Any amateur novelists out there?

Over the past two years, I've been working on a novel that I hope to finish sometime in the near future. I'm in my last semester of my mechanical engineering degree, and I recently got engaged so it's been difficult to actually find time to write. For me, video games and narrative have always been inextricably linked. Sure there are cases where the story takes a backseat to other aspects of the game, and there are plenty of games where there's no discernible story at all. I'm not going to sit here and argue that an inventive, immersive narrative will always trump engaging, rock solid gameplay, but if I think of all of my favorite games, the reason I can't put them down is the characters and their story. Some prominent ones that come to mind are The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite, and Braid (to name a very few). To be fair, Braid hooked me with the mechanic too but I will always be a sucker for a good twist. This hunt for a good story is the same reason Lost will forever be my favorite TV show, and movies like Inception, Memento, and Visioneers (yes Visioneers) leave such an impact on me.

I always loved reading as a kid, and I often wrote funny poems in my free time (finding words that rhymed and created a cohesive message was like a puzzle for me). At this point it's difficult to determine if my enjoyment with specific video games grew out of my love of reading a good story or if I just naturally gravitate to those types of games because of how I'm wired. Regardless, all of these elements (movies, TV, books, gaming) have come together to inspire my novel.

I'm wondering if anybody else has written any novels and has any advice? I have yet to read any of Dan's books but I appreciate the fact that he just wanted to write books and then actually went and did it. Has anybody self-published (like on Kindle) or been fortunate enough to have any works published through traditional means? Even if that's not the case, I'm wondering if anyone else here just writes for fun. One particular question I have is if there's a specific writing software that you prefer? I'm currently just using MS Word but I know there are a lot of other options out there, including dictation software which sounds interesting.

If there are any writers out there, keep doing what you're doing. And write about what you want to write about. Writing, like any form of art, has so much freedom in it. It's something you can leave behind and say "I created something and left it for the world, even if nobody else reads it."

Kudos on balancing your engineering degree, your family, and your novel all at the same time! That's no mean feat.

I've written a few self-published novels (through the Kindle store), although I haven't had as much time for fictional writing recently since taking up more analytical think pieces on the tech and gaming industries. Finding the free time to commit to a project as large as a novel is difficult, and with my job, I currently prefer the shorter-form opinion articles.

I don't know how much my advice is worth, but I will recommend Smashwords as a good resource for self-publishing tips and style guides. For the act of writing, I actually tend to use OneNote, as it syncs automatically between my multiple devices, meaning I can write on my phone in the middle of nowhere, should I so wish.

I'm so with you on writing what you want to write. As you said, it's a way of having an impact on the world, no matter how minor, and a means of expressing yourself like any other. The best of luck with your novel, and your future!

I'm in my last year of college so it's not at the forefront of my mind right now, but one of my long term goals is to write a novel so it's nice to hear other people pondering it! I've always liked coming up with story premises but never quite got to putting anything substantial down, especially since I spent the last 16 years in school full-time and have other hobbies.

I don't have any huge, immediate aspirations so I'm in the middle of casually writing an interactive fiction game on Twine, and I only see that developing into visual novel (rather than a draft of a book) in a year or two if I can get any of my wonderful artist friends on board, but it's fun to just come up with things! I really want to write something with branching paths, but I know starting with something a little more straight forward is probably a better idea for a first project haha.

Anyway, Twine is definitely good if you want something on the side that's a little more involved than just typing into a text document without any real goal in mind for the time being. It makes a project seem that much more tangible when you can click through it yourself and have an easy way to share it once you're done!

@macka1080:Smashwords looks really cool, thanks for suggesting that! I had never heard of it before but I'm not surprised a system like that exists. I like how blunt they are about the likelihood of being successful on their website.They try to make the point that you shouldn't be writing for fame and fortune but just for the love of it. Although it would be nice to make a buck or two I suppose...

Twine also looks really interesting. When I was fiddling around with programming (Python) I made some super short, very basic choose your own adventure type stuff and I loved it. But I was using Python for my job and eventually didn't need to use it anymore so I haven't gone back to it. But I might check Twine out. Good luck with your story!