Writing, and writing fiction

**jonathanb** · 10-02-2011, 07:19 AM

My greatest technical talents are writing and teaching (and the research involved). Cut me some slack though with the quality of this post, cause English ain't my native tongue ^_^

Anyhow - I find that I can't deal with fiction. I can't and haven't read fiction for many years. Whenever I consider the idea of reading fiction I just find it a waste of time. I like movies very much, since I appreciate the extraordinary level of detail and finesse in fine directing, and can emotionally connect with sight and sound more than to the mindset of a writer who's not an NT. Fiction in books have always seemed silly, with the exception of some writers (Frank Herbert is one example, which makes me wonder if he was an NT. Anyone familiar with the scope of his work and the research he conducted for his writing would know why I have this in mind).
I have an even bigger problem with writing fiction. I'm currently 100,000 words into my first book, a non-fiction book in the English language. I have thought and almost attempted writing fiction several times before. I have some crazy, wild ideas and imageries, and thought it could've been useful to apply my writing skill to this venue. I can come up with an amazing script or plot in my head which will be encompassing and complete within maybe 30 minutes sometimes, when I'm hyped. As soon as I sit and think of writing it though, it won't work. I cannot bring my imagination to words. I find it especially difficult to realistically portray characters. All the characters "want" to talk and think like me, LOL. I always have points I want to bring across to the readers (even in my non-fiction work), and I am too direct and honest in my approach - I cannot mentally seem to be capable of building this elaborate bullshit of a world with personalities I don't like in real life just so it'll work somehow. I know I have to do it so people will like how it's written, but I can't force myself to do it.

It's like with the social norms in real life. Sometimes I know I MUST abide by them, but they are so contradictory to my inner logic that I cannot bring myself to act like that.

Have anyone else had similar experiences?

**Odie** · 10-02-2011, 08:01 AM

If these are your problems, you're not a good writer yet. These are problems of intermediate writers. But you're headed in the right direction, keep going if you wanna do this for a living. Also, don't write cross-language books, please. Please. Language is too heavily nuanced for that.

**spect** · 10-02-2011, 08:30 AM

have you tried character sketches? sometimes works for me, and helped me develop general nuanced ones that engage the readers imagination, instead of having to fill in a bunch of details and stuff myself.

but i also enjoy the challenge of drawing the reader in and using their emotions to hook them into an idea. best way i try to do that is having them personally associate or empathize with a character - not that im good at it yet, because im not.

ManWithNoName · 10-02-2011, 08:36 AM

	Originally Posted by jonathanb To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I have an even bigger problem with writing fiction. I'm currently 100,000 words into my first book, a non-fiction book in the English language.

What is this book about? How did you manage to write 100,000 words of a non-fiction book? That's a couple hundred pages and most non-fiction books that length are biographies or scholastic works or something like that.

As for fiction and creative writing start small. Write a few short stories (max 10 pages) and get decent at that even before you think about writing anything longer.

**jonathanb** · 10-02-2011, 09:48 AM

	Originally Posted by Odie To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	If these are your problems, you're not a good writer yet. These are problems of intermediate writers. But you're headed in the right direction, keep going if you wanna do this for a living. Also, don't write cross-language books, please. Please. Language is too heavily nuanced for that.

	Originally Posted by ManWithNoName To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	What is this book about? How did you manage to write 100,000 words of a non-fiction book? That's a couple hundred pages and most non-fiction books that length are biographies or scholastic works or something like that. As for fiction and creative writing start small. Write a few short stories (max 10 pages) and get decent at that even before you think about writing anything longer.

The book I'm writing is non-fiction of a very specialized field of interest - martial arts. Half the lingo isn't even in English, but in languages like Chinese, Japanese, Latin (Anatomy/Physiology), etc. This subject also has its own cultural lore, stories, inside-jokes, etc. So within this community of potential readers, the fact that I was not born in an English-speaking country plays a lesser role. I am also an avid fan of many aspects of American culture, and have been reading, writing and watching stuff in English for many years now.

