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There are plenty of writers on EWB, but we don't have a Dome Check-In style thread where we can discuss writing, brag and despair about our latest projects, ask for feedback, and so on.

So here you go. The thread, by the way, covers any form of writing (prose, screenwriting, poetry, etc).

In case you haven't seen it, ApSham is running a Fantasy Fiction group in the Cube. I better get around to actually writing something for it...

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Actually, might as well ask here: how do people get their ideas?

I bought a book to be a bit more pro-active in terms of noting down things I think of - generally do the whole 'what if?' concept that I read about in a writing book to help generate some ideas. Was wondering how other people went about doing it.

Probably won't be for another couple of months before I make a bigger attempt to get into writing - work is a bitch in terms of time.

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My problem is that I had too much inspiration because my idea for that has now morphed into my next big spec script idea.

Edit: I wish I could explain how my ideas come to be because to be honest, I'm not even sure. :/

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I'm on hiatus for exams at the moment, will be getting back into writing in June.

My other idea died before it started, was doing an idea loosely based on Game of Thrones. Divided the roster up into 6 major families and set their locations, had a sort of Dothraki counterpart, had half of the first 'book' worth of story sorted, chose the viewpoint characters, but the data corrupted and I couldn't be bothered to go through the trouble of setting it up again.

Still have it all in mind, but I doubt it'll ever get off the ground.

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My inspiration (although it has been running a bit dry lately) comes from looking at the things that interest me at a particular time, and then generating ideas from that. For example, I wrote a short story in January as a result of thinking about glitch art. The majority of my output also tends to be satirical as I often look at the news and think, "What if this happened, how would it effect that?"

When I was younger I would just pluck stories out of the air and run with them. Sadly as I've got older, the filter in my head has become unbearable in its rejection of ideas.

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My problem is that I try to get so succumbed into a world that it leaves me begging for more. For the longest time, I played on EWR, and am currently using it for my 2006: Big Time diary, but I want the out of world stories to keep me interested. RVD revealing he has a drug problem, yada yada, stuff that makes me feel like I am playing a game as opposed to just simulating out a story, and that's what TEW '13 does I feel. My only gripe with that is the week system - as opposed to actual day system - leaves so many openings. I try to keep everything as real as possible. From the arena and venue that was used on that day, to the day of the PPV's. So when I get week 1 RAW, it kind of takes out the "realism" aspect if you will for me. I want to try and get a diary going where people feel immersed by the diary, like it's actually a part of the world where anything can happen, as opposed to "Oh, here's a few possible spoilers. Someone married an unknown daughter of Linda McMahon!".

The other thing, is I always feel I can write better. I know my word don't translate as well from brain to keyboard to page, so it kind of always gets to me. I can finish a show and post it, but then after know that I probably could've done better. Expanding my vocab is something else I want to try and do too, so it doesn't feel like the same repetitive lines over and over again.

As for my motivation, even though I've gotten blasted for it in the past, smoking weed really puts me in a mood to write. I feel I am much more creative and can come up with unique and interesting ideas I usually don't think of. So if I were to smoke tonight, I would probably write out a show. Then I would do the same tomorrow and want to write again, almost making my biggest positive into a negative because it makes me want to continuously write.

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I actually have to point this out? Okay...

There are plenty of writers on EWB, but we don't have a Dome Check-In style thread where we can discuss writing, brag and despair about our latest projects, ask for feedback, and so on.

The Dome, surprisingly, has a Dome Check-In thread for writers. Go there for that sort of stuff.

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I've been obsessed with writing some sort of short film for a year now. I do keep getting snatches of ideas but nothing I want to commit to paper.

Maybe that'll change once I get a bit more free time and am back writing UH scripts again. Because writing other scripts makes you want to write more scripts, right? :P

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I am really craving writing a remake of "The World's Most Dangerous Game" while mixing in a sort of "Fallout"-esque post-apocalyptic world. But it's hard to find the motivation while my soul is being sucked out by my shit job. :(

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Maybe that'll change once I get a bit more free time and am back writing UH scripts again. Because writing other scripts makes you want to write more scripts, right? :P

Sure it does. 'Wanting to give up altogether' counts as writing, right?

