I am not a professional writer but I love to tell stories and draw my own illustrations. Problem is I have no means of editing or publishing. Just a GED for an education and living on the starving artist line. Does anyone have any ideas how a guy can get help with his work in those areas without breaking the bank? Also it should be noted I am lousy at paragraphs or for that matter sentence structure period not to mention descriptions. That's another nightmare. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Signed starving, struggling and frustrated writer artist. PS: My avatar is a picture I found on line and really like a lot. It was under free pictures. No copyright.
I think avatars are beyond property rights >.> Never seen any fuss raised over one. Also, you really probably won't ever get published if you are no good at paragraphs, description, and sentence structure. That's like half of the content of a book. It's either go to a bookshop/library and actually learn how to write properly or hire a ghostwriter to put down your stories.
I agree, every good author needs a good editor. There are many trained editors out there who can help you with the grammar and flow of your writing, while you provide the creativity!
What about Twain, Paine, Stowe,Washington Irving, Frank Baum, Jack London or Patrick Henry to name a few who either published as a very young teen or who had only a couple of years of school or none at all. How did they get published or even get a draft out to a publisher who would even look at it. There just has to be a way for a poor high school grad with no writing experience to get his stories out there. I just don't have a clue who or how it would be.
They still understood how to write well in English. It wasn't gibberish or an endless wall of text. I have zero education and I am barely staying afloat with bills but I'm a good writer due to massive experience and years of work. If you want to be put stories out there, get practicing and reading up on the craft from a bookstore or a library. Costs you zero dollars (unless you buy the books)
Start small, use the workshop to post some short stories once you have done the work to gain the forum credits to do so.
I didn't Google your list of authors; those that I recognized are not current. The advice to be able to write your own good paragraphs and grammar relates to current circumstances. However, with a willingness to learn, this forum will help you to get your writing skills towards acceptable for publishing.
WOW. That would be great. But where do I begin in the forum? I mean where in the forum is a good place to go to start?
We have loads of resources and articles written by members that you can read from the drop down menu atop any page. Thousands of threads discussing and fighting over what's right and wrong. And eventually, you will be able to post in the workshop for constructive critiquing.
I just checked out the writing work shop and it looks like a great place to learn. Plus the creative writing area looks helpful. It will take a while to get acclimated but I'll "...give er all she's got...". Was that the right way?
A writer should be able to edit his/her own work. Period. There are many ways to get good at editing. The obvious way is to start using the Workshop. The more you critique, the better you'll get at editing your own work. The next thing is to read a lot. You'll eventually begin to get a good sense of good writing vs. bad writing, and you'll be able to use that when editing. Finally, you don't need a degree to get published. The writing speaks for itself, and no sane publisher/editor/agent is going to reject your work simply because you don't have a certain degree.