I sort of have a problem with a new project I started.
The main plot of the story is an actual war between heaven and hell, angels and demons. The two sides are fighting for control of, well, the mortal world i guess? The problem with the idea is that it has a big focus on Christianity. Some people who have already heard the idea have told me that some people may not like the story because they belong to another religion, or the fact that it contains demons, and they are afraid that it will attract negative feedback. I've been advised to change the parts about Christianity and satanism (if thats what its called) and make up a totally fictional plot. That includes the two opposing sides, the reason for the conflict, everything, but stick to my plans for the characters and the events.
So this is my question to all of you:
Should I keep the Christianity, Or make up a totally new and original story with no religious connection??
I would really appreciate it if you would send a comment and tell me what you think.
Thanks =)

I'm curious as to how short a poem can be (and how effective conciseness is), sooo... I'm asking for early Christmas presents from all of you. Show me some one-line poems (published or written by you).

If this post isn't allowed, I sincerely apologize. Feel free to delete.

A Bridge Named Magnificence

( poem )

Please give me any feedback or suggestions you can (and please don't simply say it's bad even if you think so), but I had a one major question - is it really not obvious that it's about suicide via bridge jumping? I mean, I thought it was pretty obvious, but I wrote it so... No one in my poetry class got it. I wanted to smack my forehead.

alright. there are three characters in this bit of prose i'm working on.

would it make the character feel more awkward if she lit up a cigarette and the other two characters said "you still smoke?" or if the other two characters were smoking and she didn't smoke?

 i don't know how to do cuts, so...if someone could enlighten me before i plague you with my poetry, that would be marvelous.
because it seems that LJ absolutely deplores me. D:

I have another question: When you write, do you listen to music? If so, what kind?

Personally, it's eclectic and depends primarily upon the mood I'm trying to create. I tend to ignore the lyrics entirely as well.

I've been getting practice essay questions from SAT books. Is it okay to post an official question here followed by my essay response? If not, do you know of any communities that would accept this?

Hi all! Here I am at college, still trying to piece together this lousy novel I started this summer. It's getting unmanageably long for online posting (40-odd pages--10 miles behind me and 10 thousand more to go, in the words of James Taylor) , but I definitely need help. Here's the problem--this is just the start of my first draft, so should I even bother asking for critiques? Or do I just roll with it until I get at least one draft done and THEN find some poor victim to help me repair the damage? Does anyone have any advice about how to craft a novel, or know of any such resources a strapped-for-change NYU student could turn to for assistance?

Does anyone know where I can find any icons related to writing?

I can't work on my third scene right now.  Long story, check my journal for more.  So, I'm blogging insanely trying to calm my shattered nerves and relax a bit.  In doing so, I thought I'd share a little about the story I'm working on.

I'm currently writing an Urban Fantasy novel.  I haven't read many books with Dhamphir's so I thought that was a good idea for my protagonist.  Dhamphir's are children born from a human mother and vampire father.  No, not like Blade.  The mother is actually impregnated after having sex with a vampire.  It comes from an old Gypsy lore that has always intrigued me.

Anyways, Sage Connors is the protagonist and she works for the Hunters Task Force, helping humans take down rogue vampires and other members of the Supernatural community that have broken the law.  Big problem is that a demon wants her blood to release him from a prison he's been locked away in.  Half of the Supernatural community is trying to drag her kicking and screaming to him, and the other is trying to kill her to keep her away from the demon.  Add in a dose of good old fashion betrayal, a sprinkle of evil domination and the out come is a nice main course of trouble.

So what are you working on?  Leave a comment or a post. 

I'm stuck on a scene right now for my story.  I know what I want to say, but my protagonist and I are having conflicting ideas.   Anyways, I was curious.  Writers sometimes break up chapters by scenes.  One scene to every chapter.  Then there are writers who break up scenes into chapters, having one scene spread over the content of several chapters.  

How do you know when to end a chapter?  Should you leave a cliff hanger, making the reader want to turn the page, or merely go to the end of the scene, which still in turn, leaves the reader on edge?  There are several different ways to do it, but I was just curious as to what some of you think is the best way to split up chapters and scenes.

This is not a post including some of my own creative writing, but rather a post to start a discussion perhaps about creative writing.
Recently I've been thinking about how much writing has allowed me to gain insight into myself and grow as a person.  Until now, I haven't exactly realized the extent to which writing can be used.

I was wondering if through writing, any of you have been able to gain insignt into yourself both personally and artistically, and have you grown from the writing process?
I sure have.

For those of you who use Library Thing, what exactly is the drawback of having a free account? I've been trying to figure it out, and all I can find is that there's a limit to how many books you can enter, or something. Does anybody know what the limit is, or what other drawbacks a free account brings? So far I haven't been able to find that information on the site.

Thanks.

