Stories of how you come to get inspired to write, the cost of writing, and the aftereffects from it?

[Rhaps]

I was inspired by the first novel series I seriously read, Percy Jackson. The modern interpetation of Greek/Roman mythology by Rick Riordan is honesty incredible despite its flaws.

I wanted to be like him, to imagine how different life would be if fantastical creatures were real. American Gods is also an insperation for my writings.

Very early on, I made to myself a vow, I would write for myself and myself only so I don't owe anyone anything. This is a way to for me to psychologically trick myself to continue writing. Like an addiction, I tell myself I can quit anytime.

True, I did quit for a long time. But what dragged me back was dnd, the way anybody can create their own world and story... it's honesty amazing.

And I developed Infinity in the Void, the conception of the world took years, brewing in my mind. I kept trying to perfect it, but then I realized, I don't need a perfect world or story. All stories have flaws in them, that's what made them amazing.

Writing Infinity in the Void took time out of my study, I didn't get into my dream university. And to be honest, it was for the best. I learned how to give up, I wouldn't have the chance to build and create my own world if I was in my dream university.

I was happy, and that's all that matter to me.

 

[Iamnotabot]

Any case, me? I started as an aspiring manga artist, way back in 1998,

Holy cow, you're too old for thiz hans. go back to your nursing home.

 

[Deleted member 113259]

Holy cow, you're too old for thiz hans. go back to your nursing home.

Of course a bot wouldn't respect history.

 

[Iamnotabot]

Of course a bot wouldn't respect history.

Accept the future, human. Like someone once said:
"The future is now old man."

 

[EternalSunset0]

I loved anime, especially those I grew up with as a college student in the early 2010s/late 2000s. I wanted to try my hand at it. Something that I can call my own and love. Characters I can call my own even if they're obviously inspired by existing characters. An imaginary OP/ED where I can visualize my characters doing cool stuff, plus the prospect of having said characters appear in those Megami Magazine pin-ups, etc. I wanted all that, but in a world that is mine.

So I wanted to do manga/video game development. Realized I'm pretty meh at drawing (and while I do have some occasional pieces that I'm proud of, I don't produce them quickly enough, know how to pose or camera direct enough, or simply create things consistently enough for manga) and I'm absolutely terrible at programming and coding. More like don't have the patience for the latter especially.

Writing does require skill, but it feels less gated than the other creative mediums. Could be a big misconception, but I'm just talking from my personal viewpoint here. It takes a lot to be a good writer, but it doesn't require a lot to spit out something you (and a handful of people) can read and post with a decent outputting speed for the amount of content.

For perspective, my series has six arcs worth of content now (planning around 8 in total), and converting that into manga will roughly be equivalent to over a hundred chapters. Maybe a hundred fifty. Getting to where I am now in video game terms would probably be around 15 hours of JRPG gameplay. Multiply that with the amount of work as a one-man team to get to producing the product to reach that point, and it's simply unfeasible. Just impossible for me to produce and present the amount of content I want in an acceptable timeframe, and I've been here for three years already.

Writing didn't cost me much, too. Writing cost me time, of course. And effort to write, plus a lot of my idle time imagining scenes and how things flow. But that's basically it. I get burnt out or have writers' block every now and then (which is why this latest volume's taking so long), but that's part of the creative package.

Aftereffects? Glad I managed to make a friend or two from this site and others. Satisfaction when people, mostly my friends from other groups/sites, read a volume or two and gave some positive feedback, and a huge sense of satisfaction when I see their engagement. Like predicting future plot arcs or calling a character their "best girl" or "waifu" or whatever. Receiving that kind of support, even if it's from a few people, is indeed the best and most rewarding feeling of dabbling in the creatives.

 

[Rezcore]

Though I haven't started publishing again yet, I have a lot written. My motivations are as follows:

I'm horny? I work out and then write
I'm hungry? I write
Bored? Write
Tired? Write
Sad? Write
Angry? Write

As you can see.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Accept the future, human. Like someone once said:
"The future is now old man."

"Accept the future, human"...

*Gasp*! So you really are a bot!

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Holy cow, you're too old for thiz hans. go back to your nursing home.

If I'm too old for this, you won't see me posting here.

I have long killed myself.

 

[Deleted member 113259]

If I'm too old for this, you won't see me posting here.

I have long killed myself.

???
Bad!

 

[Deleted member 54065]

???
Bad!

It's like Van Gogh. When the doctors told him to stop painting for his well-being, he killed himself.

We both share the feeling that it's better that we die than stop our passions.

