I know this might fit better under Creations, but I can't stand how no one responds to your works there. I am hoping it will stay here in general chat, where people are more openly exposed to responding to it.

Sorry, moved it to creations. COMMENT PEOPLE! - Grugg
The following is the Forward for my book "Archipelago" (It is a book, I only use quotes because I'm to lazy to use the HTML code.)

I know its random, because you wont read my book, and its likley none of you ever will. I just wnated to share it, and see what you think about it. Feel free to post whatever you want about it, I'm not picky. If you hate it, tell me.

Forward:
Most people never think they could ever write a book. I was one of those people. Ever since I was a kid, I had always enjoyed creativity. My imagination ran as wild as the wind, and I don’t think I ever really grew up. My first real story I wrote in fifth grade. It was a project for class; we had to write a little book with pictures and a plot. I was never much on the pictures, but my book got the highest score in the class. I was called Space Impact, and it was all about the future. Laser Guns, Plasma Rays and Spaceships were all fine and dandy at the time; but I never really enjoyed writing the book.
It wasn’t until about the summer between fifth and sixth grade, I believe it was 2003, that I really found the genre that captivated me the most. Fantasy. I found that with Sci-Fi, I had to base my plot on technology and buzzing computers, I had to use science to back up my story. With Fantasy, I found that magic doesn’t need an explanation, Dragons aren’t run by nano-bots, and swords definitely lack internal combustion mechanisms.
Fantasy let my wild imagination run free. I could forge epic armies and titanic heroes. Terrifying villains and hostile environments that tested the imagination without me needing to explain atmospheric content. I was at home scrawling down my tale.
I often run into the question, “Travis, how did you think up the plot, it seems awful complicated to have thought up in about an hour or so”. The truth is, I never had any intention for Archipelago to evolve into what it is now. I only wanted another short story, something to pass the time. I got something much more than that. As I wrote, more and more ideas, characters and conflicts flooded into my brain, and I couldn’t stop writing. Soon I had woven a complicated network of plot lines out of just nine chapters.
Naturally I couldn’t stop there, so I kept going. My writing skills got better, and the details grew finer. I never once figured it would grow to such a tremendous size.
Another big question is always the “Who is your favorite” gig. People are always asking me who my favorite character is. My favorite Hero? Villain? Battle? Truth is, I love all of them. Each one is a different part of me, aside from maybe the villains. If I had to choose a favorite villain though, I would have to pick Nydus. You’ll find out why later n, I don’t want to spoil anything for you.

