Hi all! My name is Jessica and I am currently writing my first novel, 3,565 words and counting. This is something I have always wanted to do, kind of a bucket list thing. I am here for tips and hopefully some constructed criticism. I get the feeling my family and friends are being too nice and I want advice about what I am doing well and what needs to change! Very interested on resources for naming, I am working on a fantasy novel and find I am have trouble naming characters, towns, I cant even come up with a name for my "world" I am concerned that some names will sound silly. On a personal note I am 23 years old, I have a 15 month old son and a two year old boxer. I look forward to getting to know you all!
There are some good recent threads here on naming and on too-friendly reviewers. Yes it's likely that friends and relatives will a) not want to upset you by telling you what needs improvement, and b) may not be experienced in recognizing what makes a story better or worse. I'd recommend you not agonize too much over names until you have the novel well underway. Just call them Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty from Memphis (or any other names that may have fewer preconceptions). If you use names that your word processor's find and replace can unambiguously locate, you can at any time change all occurrences to something that you decide fits the world. That decision is easier after you have been working in that world for a while.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Jessica! 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
