Anyone here write?

Anyone here write or more specifically? Anyone feel a need to write? when I was in high school, I was a less than perfect student. Additionally, no one could figure out why I would get an "A"'in English/Creative writing and not even show up for the classes I did not care for. Eventually, this led to being " placed" in an alternitive education program for the last year and a half
  Decades and a lifetime sneak past. The last 18 months, I've chosen to eliminate TV from my life. Slowly, I started writing again. Now, I go nowhere without a composition book and a pen. Some writings start off with snippets or observations, some times abandoned for months, others will flow out on paper at a pretty quick pace. I note the date, time and give it a reference " title".  
 Somewhere along the line, this became pretty important to me from a lot of aspects . One being that once things are in ink, they need not rent space in my mind, the other, sometimes ( after many rewrites) I'm pretty happy with the final products. At times I approach a writing with a purpose. Ie. Cancer took my 20 year old daughters mother or could be just something little.

Yes I write...

And yes I feel compelled to write, it just does not feel right to start my day without it. Sometimes it is a lot, and sometimes just a few paragraphs, but almost every morning I write, which is partly why I get up so early in the morning. It is quiet with everyone else asleep.

As for what I write, it depends. Sometimes it is chewing away on my book about farming, and other times it is whimsical stuff, and other times serious letters to our elected officials. This morning it was the latter to the Commissioner of Agriculture. In all I have written a finished fiction novel, several published articles, working on two farming books, have a completed children's book, and have many published short stories, poems and letters.

As sad as this sounds coming from a writer since it is terrible grammar: I could not, not write!

I am sorry to hear about your daughter's mother passing.

I had a scare last week and often thought of you. They found out I got (6) tumors on my Thyroid and they did testing, but when they did the testing for cancer I quit breathing and had to spend all day in the emergency room. In the end they determined it was not cancer, but I still got major surgery ahead. Oh well, it could have been worse, all they are doing is slitting my throat!!

Travis, glad to hear that your tests came back negative for cancer, between this and your chainsaw, it seems to me,you have had a "busy" year. Early morning is prime writing time here. Once in a blue moon,you will see me put down my tools, walk over to my truck, write a few lines my hood and go back to work. Being in construction, I get razzed a bit. Lol. Literally have 11 note books in varied state. One thing I do have to do is pick up a decent " pad" and transcribe works I deem " finished" into.
 Although there was a French writer who said,
" a poem is never finished,just abandoned".   Take care. larry
 
People who know me can always tell if I have been writing. My pen of choice is a Pilot G10 Bold. Being left handed, the side of my palm gets ink on it if I write hurriedly.

Larry Bock wrote:Travis, glad to hear that your tests came back negative for cancer, between this and your chainsaw, it seems to me,you have had a "busy" year. Early morning is prime writing time here. Once in a blue moon,you will see me put down my tools, walk over to my truck, write a few lines my hood and go back to work. Being in construction, I get razzed a bit. Lol. Literally have 11 note books in varied state. One thing I do have to do is pick up a decent " pad" and transcribe works I deem " finished" into.
 Although there was a French writer who said,
" a poem is never finished,just abandoned".   Take care. larry

I did the same thing...

In fact in 2008 when I started farming more actively, I spent 9 months developing a farm plan. I was a machinist at the time so all I did was hit the big green button and let the machine machine out the part. It was so boring that my mind would wonder to farm related stuff so I would jot thoughts down, then later compile it into a nice farm plan.

Yep people laughed...

BUT, in 9 years time I have found every time I deviated from the farm plan, I had more problems and ended up going back to my original plan. For instance fencing, research showed that good fencing was a must for sheep, but being frugal I tried other types of fence, but yep sure enough I ended up going back to Page Wire because there is just no alternative to it. That is just one example. Anyway now when I think about going against my farm plan, I think how I am like 0 for 2000 on that, so I don't even try. The reason for that is, I had time to think and mull things over and formulate a really good plan.

So writing, jotting down thoughts, and staying active in writing can also be VERY conducive to successful farming.

I too am a writer.  I have a short novella on the go at the moment. I have not had anything published (besides letters to the editor of newspapers) and have a bit of trouble finishing stories properly, but the ideas... some times I just can't shut them down.

Here is the latest letter I wrote.  It had to be 400 words so it was a lot of editing which made it look a bit funnier than it might have with more space.

To the Editor,

Tim Ryan rightly concludes that dramatic forest fire risk reduction is needed, but his is not a big picture assessment.  He states that current wildfires are related to climate change, and the symptom-the dead beetle pine-should be treated with prescribed burns.  While this is one very useful and fast acting tool, I disagree that it should be the prime initiative.  