You know how it's like when an INTJ chooses to tackle a subject and go through with it to the extreme? This is exactly what's going on with my martial arts book project. I have taken the subject of martial arts philosophy and (practical and scientific) theory and decided that I am going to write the best, most coherent and expansive work ever created about this subject (at least about martial arts theory. I don't pretend to be such a great philosopher). Under "martial arts theory" are included a million related sub-fields like Kinesiology, Physiology, Biology, training methods, Anatomy, Psychology, History, etc. The philosophical and physical theories are also related sometimes.
I've been working at it for the last 2 years. Think 100 thousand is a lot? When I'm done, it is going to get near the 200 thousand mark. Believe it or not, albeit its length, I have rarely repeated my words of explanations in any paragraph. I hate it when people write the same thing over and over again in a million different ways. It wastes the reader's time and money.
The book is made up of three major parts, each dealing with many different aspects related to martial arts (not including any instructional material). Technically, these are three books written together and compiled into one. I dislike people who split their work into several pieces to make more many, as evident in the modern gaming industry (fuck you, Blizzard). My book, albeit made up of three parts, is one coherent vision. Selling it in pieces would be like pissing in the reader's faces.
I occasionally give parts of the book to people I personally know and trust so they could review my work and point out possible flaws. One friend have even read the whole thing. So far so good, these few have been pretty pleased with the result.

	Originally Posted by spect To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	but i also enjoy the challenge of drawing the reader in and using their emotions to hook them into an idea. best way i try to do that is having them personally associate or empathize with a character - not that im good at it yet, because im not.

Part of the issue is that I KNOW that I am really the characters I create. Because of this, I put myself in the characters shoes. So when, for example, I'd need a character that garners empathy from the reader, the INTJ inside of me will shout: "Screw this, I don't need your empathy!" :-P

**AureliaSeverina** · 10-02-2011, 11:09 AM

I'm the opposite. I can think of characters, but I couldn't think of a plot if my life depended on it. It's probably because I'm too rooted in real life and think "I know that stories don't just finish in real life, be it with a happy or unhappy ending." So the best I can come up with are open-ended short stories about boring people. Haven't written any in ages, though.

**spect** · 10-02-2011, 11:57 AM

	Originally Posted by jonathanb To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Part of the issue is that I KNOW that I am really the characters I create. Because of this, I put myself in the characters shoes. So when, for example, I'd need a character that garners empathy from the reader, the INTJ inside of me will shout: "Screw this, I don't need your empathy!" :-P

probably got the material covered but .. are you all that concerned about the readers?

maybe use that for motivation in learning about character development? you dont want to just tell a story, anymore than you want to talk at people rather than with them. you want to engage them.

**alt lit** · 10-02-2011, 12:02 PM

Run two separate storyboards: One for character development and one for plot. Then overlay them. Character development = each chapter’s outcome and plot = method to achieve outcome. That's your story.

Before you storyboard, you have to create the character. From what I can glean, sounds like you may be making a common mistake in character development. Don’t start from types (in this case, different types of yourself) and try to arrive at a compelling individual. It goes the other way. Fitzgerald’s maxim: “Begin with an individual, and before you know it you find that you have created a type; begin with a type, and you find that you have created–nothing.” If you begin with an individual, and the individual isn’t you, you’ve solved the problem.

Good luck.

**Thinktress** · 10-02-2011, 02:00 PM

I always thought that I was going to be a writer - of fiction. Books of fiction. Everything I write now is non-fiction. Go figure.

ManWithNoName · 10-03-2011, 12:09 PM

	Originally Posted by AureliaSeverina To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I'm the opposite. I can think of characters, but I couldn't think of a plot if my life depended on it. It's probably because I'm too rooted in real life and think "I know that stories don't just finish in real life, be it with a happy or unhappy ending." So the best I can come up with are open-ended short stories about boring people. Haven't written any in ages, though.

Creating characters before plot is the better way of creating good stories as it is more natural and feels less forced. It's a bit of an old psychology saying but if you put more than five people together in a room two of them will not like each other. Even if they stay together and work together in terms of equality the group of five always spits up into a subgroup of three and two.

Stories are kind of like that except the room is bigger. Just create well fleshed out interesting characters and above all else make them different in big ways from each other. Then throw them together where for some reason or another they are forced to come across each other and interact with each other. If you do this plot, tension, conflict, should arise out of your characters conflicting wants and needs.

