Greetings! I’m excited to finally be at a point in my life where I can revisit my passion for writing after having an on and off again relationship with writing for most of my life. First and foremost, I’m a story teller at heart and have explored various mediums that satisfy this calling. It just took me a little longer than I would have liked to discover that writing is the medium that offers the most creative liberties and personal satisfaction. Professionally, I’m an environment artist in the video game industry where I work at Bungie, most known for the Halo franchise. Currently I’m a mission architect on Halo: Reach, which is just a fancy way of saying that I create the game world that players explore. Between the last three projects I’ve been involved in with my work I’ve had little to no time for writing, as it’s not uncommon to work 60-80 hours a week. One-hundred hour weeks are not unheard of in the game industry. At any rate, my professional life has finally reached a juncture where things are slow enough that I can afford to return to my writing. I hope to continue work on a story that I’ve been developing since I was twelve years old. The fact that at the age of thirty that I still find the story engaging and not the naïve fantasies of an adolescent is encouraging to me. The characters, locales, history, and lore is as rich as I could desire so it’s my hope that by visiting these forums that I can hone my writing skills in order to do the story justice. I look forward to what will hopefully be very interesting discussions in the forums. Thanks!
Greetings Earthling, Welcome to the Writing Forums. Please read How to Use the Review Room before you post there. Posting your own writing for people to comment on should not be among the very first things you do here. It is worth taking the time to see what other people have done to improve their writing, and see if some of it applies to your writing as well. That is part of why we require members to review other members' work before posting their own for review. On the other hand, there are no restrictions, other than content and copyright rules, on showcasing your work in your member blog. Also, be aware that posting a piece of writing on any public site, including this one, will greatly diminish your chances of selling it for publication. Removing the writing later does not alter that fact - once posted, it is irreversibly considered published. So do not post anything more than a small excerpt of any piece you are planning to submit for publication. If you haven't explored the site yet, you should probably do so soon. Newcomers often gravitate to the Lounge, the Word Games, or the Review Room, but there is much more to be discovered if you poke in the corners. Remember to check out our FAQ as well, and be sure to read through the forum rules, too, to avoid any misunderstandings or hurt feelings. Respect for one another is our principal mandate. As for the Review Room, new joiners often wonder why we do things a bit differently on this site than on other writing sites. We emphasize constructive critique as a vital writing skill. Training your eye by reviewing other people's work helps you improve your own writing even before you present it for others to see. Therefore, we ask members to review other people's writing before posting work of their own. The Review Room forums on this site, therefore, are true workshops, not just a bulletin board for displaying your work (and on that note, please only post each item for review in one Review Room forum). Also, please use the same thread for all revisions and additional excerpts from the same piece of writing. See this post, Why Write Reviews Before Posting My Work? for more information. And while you're looking around, don't forget to check out the RPG forum for improvisational fiction. Also try our Weekly Short Story Contest and Weekly Poetry Contest. They actually run more than one week apiece, but any member may enter, and all members are urged to vote for their favorites. Enjoy your stay here, and have fun!