Many other human factors contributed to the situation than is common knowledge.  Number one is the trapping to near extinction of the beaver.  This keystone species-responsible managers of B.C.'s hydrology as well as forest transition...  gone.  Water tables drop, snow-melt rages the creeks to incised gullies, ecosystems dry out, soil and biomass erode.  Fire potential increases exponentially and happens more catastrophically.  From the dry ridges pines and Douglas firs replace cedars, hemlocks, and spruces, as well as the previously beaver managed broadleaved deciduous stands, dramatically reducing diversity.  With the loss of ponds evaporative water was massively reduced, drying the air locally and downwind regionally.

Later, the management realized that it's policy of total fire suppression was unnatural but the province was already overrun with over-mature pine along with a dramatic reduction in the natural fire buffers.  

We also started clear-cutting coastal old growth and interior forests, focusing on higher value trees, exasperating the over-mature pine problem, while furthering unprecedented erosion and biomass loss.  With every Western cut-block a massive source of transpired moisture for rain to the East was lost, while winds increased-furthering ecosystem drying at every turn.  

Single age tree farms, like post-fire forests, often produce closed canopies of exclusive conifers.  Dead lower branches become ladder fuel for candling forest fires, leading to crown fires, firestorms, etc.  Conversely, deciduous forests drop crown fires to the ground; such fires are geometrically slower.  

The government saw the exploding beetle population but delayed until it was way too late.  In the very least, they could have focused on logging fire guards.  But further, we need to plant deciduous fire guards in strategic locations, setting the stage for the reintroduction of beaver on scale.   Right now we need to hydrate the landscape and pray that we haven't delayed over-long with coming to the real conclusion: that nearly two centuries of bad practices are directly responsible for all of the variables that caused this situation.  We need to understand the extent of the problem, not simply treat the obvious symptoms with more of the same.

I have been writing at least 3000 words a day since, 1975. I used to use a cheap spiral bound notebook and draw in the margins. In the mid 80's I switched into word processing programs. I am still writing. I occasionally get published and yes I use aliases. Write however you want to, and need to, about anything you do need to. That makes it the easiest. Just write. I see the blank page as a challenge (and in the days of paper only, if I was getting a blank, I'd jolly well doodle or draw and that'd get it going).

Keep writing.  

I am a writer as well. I find my writing motivations in whatever I’m actively involved in at the time. I’ve had articles published in periodicals on various topics. I even launched my own online magazine that was quite successful from a readership point of view. Lately, I’ve been blogging and writing about Christian agrarianism. As a student of the Bible, I find it has much to say about agrarian living. Therefore, I’m currently drafting a manuscript that argues for the biblical mandate of what I refer to as “stewardculture.”

I’ve tried my hand at several attempts at fiction novels. These efforts usually get stalled due to my poor development of an overall outline. Yet, I struggled with the balance between organic development and the structured guidance of an outline.

Where I feel the most creative is in my writing of poetry. My tendency is a type of free verse wherein the individual line is a packed nugget, though not a full sentence. This makes my line breaks less arbitrary and hopefully delivers something of worth for most of the lines. My most recent poems have been agrarian in nature and theme. I’ve posted four here at permies.com and you can check them out here if you like: https://permies.com/t/80/19166/art/Poem-day

If you are interested in my ruminations on Christian agrarianism, you’re welcome to pop over to my blog, Stewardculture, which is hosted at Sustainable Traditions here: http://sustainabletraditions.com/stewardculture/

i write things sometimes. https://naturecultureself.wordpress.com/2017/09/12/first-blog-post/

Michael Jay Anthony wrote:i write things sometimes. https://naturecultureself.wordpress.com/2017/09/12/first-blog-post/

So tantalizing - a link to a private blog that we need special permission to access...  ;)  

Any chance of a few clues about what it's about?  

I was glad to see that I'm not the only one here that's semi driven to pick up a pen, not the only one to have a pile of pads. Some tattered,many in various states.
Deb, 3000 words a day is pretty impressive.    Larry

Just adding this here for those interested.  An interesting book on the alphabet and the origins and magic of words is David Abram's "The Spell of the Sensuous".  One of the concepts that was intriguing to me was the history of the verb "to spell":

"Maybe just the first thing I'll say in relation to the questions you are raising is that I'm not in any way interested in demonizing writing or the alphabet or in saying that it's bad in any way. I am a writer, and I love the written word; I love it. And, I love what it enables for me. What I am saying is that writing is magic and that it is a very potent form of magic. And that, unless we recognize how potent, how powerful this technology is, and how profoundly and how even in many non-rational ways, it influences our experience, unless we recognize the magic of the written word, then we are simply under its spell. And, it's not by chance that the word spell has this double meaning - to cast a spell, or to arrange the letters in the correct order to spell out a word. Because these two meanings were at one time very, very close. Because to learn to read with this new magical technology, to be able to arrange the letters in the right order, to actually conjure, as it were, that thing that you just spelled—it was experienced by oral peoples, who had not met the written word before, as magic, as a very powerful form of magic. -- David Abrams   (  http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/abram.htm#The_Magical_Spell_of_Writing: )

I am a writer. I used to do a lot of ghost writing for others, but set it aside since it was pretty unfulfilling. These days I write for myself and really enjoy it. I keep an active online presence, have several books in different phases of the process, etc. The biggest problem I have is that between a 60 (randomly spaced)hour a week job and homeschooling 2 children, my writing moves at an absolute crawl. The end goal is to be able to write full-time, but unless something does stunningly well in the near future, that goal is still a ways off.

