I should write more, but for some reason I'm finding it hard to actually do it. I want to improve my writing skill, do something creative and constructive instead of just consuming the stories here, but I've always put it off because I've felt that I can't live up to my own expectations or that I can't match the intricate and clever plots of the authors here or other silly excuses. Maybe I should just write from the heart.
Or maybe I should just start with a blog like, um, like this one. You know, baby steps. Well, I find Bobbie-C's blog really inspiring and interesting because of her many adventures especially when she visited my home town in Metro Manila. But then my life is just...mundane. I've been living full time for 8 years since I was 19 and finding my partner 3 years ago my life has settled into a kind of mind-numbing routine except for those annoying times when my yet-unchanged legal status being pre-op and my country not having laws for changing them yet has given me problems. Well, other than going on a study trip, alone, to China last year, it's just been normal. "TG girl goes to China to study!" I wonder if that'll be interesting to anyone. Anyway, and here I thought being normal was good. It gets boring.
Maybe I should just write about our cute tuxedo cat that we named "Cat" or hosting cosplay / anime events on weekends. Or the exciting routine grocery shopping I did earlier today! Or my work doing graphics design and business writing / editing for an IT firm. So what do I write about?
Comments
I was going to suggest the
I was going to suggest the adventures of Skip the wonder hamster, but your cat works just as well. Just write, don't stress over what. You get better by doing so write away.
Heather
We are the change that will save the world.
Thanks Heather! It's nice to
Thanks Heather! It's nice to hear encouraging words from one of my favorite authors!
What got me off my duff
Was a contest. They happen with passable frequency here. When it does, go for it!
Yeah... once you start
Yeah... once you start writing it is really hard to stop. Everytime you read a story you'll need to encarcerate your muse so she won't jump out with like three new story ideas. And she'll still yell from your prison-closet.
Seriously, if you want to write something, just read some stories and note the stuff that you really like and that really pisses you off. Try to get the stuff together and you'll have the idea for the story. Then you need to outline the plot - it's smarter or the story is very likely to become chaotic. And then you can start and put every brainfart in the story ;)
Have fun,
Beyogi
Mundane
Just remember that one person's 'mundane' is another's 'exotic'. Manila will seem exotic to a lot of people. There are two things that a thinking reader will pick up on: originality and craft. If you have a way with words, you can carry people along on the simplest of rides. If you have an inventive mind, poor grammar and word skills can be overlooked as a sense of wonder takes over.
Give it a go. That's how we all started.
Ideas
I write very infrequently, but my philosophy's generally been "Do something different". So for example: a magical transformation involving a surprisingly helpful genie, a forced fem plan that backfires because the intended victim saw it coming and took preventative measures; a variation on a theme of an email scam; a couple of fairy tales reduced to 100 word drabbles (with the obligatory TG twist); a TG story based on nursery rhymes (!); and a superheroine whosemain powers are only noticeable underwater.
A lot of what I've written has been ideas that came to me one day and transcribed into about 2,000 words over the course of a few hours. Musical motifs can be a fun way to yield a story - take a song, give it a TG twist, and write a story around that.
Even the relatively mundane can attract readers - there's an ongoing story here concentrating on the daily life of a family in Portsmouth. Needless to say, they're not quite your ordinary average family - three post-op TGs, two peers, a university professor, a growing collection of children / young adults (plus a dog) and an orchard (but no mention yet of any partridges nesting in the pear trees!)
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
write anything!
If you want to write, write anything! Your life sounds pretty interesting to me, and a visit to China as a trans girl would be an awesome story.
What to write?
There's a part of the forum called Writers' Challenge. Maybe something there will tweak your interest.
Another source of ideas are your reactions to TV, movies, or other stories -- especially when you feel it didn't go the way it should have. Or, how the story would have gone if one of the characters were transgendered.
Good luck, and have fun!
Perhaps you're asking the
Perhaps you're asking the wrong question...
"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." - Toni Morrison
- vessica b
Great perspective Vessica.
Great perspective Vessica. Thanks!