Any writers out there?

[Northern_l33tness]

I've noticed that there seem to be a lot of artists on this board. I unfortunately stink at drawing and most other visual artforms, mainly due to the fact I'm bad with angles and perspective. However, I do consider myself to be a decent writer. Anyone else on here like to write for fun?<br><br>I like using animal characters. I mainly write Redwall fanfiction because I'm pretty much garaunteed an audience online. That means I get feedback, which not only helps me improve my writing but also reminds me that someone gets a benefit from me spending so much time writing (that would be the readers).<br><br>I want to eventually write an original novel with a wild fox as the main character, but I think I need to learn more about the behaviour of real foxes first. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to get it published if I write it, though. Aside from the fact it has a extremely outlandish plot (it involved the CIA, for one), I'm not sure how many publishers would take a book called "F: Volume 1" seriously.<br><br>I would post would love to post a sample of my Redwall Fanfiction here but I'm not sure how appropriate it would be given that I've heard DC is supposed to be an all ages site. The sample is definately PG-13, and rather dark and violent. Of course, if you guys are okay with that sort of thing I'd love to show it to you guys.

[Tavis]

Oh sure! I believe there are many among us who like to write stories and such things.. I myself am writing such a story based on a character I originally played in a roleplaying-style chat. A couple of months back, I've shared lots of other stories in #definecynical too.

[Dr. Doog]

i enjoy writing, but i don't really get around to it most of the time.

[Zylo]

I come up with stories all the time. I just never write them down.<br><br>I guess it'd be ok if you linked to some stories, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would like to read them (I would), and it may encourage others to share their works, too.

[Maeglin]

I've written some stories about the characters I draw, but those aren't seeing the light of day either.

[The J.A.M.]

[...unWARP!!!]<br><br>Good evening.<br><br><br>You can check out all my fanfics <a href='http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=46935' target='_blank'>here</a>, and tell me what you think.<br><br>I also hope to do something original, and I'm currently doing a dead-tree investigation (can't believe everything you see on the net, lol...)<br><br><br>Zacatepngolas!<br><br>Until next time, remember:<br><br>I <br><br>AM<br><br>THE<br><br>J.A.M.<br><br>Good evening.<br><br>[WARP!!!]

[Softpaw]

Check out my website for a scant selection of my writings. I haven't posted anything there in a LONG time, and I think most everyone here knows what happened with my hard drive, but the whole event has left me really unwilling to write much of anything new.<br><br>However, with recent world events, the wheels of creativity are churning, so I just might make a comeback soon, accompanied by a brand-new site layout and some other useful changes.

[Burning Sheep Productions]

If ya want a challenge, try making a story revolving around a group of animals but having no humans or anything to do with humans in it whatsoever!<br>If you can make a decent story with those restrictions then you're a superb writer.<br><br>I think it's one of the reasons why The Lion King was so popular.

[Ankaris]

Yeah, writer here, but I'm as lazy as they come <!--emo&:P--><img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo--><br><br>Actually, right now most of my writing is RP on forums.

[Muninn]

Seeing how writing is my intended profession, i write vigourously, every day. I've got about six short stories and like every aspiring amateur am working on a novel. Actually i have three novel ideas (not inter-related) but i need to rest sometimes. And of course, poetry, i dabble in it now and then, just don't think 'love poems' when you hear that. I've got in mind three long poetry cycles as well.<br><br>I must note Edgar Allan Poe and Irish folk literature and music as major influences. Read Poe's "The Philosophy of Composition", it's an excellent article on composing poems and short stories. It's a hard business to get into, but which one isn't?

[Bendarr]