Glad I posted this, I need a good place to start posting some of the "'poorly written" things I write. Is there an online site or sites that anyone could suggest that are not too hard on" new folks"?   I write things from common observations that most don't see to poetry. Every thing in between. Kinda thinking that some eyes other than mine should see some of the things I write. Be nice to get some feed back. More than willing to listen to some constructive criticism. I do have a distinct style I've been told. Be nice to have some help honing what little skills I have lol.  TNX.  Larry

Hi Larry, for an easy (nonjudgemental) grammar check, while not perfect, you might want to try https://www.grammarly.com/. I believe they have a free version, but I do have a paid subscription with them for work purposes. Sometimes I think Word does a better job, and sometimes Grammarly. Sometimes, I try a sentence in both and see what they come up with!

Denise and Larry

The point about two different grammar sources sometimes giving different guidance about usage is an example of the fact that grammar is a tricky thing.

Actually, grammar is a fun topic for me and I love to discuss it with other writers. Being steeped in both an English department training (Bachelor of Arts) from a public American university and journalism training as a profession, one finds out quickly that grammar is not a static thing. It is also not universally agreed upon even in the same country or profession. We can all point to regional anomalies in usage and lexicon. But, it took me years to become less rigid in my application of grammatical rules, whether in academic writing, creative writing, or journalistic writing.

Even in the sentence in the paragraph above I used the Oxford comma at the end of the sentence when I wrote three items in a series. However, in journalistic writing, the rule is to not use the Oxford comma. Instead of applying the journalistic rule to everything, I have adopted use of the Oxford comma in all writing except journalistic writing where brevity is honored.

We are not all going to agree on rules. We can even have our own individual rules to which we adhere, even though some rules may evolve for others. For example, the Associated Press -- the primary arbiter of style for journalism -- recently announced that the word "over" is now acceptable when meaning "more than." This rule I simply cannot abide. It is a pet peeve of mine when people speak or write and use the word “over” when they should use the words “more than.” Though the error is a completely different part of speech, this prejudice I have against it makes me a hypocrite because I sometimes hear myself speaking and ending sentences in prepositions. I try to avoid doing so, but I slip sometimes. Even going back and proofreading my own work I’ll spot sentences that end in prepositions erroneously. I know it’s not according to the rules and will support the rule, but I don’t always live up to that one.

Even within the same profession, people cannot agree. There is a faction of journalism that follow what is called Chicago style, not AP style. I shudder to think. My negative reaction to this faction shows me I am still struggling to not be so rigid when it comes to grammar and usage. Even writing that sentence caused me a small pang because I used to argue for a more static grammar and not allow poor usage to reshape it through time. How narrow minded I was because if I felt grammar should be fixed, when in time should be the anchor point? The Old English of Beowulf? The Middle English of Chaucer? The English of Shakespeare? The English of the UK during the imperial period? The American English of 1970s? Who is to say? There was significant debate in the English department at the university I attended about the language of gender and they made an official announcement that the “he/she” construction with the slash was acceptable in academic writing. My reaction was, “What?! Are you kidding me?” Though the discussion was healthy for gender equity issues, the “he/she” construction didn’t change the way men and women felt about each other. In fact, it distracted the debate away from the underlying issues that keep us from gender equity. While attending that university, I never used the construction and simply reworded my sentences to avoid the pronoun reference to gender.

At the end of the day, communication is important. A toddler learning to speak does communicate well enough so that her parents understand her, though syntax and lexicon are not correct. I wouldn’t advocate for the chaos of toddler language or what some refer to as text speak because I believe we do need a more defined structure regarding spelling and grammar. But, I now try not to frown when I hear someone say, “irregardless.”

The best two strategies I can recommend to help improve someone's writing are:
1 - Don't be attached to first or early drafts. Writing is a craft wherein you hammer on the raw material of your sentences going back to the forge several times and shaping it with strikes and blows and then quenching it before feeling it's ready for reading.
2 - Read your work aloud. Never hit send or print, or never consider a draft finished until you have read it aloud. As you listen to it, you will hear possible edits and improvements.

Whew, I better stop there.

