[UliHarp]

I'm a new member here to Insomnia Land, and while I haven't been here long or quite know the ways things work yet, I got wind of a Writer's Corner here on the site, and heard that it's been fairly quiet in this forum for some time. Well, at risk of embarrassing myself, I'm posting this topic in hopes to “stir the settled sand”. I'm an aspiring author myself, so naturally, hearing of this additional forum was exciting. Also hearing that it's been still was, to be frank, was strange in the way that I imagined it would be buzzing. Busy or not, it's still nice to have it here. 🙂

Well, to get some conversation going, I suppose I'll share a little bit about myself and my relationship with writing/the current project I'm on now. And again, at risk of embarrassing myself (because I haven't been on this site more than three days), I encourage anyone viewing to do the same. (Of course, only if you're comfortable sharing.)

To briefly introduce myself, my name is Ulysses (Uly for short; feel free to call me either!) and as stated before, I'm an aspiring author. My history with writing goes far back, back into my childhood. I've always loved writing, but never realized as a passion until my teens, when I started writing short stories and poetry not prompted by class assignments. It soon grew from a passion to my life once I began writing my book near six years ago.

I've been working on the same book since, or rather, have been recycling and reconstructing the story. It's been rewritten several times, and resembles the first concept only in its core; I'd say each version was just another rough draught. The version I'm on now, my “final rough draught” (as I like to call it), is only about a year and a half in progress.

It's a literary fiction novel, set in an alternate albeit similar world from ours. Since in an alternate world, I can't clearly define the time setting, only tell of the culture and technology comparisons that may be drawn. Culture wise, I've taken elements from both feudal and Renaissance periods. For smaller things like food and dress, I draw mostly from Asian and Norwegian culture. (What can I say? I'm very familiar with both, being Norsk and obsessed with Asian culture since a child.) Technology-wise, their world is fairly content with what is had: coaches, oil lamps, aqueducts, swords and arrows, farmhands, otherwise-named “Pony Expresses”. Their government is an empire which encompasses the entire world (I suppose it's much smaller than ours, at that).

Alright, enough rambling about the book as a whole: what sort of mother am I, ranting about the unit, but never detailing on the individual members? (I like to think of my characters as my children. They certainly keep up at night like real ones. Haha.)

Well, to sum, there are five primary characters. I won't bother with going any deeper; I feel bad for taking up so much time of anyone's already. (Unless, that is, no one minds.) Their names are Aya, Amaya, Hayaku, Sarikah, and Yusu. Aya's the emperor, Amaya's the crown prince, Hayaku is a pariah, Sarikah is the crown princess, and Yusu is the emperor's mistress. I really should include Abhilasha; she's not a primary character, but she was Amaya's lover up until her death. (It just feel odd not to mention her; Amaya and Abhi are my favorite pair in the book.)

So, there. Like rolling off the names of my children, there we have my six, wonderfully exasperating characters. And quite possibly the shortest description of my book ever given!

Well, now that I've shared my history with writing and my current project, I'd really like to hear what everyone else here's been busying themselves with! And of course, that's only if you're perfectly comfortable with it. I just thought it'd be nice to ask the writers on here what they're up to, and get some interest and encouragement flowing in this forum; besides, who doesn't like talking about their writing? I know I love listening to other writers. There's always something to learn from comrades of the craft. 🙂

Have a great day, everyone!

-Uly

[Martin Reed]

Your novel sounds really interesting. Maybe you can treat us all to an excerpt as it approaches being finished? LindsayK is a published author, but she's gone AWOL of late. Hopefully she'll drop by soon as I think you'd both have a lot in common. Also, Kik often gets involved in NaNoWriMo – hopefully she'll submit some more pieces here in the future.

xabalba also submitted some great poems. Wow, the list goes on. I think we need to resurrect this forum from the ashes – I'll give it a shot my end by writing something for the next insomniac bulletin!

—

If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.

The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.

[UliHarp]

'Martin' wrote on '18:

Your novel sounds really interesting. Maybe you can treat us all to an excerpt as it approaches being finished? LindsayK is a published author, but she's gone AWOL of late. Hopefully she'll drop by soon as I think you'd both have a lot in common. Also, Kik often gets involved in NaNoWriMo – hopefully she'll submit some more pieces here in the future.

xabalba also submitted some great poems. Wow, the list goes on. I think we need to resurrect this forum from the ashes – I'll give it a shot my end by writing something for the next insomniac bulletin!