<span style='color:red'>In my case, I'm not all that much of a writer being more of a visual oriented person to begin with. But I have been working on a alternate history SF story or maybe a collection of them. haven't had all that much of a chance to do too much work on it. If you don't mind, I'll post what I've written here for your comentary.</span><br><br><br><span style='color:blue'>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>Situation background: Mars attempted to invade Earth in the 1890's as per "War of the Wolds" By H.G. Wells, a second attempt was tried in the 1950's, a third that was stopped by Damocles Base located on the moon in the 2010's, it is now 2070 and mankind has decided to return the favor by invading Mars.<br>This little snippet deals with meeting between a scout in light power armor, his hovertank named Jake, and a trio of Martian Tripods.<br><br>-----------------------------------------------<br> A light whispery Martian wind blew. Too thin to sustain Human life, but nonetheless a human was here. Richard's power suit raised the magnification of his visor at his spoken command. Laying down behind a dune and turning his head slowly he scanned left and right. <br>"Nothing. Nothing but sand, sand, and more sand." he muttered.<br> A bit of movement towards his left caught his attention. Going to full magnification he looked. Just one of the many dust devils that the Martian deserts were famous for. Nothing to worry about. He went back to his work. A low chirp came from inside his armor. Jake, his Rabbit class scout tank had spotted something on it's sensors. Instinctively Richard glanced at his now sand buried tank. It just sat there, deliberately buried under the sand with just a couple of sensors and antenna sticking out.<br>"All right Jake, give me what you've got."<br> Richards hud display in his helmet came alive with various symbols and a local map. The symbols for him and Jake were centered and 3 unknowns were also shown at about the 7:00 position. Close, too close. Richard realised that he had made a bad mistake. Looking out was all in fine but always remember to look behind you occasionally. Richard spun around. Three "Hunter" class heavy tripods were moving around. The Martian's hadn't spotted him yet but it was only a matter of time. Keeping his body low Richard climbed over the top of the dune to put it between him and the tripods.<br> "Jake, send off a message to base telling them that we've got company"<br>Suddenly the Martians stopped moving and Richard heard the airwaves being blanket by jamming! He'd been spotted! The three tripods started taking long strides in his direction.<br> "Jake!, Command Mode Bugout!, Execute!" yelled Richard.<br>A vast cloud of sand shot up as the Hovertank blew off it disguise of sand and a hatch in the side opened. Richard started running for the open hatch His strides amplified by the servos in his suit. Sand started to explode around him as the Martian Heat beams tried to seek out the rapidly scurrying human. Richard tried to contact Jake but the jamming from the Martians was too intense. He dived through the hatchway that slammed shut after him. The interferance was stopped by Jake's hull. Richard got into the command chair and "Plugged in". Connectors snappped smoothly into ports and plugs in his suit, the hud on the visor came alive with displays as he grabbed the command yokes. Flipping couple of switches Richard set Jake on "Fire at will" mode. Jake swiveled his main gun towards the nearest Tripod and fired. The 105 mm shell shot out of the barrel and with full force struck the tripod in the central housing. A direct hit! Simultaniously Richard slammed the throttle lever on his left fully forward. The lift fans underneath and behind screamed as the Hovertank leaped forward. Smoke packs on the rear discharged in a effort to hide Jake from the tripods as the hovertank tried to run. Richard charted a general course towards the Martian ruins that he had scouted out earlier. As the smoke from the packs dissapated, Richard could see that Jakes full on shot had no effect upon the tripod. At full speed they were in still in pursuit and broadcasting the jamming. Richard knew that he didn't have the firepower to take out the Heavy Tripods but he knew where he could find it. He hoped. He switched Jake from "Fire at Will" to a more defensive mode. Two things that the Rabbit class Hovertank had in plenty were speed and manueverability and Jake used them to the best of it's advantage. The Martian Heat beams had about a three quarters of a second delay between lock on and firing. So each time that a Heat Beam was going to fire, Jake would turn just enough to avoid the shot but still continue on it's designated course. Richard couldn't count on that lasting for very long since the Martians would learn to anticipate or even worse saturate the area with enough firepower that even Jake couldn't dodge. But maybe long enough.<br> Rapidly the ruins came into view and with a yell of triumph from Richard they entered the abandoned city. Now Richard and Jake had a better chance. Taking the streets at full speed and leaving a cloud of sand and dust behind them they dodged. Heading towards the central square they took what looked like insane chances. One of the tripods was slowing down. Perhaps the Martian was thinking of giving up the chase. <br> "Jake, designate Tripod 3. Continue evasive manuevers and fire." Richard said.<br>Once again, Jakes barrel rotated and fired. Another hit. Still no damage. " I hope that we can find out just what these things are made of." Richard thought. With a grim smile of satisfaction he observed that the lagging Tripod had picked up it's pace again. It's pilot angered by the insolent Human.<br> "Good, just follow me." thought Richard.<br> "Jake, broadcast on tight beam laser, our present situation, foe strength and location" Richard spoke.<br> "Affirmative replys from Group Epsilon Delta has been received. They are ready and waiting." came Jake's smooth voice from the control console.<br> "Initiate manual targeting mode, Jake". <br> Richard felt the firing centers on his command yoke come alive. He and Jake made a tight turn to a narrow street. Sure suicide, since dodgeing heat beams had just became nigh impossible. Jake then sped past a pair of alleys in which something glitterd. The tripods followed sensing a kill. As the tripods sped past the alleys something in the narrow alleys moved. Richard slewed Jakes turret towards the rear and right. He thumbed the trigger. As the shell left the turret Richard was already swiveling it to the left and rear. Jakes shells had no effect on the tripods but they had a devasting effect on the ancient buildings. Two towers suddenly had roughly half of their base cut out from underneath them and like two sequoias fell inwards and crashed into the street effectively blocking it. The tripods couldn't pursue. They were faced with a wall of ancient Martian stonework and MEHTUL. Confounded the tripods stopped and stared at the makeshift wall between them and their prey.<br> Behind the tripods and unnoticed by them, four Polar heavy tanks rolled on massive treads out of the alleyway that they had lain in ambush. The Polar heavy tank was a monster of armored engineering. Massive amounts of standard kinetic armor and laser reflective armor in layers formed the outer hulls of these hulking beasts. Four turrets on four tanks swiveled to aim at the still unsuspecting tripods. The Polars cut loose with their main guns. Each had a 150 mm main gun firing depleted uranium shells at a prodigeous velocity. But that wasn't all they had. Built around each of the barrels was a huge gattling laser. This combo operated on the theory that anything that one weapon couldn't handle the other one could. All four of the Polar tanks used BOTH at once. With a sound very reminiscent of point blank thunder and a light display from the lasers that slashed through the tripod armor the Polar's poured it on. There was no attempt at taking prisoners. No attempt at a truce. This was a war of extermination. Within seconds the tripods had gaping holes drilled in them and collapsed into the street. With the fall of the last tripod the jamming ceased.<br> "Great job guys! Thanks for the assist!" Richard radioed the Polars.<br> "We have only one request to make" Came the reply from the lead Polar tank.<br> "What's that?" Richard shot back.<br> "Send more Martians." was the reply followed by a throaty chuckle from the Polar tank commander.</span><br><br> <br>

