UESP Forums

Are you an author?

I also love watching the post count, mine is at 70'000 and I started two months ago.

I am not an author; I just have a very overactive imagination. I write when it moves me because if I don't, it will stay in my head all day. I'm the same way with drawing. As for writing, it got me a scholarship to a fancy private high school so I feel I'm indebted to it, and I happen to be lucky enough to enjoy it. But I'm not quite an author. I've posted a few things in here in this thread and I have an Elder Scrolls fanfiction lurking somewhere on fanfiction.net...but you'll have to find it. I'm not sharing it.

I'm writing a story and the situation is that the protagonist is 14 and lives with her 19 year-old sister. They truly have no blood relatives, for they belong to another world. The 14 year-old doesn't know this but the sister does. They basically humans from another world living on Earth.

I ask of you is, what is some ways they come to Earth to live normal American lives without the 14 year-old girl knowing their real origins?

I suppose she could be... created there. Like a test tube baby or something. Or her sister could say that they are moving house and then knocks her out and blindfolds her!

I'm trying a bit too hard here, but maybe it could have something to do with their minds? If you travel to Earth at too young of an age, you lose all memories you previously possessed due to the fact that your brain is not fully developed. That's the reason this 14-year-old girl doesn't remember her other planet.
Or, she could've been brought to Earth as a baby by her older sister?
I don't know. I kinda suck at sci-fi ideas.

Anyway, I'm having some serious writing issues here. Lately, everything that I write is utterly uninteresting. My ideas are so bad that I want to slap myself in the face when I'm done writing. For example, I wrote a short story earlier this week. Guys...it sucked. I find that I'm not as creative as I used to be, and also that I've been using the same words over, and over, and over again. I've tried using a thesaurus, but when I do that, the writing just makes me look like I'm trying to be smart. I wouldn't call all of this writer's block, it's creativity block (if that makes sense). I can't think of what I should write about.

That's was my goal but I meant what are ways that they live that would be pausible?

Stumble in to a person and eventually end up in an adoption center?
Adoptive earth mother dies of cancer? Now they live alone?

And that's exactly why I'm asking, an eight month-old creativity block.

Ideas are rarely that great when you first think of them. Take the idea you have with the most potential and work on it. Bounce ideas off of other people, keep thinking of different avenues. Good stories usually take a lot of sculpting.

I would know, my main project has about 8 years of it

As far as how you write goes, don't be afraid to use a thesaurus, a writer doesn't look smart for using varied language, they look like a writer.

Hybridial, I understand that sculpting. I've been writing my current book for 6 years. Although, I think that this will be the last re-write. Also, I'm making it into a trilogy!

The new and revised edition of my Morrowind fan-fic. More to come later, but all I have time to write out for now. Nothing spectacular, but it is the running draft i have at teh moment.

Prologue:
Each Event is preceded by a Prophecy. But without the Hero, there is no Event.
-Zurin Arctus|the UnderKing


In the waning years of the Third Era of Tamriel, a prisoner born on a certain day to uncertain parents was sent under guard, without explanation, to Morrowind, ignorant of the role he was to play in the nation's history...



My name is Sylvanus Ingaredhel, and this is my story of how I went from a thug of Cyrodiil rotting i a prison cell, to a released convict turned from my wicked ways, and finally to the most unlikely savior of a foreign people.

My name is Sylvanus Ingaredhel, and this is my story...

It all began with my release from prison. You see, I had been a thug of the Imperial City most of my life. Even at a very young age I was forced to fight and steal for my very survival. But then as I grew, my previous actions of self preservation turned to hate. Hate against all those that bode me ill. Who scoffed me, and turned me away, just because I was a [&@%!] child. I hated them for their rejection of me. So I turned my skills as a thief and thug against those whom I despised.
Upon reaching adult-hood, I fell in with a gang of local criminals. By this medium I exacted mt revenge. Though I would have preferred their suffering to have been more public, just as mine was, I was till brought perverse joy at hearing their cries of anguish in the night, as I preyed upon their helpless, weak, sleeping bodies, robbing them of the safety of their homes.
For years I carried on as such, looting and killing as I pleased, all in the twisted truth that I was enacting "justice" against those who scorned me because I was a beggar and [&@%!] child. But in my hate I became over confident and spiteful. It proved my downfall. Eventually my sins caught up with me and I was captured and imprisoned, held for an undisclosed time, but I knew I would never see the light of day again. And as the weeks crept by into months, and the months into years, the fierce flame of hatred in my heart began to falter and die, just as the flame that consumes the dry kindling of a fire flares hot and bright for just a brief while.
Though I fought bitterly to keep hold of my hate, it continued to die. Now as I write this in reflection of my old self I do not know why I fought to maintain my hate, fir it never brought me any sort of satisfaction and gave me a bitter taste in my mouth. For though I may have hated those that spat upon me, I knew, in the depth of y soul that I was wrong. Wrong to hate them. Wrong to seek revenge against them. And as I lay there in my cell, these thoughts came to me and I pondered them. And though it took many years to consent to my wrong doing, with much gnashing of teeth and sleepless nights, I made one single, honest prayer. Never before had I prayed, for I felt no need for a god. Whatever I needed I got by my own hands. Good fortune came by my own wit and bad fortune by the lack thereof. Never did I think some god ruled over me and guided me. my life was my own. but there on that cell, some fifteen since I was first imprisoned, I prayed, though I knew not to whom, that should I ever be released I would right the wrong I did and seek penance for my sins. And with my change of heart came the thought to help those that were like me, those without food or families, or even a decent home or shelter to spend the night; to help them so they would not suffer like i had to suffer.

