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Calling All Writers!

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by Sebby45, Apr 1, 2017.

  1. Sebby45

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    So, who likes to write? Has anyone here written stories based around their experiences as "being outside the box" so to speak?

    A long while back I wrote a story about a MtF "boy." It needs a lot of reworking, but it helped get out a lot of emotional steam when I first started questioning my gender/sexuality, etc. Even though it wasn't my situation, I could put myself in the protagonist's shoes.

    So, what do you write?

    Sebby45
     
  2. Canterpiece

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    :smilewave


    Why yes, I have. My stories often include LGBT characters, but not always.


    Fiction.

    Primarily fantasy based stories (sometimes treading into more sci-fi territories) coming of age story arcs, movie scripts based off the fantasy stories I write, and occasionally mystery stories.

    Alternative dimensions, fantasy creatures and internal conflict are common themes I tend to write about. :slight_smile:
     
  3. Lazuri

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    I have a lot of partly written stories and one of them does borrow a lot from my own experiences. This story in particular is a romance between a girl and a post-op transwoman and deals a lot with their respective pasts and their struggles to stay together.

    Though what I'm currently writing on is about a 175-year old immortal woman who works as a private investigator in London and deals with various occult threats. The story follows the daily life of her and her secretary.
     
  4. Creativemind

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    I do write, but I don't usually write LGBT stories. I have one story that has a main lesbian couple, but it isn't centered around their romance. It's more about dealing with mental illness and family problems. My other story has no mentions of LGBT at all, since It's more of an adventure type of story.

    I actually prefer writing stories that don't have anything to do with my experiences. I find it more interesting to explore different perspectives. Even with my main F/F couple, the main character is bisexual, which is not who I am.
     
  5. Sebby45

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    Lazuri, those sound interesting! The London one sounds very intriguing.

    I'm glad to have received some responses, writing is a unique hobby in that you get to create new worlds. I'm more of a poet myself...but every so often I'll write a rough draft to some sort of story. The trans one I mentioned is the only LGBT one I have written.

    And I agree with Creativemind, it is nice to step into other characters' shoes and reach for something beyond what we know.

    Well, let's see if any other writers drop by. :thumbsup:

    Sebby
     
    #5 Sebby45, Apr 2, 2017
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  6. Lazuri

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    Yeah, it's quickly turning into one of my favorites. What I wrote here is the most basic of summaries; there's a lot more to her immortality that makes her a more interesting character.
     
  7. Creativemind

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    I agree.

    Sometimes I even try to write different forms of oppression than what I'm used to. For example, one of my characters is a heterosexual woman, but she was oppressed by her society due to racism. Now, this is society is VERY racist. She grew up being bullied and feeling unwanted because of it. In a side RP with a friend (which is different than the main plot, but still relevant here) she falls in love with a guy who is of the majority. They still have to keep their relationship a secret, or else society might go against him for liking someone of inferior racial status.

    So in a way I played on the reverse oppression of my experiences. They're completely different situations and not at all linked to LGBT, yet I can relate to feeling discriminated against and having to hide a relationship from unjust society. There are ways you can explore completely different situations while still relating in different ways.

    Of course I do have LGBT couples too, so I relate to those ones even better. But it is fun to do varied experiences.
     
  8. GGod

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    I like to write, but I'm not very good at it. I'd be much more interested in reading what you guys had to offer, just from observing this conversation. Lol. Maybe you guys could post links here to your writing or something, if you're comfortable enough!

    It might inspire others to take up some form of writing, too.
     
    #8 GGod, Apr 2, 2017
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  9. Eyerene

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    I do write stories, but most of them aren't about my experiences of being Pansexual. I do have characters that are LGBTQ+, but the main conflict is focused on either interpersonal issues (not caused by discrimination of sexuality) or about the world around them.

    I'm writing a futuristic dystopia. Instead of focusing on the "hero" that saves everyone, I'm going to put emphasis on what it's like to live in a broken society plagued by constant environmental disasters and incredibly high tensions between the rich and the poor. By the end of the story, the environment, the social status of the characters, nor the government will change, but the characters themselves will grow due to their experiences. I plan for a bittersweet ending, because I believe that while life doesn't end in the worst way possible, it certainly doesn't go as nicely as wanted, either.

