Getting to the point

It has come to my attention recently that anyone can be a writer. Anyone can write a story.
However, there is a huge difference between writing a story and writing a good story. This difference is caused by something I like to call ‘creative lying’ or imagination and having the staying power to follow it up.
Now, by creative lying I don’t mean ‘No, I didn’t write that report for you boss because, when I went to do it, I found that there was a parrot at my desk and it had eaten through the computers power cable and then it attacked my auntie with a spoon....No sir, I wasn’t drunk at all and it was the parrot and not the hangover that stopped me writing it’. That’s just silly; everyone knows that parrots can’t drive so how did it get into your office? A total lack of staying power!
What I mean is writing a story about a mundane, every day thing and then making people want to read more. My sister is a fantastic creative liar but she doesn’t have staying power. Her greatest triumph (and failure) came about at the age of about 6. Someone asked her why we didn’t have a dad. She told them that he had died of a heart attack when she was 6 months old. Now, the kid she was telling this to had no idea what a heart attack was...and neither did my sister. Not wanting to admit her ignorance, she told the girl that it meant that dad had been eaten by a shark.
Now, here’s the thing about staying power and the reason it is so important when one is creatively lying: Months after my sister started telling people this, one of the parents at the school was speaking to our mother. ‘I know it was a long time ago but I’ve just found out what happened to your husband. It must have been awful! Where were you when it happened?’ to which my mother replied ‘Thanks, it was awful, he was sat in the arm chair in our living room.’
After a long pause, the parent said ‘Umm...you do know that Amy is telling people he was eaten by a shark, right?’

See? Staying Power. Amy had come up with a brilliant story but she hadn’t thought to add anything to it to stop her being corrected. Yes, she was 6 and yes, she had no idea that a heart attack and a shark attack were two completely different things but she could have tried!
So, when writing a story for this forum please remember: have a point
Damn, I forgot to mention the reason I was writing this is to remind people to get to the point!

Good things can be pointless.

The problem is that everybody writes but only a few people can write. If you can write you can get away with pretty much anything.

This is why I'm not a writer. I just bang my keyboard and anything post words with order right

My problem with writing is the imagination thing. I need help there. I can write about games I have played. They sometimes spark an idea in my brain. I can write about things based on real life. I think I am pretty good at descriptions. Lousy at spelling, punctuation and grammar. Get my tenses all mixed up. Staying power is another thing. My stories tend to take on a life of their own and refuse to follow the plot I have planned.

In other words I love to write things but most of what I write is lousy.

Same here We can be crap together!

At least you know some grammar, spelling and punctuation. Your crap at least won't turn Cara's hair grey prematurely.

The wonders of the spell check I'm afraid! All my ramblings get typed on word and then copied and pasted. It's how I sound vaguely coherent when I'm sozzled

I do use spell check. Other wise there are times when I can be totally incomprehensible. As you may have noticed in my posts.

Yeah but it's all part of the fun! It's like doing a crossword

It is code. Once you figure out what I did you can translate it. Felinoid got very good at it on FAI since my spell check doesn't work on FAI.

Now which direction did Granny Nak shift er fingers this time? Mostly it is the right hand shifts right but sometimes left. Just to really confuse people sometimes I do it with the left hand.

Then there are the times I leave out small but important words or letters. IE: er = her

There are a lot of amazing writers out there, the ones who catch my eye are song writers (NOT song writers who produce crap like something Lady Gaga will sing ahahaha I will admit I do dance along to it) but the songs that will not only excite your ears but pleasure your imagination or poison it.
I can remember one overplayed radio song when it came out - Kings of Leon 'closer' listening to that gave me tingles and Caleb Followill's voice is hot!

A good song has much in common with a poem.

Words can be anything you want them to be. That's both exciting and daunting. There are some written pieces that are so powerful that they speak directly to the soul. That's what great writers do.