Glad I posted this, I need a good place to start posting some of the "'poorly written" things I write. Is there an online site or sites that anyone could suggest that are not too hard on" new folks"?   I write things from common observations that most don't see to poetry. Every thing in between. Kinda thinking that some eyes other than mine should see some of the things I write. be nice to get some feed back. More than willing to listen to some constructive criticism. I do have a distinct style I've been told. Be nice to have some help honing what little skills I have lol.  TNX.  Larry

I'm presently about three quarters of the way through a 300,000 word anthology of short fiction, the 33rd Annual: The Year's Best Science Fiction.  It has been eye opening to read the diversity of grammar that has come into play in people's writing.  Although I took creative writing in high school, I do not have any background in writing beyond that.  I have gained what little knowledge that I have up to this point primarily through reading a great deal from a diversity of authors in a diversity of genres, and trying as best I can to remember the basics as I put pen to paper or sit at the keyboard.  I fail and flail and make up my own rules sometimes as might be noticed in my letter to the editor posted above.

Although I do not read or write much poetry, there are certain styles-genres if you will-that require a specific structure.  Like some authors who write prose, be it fiction or non, some poetry I find unreadable.  But with poetry, I think that this is primarily due to my lack of having both the eye and the patience to figure out the style that it is written in; it's sort of a language unto itself, and my ignorance of poetry leads to my not understanding it.  Poor writing is something altogether different, and usually jumps out like a sore thumb.  There must be some poetry sites on-line that may be able to point you in the right direction.  I'm sure that if you shared some of your work in a thread on permies and linked it here (or just shared it here in this thread), you would get some people willing to offer constructive criticism/comment.    

This is kind of on the subject...the idea of not watching T.V.  

We canceled our satellite T.V. a couple of months ago.  I'm amazed at the impact, not having, T.V. has on time.  

I didn't realize how much time I was wasting at night watching the tube.

In two months I've read six books, made my first batch of mead and basically focused more on my food forest.  

I would love to write and self-publish a book but I wouldn't know where to start, and my grammar sucks.   When I read a good book I think, "man would I love to do that."  I write in a journal but it's more a to-do list and my brain on paper.

Sorry for your loss!

Denise Kersting wrote:Hi Larry, for an easy (nonjudgemental) grammar check, while not perfect, you might want to try https://www.grammarly.com/. I believe they have a free version, but I do have a paid subscription with them for work purposes. Sometimes I think Word does a better job, and sometimes Grammarly. Sometimes, I try a sentence in both and see what they come up with!

Typely is free and tough competitor to Grammarly. Would love to know your thoughts on this one.

Good morning to all.  I have about 10 New Years resolutions for the next year.  One of them is to try to find a friendly writing/poetry/ short story forum to join. If anyone has a suggestion, I'd appreciate it . Another is to semi organize the the pile of composition books filled with my feeble attempts. I'm talking the pen and ink angle. I do leave pages in between writing because every time I " visit " one? I change something or make a note to change something. Its safe to say that my black bag is a disaster lol. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Happy New Year to all.       Larry

I write when I have the mental energy to do it (I have an autistic daughter with health problems who can be very distracting and draining).  Most of my writing is fiction and I haven't even tried to publish any of that, but I have published a few non-fiction articles over the years.  If someone is looking for help with writing and with indie publishing, the Mad Genius Club blog posts are really good (my oldest daughter, who has a bunch of fantasy and sci-fi in print, blogs there once in a while, so I follow it).  They tend to be conservative (as am I), and generally they are a good-humored, intelligent, and helpful bunch.  

Kathleen

Good morning to all.  I have about 10 New Years resolutions for the next year.  One of them is to try to find a friendly writing/poetry/ short story forum to join. If anyone has a suggestion, I'd appreciate it .

Hiya, Larry!

Poet here. (MFA in CW blah blah.) I don't know of any creative writing forums that are well-established or active other than maybe some Facebook groups or something along those lines. I deleted my Facebook years ago, but, if you use it, you might consider doing a quick search and seeing if there's something on there that would work for you.

However, depending on where you live, such as somewhat near a larger town/city, you might consider looking into some local readings and attending a few. Chances are, you'll be able to pretty quickly find some fellow writers in your community who might be interested in forming a little workshop group or just a group of people you can bounce ideas off of/talk to about struggles and triumphs. Universities with Creative Writing programs, and sometimes libraries, put on events that are often free and open to the permies. You might ask a local bookstore, too, if they have any leads on some readings coming up. Attending readings is also a great way to show support and solidarity for the writers and the community!

If, like me, you're shy around new people, you might consider forming a little group with the people on here who want a similar online experience. Maybe send some PMs to people you notice have writing objectives similar to yours, exchange emails, then set up deadlines (monthly, weekly, whatever) for emailing work to each other for feedback. It could be more polished stuff, but I find that getting feedback on a piece you're pretty stuck on is the most rewarding in the long run. It might be pretty neat to start something like that with some fellow permies. Though it sounds fun, I would caution you to keep the group relatively small so that you can avoid being overwhelmed. Also, if you do choose to form a workshop group, it's like any other group situation. Kindness and empathy in your constructive feedback is a must, as well as some praise so as not to discourage some more sensitive/self-conscious writers.

