I am too old for this (63) but. As a child, I was a book eater and I still am. Some years ago I started reading a book about writing. After 10-15 pages I stopped. I did not want to know this stuff, I wanted to enjoy every book I read without analyzing it (genre/tense/POV/story/plots etc). Besides reading my dearest hobby is people/portrait photography. I am active in a local amateur photo club. Twice a year I give courses in "Classic portrait and studio photography". The students are amateurs with very little training. The first lesson I usually tell them about my hesitation as a reader to learn about writing. I warn them about the course, I say, if you only want to enjoy nice pictures you should leave (no one does, of course). And then I learn them how to do it. "It's not so difficult, there are only five or six things to think about, the problem is that it's never the same things." A month ago I decided that I shall write a short story (15-20) pages. I have not written anything (fiction) since I left shool. I will have all kinds of problems with the English language, in Swedish, I am pretty good with words, in English, I could probably match a ten-year-old child. And now I am loosing a good introduction to my course and jeopardizing my joy of reading. Maybe I should have stayed safe and learned how to shoot video(but that would include writing dialouge). I think I will enjoy this community.
Welcome, greetings, and salutations, sir. Writing shorts may be the way to go. I like reading shorts compilations over novels all the time. It is also easier to write the shorter as you don't feel obligated to make something in the 80-100k range. Well good luck and I will C-ya around.