    A lot of the characters are LGBTQ+, but that's not the focus. It appears in dialogue and the character's thoughts, but there isn't much of a struggle to accept that identity. In the time period this story is set, there are much bigger issues at hand than sexuality (and I'm also hoping that being LGBTQ+ won't be considered an issue that far in the future).

    Another thing I have in the works is lesbian love story in a prison. Expecting the ladies to be inmates or one to be an inmate and the other to be a prison guard? Both are wrong. This is a romance between an inmate and the janitor. It's supposed to focus on moral dilemmas (crime strictly through the eyes of the law), just punishments, the cost of self doubt, the mistrust of others, and when it is acceptable to break the rules. I hope that leaves readers asking the question: to what extent should love be pursued?

    I also have many other ideas. I love writing so much, but I find that I don't have time for it with school taking up a lot of my time. I figure that's not going to change very much as I get to the polytechnic, but I can wait until after.

    Anyway, maybe instead of talking about what my stories are going to be, maybe I should sit down and write them. :lol:
     
  10. ThatBorussenGuy

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    I'm always writing. Not really anything taken from my own experiences, though. My stories tend to lean towards the dramatic, with a bit of action thrown in. My characters tend to be involved on one side of the law or another; a crime boss, a hitman-for-hire, a cop, a detective, an intelligence agent... it's that kind of universe. Two of my characters are openly LGBT (one's gay and the other is bisexual), but it's referenced off-handedly, since I don't factor romance into my stories.

    Most of what I write is short stories. But I've written one kind-of novel; I consider it too short to be a proper novel but it's a finished multi-chapter story, so close enough. Right now I'm working on another one about a Brooklyn detective working with an Italian-American college student to take down the above-mentioned crime boss who had someone in both of their families killed. That one is already half as long as my finished "novel" and I'm nowhere near done with it, so that might actually be a full-fledged novel.
     
    #10 ThatBorussenGuy, Apr 4, 2017
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  11. Argentwing

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    Proud to say I just finished my sci-fi novel (!) and am letting it sit for awhile before its next round of edits. In the meantime I've started a low fantasy story set in a quasi-Napoleonic era, following a 15-year-old crown prince who finally comes of age to take the throne after a decade of living under a steward. I'm really excited for it. :grin:
     
    #11 Argentwing, Apr 4, 2017
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  12. MikaRising

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    Well, I write about a lot of things, but most of the things I write do have LGBT characters simply because that's a way for me to get my feelings out, and not feel so lonely, I guess? It's nice to know that even if I can't meet a woman who's into woman in real life, my gay guy ends up with his dream guy, at the very least lol. I'm actually working on something right now I'm hoping to get published that's much darker than I'm used to writing... but I don't want to get too much into the details of that. Anyways, I'm loving this thread! :slight_smile:
     
  13. BMC77

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    I write fiction off and on. Recently has been an off stretch. Sigh. :bang:

    In the past, I had plenty of gay characters. The most extreme case was an unfinished novel that I started in 2001, and worked on at times off and on since that time. That novel had at least 2 gay characters--indeed, they were the first two characters, and I knew they'd eventually end up in a relationship. It's funny, as I've commented here before, that I could work on such a project, and yet remain in denial that I, myself, am gay for so many years.

    Looking ahead...I think it's very likely that I will make heavy use of gay men as major characters. I tend to prefer first person view point, and I feel most comfortable with a character who is a gay male. At the same time, though, I'm not sure how interested I am in writing something that really requires the character to be gay, or has major LGBT themes. I like a balance where being gay is part of the character. It may influence the plot. But the basic plot could survive and be recognizable if the character turned straight.

    Indeed, I ended up turning characters straight in a story I submitted last year. I had submitted that story previously with gay characters in 2014, but decided on a different approach to the story for 2016. So I turned them straight. The story, overall, worked OK--apart from small plot points, it really made little difference. But...I think the 2014 edition worked better. I certainly struggled with the decison to turn everyone straight, which I wrote about here on EC. I don't feel as comfortable with the narrator as a straight guy--even though he's not dating and having no sex in either version.
     
