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I love to recount my life. Call it self absorbed or whatever but all I can think is that one day we will be too old to remember this day, these emotions, or even those hurtful words. I live in poetry, It's like a puzzle, finding a way to express your feelings with rhymes or slant rhymes or haiku.
I mean I don't just write poems, I enjoy writing all around, but the challenge is where it's at and if you have never given it a go then you should.

That's neat! I like to write horror if I want a simple story, or science-fiction/fantasy if I am looking for something a bit more complex to do.

I like to create imaginative characters and worlds. I enjoy most things paranormal and love writing about in someway or form.

I love writing stories closer to home, the sort that people can relate to. Like y'know, something that might just be happening in your neighborhood. Simple stuff like meeting someone at the childrens' park and end up having an adventure with them. Most of the time, I end up writing about/writing for young adults.

My favorite genre is science fiction, but I've written fantasy and westerns, among other genres. I include historical and other factual tidbits when I can; and i include animals in some stories. And I love world building--and settling the frontier--often on other planets.

My writing tends to deal with painful subjects. I went through a period of writing almost exclusively about sexual assault, and while that's been behind me for a few years, most of my recent writing involves characters coping with trauma, grief or depression in some way.

That said, there's generally a positive side, and I've been making a deliberate effort to swing more in the positive direction lately. I only have a few pieces where the bottom line is, "this situation just sucks, doesn't it?" and I don't really like them. I much prefer stories that are about finding some complicated kind of hope or love in a dark situation.

I don't write with an agenda in mind. I like to mix it up so to speak. Long ago Scott posted a contest with the subject to be addressed as "The personally destructive results of jealousy and hate." (or something like that) I didn't enter the contest but I did use Scott's subject as the theme of a short story and found that the idea of trying to write to someone else's subject choice was both interesting and challenging. I had not experienced that since I was in school. I usually draw most of my ideas from things I think about in my day-to-day life and I don't think that any of my stories (I mainly write short stories) are remotely alike other than ending most of them with twists - the subject matter is vastly different.

My dream was to write a crime novel. I have tried to write short stories for my school and my teachers loved them but I always dreamt of having my name on a series of crime novels. Unfortunately my day job, my baby, my house took all my time and there's not enough time to accomplish that dream.

I'm writing about superheroes.

I agree about liking to write about my life. Even if I am writing fiction I definitely add elements of my own life into the narrative. I'm not sure if I do this on purpose or if it just happens. They always say you write what you know!

I use locations from my life, but not family tidbits 'cause I don't do soap opera.

Novel-wise, about half the stuff I work on is fantasy (by necessity, otherwise I'd never write the other stuff). The rest is science fiction, horror or a mix of things and I try to stick to a maximum of four in progress otherwise it gets a little crazy (and I say this when I've never actually finished any of them...). I think I've got three fantasy and one sci-fi/horror at the moment, and of the fantasies, one is child/urban and the other two high fantasy with different worlds/magic rules. Making rules and worlds are fun, but I can't seem to draw a decent map so that puts a dent in things... At least my sci-fi stories behave themselves and line up for a one at a time...

Smaller stuff is more varied and far less fantasy, only because I haven't managed to work out how to write a fantasy short that's short but self-contained and yet still good quality. Mix of horror, ya, spiritual/introspective and slice of life stuff.

And then poetry, which is mostly slice of life or spiritual with the rare horror or science-fiction. So a big mixing pot, but skewered in all aspects.

I don't consider myself a "writer" but I do journal religiously through at least six diaries/journals. I've had one since I was 10 years old (so much fun to read back over that stuff! These days, the one I've been writing in most is my death journal, which I've titled "Deadaches"-- this journal is filling up fast, and I just hate it...


-- 19 Nov 2016, 14:11 --

-- 19 Nov 2016, 14:12 --

lily_kh87 wrote:My dream was to write a crime novel. I have tried to write short stories for my school and my teachers loved them but I always dreamt of having my name on a series of crime novels. Unfortunately my day job, my baby, my house took all my time and there's not enough time to accomplish that dream.

This is also my dream!

Just remember: many, many famous authors don't become published until after they retire and their kids are grown. Your dream will happen some day, you just have to believe in yourself!

I adore writing philosophical texts, but I treat it more as a detached journal instead of aiming to publish. I find I come to realisations as I write and when I re-read it, I'm transported to that place within myself. Consciousness is an amazing being, the fact we can create stories out of thin air. I like to write about the process in which we use to do that.

But I also love fantasy. LOVE. I can write about anything and everything that is not of this world, but I do often struggling with mapping a story/bringing it all together, I tend to get a character or several and 'scene' in my head and hear what they are saying to one another or how they are acting within it, then write it down. Sometimes it does build around itself as I type but often I fall into a stalemate.

I've just joined and I'm so glad there's support for writers and also contests, it may be the nudge I need to get constructive.