So if someone would force me to a nursing home, I'd rather kill myself.

 

[matalayudasleazy]

It's like Van Gogh. When the doctors told him to stop painting for his well-being, he killed himself.

We both share the feeling that it's better that we die than stop our passions.

So if someone would force me to a nursing home, I'd rather kill myself.

But what if the place got like everything you want, man? That includes something that doesn't exist in our current universe? What I'd do to play Prey 2 ...

 

[Deleted member 54065]

But what if the place got like everything you want, man? That includes something that doesn't exist in our current universe? What I'd do to play Prey 2 ...

Would you want yourself being taken care by others? Where everytime you wake up you have to follow them? I don't. At least, when I'm old, I don't want to rely on someone else.

My personal freedom and passion are of greater importance than what I need.

 

[ToushiroYA]

My inspiration was the all common, "I can do this better," that you get from watching anime. At first I just wanted to make some fanfics about characters having proper romance without all the dumb drama, then I started liking the idea of writing something original and my friends supported me as well so I got into webnovels. Which, to this day, I still think that it was my best life choice, so I'm glad I did.

As for the cost, I'd say that writing ended up feeding my anxiety and my fear of failure, increasing them by a few levels, so I have more difficulty posting something when my brain signals that it's gonna be hated, even if it actually won't. Thankfully, I'm an extremely lucky person who always finds friends that help me when I'm in such a state of mind.

 

[Koiren]

I myself am not a native English speaker either, but I've been practicing fluency since 9th grade or something, because the learning process and success that I had served as a great motivation for me.

I've always been a huge daydreamer, and new stories and characters pop up in my head rather often. Way too often, I'd say. I come up with ideas much faster than my energy for writing regenerates, and with the amount of studies and work I have to do, my burnout used to be real bad because of that. Originally, I began writing stuff in English to train memory and vocabulary: at first it was only short stories for my English school assignments, later - something that felt like psychological pieces about my own fears and emotions, after that - a diary that I abandoned very soon after I started it, and somehow I came to having started my first big work, "Masquerade of Souls", when I was around 16. I can't quite recall what exactly inspired me to write a story about a slave girl who is rescued by a sly boy with a hidden personality, but I guess it was a fandom or a character I've seen before.

Inspiration comes to be without invitation, but it also goes away as suddenly. It's quite irritating, because I was tired of writing down concepts but being unable to write actual chapters. I had to spend thrice as much time on a single chapter in order to look through dictionaries and a thesaurus because my vocabulary at the time was quite small and narrowed down to words I've learned from a couple of books. I liked the process though. Looking for synonyms was a captivating hobby of mine, and it still is this way. I didn't even have a full plan for the story skeleton, no base, no clear understanding of how to execute my ideas, but I liked the fact that MoS was getting a little bit of attention on different platforms. I abandoned it almost as soon as I started my second year at university, or even earlier, and only got a chance to come back to writing this summer. Apparently, I wasn't that much inspired to return to MoS, I was rather excited to start something new - a story that has been on my mind for a long time now.

As I started re-writing MoS, fixing major errors and dealing with stupid plot building, I also began writing the story I mentioned, although I don't know if I actually want to post it yet. It's very dear to my heart, and I don't know what I should do with it. Maybe I'll try to gather some fan base first and then start posting chapters, or... I don't really know. But I lost myself a while ago, with so much going on in my life... I would like to have my inspiration back completely. For now, writing is a little bit more important for me, but I'm also a bigger loser now because I lack ambition, compared to a 16 years old me. I draw more, try to practice at everything at once and hope to get successful in at least something in this life. I must say that now I'm much more tired, depressed and sad, but I'm also proud of my ideas, stories and characters. I love them and would like to share them with the world one day.

 

[matalayudasleazy]

@Hans.Trondheim Eh, matter of perspective, I suppose. I do think it is good to still be active and away from a senile life at old age, as it (from a lesson taught by my teacher) can rot your mind and degrade your life from using your mind at full capacity and developing creative intelect at it, too.

@ToushiroYA You are LUCKY to even have friends that cares about you, let alone those who actually look at your work and express their opinions on it. Let me reiterate that almost no one in my hometown speaks nor read English, and if they do it'd basically just a short video of old GTA V wins/loses comp. or another damned Mobile Legends trivia and such.

@Koiren Kinda sucks that I have this experience you're telling me, too. Like a worm pitching you its dreams of wandering around the cosmos, unveiling whatever is beyond the void, whether it be God or just a more ever-expanding vast white space or... just freaking copy Narnia lol, everyone does it, why don't you :)