Thank you, Martin! For both the pointers to other members and taking the time to read all my rambling. If any one else is interested, I'd definitely be able to treat you guys to an excerpt. I've already got 450+ pages penned (typed) down; I'm sure I could find at least one interesting bit! Rough draught aside, I'm always willing to share. 🙂

Perhaps I'll submit some old poetry on the forum? That seems to be a theme in the Writer's Corner. I think I might have one on insomnia, too…

[Martin Reed]

'UliHarp' wrote on '22:

Perhaps I'll submit some old poetry on the forum? That seems to be a theme in the Writer's Corner. I think I might have one on insomnia, too…

Sounds like a great idea to me!

—

If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.

The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.

[Mike Hooker]

Hey, Uli,

I'm glad to hear that you enjoy writing. So do I, but I don't do enough of it. I lean more toward the creative nonfiction side, though I have written a few short, short stories in recent years. And within creative nonfiction, I prefer to write personal essays.

Becoming a better essay writer is one of the reasons I started my blog, Insomnia Simply Sucks. With more than thirty years of experience as an insomniac I have a considerable number of stories to tell.

My first publications were way back in 1994 as a graduate student (I was a 40-year-old grad student.). For one academic year I worked as a staff writer in the institution's public relations office, so I was published several times. Problem was, the pub went out to current students and alumni only, and considering it was a small school I had a very narrow readership. My most recent publication was a simple letter to the editor of Toastmaster magazine.

I also had my first feature article published in Home Life magazine in Nov. of '94. It was so little money for the amount of work that I decided not to pursue magazine journalism as a career.

I subscribe to all of the writer magazines: Writer's Digest, Writer's Journal, Poets & Writers, and my favorite, The Writer. On Thursday I received my first issue of The Sun, a literary mag with lots of good essays and short stories every month.

I stick with writing the shorter stuff; I've learned over the years that I don't have the tenacity for writing the longer book-length manuscripts. I get bored too easily with longer pieces and end up tossing them aside and never getting back to them.

For reading, I like biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and history. In recent years I've nearly stopped reading novels, though I do read well-written short stories quite often.

For a period of about twenty years, much earlier in my life, I read all of the automotive high-performance magazines. I had subscriptions to Hot Rod, Car Craft, Popular Hot Rodding, Truckin', Super Chevy, Classic Trucks, Custom Classic Trucks, 1001 Custom & Rod Ideas (defunct now for 35 years), Chevy High Performance, and more recently Hemmings Muscle Machines and Muscle Car Review, though I've let both of them expire.

I was a gearhead; I still love the American hot rod, but I haven't done any hot rod building in a long time. I do, however, record all of the car shows on the Spike and Speed networks every week.

It's now 2:20 a.m. I guess I should try to go to sleep. Wish me luck.

Mike

[UliHarp]

Hi, Mike! Sorry it took so long to respond. Absentminded, I am.

It's nice to see another regular writer (whatever format, style, etc., doesn't matter) here. I've tried to dip my toes in nonfiction but I haven't gotten very far yet. I think that writing a blog is a very cool way to hone essay writing. I read on articles every now and then that blogging is a good way to do that. Again, have tried, but never got far. I simply have yet to find a passionate topic I can carry a blog on, I've come to think.

Even though you decided not to pursue magazine journalism, I bet the experiences were invaluable. And those writer magazines, while I've heard of many, I don't think I've heard of “The Sun”; would you recommend it?

I can understand sticking to the shorter stuff. I get bored easily with long projects, too, and do my most clear-headed work with short stories. I'm both baffled and thankful I haven't gotten bored of my book. At times it seems like I've sunk an eternity into it and it gets disheartening. At the end of the day, however, I always come back to it, because for as much time as I've spent on the thing it would be a greater tragedy to abandon it. The way I keep myself at the grind is to think something like “my characters deserve to have their stories finished” or “if I give up on this book, then I'll have trouble finishing any other”. (This book is the first one I've written/am writing.) It's one of those things I feel like if I stopped, I would regret it. Hard to explain, but I figure you understand in context of any other difficult-but-worth-it situation.

