Have you written your own Fantasy or Sci Fi?

[deer of the dawn]

Almost 15 years ago I was bored and started writing in the evenings when I didn't want to watch TV and was sick of knitting and embroidery. For a year and a half, I immersed myself in this world. I sent out a few manus and there was a little interest, but no takers. I gave the file to a few friends who read it and told me they loved it. That was about it.

A couple years ago I was publishing a completely different book online and thought, why not put that old thing out there for free? I formatted it, sent it to Smashwords, and there it is, World.

Just for fun, recently I loaded it on my own Kindle. I started reading it this week and actually got sucked in to my own book. It was actually much better in some ways than I remembered; and flawed in ways I didn't understand when I was writing it. I don't mean to be pretentious but it reminded me of a very innocent (non-rapey) Song of Ice and Fire in terms of narrative style and pacing. (In other words, it probably has everything you don't love about ASoIaF going for it --but I had not read that series until recently.)

Have you written your own SF/F and how was that as a life experience?

[Fist and Faith]

I'm currently trying to write a fantasy book. (It's also non-rapey.) It's going well enough, but it's starting to get a bit unwieldy. Not huge, by any means. It's just thatI'm working on different parts of it at the same time, because I don't seem to be able to finish one before moving to another. And it changes a lot. Something makes an old idea unworkable, so I have to go back to the old section. It's all kinda crazy. Not helped by the fact that I'm pretty lazy. heh. But I go in bits and spurts. Just scratched the surface. Maybe 50 pages so far.

[Akasri]

I have written 2 books and 2 partial books. So far they all totally suck, but I am getting better.

I have taken part in the National Novel Writing Month challenge 3 times. First time I completed the novel, the next 2 I didn't. But this last time I can feel the quality of my writing improving quite a bit.

I am currently taking some writing courses from Holly Lisle and preparing an outline for a novel to write this November in the next challenge.

[Orlion]

Since sixth grade I have been working on one fantasy book. The first of several, but so many things change over the year. It started off as what was essentially a horror Tolkien fan fic, to a sort of Dragonball Z knock-off, to a plot about an existential crisis to thermodynamics to "Curse you LOST for having a smoke monster! I totally came up with that first, and now if I ever write it, people will think instantly of your crummy series!" Various characters' fates have changed... to a certain point where I thought one day, you know what? It would make more sense if this main character bit the dust half way through the novel instead of at the end... except now everyone is kinda screwed....

In recent years (college years) I have not written much... hope to get back into that soon with a short story and a magic realism novel, then we shall see about if it's ready to bring this book fully to life.

[rdhopeca]

I wrote a short fantasy story for the as yet unpublished next Anthology. It turned out pretty well I thought but could use some polishing. I'd write a lot more if I had more time. Maybe when I clear out from under school.

[Rau Le Creuset]

Writing Fantasy always seems to me like it would be the biggest hassle simply because there are so many out there and all the concepts are beginning to dry up; Rings, Dragons, Evil lords, wizards and wars... I always think that if I ever try to write anything it will never be original, which has kept me from generating my own fantasy novel ideas.. sounds kinda sad but im just scared that what I produce will just be a rip-off of a better persons idea.

that being said don't let any of my words discourage you.. im just putting down what I think

Takes a lot of time and devotion to create a world... and maybe one day I will be up for it.. but for now I am content to enjoy the creations of others maybe one day I can try some of your guys books how long is your book deer?

[Holsety]

It started off as what was essentially a horror Tolkien fan fic, to a sort of Dragonball Z knock-off, to a plot about an existential crisis to thermodynamics to "Curse you LOST for having a smoke monster! I totally came up with that first, and now if I ever write it, people will think instantly of your crummy series!"

I remember, sometime around July of 2011 I had this idea for a fantasy book, and I wanted to have a tree growing in the depths of the earth. Then I read A Dance With Dragons...Martin plagiarized from my unwritten novel!

I still like the ideas I had for that book, but I decided I really didn't care enough to bother writing it.

[sgt.null]

I was writing a Fable. I need to get back to it. but Deer said she didn't understand it.

[Sorus]

I have a fanfic story that I've been working on for the past 23 years. Several thousand pages. Mostly for stress relief; no one else will ever see it.

Also an original universe that I add to from time to time. I think of sharing that one, but the outline is too rough right now.

[sgt.null]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger

[Avatar]

I started a few novels. But I tend to lose interest within a few chapters.

