that takes me.
What do you think?
I often start with no idea of a narrative at all, actually, unless I'm adapting one of the games into a fic. I start with a place, or a person.
For instance, I have a story going around in my head that started a few days ago with the idea of a small city that had a man who busked in it by giving out random facts, rather than playing music. So I just wrote about someone walking past him, and didn't let myself stop writing, and I ended up creating a protagonist out of that someone. And from there a story has sort of started to come together. I won't keep that original piece of writing in the finished story, in all likelihood, but it got the ideas flowing and gave rise to a story.
In other words - don't be afraid to just
write, as you put it. You can't go wrong, and whatever you write you can change, or use as the base for something else. Take one image, of any sort, and write, and see what stories emerge. It might take a couple of tries to get something, but if you're stuck for ideas, you could do a lot worse than just start.
But one thing that can definitely make a good base for a story, and sometimes even let the plot unfold in your head easily as you type and plan, is characters. Characters and histories and personalities and relationships. Create a few defined characters in your mind (or on paper, if you prefer to write while you think, I sometimes do) and think about how they would interact. And maybe you can realize that they probably grew up this or that way, and there could probably be something in that history that could be built on to make a plot and something in this or that character's personality that makes it likely that they would act in that plot and make a story.
Definitely. I always either start with a world I want to write about, or a person. The last major story I wrote started with a world - a twisted alternate version of Edwardian London. This next story started with a person, and their story - an exploration of their experience as a human being and what would happen to them if someone were to leave a very large dead fish in their apartment.