Career thoughts

candy-gal1

I was just thinking and am going to throw this question out and see if I can do it. I really want to be a writer, Iv written lots of short stories etc, and have been told that I could be good enough to be a writer. My question is, I have a lot of diaries, written almost the whole way through from age 15-age 22,and I was wondering if there was a way to make all of them into a book/novel after fixing it up a little of course?! Like where would I go to do this?! And what would I need?!
Thanks very much for any info given!

My name is URL

Are you Anne Frank?

Seriously, just write stuff based on your own ideas and experiences. And do a creative writing course

edit/ Just remembered that there's actually a Creative Writing forum here

candy-gal1

nope, not yet anyway!

lol

Cianos

Do a course or join a writers group...basically put yourself out there and take all the (constructive) criticism you can get. good luck!

mikemac

We have a creative forum. Good advice in there

There are workshops you can attend, check your local papers

Loads here

Here are courses for writing
http://www.nightcourses.com/search.html?by=keyword&keyword=writing&qualification=&county_id=0&college_id=0&coursetype=night&category_id=0&scollege_id=0

drkpower

candy-gal1 wrote: »

I was just thinking and am going to throw this question out and see if I can do it. I really want to be a writer, Iv written lots of short stories etc, and have been told that I could be good enough to be a writer.

No offence intended...... but, you say you 'really want to be a writer' yet you havent even bothered to post your query in the forum that is likely to have given you the best advice....

Suggests that you havent put the first thought into it really....

But best of luck with it.

AnonoBoy

I've got a spare attic you can move into if you want. We can employ Germans to come around every so often and look for you.

I dunno.

It might help.

dr.bollocko

Moved from After Hours
All posters please read the charter before posting here.
Good luck with it OP. There are plenty of resources here that should help out. Main thing is to just try and hit the ground running with it! If you want to write, write!

EileenG

Be brave and post some stuff so we can take a look at it.

Being a writer is not just about doing the original writing, it's also about taking the criticism you get, and doing rewrite after rewrite if necessary to get it right. You don't have to do this, you could be quite happy just writing for yourself, but if you want to get published, you have to be prepared to put your ego on the line.

claire h

As you're talking about 'careers'....

You can be 'a writer' without being 'a full-time writer' and indeed in most cases will have to be the former. Even getting published is no guarantee of making enough money to live off it. So you may be good enough to be 'a writer' in terms of writing, getting published etc, but it's an awful lot harder to be someone who can support themselves from their writing and nothing else.

Similarly you don't need to write novels to be 'a writer', you could just write short stories. Not much money in them, but then again, not much money in most areas of writing!

With adapting diaries - you'd probably need to cut an awful lot, make it work as a single story rather than just the meandering life that most of us lead, add in more detail... are you thinking about fiction or non-fiction? With both there's still an awful lot of tidying up to be done. You'd also need to consider how appropriate it was to write about yourself and the people in your life in something you were hoping to get published. Finally, the 'it really happened like this!' justification can sometimes get in the way of good writing, when someone's writing about real events - just because something happened in a certain way doesn't mean that it works well on the page.

Writing courses, though not an absolutely necessary prerequisite for writing, can be incredibly useful, and if you're struggling with 'what do I do now?' I'd say go for it - you'll get some good feedback and direction.

Antilles

candy-gal1 wrote: »

I really want to be a writer

candy-gal1 wrote: »

Iv written lots of short stories etc

Bam, you're already a writer. Problem solved

Just keep writing, keep editing until you have something that people read and tell you is better than stuff they sell in Eason's.