Outcast Fanfic Choose an Adventure story!!

Post Reply New Topic

C and i. Look forward to reading more. Keep it comin' .

"So, what do you like?" Marilyn asked.
"I like Magnets."
"Anything else?"
Kipo thought. She didn't really like a lot apart from magnets.
"I like it when people rub my feet."
"Why?" Marilyn asked, as she felt slightly put off.
"Because it calms me down."
"Why's that?"
"I do not know. It feels nice."
Then Marilyn's phone when off. It gave Kipo a fright, and she felt unhappy as Marilyn flipped it open and said "Hello?"
"Hey Marilyn." Koise said.
"Hey Koise! What's up?"
"We defeated the Shaelik, apparently they dissolve in water."
"Great! So now what?"
"Well, we're going to regroup at Bob's. Should we head over to your location or go straight to Bob's and wait for you?"
"Head on over to Bob's. Don't worry, I'll look after Kipo."
"Okay. Bye!"
"Bye honey!"
"Hon-?!" and Marilyn hung up. She had no idea why she said that, it was a spur of the moment sort of thing.

"Did she just call me honey?"
"Think so!" Booger chuckled.
"Hey!" Koise said, switching to his Light Crystal and jabbing it on.

Later on at Bob's house, the gang decided to wait until morning to find out what Bob wanted them all for. Koise found out Booger had been called too along with him and Marilyn. There was one other guest to arrive for briefing and that person would arrive in the morning. Koise slumped into bed and dozed off to sleep.

Dream Choice again
A) Falling Forever
B) Flying
C) Normal, but with ever altering persons and scenery.

Tricky choice B or C...I'll go with B.

Wouldn't mind some more professional advice. I'm always up for knowledge on how my story and writing style is shaping up!

Considering where you're at age-wise and writing experience-wise, you're doing very well. You have warmth as an author which is a big plus. The more you write and the more you continue to share your writing, the more interesting it gets! Some authors declare the number one rule is to "Make It Fun!" Well, you're doing just that. Especially with your last posting. There's some great advice to be found in the following, especially for future reference. It is long, but worth the read.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have a particular piece of writing you are working on, be it a novel, memoir or nonfiction book, or magazine article, or book proposal - I strongly recommend paying for professional editorial services to make it as good as it can be. This is true even if your book is going to be delivered to a publishing editor.

It takes an average of ten years dedication before you can make a living writing creatively full time. Even those who succeed early are often rewarded with praise too early, trapping them in a yet-to-mature phase as they attempt to repeat their success. It all evens out over time. Finding a way to allow yourself the time, to buy time as you mature into your writing, is the biggest “how to.”

The writing life is lonely. Taking some of that loneliness out of it helps you to hang in there. Create a supportive environment that allows you to give it the kind of time it takes. Book clubs, workshops through bookstores, extended ed classes, graduate writing programs – they may not teach you to write, but they can support you and give you time.

Don’t be jealous of others’ success. Jealousy and envy are the enemy of genuine creativity. Wish others well and hope to join them someday.

Failure is part of it. You will be rejected dozens and dozens of times. The best way to prepare for it is to have something else in the works by the time the rejection letter arrives. Invest your hope in the next project. Learning to cope with rejection is a good trait to develop.

To be writing is good for the soul; it’s good for your character – to be observing, interpreting, producing (not just consuming). It’s good to share your work with others rather than be mindless. Pay attention to this. It’s very important. Success is not measured by bestseller lists. Certain types of great books sell very well; other types of great books don’t sell a lot. But they’re both great.

Don’t romanticize writing or think you’re cooler than other people. Don’t think you get special attention or have needs that are more special than anyone else’s needs. That manner of indulgent thinking inevitably leads to a bonfire, a flameout of selfishness. It borrows from the future in hopes that one can make it all pay off today. It’s unsustainable. Manage your responsibilities, take care of them, don’t borrow from the future.