**Bisclavret** · 10-03-2011, 07:45 PM

Well, for what it's worth, I am still working on the plot outline and characters for two fictional pieces that I hope will eventually become novels, that is, if my motivation sustains itself. I agree with MWNN, one who has given me the same advice that he has given you: create characters first, likeable and relatively complex characters who contrast one another sufficiently as to create the necessary tension, conflict, harmony, and inspiration which will inevitably drive the plot forward. I am still early in the process of creation (still creating my characters' profiles), but such advice has proven itself invaluable as to help me get started in the arduous process of writing.

P.S. It's easy to create characters that reflect your qualities, weakeness, and preferences; in fact, there is nothing wrong with this as nearly all writers are guilty of doing this at least to some extent. The key is differentiating them sufficiently from yourself and from one another as to give them a life of their own. A good way to start would be to create characters loosely based on the MBTI archetypes and then to later tweak them to your liking. Make sure you get a variety of NT, NF, SP, SJ in your story for the sake of variety.

P.P.S. As you are currently engrossed in a work of non-fiction, may I ask "what interest in fiction do you have to begin with?" If you aren't passionate about it in the first place, your chances of sticking to any such project in the long one is close to null.

**Grimace** · 10-05-2011, 10:23 PM

The key with writing fiction, is writing fiction.

Not that helpful probably, but there is no substitute for simply writing. Perhaps, as pertaining to your comment about character creation, you simply haven't found your method yet. Maybe it isn't just sitting down and writing a paragraph, but doing like a character Bio in list form or something. I usually hear my characters saying something to someone when I discover them. So dialogue is my method, but it can be extremely strange how some people work in terms of writing, so don't avoid strangeness of method because it seems unlike how other people write.

But mostly, it's motivation, and I don't mean yours to write, but that of your characters. If you figure out what your character wants, then conflict is pretty much already there, from this stems plot as things come between your character and what they want. Also, for early fiction forays, try writing in various tenses and points of view, like try the limited 3rd simple past, 1st simple past, then present, then perhaps some more experimental or complicated points of view etc. Though, for a short story, it's usually quite difficult to work with multiple POV's, so maybe avoid that at first.

**CyanideSoda** · 10-07-2011, 10:51 PM

Hmm, I am quite the opposite, I never had trouble coming up with characters way out of my humble INTJ type or relating to them and making up stories for them to live in. They were like sightseeing in a strange city: you don't live there but it sure is fun to frolic around.

I would guess it is a mental exercise: what would character A do in this or that scenario? Or, if you can't seem to get that far, observation first. There are many people around you, borrow from their reactions to build your characters.

But the thing is, if you hate your characters how can you expect the readers to like them? Learn to love them even if you hate their personalities. Ex: (though this is a comicbook script) I've written a bad guy who is a sleazy drug dealer, safe to say I would have hated his guts in RL, but I thoroughly enjoyed developing his character and the readers enjoyed him too. Why? Because the story would have been weak without him. You need to have some sort of equilibrium, not just for the readers to relate to their type but also for variety's sake. If you have only one type of character that is like eating the same food every day. No matter how much you like it, you'll get sick of it eventually. What does that say about the cook?

**Dolores** · 10-07-2011, 11:16 PM

	Originally Posted by CyanideSoda To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	But the thing is, if you hate your characters how can you expect the readers to like them? Learn to love them even if you hate their personalities.

I second that. I wrote a novel just for fun. Two characters were scheming and devious. I would have hated them in RL. But developping those characters was truly fun because I always knew how they would end up while they did not. I banned them from the royal court in the end. I felt very pleased with writing this scene.

My first language isn't English either. But I write in English also. (That's why my novel will never be published.) Writing in a foreign language, however, is a good technique. I always keep a certain distance that helps me develop the characters and the plot. Sure, you will have to edit your novel several times. And if you really intend to publish it, a native speaker of English will have to help you with the edits. Just do not edit vocabulary and grammar while you're writing. This will end the flow and you won't enjoy writing anymore.