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I'm getting very little actual writing done lately. Because I'm doing writing and proofing as a job, in what little free time I have I find it very difficult to then motivate myself to write my own stuff.

What I have found myself doing more of, though, is splitting one impossibly complicated story that's been swirling around for the last couple of years into smaller segments and working it down to its core, getting rid of all the extraneous stuff that wouldn't add anything to the overall narrative, but could lead into a cool story in its own right. So that's fun.

My main project was a fantasy story set around London, using the name of Inspector Sands as a kind of immortal figure residing in London with connections to various points in the city's mythology, replete with urban legends and so on. The problems I was facing were mostly trying to make it not look like a rip-off of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, or to get too close to Ben Aaronovitch's books.

That's kind of gone on the back-burner, though will probably pick up on it again the next time I'm actually in London, as I tend to write a lot while I'm there, and I'll be able to do a lot more "local colour" stuff when I'm actually there.

What I've started work on more recently is an idea that's been in the back of my mind for years - I wanted to write something based around pro-wrestling in the early 20th century, or around a travelling circus/carnival troupe…so I'm thinking of combining the two. Working hypothesis, as it stands, is about a poor kid from the East End who sneaks into a theatre and sees a play; it'll either be Shakespeare, allowing me to directly reference him throughout the story, or else I'll research things that were playing at the time. He wants to become an actor, but he's held back - he's basically illiterate, and his voice is too accented, or else he has a speech impediment or whatever, something that means he can't become an actor, and that being his life's dream. He has a short stint on the music hall circuit, but because he's a big bloke, ends up being enticed into pro-wrestling. I'd like to set it against the backdrop of wrestling become more "entertainment", so am trying to pinpoint a viable time period for it to take place, as my initial early 20th century estimate probably doesn't work with the story I'm telling. But I think there'll be some fun stuff to play around with the kind of crossover of acting and wrestling, and him not quite fulfilling his dream, but realising that, through wrestling, he's been playing a part all along, or whatever. It's early days.

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is getting close to done. I've got the rest of the story pretty well mapped out and have started wrapping things up. I'm hoping to have a finished first draft by the time we leave for vacation on the 27th, but that might be a pipe dream.
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I'm working on my next Film Scratches article tomorrow. Hopefully it won't take too long to write as I want to start thinking about my next big fiction project.

However, I don't know what said fiction project will entail yet. I keep trying to recycle ideas (there's a script I wrote in 2010 called 'Plastic Love', which I attempt to novelise every six months for some reason) but I think I need to begin from a blank page. Generate some ideas. Really get my brain thinking in ways it hasn't for a long time.

One thing I want to do, maybe, is to let myself go. As I've become older, I have rejected ideas that are preposterous as I wanted to write meaningfully. I haven't written anything containing supernatural or superhero elements in about a decade. My last proper crack at a whacky sitcom was three years ago now. I think I will find writing more fun if I take what I've learned about structure, narrative and character development, but apply it to something a bit more carefree than what I usually go for in a story.

Does anyone else have this problem where they stopped writing in particular genres as they 'matured'?

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Absolutely. I don't write anything sci-fi any more, even when I have an idea that I think might work, and when I was younger I'd write a lot of "hard" fantasy stuff, to the extent of sketching out maps and all that nonsense, with quest narratives and macguffins. I couldn't bring myself to write any of that now.

Outside of a short play I've been working on forever, I've not even really written anything overtly comedic in years, but mostly because I don't think my writing style lends itself to comedy that well.

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I've got a few threads of a never-previously-thought-of story in my head. A 24th century-set ghost story, which isn't exactly me being more light-hearted and carefree', but it's the first original fiction idea I've had in 2014 so fuck it.

I'll have to flesh out the concept a bit more and then post it here, just in case it's a 'Simpsons did it' scenario.

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