I want to be a writer

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Pre-warning: I don't want this thread to become a political debate.

I so badly want to be a writer. I fantasize about being a famous author when I put the effort into my stories, and then feel sad that it's only me and a couple of family members who read them, when I want the whole world to be reading them. But I was told that my books have very little chance of being published because I am not famous already, and apparently people only buy autobiographies from celebrities. But while my books might be like autobiographies, I would not categorise them as autobiographies. They would just be like teenage fiction...even though they're not exactly fiction. Well, only a few parts might be fiction in the books about when I was a small child, as it's hard to remember everything, but it's still based on non-fiction events of my life.
But even to self-publish you have to have it typed up on a stupid computer, and I am crap at typing on a keyboard but don't have the patience to use my phone keypad to copy them all down. Copying written text down on to digital is so hard for me. If only publishers would take handwritten books, that would be great. I love writing, and I have readable handwriting and excellent spelling and punctuation skills.

Also I want to publish my Stephen Foster book, as I love it so much, I love the way I've written it, it's a drama, musical, and romantic, all in one. Very emotional, focusing more on mental health than anything else, and the plot is just fantastic. Being so I'm obsessed with him and there's only one book I wrote about him, I might be able to find patience to type it up (using my phone keypad), but I'm scared to self-publish in case I get arrested, as it has just a bit of typical 1800s slavery involved, but it's just how the plot fits together and society needs to stop being so sensitive, especially that I don't even support slavery and neither did he. But you know how it is. I guess I could put disclaimers in, if that might help cover my ass? But there is actually a hidden message within the plot, that says that interracial relationships are like any other healthy relationship and is daft to frown upon. All the characters in the story learn that at by the end and they unite.

But anyway, I often daydream of becoming a rich author, selling my material out there. I'd much rather that than go to work as a cleaner or some other mundane job in business. I feel I should be a writer. It's my dream.

Its perfectly healthy to dream

It's sad that you feel unappreciated in your efforts

I wonder if there are any creative writing groups or courses you could look into

I learned to touch type in high school. I proved to very useful for studying computer science and typing in computer programs. Maybe there is an online course that would help you?

Mention of slavery is not illegal. It would be impossible to set a story in the USA before 1865 without slavery as it was an integral part of society in those days. It would be dishonest to pretend it didn't exist. Furthermore, when studying history we need to thoroughly understand every aspect of slavery, otherwise we'd be ignorant of our own history. Slavery is probably the single most important thing to understand for anyone wanting to learn our history, as you may have discovered while researching your book. At least one of my ancestors was a slave owner. My mother had a transcription of his will in which he manumitted his slaves. I was just now looking for that because of what you wrote above. This is probably true of most white people in the US if their family was here 200 years or longer.

I did lots of research, yes.
But bearing in mind my book was written by a British woman in the 21st century, about an American man in the 19th century lol, so it's only as accurate as I can get it to be. But it's a romance and one of his romances in the story is with a slave, so that is why slavery has to be mentioned in the plot but it's not entirely about slavery. It's more solely based on his mental health and social connections with people. While the plot involves a lot of what actually happened in his life, it's still twisted into fiction, as in real life he never did actually have a romance with a slave. Well, not in any written records anyway, I mean nobody will truly know the details in his personal life, only what's been recorded.
I'm just so happy with the plot I put together, it might be the cleverest thing I ever done and it's the most research I've ever done in my entire life lol. I'd just love it to be read by more people.

Well I think it's very generous of you to want to share something you've taken pride in creating

That's the best thing I think

Thanks BB.
If it fails I could publish my cartoon comic strip I drew about covid. It's a cartoon version of my family, exaggerated into slapstick comedy. It expressed my anxiety feelings about covid but turned into funny jokes. For example one scene in it my mother goes shopping during the lockdown and a worker there points a gun at her and says "what do ya want?" and my mother puts her hands up and says "to do shopping", and the worker reluctantly lowers his gun and says "in you go then." In real life that never happened of course, but the way people acted during covid it might as well have been that way lol, so that's why I exaggerated it like that in my comic strip.

This is what I mean, sometimes I feel I'm too creative to go to work in a mundane job. I want to get my creative skills out there, just like Foster did. He never gave up. He wanted to write 200+ songs and sell them to the world to listen to and he was going to do it if it killed him...which it did. But I don't think he regretted it. He was too creative to be stuck in a boring job. And that's exactly how I feel, but with writing stories.

I hope you get your wish

Apparently it costs up to £3,000 even to self-publish. I don't even have £30.

(Not hinting for anyone to offer me money or anything, I'm just saying).

I'm still going to look into it. Also I'd love to see my book become a film. The plot is just fantastic, if I do say so myself.

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/

You can do it for free
I've done it myself before and there are also internet platforms like cosmofunnel.com where you can get your writing out there for people to read and you can also win contests on there for writing

https://cosmofunnel.com/

Great. I'll look into it.

Cosmofunnel is fab BTW and you get feedback from other writers and everyone is really supportive

Some of the dialogue in my story is copied from the movie Swanee River, but I assume that's okay, as the movie is in the public domain. I'm not sure I'll be allowed to include his songs in my story though? Unless I can change some of the words?

There's lots of romance, feelings, and even some violence in my story. It's a romantic musical drama, and some facts about his life are altered fictionally to be able to build the romantic plot it's based on. So I've added a couple of fictional characters, and existing people in his life are not down to fact. For example, in my story the Christy minstrel man is from the south, but in real life he was not. Also the bloke he befriended in New York was a close friend of his in real life, but in my story he's an enemy. And with the romance side of it, the two women he has a relationship with in my story are fictional characters (one being a slave, the other being a rich minstrel dancer).
The whole story though is based on his awkward, aloof personality and declining mental health, but it's still a romantic story. I would post the plot here but not sure if it's a good idea or not.

I like the way the narrative bits are written in British English, while the speaking of the characters is written in 18th century American English lol. That's just to remind the readers that it was written by a British female in the 21st century.

I really hope you do, Tamaya. You are a writer, you need readers

Thanks Kuen, you always give me support. (Others do too).