Hey everyone!

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  • #205049
    ashfox
    Participant
      0 Pirate Gold Coins

      I may only be a teenager, but believe me when I say I’ve wanted to be a writer all my life.

      I write fiction—up till now I’ve only managed short stories, but I’d love to start a novel someday. My preferred genres are fantasy and magical realism, where I’m not trapped in the cage of the real world but instead free to do whatever I wish (“why the heck is that mat on fire, son?” “Because our creator just gave us fire powers.” “But we already live with unicorns and eat glitter!” “Our creator is a free spirit, duh!”)

      You might have noticed already that I love writing dialogue. It’s just inherently interesting to me to see how my characters play against one another through everyday speech, and because what Person A says could be a lie to deceive Person B, and Person C might interpret the whole conversation wrongly and worry endlessly about it for weeks. Dialogue in itself is a psychological race, or a mental spar. And that makes it enormously fun to write.

      (You may ask: well, if you like writing dialogue so much, why not go and be a scriptwriter instead? Believe me, I tried. But in the end it’s still stories that come the most naturally to me.)

      I don’t have a specific book or idea I’m working on right now, but I do have eight characters that I’m busy bringing to life. They’re all characters from previous short stories/discarded novels I’ve written that I still want to get to know. I’ve read that different writers have unique ways of coming up with their characters, and I’m the kind that believes characters have a life of their own. In all the stories I’ve written I’ve discovered that making a character do something always leads to havoc (read: plot holes), so I let the characters go where they want. They’re more of my friends than just names living on a page, and sometimes they point my stories towards directions I’ve never considered before. If they don’t think they have chemistry with the partner I’ve assigned them with, they dump the partner and point at someone else and say, “See that guy over there? I want to fall in love with him.” And this has actually happened before, no kidding.

      I have a friend or two who reads my stories occasionally, but I don’t know anyone who actually writes and who can share my joy (sometimes) and frustration (oftentimes) in writing stories. So please talk to me! I’m looking forward to meeting new writer friends!

      #261225
      Ashe Elton Parker
      Moderator
        38 Pirate Gold Coins

        Welcome to FM, Ashfox!

        I’m going to warn you right off the bat that I consider magical realism to be Urban Fantasy. I can accept that it can be and probably is a subgenre of Urban Fantasy, but I’m not impressed with a genre name to what I consider to be a genre with long history in the publishing world, no matter what modern-day writers may claim. For perspective, I got into Urban Fantasy back before it even had the name “Urban Fantasy” (I’ve been into spec fic most of my life).

        Aside from that, I do enjoy a good UF story, and I write various types of speculative fiction myself. I also dabble in contemporary gay romance. The vast majority of my MCs in my spec fic are some variety of LGBTQ+, and I have a habit of telling myself that oh, there just can’t be another original magical system out there before coming up with yet another one. Thus far, I think I’ve come up with something like 30 magical systems, and if someone had told me ten years ago that it was possible for one writer to come up with so many, I’d have laughed in their face.

        Explore the boards and reply to a few of our posts. Join the Goals board if you like. We’re friendly folks, if a little quiet right now. Sadly, the site’s chat rooms are pretty dead these days, except for Think Tank (a brainstorming event) that happens in Conference Room 1 every Friday and Sunday evening in the States, but if you visit FM’s companion site, Writing Groove, you’ll probably find someone hanging out there in the afternoons and evenings. Don’t worry, you don’t have to sign up for Writing Groove to access the chatroom there, but if you want to, that’s also free, as is registering with Minnit Chat, who provides the chatroom.

        If you haven’t already, I’ll suggest you read the Forward Motion Terms of Service and, if you go to Writing Groove, their Site Rules and Terms of Service as well. It’s also a good idea to scroll down to the bottom of WG’s pages to access the other notices you should probably also read.

        That’s it! If you have any questions about anything about FM or WG, feel free to ask either here or there. Though it may take some time, we’re always happy to help!

        .

        Ashe Elton Parker
        "Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
        ~*~
        Member since 1998.
        ~*~
        #261226
        Magic Seeker
        Moderator
          0 Pirate Gold Coins

          Hi, Ashfox. Welcome to FM! :)

          Ashe gave great advice. I don’t have anything to add except: Join in and have fun writing!

          Happy writing,
          Deb Salisbury
          The Mantua-Maker, Quality Historical Sewing Patterns and Books
          www.mantua-maker.com

          The Art of the Hoop: 1860 - 1869, Dress, Sewing, and Clothing Care Advice
          https://www.mantua-maker.com/a---1860s-fashion.html

          Dead Wizard's Loot: Wizard Whitewing #1
          http://www.djsalisburybooks.com/Dead-Wizard-s-Loot.html

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