[Zaaphod]

Ooh, me likes! Excellent stuff, Bendarr. <!--emo&B)--><img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... s/cool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cool.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Tavis]

Wow. You are doing really well with the visuals, Bendarr! I have a couple nits, however:<ul><li>HUD is Heads Up Display.. writing "HUD display" is redundant. I suggest writing it out in full the first time and then using the acronym in future references. Also, maybe a little more visual description of the HUD itself might help, such as indicating how the objects are labelled. A better knowledge of the screen can help explain how Richard could refer to one of the targets as "Tripod 3."</li><li>The "Plugged In" looks awkward at the end of the sentence since periods noramlly appear within the quotation marks.. you might want to adjust it so the term is seamless with its description in the middle of the sentence or simply remove the quotes. You might want to look carefully at your use of quotation marks in other parts too.</li><li>There are a few grammatical slips, but there are a lot fewer than I've seen in most writings, including my own. They're okay in drafts, but eventually, you will want to go over them and make sure the end results are polished. Phrases that come to my attention are: "being blanket by jamming", "blew off it disguise", "the open hatch His strides"</li><li>I love your use of words. Don't be afraid of using them. Again, be sure to check the spelling when you make a final pass to polish the writing. "dodgeing", "glitterd", "prodigeous", "interferance", "Simultaniously"</li><li>You use a lot of sentence fragments to convey action. They're alright, considering the action in the sequence, but be careful to avoid overuse. Seeing "A direct hit!" seemed a bit off after stating where it had hit. Make sure the fragments offer very immediate data you don't get sooner. (In that instance, I recommend rephrasing the previous sentence so it doesn't "strike" but rather aims for the housing and following up with the results of the hit.)</li></ul>I think that's about it.. Excellent writing there, Bendarr!

[Ankaris]

Wooooooo <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... iggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br><br>Great lil' story there Bendarr, and Tavis has already covered what I mighta said <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Foxchild]

<!--QuoteBegin-Tavis+May 13 2004, 12:16 PM--> <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'><b>Quote:</b> (Tavis @ May 13 2004, 12:16 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> [*]HUD is Heads Up Display.. writing "HUD display" is redundant. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table> <!--QuoteEEnd--><br> Wow, you know what, for pointing tha tout, i should give you some money! Let me go to the ATM machine first, though, ok?