In terms of organizing old stuff...can't help ya too much there (*as she averts her eyes away from the piles of half-filled notebooks lurking in every corner of the house*). When I feel that a poem is done, or isn't salvageable, I'll typically get rid of old drafts. But I like to keep most of my old drafts so I can see the evolution of a piece. It also makes it easier for me to not lose sight of what my original objective was with the piece.

I'm so glad to see so many writers on here! Writing can be such a cathartic and enriching experience; even more so when you can share it with someone else.

**Also, to anyone who thinks he or she isn't a writer because of grammatical issues, as a college writing tutor, grammar is often quite subjective, as someone stated above. I've told many students, particularly ESL students (English as Second Language), that, as long as the meaning of a sentence is easily understood by the reader, you're doing great. Maybe not for an academic audience, but not all writing needs or wants to have that purpose.

Write anyway and often.

I'm a writer. I have a novella and several short stories published. I've taken a break at the moment while we're building our house (at least from fiction writing) but plan to get back to work by next fall.

Hello, probably should have posted a new thread but this seems like a good place. It's an observation/question. I really love music, perhaps because it's basically poetry with back ground.  I listen intently to lyrics. If I'm not really sure of the words, I look up the song and make sure that I understood the wording.   This, has almost become an every day occurance. I basically tone out the instrumentals and dive deeper into the words behind them. I enjoy doing this because many people love a song, but don't really know the lyrics. A few mistaken in a stanza can change the meaning of the entire song. Does anyone else here dissect ( horrible way of putting things) music?    Ps, as I do this, I realize that there is vast improvement still to be done with my writing skill.   How can a mere mortal compete with Jim Morrison.  Lol

Poetry.... I'm not the guy to judge it as I understand only a small bit about it.  I like some of it, and understand some of it, but... not all of it is as clearly understandable as I would like.  Song lyrics are often more indecipherable than regular poetry in my experience.  Here's an example:  System of a down's Toxicity:

"Toxicity"

Conversion, software version 7.0
Looking at life through the eyes of a tire hub

Eating seeds as a pastime activity
The toxicity of our city, of our city

New, what do you own the world?
How do you own disorder, disorder
Now, somewhere between the sacred silence, sacred silence and sleep
Somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep
Disorder, disorder, disorder

More wood for their fires, loud neighbours
Flashlight reveries caught in the headlights of a truck

Eating seeds as a pastime activity
The toxicity of our city, of our city

New, what do you own the world?
How do you own disorder, disorder
Now, somewhere between the sacred silence, sacred silence and sleep
Somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep
Disorder, disorder, disorder

New, what do you own the world?
How do you own disorder
Now, somewhere between the sacred silence, sacred silence and sleep
Somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep
Disorder, disorder, disorder

When I became the sun
I shone life into the man's hearts
When I became the sun
I shone life into the man's hearts

I mean, I'm not expecting to have some deeper understanding of the universe while listening to System.  But these guy's are actually quite bright and the music is highly intellectually exceptional and interesting to boot, but do I understand what he is getting at in this song?  I mean what does the last part have to do with anything else in the song?

Now if I was to take Bob Dylan's Blowing in the Wind

[Verse 1]
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, and how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind

[Verse 2]
Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind

[Verse 3]
Yes, How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind

 We can see why it is that Bob is putting out more of an effort to clearly get an idea into someone's head with imagery.   There's a reason that he was given a noble prize for literature for his lyrics... but not all lyrics are created equal.

Same goes for poetry.

Roberto, I understand what your getting at. I enjoy most older music because the lyrics seem to be better written. My work partner listens to a different type of music. There are times on the road I turn to him and say. " really?, those are the only lyrics these guys could come up with"?    On the other hand, if something he's listening to makes sense, I'll mention that it was well written. Lol.  I like the word "imagery", very import word.  

i used to fancy myself to be something of a poet, i have written quite a bit of poetry, but not in a long time. i used do some poetry slams...

i tried to write a couple of plays too, but never finished them.

I also wrote 3/4 of a book on astrology, one of my favorite non sciences =)

maybe some day i would actually finish that....but i gave up writing a while ago. i don't sketch as much as i used to either...it is sort of similar.

i do agree that journalling is important, getting your thoughts out, all that poetry that writes itself in your head =)

I write some almost every day. It builds up.

