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Lies All Parents Tell Their Kids Did your parents ever tell you something growing up that even then, you knew was total bullsh*t? Of course they did! And I don't mean Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy. I'm talking about things like "You'll thank me for this someday. " Or "This hurts me more than it does you." For me, the big one was "You'll love vegetables when you're older!" Well, here I am as an adult, and I still hate them! So, yeah...what a lie that was. What were some your parents told you? |
| Got another idea for a new interactive, but before I create it, I want to know if anyone will even show interest for it. What's the point in writing something if nobody's going to read it, right? Anyway, my idea is this: You know all the great dark lords in fiction like Sauron and Darth Sidious? What if there was a secret school for potential future dark lords in training? Think Harry Potter, but the school teaches only the dark arts. Not sure whether to set it I the same world as my So You Want to be a Hero story, on Earth, or its own world all together. Any suggestions would be appreciated. What do you think? Does it sound like something you would be interested in contributing to? |
Just released a new item. Something a bit different from what I normally do:
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Vacations Gone Wrong Have you ever gone on a vacation with family and/or friends, only for everything to go completely sideways? |
| It didn't go completely sideways—we had a nice drive across Germany & France and a ferry ride across the Channel (and back)—but we ended up spending the night at Victoria Station in London waiting for the morning train back to Dover. There were no hotels rooms to be had, due to the Queen's Jubilee Celebration. Who knew? |
| Went on a trip to Disney World in Florida for Christmas when I was twelve with my maternal grandparents. mom, aunt and three cousins. The flight down to Florida and the vacation itself went perfectly fine, but the snag happened when we were coming home. The day we were to fly home, Massachusetts got hit with a blizzard that shut down airports up here. We were stranded at the Orlando airport for ten hours. |
I've just added a new item in my portfolio:
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| Gonna play a joke on my niece later today. She's 6, so she'll probably believe me when I tell her I have a secret time machine. I'll ask her to write a letter to her future self, and pretend to deliver it. Then come back with a fake response that says stuff like "whatever you do, don't date Bradley in the 8th grade." Should be pretty funny to see her reaction. 😂 Anybody have any suggestions for what else her response should say? |
I've just posted an item in my portfolio:
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Hello! Once again, I am letting you know I am reaching the rank of White Pawn to 7th row in the Wonderland challenge. I am one step closer to the White Queen!  |
Just Get to it Already! To any published authors out there, I have a serious question to ask. How exactly do you motivate yourself to write even when you're not in the mood to? For several years now, I've wanted to write and publish my own book. But even after all this time, I still haven't gotten past the first step. After taking a look over it, I have figured out the three main reasons for this. 1. I'll be the first to admit that I have a bad habit of procrastinating on this sort of thing. Sometimes for months on end. I think it's because this would be my very first published work, and therefore there's no major deadline, so there's really no need to rush to get it finished. 2. I just have too many ideas! I'll be working on one story, then get an idea for a different one, get excited to start on that so I do, rinse and repeat. Even now I have several unfinished books stuck in limbo because of this. I just can't seem to focus on one single item. 3. I'm kind of easily distracted, not going to lie. I'll write a good chunk of a story, or maybe just a few sentences or paragraphs, then take a break. During that break I'll become interested in something else for a while, and spend more time on that instead, be it a video game or TV series, etc. As I said, this has been going on for years now. Can anybody help me to break this seemingly endless cycle? Because I really want to get my first book out there and start making a name for myself. |
Elycia Lee ☮  - Look, I write everyday, a minimum of 250 words (though I can't remember the last time I did less than 1000). I have 4 novels, three short stories on the go at the moment, and I shift from one to another. But when I started this whole writing thing, I fixed on one novel and just worked it. If other ideas came, I made note of them, but did not work on them until the novel was done. The same for a short story. The only thing I let intrude was a poem, because poetry I find more spur of the moment. However, I only publish using traditional publishers. This means, I often have deadlines for when an anthology closes, or when an open call is going to be. For example, i had to submit three things last weekend because one open call was for 3 days, one for 24 hours, one for 6 hours. That was it. So I wrote (only one thing had to be written) and edited (the other 2 things needed some editing, one some serious editing) to get everything ready for those 3 times. The deadline aspect does help spur the completion of work on. It also depends on how serious you take your writing. If it's for fun, it doesn't matter. But for me, where I am making money from it and have to rely on external publishers, I take it very seriously. So, I would suggest just focus on one thing, write down notes to keep other ideas alive, and keep working that one thing until it is done. But that is just my opinion. Oh, and Sox and Sandals's suggestion of NaNo is good for focusing the mind as well. So long as you don't treat it as a be-all and end-all of writing, and if you do not meet the 50k words, realise it is not the end of the world and you have not failed. So many are put off after failing that first NaNo. Still - great suggestion for getting that first draft of that first manuscript completed, or at least well under way. Sorry. I waffled. |
s  - That is very good advice. Thank you for sharing. I'm just learning to get more focused in writing too.  |
It's Lonely at the Top? You know those stories where you see a character struggle and claw their way to wealth and glory, perhaps by less than ethical means, only to question whether it was worth it when they reach their goal? They have all the money and power they could ever want, but lost their friends, family and anybody whom they loved to get there. But if I'm being completely honest, I don't think that would really effect me all that much. I'm not some megalomaniac or a sociopath, but I've always been kind of an introvert. I'd really rather be alone more often than not, and I never wanted to get married or have a family in the first place. Hell, most people I consider friends I know through this site, and have never met in person. So, if I ever found myself in a position of money and power, I don't think it would be quite so lonely because that's how I like it anyway. Anybody else feel the same? |
| I'm the opposite. Clawing my way to the top? Not going to happen; but, I do regret losing friends along my life's path due to other choices. Is it realistic to think people who reach the top have regrets? Maybe a few... but there's a certain political figure who has reached the top and it wasn't enough. Question themselves? That would mean self-reflection and this individual doesn't seem to have any. So I doubt that those characters exist in real life unless they have a heart to begin with. That I could believe. |
| Open hearts make connections. I've always felt wealth and loneliness are independent of each other. If the wealthy protagonist is lonely at the top, it's probably due to some inability to connect. But rather than face the flaw within, the protagonist projects the flaw to outside factors. Blaming others or circumstances is easier than finding fault with oneself. And these stories are almost always told from the protagonist's Point of View so it's easier to side with the protagonist. But if the story shifts to another character's POV, the flaws are revealed.  . |
If you like horror anthologies, I just started my own series here:
The first few stories I had written years ago, and just now decided to incorporate them into an anthology. More to come soon! |
| Have you ever encountered someone on this site that enjoyed your work maybe a little too much? I know I have. Several times, I've met some other members that seemed to take my stories a bit too seriously, and to be honest, I didn't really care for their style. Of course, I didn't want to be rude and just tell them to screw off. But at the same time, they were kind of getting on my nerves. I didn't just block them because they hadn't really done anything to insult or harass me, so I didn't think it was really warranted. After all, they did like my stories. But still, it was frustrating being in this position. Has anyone else had a similar situation? |
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