--A

[deer of the dawn]

Thanks for reminding me of NaNoWriMo, Akasri. That might be my ticket to re-starting.... And I bet we've all had that experience of reading some really great book and discovering that your amazing, original idea has already been done.

Sarge, I don't get absurdity and randomness. I could never understand native American stories either. My mind is too linear, I guess. Poetry, I can get into in that way, but not prose. *shrug* I liked your style, but the story didn't seem to go anywhere --to me.

[aTOMiC]

I suspect that better than 50% of our membership has written a sci/fi or fantasy story in one form or another. Seems natural since we're all fans of the site's author and writers like him.
I myself have written a thing or two.

[Akasri]

Thanks for reminding me of NaNoWriMo, Akasri. That might be my ticket to re-starting....

They still do the normal November NaNoWriMo, but now they've added two "CampWriMos" in April and July. In those months, you can set your own goal, either the normal 50K words, or something different. Everything is camp themed (instead of being assigned a writing buddy, you get a cabin-mate, etc.). Other than that, it's pretty much the same.

The November event is still the most popular.

[Zarathustra]

I'm almost finished with my first novel--I mean, mere months away. It's a vision I had in high school after reading Tolkien, Donaldson, etc. It's deeply philosophical, so much that I knew I wouldn't be able to really sink my teeth into it until after college, after I'd educated myself on the history of philosophy. The basic story hasn't changed since the beginning, but the layers of sophistication keep growing. I had a finished rough draft about 10 years ago, and then realized that it wasn't just a trilogy I was writing, but two. So I plotted out three more books in extreme detail, because both trilogies had to mesh together in a very complicated way (one being the counterpart of the other). Since then, I've been revising that first draft in light of my growing work on the other books. It's starting to get out of hand. I'm almost up to 400,000 words for the first book alone. I know I'll probably have to cut it down some, but that's okay.

I don't know if it will be for everyone, but I guarantee that it's unlike anything you've ever seen. It's a freakin' mind (and body) trip. My posts in the Close and Loresraat give some hints. (Thankfully, none of my posts in the Tank are even remotely related. )

[iQuestor]

Ive written some FanFic thats in Hall of Gifts (Which I have to finish, I know)
and had one story published through online e-books called Becoming Elijah. It wasnt all that great, but could have been better.

I have a couple novels in my head, cant seem to get the writing done. I own an engineering firm, and I am an active software developer, so not much time to write. Ive thought about doing NaNoWriMo yet again.

Mali- er Zaruthustra, was what I read of yours part of your novel?

[Avatar]

My gods. It lives.

Welcome back iQuestor.

(Oh, wait, you've actually been posting in the TC forums...I just haven't seen you around. )

--A

[aliantha]

All y'all should keep writing. And I'm a big believer in NaNoWriMo.

Life does get in the way. It certainly did for me -- I didn't get serious about it 'til my kids were in college.

Z, you know you're up to 1,600 pages, right?

Zeta Prime, the thing is, there are only something like seven plots in all the history of fiction writing. So of *course* somebody has written it all before -- and yet not. Because each individual writer brings his or her own experiences and viewpoint to the work. That's what makes the story seem fresh every time. (Also, there's no rule that you have to use elves and dwarves -- you can invent your own magical creatures. In fact, the inventing is part of the fun. )

[Zarathustra]

Z, you know you're up to 1,600 pages, right?

I knew it was getting up there. It's 600 pages single-spaced with 12 pt Times New Roman font, which is how I like to read it. In manuscript pages, (converted to double-spaced, Courier 10 pt font) it's 1200. 12 point font kicks it up to 1700.

Yeah, I know I'll have to do some trimming. But right now, I can't stop until the story is fully realized. There's no cutting this baby into multiple volumes, not without making those seem padded and pointless.

Zeta Prime, the thing is, there are only something like seven plots in all the history of fiction writing. So of *course* somebody has written it all before -- and yet not.

I know we've all heard this, but I'm not sure I believe it.

iQuestor, probably. I've posted a couple different versions, but it's always changing. The first three chapters have been radically revised to reflect developments later in the book after I've recently added a new main character to the quest (creating another subplot, and necessitating additions to nearly every scene ... yeah, not an ideal way to write a book Make sure you have all the characters you need from the beginning).

[lucimay]

yep. ever since the sheriff came up with the idea of the Purgatory game I've had a story in my head. working title, Purgatory.

it's about a detective in Purgatory.

been working on it a while now. I work shopped it a bit with my writing
group in SF and have worked on it a bit more since moving to Virginia
but its slooooooooow goin. heh. I write as fast as George RR Martin! LOL!!