Now I have a bit of it on line. Here's my latest performance art novel. I call it performance art because I carry it around and give the first few chapters away. Hope you like it.

http://www.zerowastenews.org/Many-rivers/manyRivers-ch1.html

Larry Bock wrote:Anyone here write or more specifically? Anyone feel a need to write? when I was in high school, I was a less than perfect student. Additionally, no one could figure out why I would get an "A"'in English/Creative writing and not even show up for the classes I did not care for. Eventually, this led to being " placed" in an alternitive education program for the last year and a half
  Decades and a lifetime sneak past. The last 18 months, I've chosen to eliminate TV from my life. Slowly, I started writing again. Now, I go nowhere without a composition book and a pen. Some writings start off with snippets or observations, some times abandoned for months, others will flow out on paper at a pretty quick pace. I note the date, time and give it a reference " title".  
 Somewhere along the line, this became pretty important to me from a lot of aspects . One being that once things are in ink, they need not rent space in my mind, the other, sometimes ( after many rewrites) I'm pretty happy with the final products. At times I approach a writing with a purpose. Ie. Cancer took my 20 year old daughters mother or could be just something little.

I write a little... on a website called Quotev. My user on there is Bristlebreeze, and my latest book is called A Hidden Destiny. Sound interesting? Check it out! Just go to Quotev, and search up Bristlebreeze in people.

I write, when I have the spoons for it. Have completed two novels, one novella, a novelette, and several short pieces. I've also got more than a few stories that are begun but nowhere near finished. The main project that I want to finish is a humor novel--I'm about 2/3 through the first draft.

Larry Bock wrote:Hello, probably should have posted a new thread but this seems like a good place. It's an observation/question. I really love music, perhaps because it's basically poetry with back ground.  I listen intently to lyrics. If I'm not really sure of the words, I look up the song and make sure that I understood the wording.   This, has almost become an every day occurance. I basically tone out the instrumentals and dive deeper into the words behind them. I enjoy doing this because many people love a song, but don't really know the lyrics. A few mistaken in a stanza can change the meaning of the entire song. Does anyone else here dissect ( horrible way of putting things) music?    Ps, as I do this, I realize that there is vast improvement still to be done with my writing skill.   How can a mere mortal compete with Jim Morrison.  Lol

I don't actively dissect lyrics, but I do pay attention to them. Some phrases strike me as particularly good because of the picture they paint, the feeling they evoke, or the flow of the words. I'm a songwriter as well.

I have this blog http://balancefeeling.wordpress.com/ and I write in a language that is not mine! I would love to CO-WRITE!
My 1st goal is english spanish french... the last one being my mother tongue.

My first goal now in writing is to make people feel the organic intelligence we have inside us, and that is not the brain but all in the body, heart and guts. I use images and very short textes.

I dont know how it happens there is such a big shut-up about the main system of the body regulating all other systems that work inside us... You can find there all the good reasons we have to be into permaculture, about how humans arrived where they are, what stucks us, and what can free us, because it works all the time in us, and we are not enough conscious of it.

Then this can also touch all topics about animal and plant behaviours! Species have their own intelligence and ways, and if you treat a cow like a cat, you are going to find out soon.... and this is not about genetics primarily either, it is about intelligence, but not the cortex one. it is ORGANIC.

oh yes, I had also started some plant descriptions, and they are around "behaviours, likings and dislikings". It is crazy until now to find writings all about "how to and uses"! I try to give back a real sense of life being alive!

So great to meet so many other writers here!

I write... I write articles, books, short stories, poetry... and of course in my notebook most days. I couldn't not write.

On my website (see my signature) you will find examples of my writing and I share ramblings from my notebook and excerpts from previously published work and my current work-in-progress, on my Facebook page: Alice Writes

I live a wandering off-grid lifestyle inspired by nature, so much of my writing is centred around that...

Would love to connect with fellow writers!

I've been writing books and short stories since I was a young child.  I can't not write.  And when I hear something, sometimes it jogs something in me, and an idea is spawned so I keep a small notebook in my purse and jot down ideas or book/article titles.  Then when I have time I can run with that.  What I do write seriously is pretty diverse, from a book on health and nutrition called Body Beautiful, Weight Loss & Rejuvenation, Surviving Grid Down, to Out of the Fast lane, Into the Flow (getting in touch with your soul's purpose).  For years now I've been working on my family history of the civil war, which is about the philosophy of how not having war works best, as all war really accomplishes is a lot of blood spilled, lives and businesses ruined and sets us back for generations.  This one has a lot of emphasis on how people survived, foraged for food and medicine and relied on nature and each other when they had nothing else.  It was civilization stripped down to bare bones survival skills.  Hope to have that one out by next spring, and have done several rewrites.  Will be my best work yet, but required a tremendous amount of research to make sure it was historically accurate and all the herbs I wanted to include for healing were actually written into the contents of the book, plus a chart at the end.  For cover pictures I get a real picture somewhere, usually on my digital camera,  and edit it to make it more or less hazy, higher pixels, etc., and just download.  This is where the computer comes in handy, although I dislike most high tech.  It is much easier to write on the computer and edit as I go rather than laboriously take hand written notes.  I usually do the outline and a synopsis before the actual meat of the story.  In other words, work out the focus, the timelines, the plot, before filling in all the gaps.  I can type (140 WPM when I was younger), than I can write.  

