>Keep a notepad filled with short story ideas
>Have a bunch of ideas floating around for longer stories
Should I even bother writing them? I'm not an English major and I'm scared I'll just get laughed at if someone reads my stuff.
I'm a pretty decent writer though, took AP lit in HS and aced both the writing and literature courses my college makes you take.
Any other wannabes that are afraid to apply themselves?
>I'm a pretty decent writer though
No you aren't.
>>8053906
You're probably right
Fuck it
>>8053907
Just do it if you want. Don't overestimate yourself or you're only going to stagnate.
>>8053831
>I'm not an English major.
Fuck if that has to do with anything. I was never an English major, and I've probably written more than a dozen typical English majors combined. It means nothing.
Don't be scared. Don't judge yourself prematurely. Just go for it with the intention of having fun.
Nobody has to read your stories. So be a heretic and set it down. Be a pervert, edgy, cruel, insane, talentless, tasteless. Just enjoy yourself and learn.
You're afraid because you think you're good at writing. If you didn't, it wouldn't scare you that people might laugh. Of course they will, if they read bad writing. But you don't see that as a certainty, you see that as a threat. You perceive a possibility that they'll like your writing. You think you possess the possibility of good writing, you think you have a good writer in you, "a pretty decent writer". You think you have it, so you're scared you could lose it.
You don't have a good writer in you. You can't write well. You're bad at writing. Because you're bad writing, you only come up with bad things to write, so you don't write them, because you think you're supposed to write something better. You're not. You're supposed to write badly. That's what bad writers do.
For years, I was afraid to identify as an artist or tell people I was a writer. It was like being in the closet.
Don't judge yourself before you start. If you suck, you will get better with practice. If you are great, you will get better with practice.
Make art. Consume art. The rest is bullshit.
>>8053831
Take all your ideas, put them into one great story that is also one of your metaphors. Like Ahab hunting the whale with a harpoon. That's all you need to turn into an entire story revolving around whatever experiences you want the story to convey.
>>8053907
thats the spirit
>>8053831
> Should I even bother writing them?
If you care about writing, if you want to improve, then yes.
> I'm not an English major
There's no intergalactic law I'm aware of that prohibits you from writing due to not being an English major. Tbqh, most of the English majors I've taken classes with can't write for jack shit.
Listen, if you want to write, write. You need a pen and paper. That's it.
>>8053831
>my college makes you take
you need to read more. That sounds awful.
>>8054030
>I was afraid to identify as an artist or tell people I was a writer
Yeah kiddo, you can't call yourself an artist or a writer. Thats pretentious as fuck. If people think you an artist, then you are one, but you can't call yourself one to begin with. Reminds me of those fat women that write "beautiful" on their bodies.
>>8054055
I chuckled
>>8053831
Anon, be bad until you're good. Be good until you're great.
>>8053831
your first story isn't going to be great.
you're going to show it to a friend and that friend will have to make effort to finish the thing.
but it will be your story.
your next one will be better. you will start to understand what makes writing shitty.
the next one will be even better.
all of them will be your stories, your idea, never written before in that way.
just fucking do it.
certainly, you don't need a college education to construct a sentence.