  14. Sebby45

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    Congrats on finishing your novel! Your next one sounds like it will have a good plot. :slight_smile:

    Thanks for sharing. Writing is an excellent tool for freeing emotions. I don't know, there is just something about words. Good luck with your publication project! :thumbsup:


    To start the sharing process for those who want to share a bit of writing, here is a part of my short story: "Charlotte Sometimes" (yeah I know The Cure has a song by the same title. Lol. Different material entirely.)

    The boy sat cross legged on the bed. In front of him rested a slim cardboard box, holding all his life’s treasure. Rain poured steadily outside.The boy, as we shall call him at present, was a slim sixteen year old. He had blue doe eyes, sandy hair, and a fair complexion. This had brought on an onslaught of bullying. This along with the fact that the boy just wasn’t interested in sports or girls or any of the “manly” pursuits.

    He caressed the box lid slowly. This box, a double edged sword - freedom and reminder of the deep, secret, throbbing, shame inside. He held his breath praying that no one would enter his small room, and flicked open the lid. And there it is: a beautiful black dress, makeup, a couple of modeling magazines, and a rich red nail polish. But the boy’s pride and joy is that dress. He holds it up to look at it closer and then pulls it to him in an embrace. “This is me,” he thinks and he envisions with rapture the day when he is no longer the boy but Charlotte in all her glory. But not yet. Who could understand the guilt and wonder, the rapture and pain, the strangeness of it all?

    He shivers to think what his father would think. Mother had died long ago, a crushing blow for the boy, the end of his intimate link with love and femininity. Father was hard. He wanted a son, not a “transgression.” Father pushed him to do things that revolted the boy’s gentle womanly nature. Hunting, fishing, football…all foreign to the boy who nurtured Charlotte deep within.

    Not wanting to think about this, the boy, now Charlotte in the privacy of his space, courageously slips on the dress and stands barefoot on the wood floor. It is like really breathing for the first time in your life and the euphoria sweeps over her. She swirls the dress like a little girl, almost giggling at the pleasure of it. The dress may not fit right with the boy’s build, but Charlotte seems a butterfly.

    The boy avoided mirrors generally, as if they were monsters ready to sacrifice him to their gods. He couldn’t bear to see the boy that stood in Charlotte’s place- the inadequate, repulsive body. He so wanted to turn around and see Charlotte there, radiant, smiling, herself whole and complete. As now, he only looked at himself to clumsily ply on some makeup in a small, cracked, vanity mirror he had found at a good will shop. It showed enough.

    Charlotte pulled out the makeup and eagerly began to apply it. The modeling magazines helped, but it was no easy task. She wished she had had more time to see her mother do these things. In her concentration the door to her room opened silently and her Father came in.

    “What the hell are you doing?” Father was white to the lips, a bad sign.

    ............................................................

    It needs a lot of work, but the start is here.
     
    #14 Sebby45, Apr 4, 2017
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2017
  15. ThatBorussenGuy

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    Oh, are we sharing bits of our writing now? Here, I'll go second. This is the opening of my novel I'm writing:

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    The young man stumbled through the streets of Brooklyn, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

    He couldn't believe he was going through this again. He had been through enough in his life already, starting with the losses, first of his father in an industrial accident when he was twelve, then of his mother two years later.

    And now this.

    It started out as a normal morning. Got up at seven, walked out into the kitchen where his brother was just getting ready to head out. A bit of small talk, a bit of wise-assing, then Antonio headed out the door, leaving him alone in the apartment they had shared since their mother's passing.

    He remembered grabbing a cup of coffee and a bite to eat from the fridge and settling on the couch. Barely ten minutes had passed before the sound of screaming could be heard from the sidewalk down below.

    He walked over to the window to see what was going on, but he couldn't see anything through the frost that covered the window. Outside the apartment door, the sound of numerous footsteps could be heard, as seemingly half the building headed down to see what the screaming was about.

    He threw on a pair of sneakers and headed down that way, too. As he got to the second-floor landing, old Ms. Marchisio came running up the stairs. He tried to walk past her but she firmly grabbed hold of his arm and tried to pull him back upstairs.

    “No, Gianluigi, don't go down there, you don't want to see what's down there-”

    “Oh, come on, how bad could it be?” he asked, half-jokingly, as he carefully dislodged his arm from the grip of the septuagenarian. “Can't be anything you don't see every other week in New York.”

