Chit Chat

Thought we could use a topic just for general chat. How's everyone doing? =]

I've been awesome, I went shopping the other day and got heaps of bargains! I got green jeans and purpley-bluey jeans for $20 (total, not each), and a pair of awesomely comfy (and leather) shoes for $20 as well! And two sleeveless shirts (one green and one pink) for $10 each! So happy lol

NinjaRobot wrote:I've been awesome, I went shopping the other day and got heaps of bargains! I got green jeans and purpley-bluey jeans for $20 (total, not each), and a pair of awesomely comfy (and leather) shoes for $20 as well! And two sleeveless shirts (one green and one pink) for $10 each! So happy lol

*Saki wants your shoes* haha

I'm pretty good considering. Having some rather severe family issues at the moment, but I'm making it. I'm having fun with my musical composition, my writing, and my names That always brightens any day.

SakiHeart wrote:

NinjaRobot wrote:I've been awesome, I went shopping the other day and got heaps of bargains! I got green jeans and purpley-bluey jeans for $20 (total, not each), and a pair of awesomely comfy (and leather) shoes for $20 as well! And two sleeveless shirts (one green and one pink) for $10 each! So happy lol

*Saki wants your shoes* haha

I'm pretty good considering. Having some rather severe family issues at the moment, but I'm making it. I'm having fun with my musical composition, my writing, and my names That always brightens any day.

Tehehe That sucks about your family issues though Nya, I envy you people who can write music! What kind of music and stories do you write?

NinjaRobot wrote:Nya, I envy you people who can write music! What kind of music and stories do you write?

I write piano music, and I'm really not sure how to classify it XD It's something along the lines of Coldplay or Enya, but still somewhat different. I'm not sure how to explain it.

As for my writing, I'm a middle grade fantasy writer Or at least I'm trying to be haha ^.^ My stories have all the elements of middle grade (for ages 7 to 12) but I seem to enjoy writing at too high of a reading level. So they'll probably end up in the young adult section instead. Oh well, what can you do I currently have two stories. (I had just one, but a new idea came to me and it wouldn't stop pestering me! So I ended up writing both ^.^) One of them is a high fantasy, the other is a contemporary fantasy about faeries. I'm having fun with both

I can't remember, are you a writer?

Wow, that's awesome! The piano is such a beautiful instrument! I haven't heard much Enya, but I like the little I have heard, and I do love Coldplay, so it sounds like something I'd be into.

Yeah, I do write. Not very successfully though. I always start things, figure out the beginning, ending, and a few random points, and then give up on trying to connect them. I mostly try and write fantasy or superhero novels, but I'm doing a novels subject at uni this year, and they don't think of fantasy as acceptable literature (grumble grumble), so I'm having to write a normal-people story. It's about seven people whose lives interconnect, and somehow it's been the story I've persisted with the most! Though to be fair, I kinda have to... XD

I did have an idea recently for the best time-travel story ever (not best story, but it's basically just preaching stable time loops, and I'm obsessed with those), but I couldn't think of any reason as to why it would be happening in the first place, so that was a bust XD

Your stories sound awesome! I looove high fantasy, but I could never write it myself. You don't hear much about faeries though. Normally they're just supporting characters, so I love that you're giving them the limelight! Is that the one with Frey and Iskander that you were asking about?

NinjaRobot wrote:Yeah, I do write. Not very successfully though. I always start things, figure out the beginning, ending, and a few random points, and then give up on trying to connect them. I mostly try and write fantasy or superhero novels, but I'm doing a novels subject at uni this year, and they don't think of fantasy as acceptable literature (grumble grumble), so I'm having to write a normal-people story. It's about seven people whose lives interconnect, and somehow it's been the story I've persisted with the most! Though to be fair, I kinda have to... XD

I've been like that too for a long time. I've started so many stories I've lost track, and never finished any of them. (I got close with one story, but I got bored with it towards the end, and if I'm bored with it I know my readers are going to be bored with it.) Two years ago or so I figured out what my problem was. I was writing to get published. I really wanted to be a published author, and it got to the point that I wouldn't even write if I didn't think it was publishable material. The irony is that if you're writing just to get published, it's going to keep you from getting published. Even the best books ever written weren't publishable the first time through. Every novel needs a lot of revision before you can even try and get it published. Also, because I was so focused on getting published I lost sight of why I started writing in the first place. If you want to be a published author, you have to write because you love it, because you'll go crazy if you don't. The writing itself has to be the goal, or you're never going to get anywhere. Now that I'm writing just for writing's sake, I don't really care if my first book gets published or not. And for the first time I've stuck with my novel for two years! I've never worked on one story for that long, nor have I ever been so determined to finish a novel. I don't think I'll ever give up on this one, so I feel that I finally have what it takes to actually become an author

It bugs me that fantasy usually doesn't win awards and isn't considered "literature." To me that feels like people saying that only the foods they like are proper food and that everything else is garbage not to be eaten by anyone. I'd like to take someone who feels that fantasy is of a lower quality and make them write a fantasy novel - see how well that goes for them It takes a lot of skill to write fantasy, and a TON of imagination and ingenuity. You have to create a whole new culture to write fantasy - realistic fiction already has a culture in place because it's set in a real location. For fantasy you have to create new people, new races, new ways of doing things - you start with a blank page and end up with a whole new universe complete with plants, animals, beings, laws of nature, and more that you invented, even in contemporary fantasy. Harry Potter is contemporary fantasy, and look at all the culture and world building J.K. Rowling had to come up with! I even create real languages for my novels. I spend years world building and character profiling. I'd like to see a realistic fiction writer do that ;P

They say only realistic fiction is literature, I say realistic fiction is a lack of ingenuity and imagination. Just because they have a different opinion of what books are good doesn't make the other books not good for anyone. If fantasy was as low quality as they say, Harry Potter wouldn't have become a worldwide phenomenon ;P Lord of the Rings is fantasy too, and look at how popular that series is! People are still reading and loving the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, all these years later! I think it's about time some fantasy novels win Newbery Awards too.

NinjaRobot wrote:I did have an idea recently for the best time-travel story ever (not best story, but it's basically just preaching stable time loops, and I'm obsessed with those), but I couldn't think of any reason as to why it would be happening in the first place, so that was a bust XD

Oo cool! What are stable time loops? (I don't know very much about this sort of thing XD) Sounds like you have a lot of cool ideas! Maybe soon you'll come to the same point I did and be able to finish something

NinjaRobot wrote:Your stories sound awesome! I looove high fantasy, but I could never write it myself.

Thanks! I love high fantasy too - creating a whole new world is my favorite thing to do! I've spent two years putting this world together and I'm not done yet ^.^ Not even close! In fact, there's so much I want to do that I may have to finish it after I've finished writing the book and any sequels I decide to write too XD I want to know everything about my world - I want it to be so real you can taste it. I want it to be so real that it seems like it could be a real country somewhere on earth. That's my favorite part of fantasy

NinjaRobot wrote:You don't hear much about faeries though. Normally they're just supporting characters, so I love that you're giving them the limelight! Is that the one with Frey and Iskander that you were asking about?

Yep, sure is! Frey and Iskander are changelings, but they're a type of changeling I made up. It fits so perfectly with the traditional folklore though that it's as if it was meant to be a part of it I'm still debating whether to make both boys main characters and switch between each point of view or to just tell the story from Iskander's point of view. My only concern is being able to maintain Frey's personality through his eyes. I can do it fairly well through Iskander's eyes, but I'm not sure if I could properly show Frey's line of thinking from inside his head. I'll have to try it and see how it goes ^.^