One of the biggest challenges of finishing the book was actually just focusing on it. When you’re only a teenager trying to write a novel, there are a lot of things that get in the way. School was the biggest. It was always a struggle balancing work and writing evenly, without tipping to the favor of one or the other. Naturally I had to keep up with my schoolwork, or else the book would be pointless.
Aside from school there was home life. I hate to say it, but my parents weren’t always the biggest fans of my writing. Its not that they didn’t care, far from it, its just that it often distracted me from chores and housework that needed to be done. I also had my friends to entertain. They were the least of my troubles however. The only time they ever bothered me was if they called when I was writing.
Of all of the people who really kept me focused on my book, it was my friend Daniel that helped the most. For months he literally called me every day, sometimes twice a day, just to ask me if I had anything to read to him. He listened to the entire book as I wrote it. He memorized character names, locations and even chapter titles. I confided in him the secrets of the plot. Whatever was going to happen, I told him.
Of course he got on my parents nerves, and I don’t think his parents enjoyed it too much either. Between the two of us, our households were running up quite a tab on phone payments. Regardless of however much we spoke though, there was nothing like reading my book to a different audience.
This is where Boy Scouts comes in. For some time, I brought my book to every meeting, every Tuesday night, and I read it to a group of boys after the meeting. They were captivated; I could only assume that they never wanted the reading to end. Every meeting I had a throng of young boys pulling the hem of my pants asking me what would happen this week. Would our heroes win the battle? Would one of them die? Those were constant questions. I would take the group outside the school we met at, and we would sit in a big circle. Here was where the magic happened.
It was in these few months I realized why I wrote. I wrote so I could read. It brought me tremendous joy to see the excited looks on the faces of my listeners when my heroes tangled with a villain, or made some groundbreaking discovery. Every week I yearned to read more than I vowed to. I had a strict limit of three chapters a night. Sometimes I would read four if they were extra short, but I would always leave them at a cliffhanger.
My heart would jump into my throat when I saw them smile or shake at the mention of a character, or swinging of a sword. Then, when I left them for the night, they would go in sorrow, longing to hear more than we were allotted.
As I said, I wrote so I could read. I’ve run into people who have actually asked me why I just don’t read an audience an existing book. They say it would be so much easier. So much faster. Of course that offends me, but I try not to take it to seriously. I answer them simply with another question. Would you like to feed a guest a dinner you didn’t cook and have them, praise you for it? It’s just not the same.
The complications of writing are immense, particularly for someone of my age at the time. I had written the entire book on a series of some six notebooks. I began the process, as aforementioned, at about the age of ten. I’m not exactly sure now though, it was so long ago. Of course my writing was rather good for that age, and anyone who read it was impressed, however, looking back on it now I can safely say it was an atrocity. My grammar and spelling were so atrocious at times; I could not understand what I had written. I frequented comma splices and run on sentences. Fragments were less common, but still present in far to great of a quantity. When I re-read those original texts, because I still have them, I find something interesting happened. It is an inevitable fact of life that as one advances through the educational ladder, ones language skills improve. Not only the amount of improvement my conventions showed, but also my handwriting. I noticed that I had trained myself to write neatly and cleanly, so others could read my work. I found it stupendous that my writing was improved by means some might consider a waste of time.
As I grew older, and my writing improved, so did my aspirations. Not a day went by, and still not a day does, when I did not think of music or a film for the book. It’s such a fantastic sensation to be able to imagine your own creation put to visuals and audio for others to enjoy. In fact, during High School, I arranged for the members of my band to compose musical scores. It was a fruitless effort of course, but exciting nonetheless. I, like all authors, had a perfect mental image of what my characters looked like, but I was not satisfied with that alone. I began seeking artists to portray for me the physical characteristics of my own mental pictures. It was an impossible task, and it bared no fruit to be plucked. I had many talented artists draw up many beautiful pictures, and they were all very close, but there was always something wrong.
Of course it was some time before I figured out what the problem was. How could I accurately portray my thoughts and my pictures in words? It simply couldn’t be done.
As aforementioned I often receive an avalanche of questions when I read the book to those who have never heard it. Another common question that I come across is this: “What did you base the characters after?” It is a tendency of all authors to put a little of themselves, or what they dream to be, in a book. This I did as well. Through the fantastic world I had weaved I gently hinted toward my own life, my own personality and that of my acquaintances and good friends. The villains were particularly fun for me to imagine into existence. Each one symbolizes a trait that I find disgusting, and often times these traits are very well hidden, almost invisible, but they are there. Sometimes it might be only a single line out of hundreds, or a single action out of thousands that hints toward this quality. I decided here I would make a game of it.
I have always been interested in providing the reader with something else to entertain them while they read. In several of my hand written notebooks, I have points where the story stops and the book will ask you a question about the previous occurrences, ask you to make a prediction, or connect the instance in question to your own life experiences. I found that my readers enjoyed these “comprehension” checks. Often times, readers would stop and contemplate the answer to some questions for some time before continuing. I will not bore you with such material, but I encourage you to scan the text for interesting questions and opportunities.
This book has a special place in my heart. It is a manifestation of the problems that have troubled me since I knew how to think on my own. Serious questions, along with many mundane ones, are hidden in the writing, and I challenge you to find them. Some will be obvious, and some may require a second read through to locate. This is simply my way of making the work more personal for my readers.
After all of these problems and questions I had encountered, the biggest one of all was: “Will you get it published.” Of course the logical answer was no. It was not likely that a teenage boy of my low talent could possibly manage to publish a book. As far as I know it will never be published. It was not my original intentions for the story to be published. This story is not a means for me to make bank, nor a catalyst for fame. It is a means by which I can express my creative qualities. Here I can relax and sink into my own world. A world where anything is possible if I say it is. A world in which I can fulfill those dreams that I always had. A world in which there is no reality, and no fantasy, only a gorgeous mixture of the two. This is my most personal diary. Every moment of my life if reflected in its pages. I am opening it to you, the reader, in the hopes that you may better understand the oddity that is my thinking process.
Enjoy this trip into my mind.

Sincerely,
Travis Couch

Well. I know that most of you won't be interested, but I would be much appreciative if you would drill me with questions about the book.

It gives me something to do, and it lets me better understand my own standpoint on things.

I might just start posting here if I have the time.

This has been here how long? *checks watch* oh, bit more than a week. I have to say, that whole blurb up there ^ is very inspirational (to me at least- anyone else?). I have noticed that no one seems to look too deeply into the creativity forum, at least under the personal creations section. Maybe just keep going, and perhaps they will come. I am interested in learning a bit more of your style. (That whole bit of having villains who represent something you find reprehensible is pretty much exactly what I aspire to have (both in my game and in my story).

(Extraneous note: Perhaps people are daunted by the idea of reading through such a gargantuan creation of text as the first post demonstrates- or they're just intimidated of posting their own words after it XD)

I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to read this, and I do understand what you mean about daunting mass text boxes.

But I very much appreciate your intruige to my personal writing style, although I frankly think I'm not any good. Of course that may just be me being modest, but it's a sin (in my book) to say you're good at something just because you love it. It's just a little biased...if that makes any sense.