**CyanideSoda** · 10-07-2011, 11:34 PM

	Originally Posted by Dolores To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I second that. I wrote a novel just for fun. Two characters were scheming and devious. I would have hated them in RL. But developping those characters was truly fun because I always knew how they would end up while they did not. I banned them from the royal court in the end. I felt very pleased with writing this scene.

Also, I would say it is very liberating, writing bad guy characters because you can tap into the darkness without actually being a bad guy. It is a very unique POV. Also, when the writer enjoys writing a scene the readers do as well, they can pick up when a writer is bored.


	My first language isn't English either. But I write in English also. (That's why my novel will never be published.)

Haha, we got that in common. I love writing in English but I won't be looking to publish my novels.

**Firebrand** · 10-12-2011, 07:43 PM

I've always found it useful to be able to thrust myself into the mind of a character, even if I am nothing like them or they personally irk me, to be able to write any fiction effectively.

Ayn Rand did it and is an INTJ and she wrote in detail about characters that are the bane of the average NT.

And you're right. Probably 90+% of the fiction out there is just silly. But the small percentage that is of quality makes it worthwhile to sift to find it. Typically I've found the best novels and short-stories I've read to exceed even good movies readily. It's just that the movies are a more efficient means of delivery in terms of time commitment.

Here's
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.

**Johnny B** · 10-15-2011, 06:25 AM

Originally Posted by jonathanb
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I have some crazy, wild ideas and imageries, and thought it could've been useful to apply my writing skill to this venue. I can come up with an amazing script or plot in my head which will be encompassing and complete within maybe 30 minutes sometimes, when I'm hyped. As soon as I sit and think of writing it though, it won't work. I cannot bring my imagination to words. I find it especially difficult to realistically portray characters. All the characters "want" to talk and think like me, LOL. I always have points I want to bring across to the readers (even in my non-fiction work), and I am too direct and honest in my approach - I cannot mentally seem to be capable of building this elaborate bullshit of a world with personalities I don't like in real life just so it'll work somehow. I know I have to do it so people will like how it's written, but I can't force myself to do it.

So just write down those seed (crazy, wild) ideas and imageries initially. From there DON'T attempt to complete the thing in one go. Just leave it when it doesn't 'feel right' anymore (and save it on your computer), and go back to it at another time. Maybe you'll end up with many sets of 'bits and pieces' here and there, but in subsequent passes, you might find other complementary bits and pieces to mix and match with what you already have. Then maybe you come up with a worthy short story or two here and there, out of your random ideas/imageries, or maybe something longer. Maybe some of those initial ideas die out by themselves because you discover later on that you can't / won't exert any more effort to complete them after all.

It's kind of being like a practitioner of, say, a soft, interal, ki-type martial art, and let's say that your art doesn't have kicks at all. But suppose that you find yourself attracted to fancy kicks and kick combos in some movies you see. So explore that. In your spare time and when you fancy it, try those kicks out yourself. You might find yourself allotting more time to kicks in the exploration and that might evolve into you including kicks into your personal fighting style and repertoire over time. Or you might end that after a few sessions, deciding that kicks aren't really for you, and perhaps with a deeper understanding of why kicks aren't subscribed to in the style you practice in the first place.

If your crazy and wild ideas grip you that much, they might be worth looking more into.

**Zolo** · 10-16-2011, 03:23 AM

A lot of times I come up with a main idea, then I come up with 50 variations of it and can't decide which one is best. I've been trying to write a screenplay for a few years now, but can never manage to finish one... I have 4 different ones I'm "working" on at the moment, but it's hard to find inspiration.

**Bisclavret** · 10-16-2011, 07:43 PM

	Originally Posted by Zolo To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	A lot of times I come up with a main idea, then I come up with 50 variations of it and can't decide which one is best. I've been trying to write a screenplay for a few years now, but can never manage to finish one... I have 4 different ones I'm "working" on at the moment, but it's hard to find inspiration.

Inspiration comes when you least expect it (i.e. from dreams). Always be ready to write/type down any idea that happens to cross your mind.

**Grimace** · 10-18-2011, 09:54 PM

Also, relating to the OP, to write good fiction you must read good fiction. I used to think that maybe there was just some mythical font of fiction in me and that reading widely and well wasn't important. Not so.

