What do you recommend I do with all those things I wrote years ago but have never been able to bring myself to show anyone?
Pick someone you trust and like, close your eyes and take the plunge. What have you got to lose? Worst-case scenario is that this person says it isn’t good. I can say from personal experience that even though it might feel that way, (and believe me, it does FEEL that way) it really is not the end of the world by any means. Any other feedback than that…well, you can take it from there and just enjoy the process.
Start by showing yourself and come to realize, there are probably gems hiding in those words.
Read them all again. If they don't make you shudder (this happens to all writers reviewing earlier works) you should up-date them, polish them and submit them to an expert for critical analysis. If you're talking fiction or books generally I recommend The Writers' Workshop. You'll have to pay but the cost will be worth it if you are serious about writing.
Journalistic writing is another ball of chalk. It's difficult getting a start unless you have contacts. Most such work is commissioned and given to known writers in whatever is the field. My best suggestion would be to research the field in question, identify the journals which cover the subject you write about and offer your copy gratis. If it's accepted you're an your way. Once you have a history of publication other avenues will open up for you.
I would advise taking them out and looking at them again. If they still seem good to you, by all means show them to someone; perhaps even submit them for publication. If not, keep them to yourself -- at least for memory's sake, since they are personal to you.
Get over your insecurity! Realize that it's subjective. Even if one person doesn't like what you write, someone else will. You can't progress until you find someone you trust and get some feedback.
Enjoy them and share them with others, something good may come out of them. Although you may have to rework them but it would be worth it.
Read them again!
Pour yourself a refreshing beverage, put on some uptempo music (I like funk), and read it over. Be nice to yourself - no self-denigration allowed.
You'll find some great nuggets in there.
Look at them again. If something is good, it may be worth sharing, with a friend, another writer, or a publisher--or it may work as inspiration for new work. If something is bad, understand why it is bad: that is a lesson learned, a lesson to recall for future work.
Take them out and read them again. If nothing else, they might inspire you with new ideas. If not then put them back but don’t throw them out. They are part of your life.
I put my true story on the Internet on a site that I found that is somewhat private. Its like my own personal space or website. I recommend you do the same because it frees the mind of thinking about it and you can add to or correct it at will. Hey who knows someone might make a comment good or bad.
I have others that I would like share but are inappropriate for younger readers, if anything today is in fact inappropriate..
I will say this much. A year or so ago I met a rather attractive 42 year old woman on the Internet who was into cyber sex. You will see why I know she was attractive in a moment. I am not kidding about the “Cyber Sex”. I am only saying this because this was a legitimate person who enjoyed writing sexual things and needed someone to write to. I met this desirable, warm, sexy person in person because I wanted make sure she was real. When she told me about the cyber sex I didn’t believe her. Would you? A lot of strange things happen to me but this was a one in a million thing. I wouldn’t have done this if I didn’t meet her in person first. In reality I wanted to see who I was fantasying and writing about and believe me it was well worth it. We agreed to meet for coffee and set a date to do this in a city near we both lived. I arrived a little early and as I walked in the door of the coffee shoppe. I seen her sitting at a corner table and judging by the description she gave me, I knew right away it was her. She stood as I approached the table and extended a hand towards me. I took it but held her hand for a moment before I released it. Her hand was warm and soft. Her blue eyes told me that she approved of what she what saw. She was wearing a light blue sleeveless top with a just above the knee black skirt. No nylons and her scent was light and sexy. Her shoulder length blond hair was neatly combed and clean and when she smiled it made it OK for me to be with her. She had a way about her that literally took my breath away and I had to pause before I spoke. I don't think she noticed and at that point I didn't care. It was at that moment I knew I would have no problem writing sexual things to her. My imagination was running wild just looking at her. Later and after many long conversations on the phone it was decided we would do this with an agreement not to cross any lines. We made rules. The number one rule was no real physical contact, no matter what. We were lucky we made that rule because there were times when it was very tempting to try, and we almost did try what we were writing. It still was really difficult because from that point on, I was not a real person nor was she. So after our many conversations and me telling her of my background I finally convinced her she could place her trust in me. I promised to enforce rule one. We were now ready and we started writing to each other. We became cyber lovers. I think and I can safely say, and she would agree, with what were excellent results. I have two inches thick of 8.5x11 copies of our writings. This sexual cyber experiment lasted for about six months and ended when we (she) decided that it was too much for her. There were other reasons but I don‘t want to give that away. One of these days I am going to fill in the blanks on those letters and publish them..I can see me autographing copies of my cyber sex book as it flies of the shelf at Barns and Noble. This beautiful lady and I still talk and are friends and a while ago my co-writer friend asked me, "Are you going to write a book'? I told her, half joking but sounding serious, said “Yes I was“. She said I should because I was a good writer. Then there was nothing but silence on the phone for ten long seconds, then without another comment, she very quietly wished me luck. It sounds strange but I know why there was a silence. There are many reasons why this experience happened and if I told everything here it would spoil the story…
I mentioned that I like true stories and I guess this qualifies as one. You could call this a true fictional story or something like that. This book is written and all I have to do is put it together. I always say maybe I’ll do some rewriting and spell checking and print it to see what it looks like. We will see?
That story was an example of my fiction. I'll bet I got you interested at the word "Inappropriate". Do you think it was believable? I'll bet you believed it?...Did you? What do you think? Do you think I could write fiction?   | | |
If you haven't gone through them in a long time, read them. They might spark something creative in you. Maybe not to complete that particular story but I've gone through old things I wrote but did nothing with and it's sparked new characters for a new novel. After that put them away.
Stephen King put together a book from a collaboration of several old short stories he wrote but that never ended up full-length novels. Cat's eye was made into a movie. You never throw out the stuff you write or ideas you have because you might need them one day.
That's my current situation right now since I'm still young, but in my opinion, you should take them out and show them to your family and friends. Who knows, they might say you have potential and you could put your work up for publishing.
Just throw it out there--if you're as good as you think you are, sooner or later, the world will recognize your genius!
Read them through again and do any editing or rewriting you think necessary, then go with your gut feeling, if you think they're good then find out who is publishing in your genre and send them out. You'll never know if you don't try. |
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