One thing I've learned is that to make it highly desirable and readable for the masses, is to make it passionate, about life, living and make them want to turn the page to get to the next part.  The kind of book you can't put down because you just have to know what comes next.  If you write about those things you love, it will come through into the writing/reading of it.  The first chapter should be something in the middle of an exciting action, and movement.  Don't start at the beginning, it will be boring.  A crisis played out, a looming danger, something that will hook the reader and get them into a hurried quick read and then into flipping the pages to get to the next exciting part.  Always end on a finale that wraps up the story, solves the riddle or gives closure and completeness.  This of course, is for fiction or historical event books or articles.  A how-to book is a bird of another feather, of course, and same rules don't apply.  Do make your outline, of course, and follow through so you don't leave out any important parts.  Write what you know about, too much research required otherwise and it can bog you down too much.  Although some research may be required anyway.  

So what are you waiting for?  Get to writing!

I'm a writer, too.  I started out as a poet and had about a hundred poems published in journals (mostly very small ones) before I got busy with working and then with raising a family and homeschooling.  I've had a website A Magical Childhood for about 18 years (it's very old fashioned looking now as it was written in code back before the days of wordpress and templates, and hasn't been updated in years).  About five years into that, I started the Magical Childhood blog for the site via wordpress.  I wrote every day on that for many years but now it's quite neglected.  I was offered a job writing for a now defunct site called Examiner about 12 years ago and had daily columns on the topics of green living, homeschooling and parenting there for about 8 years before the site went down.  At that point I moved some of my writing from those sites to two offshoots of the magical childhood site, A Magical Homeschool and A Magical Life (where I write about foraging, organic gardening, frugal living, from-scratch cooking and topics like that).  I briefly worked for a site called Inquisitr since the pay wasn't bad, but the things I had to write about to get the required number of page views to keep from getting yelled at rotted my soul and I quit after 6 months.

I've also self published four books about some of the topics I really love:

Acorn Foraging: Everything You Need to Know to Harvest One of Autumn’s Best Wild Edible Foods, with Recipes, Photographs and Step-By-Step Instructions

Elderberries: The Beginner's Guide to Foraging, Preserving and Using Elderberries for Health Remedies, Recipes, Drinks & More

A Magical Homeschool: Nature Studies: 52 Wonderful Ways to Use Nature Studies in Every Season to Teach Science, Math, Art and More

Getting Started Homeschooling: Everything You Need to Know About Legal Requirements, Curricula, Testing, Types of Homeschooling, Learning Styles, Socialization and Making It Fun for Everyone

(affiliate links)

Self publishing had a huge learning curve and I still find it exhausting but I do like being able to write about what I truly love and do it on my own schedule.

I have an author website where I occasionally publish excerpts and blog posts related to my books and an author Facebook page, as well.

I have several billion (it seems) books also started waiting for me to finish them.  ;)  I've also begun to start writing poetry again recently.  At this stage of my life I've found the need for the expression that nothing but poetry seems to give me.  I am stretched so thin between homeschooling and parenting 5 kids of all stages of life, homesteading, and trying to do the administrative and promotional work involved in writing for profit (which is the part I honestly hate).  My husband is getting his knee replaced next week and our family is involved in a lot of volunteer work and quite a lot of eclectic opportunities and obligations. I feel perpetually behind in everything it seems I could be behind in.  I could not *not* write, though, like so many here.

I'm looking forward to connecting with other writers.  Thanks for creating this forum!

I’m not a professional writer but I write essays about healthy lifestyle and promote it among college classmates. Also, I'm working on my own blog

First: good on you for choosing to eliminate television. I made that choice myself, 'way back when I was crossing into adulthood. I found it was a huge time waster, and nothing on television was as important to me as the things I would have to stop doing to make time for it.

Yes, I write, too. Everything from scientific papers, to a novel in progress, to an occasional haiku. Of course, so far, only the scientific papers have actually been published. Oh, yes, and now I have a column in the monthly newsletter for my community -- I write about the local trees. I have kept journals on-and-off, usually when traveling, though not always. And I have an especially prized notebook full of ideas and research about every possible aspect of treehouse life; I have specified in my will that under no circumstances is that notebook to be destroyed -- it must go to an engineer or architect interested in the ideas in it.

Permies on the web
Freely exchanging brainstorms
Make virtual, real

I love to write too. I've started publishing a poem per month of those I wrote last year on my website here https://peaceandpollen.net/2019/01/09/poem-per-month-january/


Thanks for the thread

Another person who loves to write here!