10-02-2011, 07:19 AM	#1
jonathanb Member [06%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 262	My greatest technical talents are writing and teaching (and the research involved). Cut me some slack though with the quality of this post, cause English ain't my native tongue ^_^ Anyhow - I find that I can't deal with fiction. I can't and haven't read fiction for many years. Whenever I consider the idea of reading fiction I just find it a waste of time. I like movies very much, since I appreciate the extraordinary level of detail and finesse in fine directing, and can emotionally connect with sight and sound more than to the mindset of a writer who's not an NT. Fiction in books have always seemed silly, with the exception of some writers (Frank Herbert is one example, which makes me wonder if he was an NT. Anyone familiar with the scope of his work and the research he conducted for his writing would know why I have this in mind). I have an even bigger problem with writing fiction. I'm currently 100,000 words into my first book, a non-fiction book in the English language. I have thought and almost attempted writing fiction several times before. I have some crazy, wild ideas and imageries, and thought it could've been useful to apply my writing skill to this venue. I can come up with an amazing script or plot in my head which will be encompassing and complete within maybe 30 minutes sometimes, when I'm hyped. As soon as I sit and think of writing it though, it won't work. I cannot bring my imagination to words. I find it especially difficult to realistically portray characters. All the characters "want" to talk and think like me, LOL. I always have points I want to bring across to the readers (even in my non-fiction work), and I am too direct and honest in my approach - I cannot mentally seem to be capable of building this elaborate bullshit of a world with personalities I don't like in real life just so it'll work somehow. I know I have to do it so people will like how it's written, but I can't force myself to do it. It's like with the social norms in real life. Sometimes I know I MUST abide by them, but they are so contradictory to my inner logic that I cannot bring myself to act like that. Have anyone else had similar experiences?
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10-02-2011, 08:01 AM	#2
Odie Member [12%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 482	If these are your problems, you're not a good writer yet. These are problems of intermediate writers. But you're headed in the right direction, keep going if you wanna do this for a living. Also, don't write cross-language books, please. Please. Language is too heavily nuanced for that.
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10-02-2011, 08:30 AM	#3
spect Veteran Member [57%] MBTI: inxx Join Date: Sep 2011 Posts: 2,314	have you tried character sketches? sometimes works for me, and helped me develop general nuanced ones that engage the readers imagination, instead of having to fill in a bunch of details and stuff myself. but i also enjoy the challenge of drawing the reader in and using their emotions to hook them into an idea. best way i try to do that is having them personally associate or empathize with a character - not that im good at it yet, because im not.
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10-02-2011, 11:09 AM	#6
AureliaSeverina Member [09%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 386	I'm the opposite. I can think of characters, but I couldn't think of a plot if my life depended on it. It's probably because I'm too rooted in real life and think "I know that stories don't just finish in real life, be it with a happy or unhappy ending." So the best I can come up with are open-ended short stories about boring people. Haven't written any in ages, though.
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10-02-2011, 12:02 PM	#8
alt lit Member [44%] MBTI: INxx Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 1,764	Run two separate storyboards: One for character development and one for plot. Then overlay them. Character development = each chapter’s outcome and plot = method to achieve outcome. That's your story. Before you storyboard, you have to create the character. From what I can glean, sounds like you may be making a common mistake in character development. Don’t start from types (in this case, different types of yourself) and try to arrive at a compelling individual. It goes the other way. Fitzgerald’s maxim: “Begin with an individual, and before you know it you find that you have created a type; begin with a type, and you find that you have created–nothing.” If you begin with an individual, and the individual isn’t you, you’ve solved the problem. Good luck.
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10-02-2011, 02:00 PM	#9
Thinktress Veteran Member [52%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 2,112	I always thought that I was going to be a writer - of fiction. Books of fiction. Everything I write now is non-fiction. Go figure.
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10-03-2011, 07:45 PM	#11