    “No, please, don't, don't go down there,” she insisted, trying to put herself between him and the staircase. “You don't want to see-”

    He made his way past her and headed down, anyways. Surely it couldn't be as bad as Ms. Marchisio was making it out to be. He'd lived in Brooklyn almost his entire life. There was nothing he hadn't seen by the time he was fifteen that could be that bad, and she always took everything to be more serious than it actually was.

    As he stepped out onto the sidewalk and shouldered his way through the crowd, he immediately understood why she had pleaded with him to stay away.

    The sight that greeted him almost drove him to his knees. In the middle of the sidewalk was Antonio, lying in a crimson puddle. He had been cut from ear to ear, a fatal wound left there by the blade of an unknown assailant. His eyes were wide-open, staring into nothing.

    He couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. He had just been talking and joking with his brother ten minutes ago! This couldn't have happened in ten minutes!

    An anguished howl escaped him. He was unable to tear his eyes away. Behind him, he could feel someone trying to pull him back inside, trying to pull him away, but he ran forward, towards where his brother laid.

    “No, no, come on, Toni, you can't be gone,” he frantically pleaded, grabbing hold of his brother by the collar of his jacket and shaking him. “No, no, no, you can't be dead, you can't be, no...”

    But there was no reply. Those eyes that had once been so full of life were dull now, staring into eternity.

    He let go of him and just sat there, almost paralyzed with shock. This couldn't be happening again.

    A moment of madness overtook him, and he slammed his fist into the concrete, over and over, willing the images in his head to go away, pleading with some unknown figure that this was just a dream, that he would wake up and Antonio would be sitting out at the kitchen table, waiting for him to stumble out of bed, and that it would just be a normal morning.

    But he opened his eyes and the images didn't fade. This wasn't a dream. Someone had done this to his only brother.

    He could feel someone tugging at him again, more gently this time.

    “Come, il mio ragazzo. There's nothing you can do.” It was Ms. Marchisio again. “At least come sit on the step. I already called the police. They should be here soon.”

    He sat there a moment more, before he allowed himself to be pulled back to his feet and escorted over to the steps. He was unwilling to look over at where he knew his brother laid. He couldn't bear to see him like that. He didn't understand how anybody could do this.

    He barely noticed as Ms. Marchisio got up and walked back inside, only to emerge a minute later with a cup of water and some bandaging. He barely noticed as she fixed up the red ruin he had made of his hand, as she just sat there with him. He couldn't think straight, didn't want to think on what had just happened. Why was this happening again? Hadn't he been through enough in his life?

    Before long, his eyes fell back on where his brother laid, and he lost it. His head fell into his hands, he couldn't stop the tears. He wasn't imagining this. This really happened.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    That's the first page and a half, out of 49 I've finished so far. Still needs work but there you go.
     
  16. Sebby45

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    :eusa_clap Nice writing. Makes me want to know what happens next!
     
  17. BlueLion

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    I like to write about my feelings and my thoughts. Like a sort of diary.
     
  18. Argentwing

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    Thanks for the kind words. :slight_smile: That's not all there is to the plot, just the setup at the beginning. But I think it will be good.

    And about your excerpt, I liked it. As you said it could use a lot of TLC style-wise, but the basic structure and feelings are there. I can practically feel Charlotte's primal horror at having her dad catch her. At the end all I could think was "Oh, shit."
     
    #18 Argentwing, Apr 4, 2017
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  19. Sebby45

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    That is basically it. :lol:

    Yeah, it needs a lot of work. That was the rough draft, tbh.
     
  20. Daydreamer1

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    I could have sworn I posted here.

    I used to write songs and poetry (mostly about my depression and other dark issues), but until I check my files or old blog, they're lost--probably for the best.

    These days, I'm either doing Creepypastas and other short stories, or I'm mostly doing scripts. With the stuff I'm doing for future short films, they're some of the darkest and most mean-spirited things I've tackled; with my current magnum opus hitting close to home with how rampant anti-gay hate crimes having been. My work is way too NSFW for me to share here, both with the overtones and the almost Bret Easton Ellis ( a la American Psycho) way I describe a lot of the details.

    So yeah, you won't be seeing a lot of my stuff posted here any time soon...maybe.