I used to enjoy writing English language essays at school and got good marks for it so this encouraged me.  I have kept a diary since my late schooldays and am now 70!  Admittedly the daily entries dwindled to more occasional/monthly updates.  Writing is wonderfully effective/cathartic when it comes to sorting your head/emotions out.  If there was a housefire, I would rank my diaries as easily being one of my most prized possessions to save (all those memories!)

Writing came into its own with becoming a singer/songwriter and then with free verse poetry.  I was in a poetry group and we printed a booklet of our poems.

Later I enjoyed writing for the years when I was performing stand up comedy!  Most comics have topics that they waffle on about, knowing their punchlines.  I had such a respect for fine writing that I wanted to deliver a perfectly honed package so I rehearsed my lines word for word (very tedious!)  The trick was to make it sound fresh, unrehearsed on stage.

Now I am in a writers group where we have various suggested topics that we write on for about half and hour then read it back to the group, for feedback.  I use just the blank backs of recycled/printed paper and a pencil that has a rubber on the end.  I find that this allows for easy editing (erasing) to get a higher quality end product.

Larry Bock wrote:Anyone here write or more specifically? Anyone feel a need to write? .... The last 18 months, I've chosen to eliminate TV from my life. Slowly, I started writing again. Now, I go nowhere without a composition book and a pen....

I've always been addicted to the written word.  I blame it on my father's mother, who read to me soon as I was old enough to appreciate it.  She sat me on her lap and followed the words with her finger, and that's how I learned to read (for a very brief while I could read some Swedish, too).  I'm not sure when I started writing, but it wasn't more than a decade later that I submitted my first story to be published in my school's creative writing publications.  That was a long, long time ago, but I never stopped either reading or writing.  I'm not sure I could do so and stay sane, because TV and movies just don't make it for me.  I haven't lived with a TV in my house since 1993 and I don't stream the shows either.

I've got stacks of manuscripts, volumes of journals, and boxes of scribbles taking up space in storage along with, oh, maybe a few thousand books. It wasn't till the turn of the last decade, not long after 9/11, that I turned pro, and that was only because I couldn't stand one more day of being a substitute teacher (sorry, but I just do not like kids).  I have no idea why I got hired, but suddenly I was a news reporter and feature story writer for a weekly regional paper here in western New Mexico.  My beat was the county I live in -- all 7000 square miles of it.  I attended every meeting I could get to, showed up at every accident that I found out about, covered every oddball incident I could discover -- but best of all, I interviewed a lot of fascinating people, including permies Dan and Karen Howell.  

Fast forward to spending about a decade writing for a natural resource research and analysis institute in southern New Mexico, and then a few years after that of working as a contract writer for my county (and several others).  The politics of it -- OMG.  It was worse than being around kids all day.  So I ditched the good income and decided to write novels.

Note that breaking into the field of fiction writing is not something I recommend for anyone who plans on supporting themselves or their family.  I could do it because I was by this time a senior citizen and receiving Social Security.  I've yet to find a publisher for either of the two novels I've completed but I've self-published a few things, and I've sold two (2) short stories in the past year.  I might have done better than that if I had put real effort into it, but it's way more fun writing than it is marketing the writing.

Writing, you see, is not what I do, it's who I am.  I, too, have a tiny field notes composition book with me almost all the time though I seem to end up scribbling ideas on the backs of envelopes and on used napkins. I've found that dictating my thoughts to my phone as I hike works best for me. When I can't see the words right then I'm not tempted to edit as I go.  Believe me, the constant editing as I write is guaranteed to choke my best ideas to death.  Back home I put the phone's speaker next to my laptop's mic, open Google Docs to a new document, click on Tools/Voice Typing, and let Google do the transcribing.  Oh yes, the transcription is ugly -- Google is a riot with its interpretations of what I've said, not to mention all the oh sh*ts and such -- but from that manure often rises beautiful blossoms.

PS - I like what I've written here so much that I"m going to post a version of it on my blog https://lifstrand.com/lif-strand-blog/

I've sporadically been a writer and later in life find myself taking it up again.  Went to school to be a broadcaster/journalist and spent a decade in that field.  Wrote a lot of news, features, ads, etc.  Became chronically ill and invested some years doing all I could to reclaim my health and have better quality of life.  Ended up working in some non-media areas for a long time to make ends meet and enable my aspiration to live in the boonies.  Now, I've been pecking at a non-fiction project about weight/health and indulging in some fun fiction for a couple of nanowrimos.  Working up a podcast for release this spring to help with marketing/audience-building for the non-fiction book.  I've hashed this project around for a long time -sometimes doubting I had anything distinct or important to contribute on the topic.  I've decided that I do.  They say to never write a book that doesn't demand to be written.  This one has insisted.  I'm finding editing a book-length manuscript far more challenging than writing it.