Allow for many paths to your goal. Do not fixate on one path, because then you are likely to give up when that path is blocked.

Make sure your characters are worth spending ten hours with. That’s how long it takes to read a book. Reading a book is like being trapped in a room for ten hours with those characters. Think of your main characters as dinner guests. Would your friends want to spend ten hours with the characters you’ve created? Your characters can be loveable, or they can be evil, but they’d better be compelling. If not, your reader will be bored and leave.

Write from your whole self. If you have a sense of humor, make sure that flavor’s in your writing. If you like talking ideas, make sure there are ideas in your writing. Anything less will be unsustainable. You will get bored inside the narrative realm you’ve created, in the same way it’s boring to sit at a desk all day filing papers. The only way to last for the long haul it to avoid boredom, and to avoid boredom you need to let your whole self in. (Not to mention you’ll bore your readers).

Writers are often defined by what they do when they’re stuck, or blocked. Some ask what the character would do in that situation. Some look just for where the line wants to take them, where the style of the sentence wants to go – what reads well. Some, like me, try to remember our politics, remember what makes us angry – and let that inform what we should be writing.

When you’re considering how to shape a story, pay attention to how you talk out loud about it. When talking out loud, one often naturally self censors and starts with what’s most interesting or tantalizing. We are often natural storytellers with our mouths. Let that guide the shape of the written version. (But of course don’t just write down the out loud account.)

Write first. Worry about getting an agent or publisher later. Write it first. Prove you can do it and then others will listen. Tons of people talk about books they want to write. Far fewer are those who actually complete that vision. Don’t be a talker.

Can you write from other people’s point of view? Yes, if you’re empathic and willing to listen and care about others. If you care about your characters, readers will care. If you don’t like your characters, or your ideas, or your story, readers will smell a rat.

Readers are smart and intelligent. They are always able to spot my weak spots and quote back to me my very best writing. Appreciate this. Don’t write down to them, don’t assume that readers want something sleazy or simple. Don’t complain about “readers these days.”

Articulate, don't insinuate. The writer who insinuates merely makes a hinting nod to a notion that you and he are vaguely aware of and presumably share, presumably in exactly the same way. The writer who articulates does not fear that putting something into words destroys that feeling or thought. Only putting the wrong words on it destroys it. The writer who articulates does not presume all people experience feelings in exactly the same way.

When you're stuck, those aren't the worst parts, those are the best parts - they're your chance to be creative.

When you want to skip something because it's too confusing to explain, that's your chance to slow down and behold the truth that real life is complicated, real people are complicated. Skip for the sake of convenience and readers will sniff a fake.

Embrace subjectivity. Even the subjectivity of an omniscient narration. Only by embracing it, truly, can you take the gloves off and let your take fly.

Create outlines but don’t stick to them. Revise your outlines half way through and then shortly before the end. Never stick to them.

Don't work up to your observations - don't save them for the last word. Start with them. Put your very best stuff first, and then force yourself to grow and synthesize and come up with more, more stuff to rival your best.

The best agents are the ones that are honest. Honesty is the basis of integrity. An agent wants a relationship for the long term, not just for a book. An agent (and an editor) are looking not just at your first book, but all your ideas, much of your future. Share your visions. Find compatibility.

Talk to your booksellers.

If you give yourself the time, you will not only get better as a writer. You’ll develop some correspondences with other writers, you’ll have met some in person at bookstores, other writers from your classes will get stories published here and there – slowly you will develop those elusive “connections” that seem so necessary to getting published. You’ll know some people. Not many people, but enough to carry a conversation. You'll have had so-an-so as a teacher. You'll get how it works. This wisdom just happens. Very rare is the writer who has written a great book and doesn’t have some connections yet. Focus on writing a great book. By the time you have, the rest will be there soon enough. I found my agent when I finally had a short story published in a literary journal. I asked the journal’s editor for a recommendation, and he sent me to the person who became my agent.