Not but a week later was I hauled from my cell, bound and dragged across the land to the island of Morrowind. I knew my prayer ha been answered, and I did not intend to fail my word.

That's good Venger. Well done. Keep it up!

A new (and revised) part of my book. A small scene as it were. Would be helpful if i could get some opinion on it.

If anyone's interested my sister's doing a re-write of twillight were the vampires are actually cool and Bella isn't a moron.

Like all work turned out by UESPer's, I enjoyed it. Though I had hard time placing what sort of book this will be. Fictional obviously, but fantasy or otherwise I couldn't deem. And aside from a few typos and other similar errors, very good.

Thanks =P. It's sort of a fantasy sci-fi mash up for the most part. That scene there was probably one of the less revealing ones.

I have the whole plot worked out now, all i need to do is map the world and the factions, write the rest of the book. Check and double check then hand it out to a few mates for an opinion. =3

Yay! I reached a milestone in my book! 100'000 letters, numbers and periods!

Congratulations, POMC!

Hmm, can't let this post just be about congratulations, so I'll use this post to say that I am also a writer. I've written two things that dance on that novella/novel line that will never ever see the light of day. I'm also planning to write another long piece, but I have a problem with sticking with one story long enough.

Also, I have a question for all you writers out there. I don't have a problem with writing, but I have a major problem with editing. Apart from typos, I never know how to do it or where to begin. So, how do you people edit?

EDIT: Haha, how amusing editing a post asking about editing, but scroll back a page to see why I'm congratulating POMC. Also, Mr New Page, you are not a very nice person.

I haven't had time to put this to use, so I don't know how well the suggested method works...
http://isbw.murlafferty.com/2010/08/appropriate-questions-to-ask-oneself-while-writing/

Thanks Rassilon. I've almost finished my book. Maybe I'll get it published...

Thanks for the link Equin, that was actually really helpful! First thing I've seen that actually gives a step-by-step guide.

Also POMC, you might want to do a bit of research before you try and get published, and be careful. There are quite a few people who try to bypass the whole "Let's sell books" bit and just try to get money from you. I'd suggest looking at two sites, Writers Beware and Preditors and Editors. That should help you decide if you are walking into a scam.

This goes for anyone else considering getting published as well. Last thing anybody wants is for you to get scammed.

Thanks, Rassilon! I've bookmarked it for future use!

100,000 characters? thats about 80 A5 pages with size 10 Verdanda font by my reckoning. It'd be a short story i'm guessing? (i'll read back to find out what it's about rather than making you repeat yourself). Hope it goes well for you, i have the same ambition for mine.

Is that all? Maybe I'll add an extra chapter or so. My character's aren't outta the woods yet. My boo'll hopefully be a trilogy!

Thanks for your encouragement! I hope it goes well for you also!

How many books in the trilogy? If the events are reasonably linked, you could probably get away with linking them, unless of course the book ends with the favoured cliffhanger?

3 books in the trilogy, and they are closely linked. It's like Lord of the Rings, they start off where the last one ended. There will be no cliffhangers, the books will get larger as I grow older. I'm only 13 but they are coming out quite well. I have just passed the phase where you learn your style. At first, I was using 5 huge words to describe someone, but now it's normally only two and it's easier on the eye. it runs together quicker as well.

Mine are closely linked as well, each book (apart from the first) will start off excatly when the other ended, only from a different characters angle (ie, in the first, it ends from the human protagonist factions point of view, the second starts from another races perception of that exact same point). I think you're pretty solid if you've nailed your own style though. Mine is still pretty shifty, it's there, but it's not really set in stone in some instances.

My issue is diversitying characters, i find it hard to nail the words and express the right mood and speech style for each of them.