Bisclavret Veteran Member [64%] MBTI: INTP Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 2,566	Well, for what it's worth, I am still working on the plot outline and characters for two fictional pieces that I hope will eventually become novels, that is, if my motivation sustains itself. I agree with MWNN, one who has given me the same advice that he has given you: create characters first, likeable and relatively complex characters who contrast one another sufficiently as to create the necessary tension, conflict, harmony, and inspiration which will inevitably drive the plot forward. I am still early in the process of creation (still creating my characters' profiles), but such advice has proven itself invaluable as to help me get started in the arduous process of writing. P.S. It's easy to create characters that reflect your qualities, weakeness, and preferences; in fact, there is nothing wrong with this as nearly all writers are guilty of doing this at least to some extent. The key is differentiating them sufficiently from yourself and from one another as to give them a life of their own. A good way to start would be to create characters loosely based on the MBTI archetypes and then to later tweak them to your liking. Make sure you get a variety of NT, NF, SP, SJ in your story for the sake of variety. P.P.S. As you are currently engrossed in a work of non-fiction, may I ask "what interest in fiction do you have to begin with?" If you aren't passionate about it in the first place, your chances of sticking to any such project in the long one is close to null.
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10-05-2011, 10:23 PM	#12
Grimace Member [12%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 486	The key with writing fiction, is writing fiction. Not that helpful probably, but there is no substitute for simply writing. Perhaps, as pertaining to your comment about character creation, you simply haven't found your method yet. Maybe it isn't just sitting down and writing a paragraph, but doing like a character Bio in list form or something. I usually hear my characters saying something to someone when I discover them. So dialogue is my method, but it can be extremely strange how some people work in terms of writing, so don't avoid strangeness of method because it seems unlike how other people write. But mostly, it's motivation, and I don't mean yours to write, but that of your characters. If you figure out what your character wants, then conflict is pretty much already there, from this stems plot as things come between your character and what they want. Also, for early fiction forays, try writing in various tenses and points of view, like try the limited 3rd simple past, 1st simple past, then present, then perhaps some more experimental or complicated points of view etc. Though, for a short story, it's usually quite difficult to work with multiple POV's, so maybe avoid that at first.
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10-07-2011, 10:51 PM	#13
CyanideSoda Member [08%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 355	Hmm, I am quite the opposite, I never had trouble coming up with characters way out of my humble INTJ type or relating to them and making up stories for them to live in. They were like sightseeing in a strange city: you don't live there but it sure is fun to frolic around. I would guess it is a mental exercise: what would character A do in this or that scenario? Or, if you can't seem to get that far, observation first. There are many people around you, borrow from their reactions to build your characters. But the thing is, if you hate your characters how can you expect the readers to like them? Learn to love them even if you hate their personalities. Ex: (though this is a comicbook script) I've written a bad guy who is a sleazy drug dealer, safe to say I would have hated his guts in RL, but I thoroughly enjoyed developing his character and the readers enjoyed him too. Why? Because the story would have been weak without him. You need to have some sort of equilibrium, not just for the readers to relate to their type but also for variety's sake. If you have only one type of character that is like eating the same food every day. No matter how much you like it, you'll get sick of it eventually. What does that say about the cook?
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10-12-2011, 07:43 PM	#16
Firebrand Member [41%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 1,655	I've always found it useful to be able to thrust myself into the mind of a character, even if I am nothing like them or they personally irk me, to be able to write any fiction effectively. Ayn Rand did it and is an INTJ and she wrote in detail about characters that are the bane of the average NT. And you're right. Probably 90+% of the fiction out there is just silly. But the small percentage that is of quality makes it worthwhile to sift to find it. Typically I've found the best novels and short-stories I've read to exceed even good movies readily. It's just that the movies are a more efficient means of delivery in terms of time commitment. Here's To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. .
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10-16-2011, 03:23 AM	#18
Zolo Member [06%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 262	A lot of times I come up with a main idea, then I come up with 50 variations of it and can't decide which one is best. I've been trying to write a screenplay for a few years now, but can never manage to finish one... I have 4 different ones I'm "working" on at the moment, but it's hard to find inspiration.
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10-18-2011, 09:54 PM	#20
Grimace Member [12%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 486	Also, relating to the OP, to write good fiction you must read good fiction. I used to think that maybe there was just some mythical font of fiction in me and that reading widely and well wasn't important. Not so.
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