Mailing your work off into the ether is a necessary process but not a very viable one. Treat people professionally. Supplement the mail with a short phone call, don’t waste people’s time, don’t be too needy.

Agents and editors are besieged by “okay” manuscripts. Yet they still hunger for and pray for the rare, great manuscript. What does this mean to you? It’s better to write something that’s good and unique and fresh, than to write something that’s highly polished and accomplished but too similar to what an editor/agent/bookseller has seen many times over.

Do you need an agent? To be published by a major house, yes, almost always. To be published by a small press, often not. But it still helps to get how it works, to know a few people, et cetera.

Getting a book published is a great and rare event in a person’s life. But it also opens doors into a pitiless world where writers are measured by sales. You haven’t “made it.” Nobody’s ever “made it.” You never get to go on cruise control. This is good – life shouldn’t be wasted on cruise control. If you want a cushy life on cruise control, you are missing the point of life.

Find a few good role models. You only need a few, maybe only one. Let them inspire you. Art reacts to art. All good books are a work of art that is a creative reaction to other art.

Always tell a story. It grounds the reader in a shared experience.

Understand voice. Write the same sentence ten different ways by imitating the writing voices of ten different writers.

Practice plots. Understand different ways to tell the same story – the difference between hiding a surprise and foreshadowing it, for instance. Starting a story in the middle versus its natural beginning, et cetera. Learn what creates suspense, forward lean, keeps the pages turning.

Journalism first or fiction first? (Grad school in Journalism or Grad school in Creative Writing?) There is no way to answer this. This is an artificial question. It reveals a thirst, a hope, that the journey can be shortened, that there is a shortcut. It can’t. Journalism (facts) or fiction (style)? Both. Both. Both. In no particular order.

Don’t be a snob. It’s good for people to read, so whatever they read, no matter what it is, be glad they're reading.

No matter what your style or genre or form, even if it's journalism, read John Gardner's "The Art of Fiction" very carefully and try some of the exercises. Realize that once you command these skills, you can break every rule he teaches, but these are the basic skills.

Work on your weaknesses. Find out what you’re hiding from.

Stop looking for shortcuts.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write whenever and wherever it suits you, but above all, enjoy it, lose yourself in it!
Please proceed

Quoting so you can see my opinions.

Yes, I'm a bit worried that, as High School ends, I'll lose my major source of feedback-namely my friends as I hand them the latest piece of what I've written (sucks when as an Aspie mantaining friendships usually don't come to mind). All I can fall back to is my sister (she reads a little bit). I appreciate them because they can spot the unnatural bits and plot holes, plus they are the earliest 'junkies' into my story.


Same as above. Also, I've often said that I don't care if my story doesn't do well, I'd just be happy that I'm able to buy it myself and indulge in my world anytime I'd like.


Yeah, I've always tried to make my characters exciting and interesting. Two great examples are Kipo and Booger. Kipo, because of her different way of thinking, and Booger, because he's just lovably weird and funny.

On a similar note, I try to avoid the thing Chris in Curious Incident fell into for Spectrumites because while he's a vividly interesting character from an NT's perspective, he's damned boring from the perspective of a Spectrumite. So I mix it up and make it exciting for her.


Heh, it's funny because I have a major portion of my story (about 4/5ths of it) that's supposed to be darker than the rest of it all, and yet it has humour. Does that affect things at all? Because I imagine it does.


Yeah, I usually let the characters 'write' the story to meet the requirements I set. For example, if I want to characters to start hating each other through a conversation that turns into an argument, I can find it easy to do so.

If I get stuck I usually give it a break and then come back. Sometimes you can get TOO immersed and get that Writer's Block (or was it Artist's?)


GOOD. I intend to write the entire story before I even consider a publisher. Obviously it'll most likely need a re-write and editing and all that, but at least I have MY version of the story out of the way.