Has anyone taken a creative writing class online? I'm home for the summer and need something to occupy myself... and I also really want to imrpove my writing. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good (and cheap) online class--or should I just skip it and wait until I can take creative writing at school? Thanks!

hola! i was wondering if you guys could tell me, what are the rules when you're writing something and you include a quote from a song or a movie or something. is it enough to just be like (for example) "as bender says in the breakfast club, the world is an imperfect place, screws fall out all the time". also, is it a bad thing to quote a lot?

Hello everyone.

I'm writing a poem, and need a word. But not just any word...the PERFECT word.

I need a word that means a light, pale, green colour. 

Think someone who has light green coloured eyes. 

I want a word that is sort of like Azure, only...well...green. 

Any ideas?

Thanks people!

EDIT: I'm sort of likeing malachite, but am thinkings its a bit to clunky of a word. Beryl also seems to be a growing possibility, and it is just about the perfect colour I'm trying to discribe. The last one I've come up with myself is viridian. 

I've looked up all of those colours via google image searches, and they all seem close to what I'm looking for. Beryl is pretty damn spot on. But what about word choice? Do any of these words SOUND better, or more digestable to you?!

Other suggestions are still welcome!

EDIT AGAIN: I'm closing this off for comment. Thanks to everyone who posted. I do believe the winner is going to be Beryl. Many of you had fantastic word options though. :)  

Something that has fascinated/bothered me recently is the challenge of writing a genre story with fresh, unique ideas that still conform somewhat to everyone's preconceived notions of what that genre should include.

See like let's say I were to write a vampire story. Vampires have been around forever yet constantly revamped (no pun intended) by various authors to take on new aspects. Yet if I were to write something closer to the original folklore version of a vampire versus the stylized Blade or Underworld vampire, or the brooding, romantic Anne Rice vampire, I would have to contend with everyone's idea that vampires wear black leather and have long flowing hair and speak in either quippy one-liners or verbose Olde English. If I stray too far from that concept people will feel that I don't know what I'm doing, this isn't how a vampire acts, what's this guy thinking? But if I stay too close to that concept people will think, oh, another one of these vampires, he's just ripping off [fill in the blank].

The only way I can think to get out of this is to write about baby seals. Baby seals that drink blood. That'll work, right?

(cross posted on write_away and urbanfantasyfan)

I've been thinking a lot lately about what name I want to write under professionally--not a made up pen name, but if I should use my initials (like T.S. Eliot) or my full name (like Louisa May Alcott) or just an initial for my middle name (like Octavia E. Butler). My name is kind of generic (there's even a novelist whose name is very similar to mine), so I'd like to use an incarnation of it that's a little more interesting. Names are really important to me, so every so often I get really obsessed with this and drive myself crazy because I can never completely make up my mind.

Has anyone else given a lot of thought about what name to use? What did you end up deciding, and why? Do you think different versions of names work better for different kinds of writing? I'll be a graduate student in musical theatre writing (specifically, book and lyrics) this fall, and I definitely think I'd feel differently about what name to use if I were writing in a medium other than theatre.

(I would also love advice on this, because really, I'm driving myself insane.)

Question: When you revise, how do you do it?

( Do I dare disturb the universe? )

When my exams are over I'm planning to write a fantasy short story set in the American South and am spending what time I have now thinking it through.  The biggest barrier to me is that I live in England, which is distinctly not the American South; yet the story has demanded to be told there, and I quite like the idea of challenging myself.  In light of that, I have some questions I would like to ask those who live in the American South or know it well, in order to help me make my setting feel realistic.


Thank you very much.

So, all these LJ communities are great, but I'd like to join something a bit more regular. You know, the kind of workshops that have a small group of contributors; once a week, one person submits something, everyone critiques it, rinse and repeat. I like the thought of getting *required* feedback from some of the stuff I send.

Also, I'd like the workshop group to be at least familiar with science fiction and fantasy. I'm a member of MuseItUp, but my group has no experience in fantasy novels, so the first scene I sent them left them confused and awkward. Consequently, their critiques were not very useful.

I just joined Critters, but I'm looking for a group with a quicker turn-around time than six to eight weeks.

Any suggestions?

(This is x-posted to a few places, so odds are you'll see it twice. Or thrice.)

Two summers ago I had lunch with a group of friends from a creative writing workshop. We were sitting in the cafe and talking when one friend declared that in order to create great art, one must completely detach themselves from the people around them.

I disagreed with him, but this notion has stuck with me for, big surprise, two years. I think in order to write well there needs to be a degree of empathy and selflessness. However, lately I began questioning its limitations.

Do you think it's possible to write well about matters you may not fully comprehend or know about? I'm not just talkin' about what local restaurants a person living in X city would frequent, but something to the effect of if you've never been in love, could you write beautifully about two people in love? Or can you convey suffering believably and eloquently?

In a scanty nutshell edited to better clarify what I really want to ask: Do you believe good writers only write about what they know?