Your qualifications as a writer

[spankableBelle]

I started writing in Jr high, kept it up through high school, into adulthood...
Lit stories were my first published...
A few years later, I started submitting to small digital publishers, all of which were accepted and published, and I now self publish.
I've never had any formal training in writing.

 

[Wriggle]

I'm a multiple published (non erotic) writer and give talks about writing for ones own mental health at schools as the "local author".
The literotica side of me is for my own curiosity.
I have spent 10000 hours learning my craft.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Not much.
Excelled at it in creative writing in school.
Wrote lots of terrible self-absorbed poetry as a teen.
Met a girl and wrote her lots of wonderful love poetry. Married her.
Wrote lots of character bios back when I was heavily into MMO gaming. Wrote lots for online pals as well.
Still, write the occasional romantic story for my wife.
And then I found this place.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Curious about what background people here have as writers. Please limit yourself to real world experience. I’ll start with mine.

- Long history of writing stories from a young age, especially fanfics. I’m 44 years old as of this post. I have written adult stories since 1999. My first story detailing graphic sex was published in 2006 and I’ve put out many more since then.

- Long history of writing on the web since the late 1990s. Forums include bulletin boards, email exchanges, chat rooms, fanfic archives, video game walkthrough archives, and other blogs.

- Bachelor’s degree in History, UT Austin. High school diploma. Salutatorian academic graduate of a private police academy. I’ve worked as a factory technician since 2006 and frequently email my colleagues about various concerns. Before that, I was in private security 6 years and regularly wrote incident reports. I tried to get into law enforcement, then changed my career plans. I don’t think I need to explain my reasoning for that.

My qualifications as a writer?
Failed Kindergarten, Finally kicked out at age 15...
Never finished high school. The headmistress and I came to an arrangement when I was 25...
Can't spell, don't understand punctuation, terrible grammar...
Previous to posting a story here in Literotica, I had never written anything longer than a shopping list...
Guess it shows...
Oh well... (Love that song)
I do love to read, always have done...

Cagivagurl

 

[EmilyMiller]

Your qualifications as a writer​

Masters degree in Structural Biology. Does that count?

Otherwise? Er…

Em

 

[John_Vandermeer]

As an erotica writer? Have dissipated a lot of my life thinking about sex. Leads to an endless supply of at the ready debauchery ready to be put to paper.

 

[HeyAll]

Zero outside of always doing pretty good in English classes at school (that has no relation to story writing though)

This is one of the stories that taught my how to write. It has a great template, starting fast and progressing gradually and quickly.

https://www.literotica.com/s/with-moms-help

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Had to do the Use of English exam along with my A-levels. Degree involved an essay a week, or more, even if some were mostly diagrams. Dissertations and a thesis.

Been paid to write technical manuals, letters, layman's guides, and legislation, among other stuff. I've done loads of chatting in text format for 30+ years now.

Story writing, not so much. Some on another site, plus what's here, including two novels - the one elsewhere betrays inexperience as well as needing editing. I can record events vividly and amusingly, so I'm told, but constructing a fictional narrative is very different. It's easier to go have sex, then write it up with new names and without the boring bits, than to imagine a whole new story - though I do a bit of both!

 

[Comshaw]

A pretentious and detached title won't stop a swarm of pathetic narcissists from happily jumping into a stinking mire. After all, what self-respecting narcissist would pass up an opportunity to talk about themselves?

It figures that someplace along the line you will always run into a Chihuahua (a tiny little dog with a Rottweiler-sized ego) running out to yap at your heels.

Comshaw

 

[Jmanchu]

None. Always written for fun since highschool, but I've never published anything. Some people have read some of my stuff, but it's always been just saved on my computer. And almost all of them were never finished(still have most of them saved up). I wrote an erotic story for a girlfriend once, a story with characters based on me and her and a roleplay we do, and she liked it. Then I decided to post one chapter of my earlier stories that I've yet to ever finish here after it was edited, and the writing cleaned up a lot (City of Thieves: Star of Destiny) which is the first official publishing online of any story I've ever written. After that I've posted a couple more stories here and I have plenty of WIP stories, but school, work, life, and procrastination is a bitch to deal with.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Up until here, work related writing. Technical specifications, contract documents, reports that could be considered fiction.