Yup, I do this, and with humour too. A character finds a way to keep a door open by using an item, and another character asks
"How're you keeping the door open?"
"With that convenient box of ammo shells I found in the boot of the car!"


Got that too. I've got a FAIR idea of where I want the story to go, so I can twist and contort the story to my liking. A great example of this (and reader input) was when a friend suggested that I make the lead and a (at that point) sub character fall in love. It was a total deviation and it also solved what half the plot would be about!


I always tend to write my favourite scenes first! It's quite exciting when you write a scene in advance and then you write up to it! Once I'm done I Copy/Paste and rewrite it a bit to adjust to the pacing.

Last edited by KBABZ on 11 Apr 2007, 9:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm just going to vote. I've never been good at sharing advice.

So my vote is C.

Your concerns about friendships/feedback come the end of high school days are very valid. In fact, you might take control in planning in advance your own small 'writer's group' to meet and share with others on a regular basis or join an already existing group. You could also continue to share your writing here, with other writers. I can put you in touch with other published writers(Aspie writers) who I'm sure would be only to happy to assist you in any way(via the internet).

Some authors, described by others as 'brilliant', incorporate humour into their darkest scenes. Depends on your style. A critic once wrote: 'We're also pleased there's a lot of humour in this collection. The graver the subject matter, the livelier the jokes ... all are proof that solemn subject matter need not preclude (indeed often demands) lightness and irony."

You wrote:
"I've often said that I don't care if my story doesn't do well. I'd just be happy that I'm able to buy it myself and indulge in my world anytime I'd like."

That's good to hear and I'm sure that quite a few WP members would be only too proud to have a copy on their shelves.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you're ever looking for a good Aspie adventure read:

I think you would enjoy "Anne Droyd and Century Lodge" - "Gezz and her best friends Luke and Malcolm are having fun on a local wasteland near their housing estate, when the arrival of a stranger interrupts their everyday lives and changes the world as they know it forever. Created by a professor of robotics, Anne Droyd is left in the care of the three children who smuggle her into school with them and teach her how to be a 'human'. Described as an exciting Asperger adventure that explores the sense of alienation that arises from being 'different' but having to conform to society's expectations. Anyone who feels at odds with his or her social environment will identify with the heroic characters, and Will Hadcroft's dramatic plot and presentation of real-life issues such as smoking, bullying, and peer acceptance will capture the imagination of all readers."

Thanks for the (seemingly unlimited) advice! You can check back on my story thread in the Writing Forum, most notably Pages 2 and 3. Don't worry, here's the link: My story Page 2 (you'll see one of your earlier comments here!)

You're very welcome. That seems like so long ago - the memories! Enjoyed reading that again. Thanks.

You're welcome!

I'll do the ever-altering one!

Koise was walking down the hallway with Bob and came across a door. The gate was a white picket, and the clear blue skies were a grey overcast. Marilyn wanted to go to the shopping mall to buy some new shoes to try on, but they were in the outskirts of town next to the town centre. They walked in and Bob bought the socks he had wanted, and they left via the front door by taking the elevator out into the street. None of this seemed to cause Koise any confusion, and he got onto his bike, turned the key and went down the motorway. Next he was dancing at the school disco with Bob and Kipo, and the ship had nearly entered the port into Tokyo. Koise stepped out and admired the glory of Big Ben, before taking his car and driving into the Australian outback. Suddenly he ran over a zebra, and had to tend to it quickly before he got chased around the Savannah by those Indian Tigers. Koise ran through the shrubbery and fell down a pit and landed promptly in the same hallway with Booger.

And then Koise woke up.

Was it funny/entertaining?
A) It was both!
B) It was amusing!
C) It was a good read
D) Meh, not bad
E) Total crap that was!

Where'd everybody go, and why?
#) [insert your answer here]

B - now that was some dream!!

A. It's so true...

Yay! More than one voter!

By the way, you didn't answer the second question...

That was intentional, at least on my part. I'm completely brain fried today, trust me, you don't want my advice.