Quite interestingly, I often toss aside the shorter stories and don't come back to them until an unspecified time. I have a number of short stories starting to collect metaphorical dust in my documents folder. That, I think, is less of boredom and more priorities.

I wish I had more time to sit and read like I used to. Every now and then I find opportunity to crack open a book. I've started carrying my unfinished reads in my purse when I go out, and sometimes the chance presents itself. (Waiting rooms, late friends, things like that.) Even though I primarily write fiction I enjoy nonfiction more often than not. Memoirs and diaries are undoubtedly my favorite. (Especially the unedited diaries of Anais Nin.)

The few fictional novels I read are always realistic, or at least, as much as they can be. The novel “Fade” by Robert Cormier is one example. It was set in our world, eras 1940s-70s, and there was only one element of fantasy in the entire book. (A hereditary ability to turn invisible.) I can't much stomach heavy fantasy or science fiction. There always has to be an element of realism in a book or I find it hard to have interest.

Which sounds strange, considering I'm writing what's technically a fantasy book. I don't much like calling it that, though. There are many kinds of fantasy, but to the oblivious eye (what I've experienced, anyhow) fantasy equates to dragons and wizards. Or, as of late, vampires. It's correct to call it fantasy but feels odd to me because I try and make it most realistic as I can. I research and use a lot of psychology in writing, and take most the book's technology and culture from history. So the characters, etc. all feel very real to me.

It seems like a pain to research a bunch, but at least it pays off, in both the characters and my own knowledge. I couldn't tell you how much I know about personality or panic disorders just because some characters have them. It's jump-started my interest in going into a psychology major, too, so all's well that ends well!

As far as magazine subscriptions go, I actually only follow Writer's Digest, the Advocate, and a number of (brace yourself) fashion magazines. I don't read the fashion magazines for anything fashion-related, as weird as that sounds. I just flip through the photo spreads and keep an eye out for anything inspiring, or models who come close to my mental image of characters. It's strange that it works but sometimes referring back to certain models helps me picture a character more clearly. Visual thinker, I am.

I don't know much of cars or motorcycles. If ever I have a character with a hot rod, though, I bet I could get back to you with all sorts of conversation on it!

Well, it's by far late, but good luck. Thank you for sharing about your own writing! Until next time.

[Mike Hooker]

Hi, Uli,

The Sun is a “literary” magazine, meaning that it contains articles, essays, short stories, and poetry. It's not a “writing” magazine, per se. Although the writing is of the quality that will enhance my own writing. It's one of the magazines that I read the content for pleasure and learning.

The publisher doesn't sell advertising space, so its yearly subscriber rate is a little higher than I like to pay (about $32.00/year). But, for me, it's worth it. And I enjoy reading a magazine without ads. If you're interested, you can go here and take a look at fifty of the top literary magazines and journals on the market today.

Mike

[Jane]

Hope no one minds if I chime in on this thread.

I enjoy writing as well. At school I loved writing essays. My imagination knew no bounds! I'm currently writing some children's stories and I hope to be able to finally finish them and get them published one day. Maybe before I reach my half century. 😆

I've also started a couple of thriller type stories. Strangely enough one of the characters is called Martin! He's not a bad guy though, he's just got himself into a bit of a pickle, to put it mildly. 😆

I love writing but lately what with one thing and another I haven't had the time. I need to find a way to recharge my worn out batteries and get those rusty cogs turning again.

[Martin Reed]

You'll have to share a short story or poem or two in the Writer's Corner, Jane – it's gone a bit quiet in here!

—

If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.

The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.

[Kik]

I'm currently writing an e-book to self-publish. It's supposed to be a comical look at my daily commute and the odd things people get up to on my train journey.

I keep telling myself it's a start. 1000 mile journey begins with a first step and all that 🙂

[Martin Reed]

Sounds like fun, Kik! I hope you'll share an excerpt with us when you've made some more progress!

—

If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.

The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.

[Kik]

'Martin' wrote on '06:

Sounds like fun, Kik! I hope you'll share an excerpt with us when you've made some more progress!

Will do! 🙂

[Author]

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