 

[Britva415]

Your qualifications as a writer

I read and wanked to enough of these things till it sank in

 

[SimonDoom]

A pretentious and detached title won't stop a swarm of pathetic narcissists from happily jumping into a stinking mire. After all, what self-respecting narcissist would pass up an opportunity to talk about themselves?

"Always look on the bright side of life."

Monty Python

 

[Bramblethorn]

High school English. Wrote several technical/research publications, edited somewhere around ten to twenty thousand pages of technical material. Been writing amateur fiction for... gosh, near on thirty years, one way and another. Sold a few fiction/non-fiction pieces to hobby publications, came here about ten years ago.

The technical stuff is very different to fiction, but some skills are transferable.

 

[XerXesXu]

I last read fiction in my youth, about 1963. I suppose I wrote essays for exam courses and exams. After ‘O’ Levels it was expected that we could communicate effectively in written English. Concurrent with ‘A’ Levels we did Spoken English for a diploma/certificate externally validated by the London (Royal) School of Speech and Drama. My professional life consisted of creative and effective communication in spoken English.

In 1979, I had a rather dry paper on learning in neural networks published in an academic journal. Subsequently, I had a number of academic papers, mostly legal history, published in academic journals.

For escapism, I did things. With the advent of the PC came the possibility of writing for escapism. Now I write for escapism, it’s much more fun than reading for escapism.

Being, an author, writer, literary critic or artist, forms no part of my self-identity.

 

[Comshaw]

You got confused with Pinschers. Chihuahuas are modest and shy. But there is nothing to be ashamed of; it can happen to everyone at this age. Soon, the nurse will take you out to get some fresh air. You'll get to see Bramblethorn and the rest of the guys.

Actually, they aren't. most see what they want to see in themselves not what is. This should look familiar:




Comshaw

 

[SimonDoom]

"Never trust dwarves with purple hair."

The geriatric wing

"Dwarves are very upsetting."

Stephen Sondheim, Into The Woods

 

[XerXesXu]

What was Lord Cromwell like?"

You seem to know him. You tell me.

 

[_Lynn_]

I have nothing in my background that's even remotely close to writing.

 

[XerXesXu]

The surprising revelation unveils that the Lord Protector was, seemingly, a Chihuahua.

Oh. The Lord Protector - head of state. He's still dead, except for those with an unnatural imagination. Some think he's a lizard reincarnated as Charles 3rd, and some, apparently, his lapdog, Camilla.

 

[dmallord]

A pretentious and detached title won't stop a swarm of pathetic narcissists from happily jumping into a stinking mire. After all, what self-respecting narcissist would pass up an opportunity to talk about themselves?

Hello Tilan! Welcome to the stinking mire group session. Join the circle of friends; my name is Don. We don't shame anyone here - you're going to be okay.

 

[PennameWombat]

Qualifications? We don't need no stinkin' qualifications.

Which is good. Other than an 'A' in English in my junior year of high school, and a couple of Technical Writing classes during my university days, none. I have plenty of qualifications in writing software in many languages and on many different hardware and OS platforms, and did work on technical manuals, but not fiction.

As I've typed elsewhere here, wrote a few quick erotic stories while in high school for friends... and then nothing for four decades, in the realm of 'creative' writing, of any sort (whether erotica or not). Other than a couple of creative writing workshops, it's learn by doing.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I see the OP as more of a "What's your background" rather than a writer CV. To that end:

I wrote my first published play while in high school. (As far as I know it is still performed several times a year around the country) I wrote a screenplay for an indy film while in college but didn't do much more than technical writing after that except for collaborating in some movie scripts with an ex-college friend who went on to become a successful actor/producer.

About fifteen years ago, I joined Romance Writers of America at the invitation of a friend and began re-honing my past skills to fit more into that genre. I eventually had enough published to join their Professional Writers Network.

Once I retired and was able to purge all the corporate spyware off my computer, I began writing stories that I would post on sites such as Literotica. I continue to write for mainstream publication as well, recently finishing my first middle-grade adventure story.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I thought I was qualified to write stories because I did a lot of technical writing in my earlier lives. However, much to my chagrin, when I started writing my stories, it was a lot harder to do. I'm still learning and I'm still making mistakes.

 

[Sparky74]

I thought I was qualified to write stories because I did a lot of technical writing in my earlier lives. However, much to my chagrin, when I started writing my stories, it was a lot harder to do. I'm still learning and I'm still making mistakes.

I totally understand where your coming from as I'm an absolute complete novice.