Hello, Writers! I've lurked the forums for a little while and have decided to risk registering. It's even likely I will have a few things to say and I might, just might, also have a few bits of my own writing to post for your pleasure or pain, depending on your mood, your taste and my own writing ability. (Or lack of all the above.) I'm of the male persuasion, in my 40s and have been doing some independent study of writing for a few years, now. I'm a very avid reader, fully capable of consuming an entire library's worth of texts in very short order.. should I live so long. I'm also a heavy consumer of books on writing and of biographies and interviews that feature notable writers. In short, I've taken the plunge into writing, choosing to wade in the not-so-shallow and sometimes treacherous genre of Fantasy and Science Fiction writing. It's not the first time I've done this, either. I wrote my first book around age five to seven, or so. (Short story, really. But, I called it a "book" back then and so it remains until someone tells me different!) I also had a short story published when I was ten, though a local publication featuring kid's stories doesn't count for much. (Dragons, castles, knights.. you get the idea.) I have yet to complete a true novel. But, like many writers, I have lots of uncompleted manuscripts, begging for attention. I have recently decided to focus on honing certain skills using short fiction, novellas and practice writing, rather than stumble through attempts at complete novels, for now. In that regard, I take Bradburry's advice to heart - You can spend a year or two writing one novel, or you can write one short story a week. At the end of the year, you might not finish a novel and, even if you do, it might not be any good. But, if you write short stories, you'll have fifty-two of them and one of them is probably good. (Paraphrased) So, I hope to offer submissions and am willing to gamble that the Universe's random number generator will be something I can influence by honing some skills over many attempts, rather than just one or two. Anyway, thanks for letting me in the door!
Welcome, As they say, practice makes perfect, but they never tell you when exactly it will make perfect. Hope you find what you need among like minded people here.
Welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed that intro. And I'm really liking the idea of writing short stories. Maybe not the one-a-day, but it might be a nice change from chugging away on a novel. Thanks for that Ryan
Thanks for the welcome, all! An oft-quoted saying, by whom I forget, is: "There are three rules of writing. The trouble is that nobody knows what they are." Perfect practice makes perfect, but none of us really know what that is. So, we're all just going to have to make it look good.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Morkonan! I hope you find what you're looking for here, whatever your interests in writing. This forum aims to provide the best workshopping resources on the internet, and to that end we have a few rules which you should familiarise yourself with before you get stuck in. The main section of the site is the Writing Workshop, where members can post their writing in order to receive critique of their work. However, before we allow members to post their work, they must have met some basic requirments. Firstly, you must have been a member for fourteen days, and have made twenty posts on the forum overall (please note, posts in Word Games do not count towards this). This is so that members, when they post their work, have familiarised themselves with the forums and contributed to them (as well as hopefully learned something for themselves). Secondly, members must provide two constructive reviews of other people's work for each piece of their own that they wish to post. This is because we believe that the focus of workshopping should be equally upon giving reviews as receiving them, as they allow a writer to practice and improve their editing skills, which they can then apply to their own writing. Beyond the Writing Workshop, you will find that we have extensive forums for discussion of aspects of writing, as well as a community area for general discussion. We also run periodic short story and poetry contests, which are good for challenging yourself and expanding your skills. If you have any questions or problems, then the moderators (myself, Cogito, Lemex and Dante Dases) should be your first port of call. Any technical problems with the site itself should be directed to Daniel, the site administrator and owner. I would recommend you have a look over the rules so that you know what to expect, and what is expected. But aside from that, I hope you enjoy your time here. Banzai
