Hey all, I just wanted to introduce myself and tell you a little about my journey here... I am almost 50 now and my entire life I have been the type of person who needs to constantly be learning new things. While my working life has been centred around the automotive business, I have always had a yearning for creative expression. I have explored many avenues in pursuit of this from car building to industrial arts to knife making to cooking and most recently, oil painting. All of these things are a lot of fun, have enhanced my daily life and the process of learning and doing them all is wonderful, but the one thing I have wanted to do my entire life and have not attempted, for as long as I can remember, is to try and write a book! The reason I have never done so is because it has always felt like something beyond my reach and I was convinced it had to be a skill that, as they say, “you are born with”. It is the same thing I thought about painting, and finally after getting over my fears of failure with that particular endeavour, and teaching myself to paint, I have come to the realization that virtually anything can be learned if you put your mind to it and simply make the effort. This is how I landed here. I have been lurking for quite a while now, too intimidated to post, but I think I have finally absorbed enough knowledge and information from reading everything I can lay my hands on that I feel I am ready to start down the path! I hope that I can eventually be a worthy contributing member here and not become an annoyance with all my newbie questions and observations. With that I would just like to say hello and also say thanks for any future help and assistance with this crazy plan of mine!
Wow, I hope I will be like you when I will be 50. Welcome. I just just few days back, and already I seem to run out of time reading all the wonderful stuff here.
Why thank you RBan! I think mindset is everything. The day you choose to stop learning is the day you start declining. There are always ups and downs through life and even though you my miss the mark sometimes, always trying for ‘up’ is the trick. At least for me! Cheers!
Hi bobbybirds! I’m one of the forum moderators, and I want to welcome you to the forum. I think you've got what it takes to become a writer ...or just to write a book, and then move on to something else. But not only do you 'want' to write a book, but you've obviously proved you can do lots of things, if you are willing to invest the time to learn. Do you consider yourself a great reader? That certainly helps. Like anything else, you kinda gotta know what you want to create. But if you're a reader, you'll probably already have a lot of knowledge you're not aware of. You'll subconsciously know what a story is 'like,' and the kinds of things that please you when you read. Deciding to write a book you would want to read yourself is just about the best starting point I can think of! Anyway, I hope you find what you're looking for here. I know I did. In order to help you get oriented and get settled, here are a couple of links I strongly recommend that you read at the start, if you haven’t already. They will give you a good idea of how we operate here on the forum: New Member Quick Start Forum Rules You will notice in the New Member Quick Start that in order to post your work in the Workshop area—the only area of the forum where you are allowed to ask for feedback—you will need to do at least two critiques for other people, in exchange for receiving feedback on one of your own pieces of work. This site is designed around the concept of members helping each other out by ‘paying it forward’—through our two-for-one critique system. Do two critiques, THEN you can post something of your own. This advance 2:1 ratio lasts as long as your membership here. In order to help you get started doing critiques, here is a link to a good article written by one of our former moderators: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/constructive-critiques.20627/ One of the popular areas of our forum is our contest section. There is a monthly contest running for Short Stories, Flash Fiction and Poetry. You can enter these ongoing contests, even as a new member. And we really encourage you to visit the site, read the current entries, and vote for your favourite when the voting period starts. This means a lot to the people who have written these entries. And it will also give you a good idea of what our members are capable of writing. https://www.writingforums.org/writing-contests/ While the Role Playing Game section is not new, it’s being given a revamp. So if you are interested in playing and writing Role Playing Games, you might want to visit this section and get in on the fun. https://www.writingforums.org/threads/resurrecting-the-dead-rpg-section-rebuild.165055/ I hope you have fun getting to know us and let us get to know you, via the posts you make. Please feel free to explore the forum. There is a lot under the hood. This site map might help you find your way around more quickly than the menu bars do, so feel free to use it. https://www.writingforums.org/faq/ If you encounter any difficulties, don’t hesitate to contact me or one of the other moderators, whose names appear in yellow at the bottom of the Community page. We will be glad to help. Again, welcome! Cheers for now, Jan
Thanks @jannert! I am a big reader for sure and always have been. When I was a young’un in school I always enjoyed writing short stories and poems but that was more just school assignments etc and nothing happened after. I have just decided now is the time! Just yesterday I sat down and started writing, unsure how I would go and I was surprised when 6 hours went by and I had 2360 words! It really isn’t a story in it of itself so much as a pre-curser to a story I have been working out research and mining down ideas but I just felt like writing so I went for it. It is sort of like a long prologue to how the world my story will be set in came to the point where I intended on starting the story I have in mind but I can’t say I would use it even as much as just experimenting to get to where I need to be. Anyhow, if I get up the nerve I may post on it but I am still a bit shy in that regard... We will see!
The most important learning tool in your writer's box will be ...writing! You can read all the how-to books in the universe, but until you actually start writing, they won't actually be much help. So you're definitely on the right track already. Writing itself will bring up all the issues you will need to deal with. How to build bridges between scenes (or maybe just ignore the bridge altogether, and make a flying leap!) How characters talk and actually behave on the page. How much time to spend on a particular scene or a particular kind of scene. What to do when you can't think of a word. And etc. Once you've actually written, the how-to advice comes into play. By then, you'll know what the creative writing gurus are talking about—because you've already been doing what they're discussing. There is also a lot of difference between writing and showing your work, in my personal opinion (me, without my Mod hat on . ) I think lots of new writers believe you should write a scene or two, then immediately show it to somebody. You are more than welcome to show your work to us at any time, once you've fulfilled the requirements for posting in the Workshop, but I'd be cautious about posting unfinished work too soon. Instead, maybe get as much written as you can ...or even finish the piece. Edit it yourself. I don't mean just proofread for spelling and grammatical errors, but also figure out where the flaws in your story or style might be, and fix them if you can ...either on your own, or with the help of how-to advice from experts. THEN show it around! The goal is to make a connection between what you intended to say in your story, and what the readers actually pick up. But by the time you've finished and done a few preliminary edits yourself, you'll have a strong grasp of your story, and what you want to say. The feedback advice is easier to filter at that point. Some things the readers will tell you will strike a strong chord ...yes, that's IT. Why didn't I think of that? Why didn't I see that myself? Thanks! And you'll dive in and make some changes. Other pieces of advice won't actually gel, because the story they seem to want isn't the one you're telling. So you can thank them for their time, but don't act on the advice. It's good to take on board what all betas say, of course, and if you can address their concerns, you might want to try. But you won't be ruled by their opinion if you've already written something that pleases you. You'll want to make your piece even better, but you know what your story is supposed to be. Of course there has never been a writer alive whose work has been universally loved. So pleasing everybody is not a goal that's reasonable. However, if you've only just begun writing a story, you can get pressured into veering it off in whatever direction the early feedback wants it to go ...which is a shame. You'll lose yourself, your characters, and the reason you started writing it in the first place. It can destroy your confidence. Not because the advice is harsh, but because you're not ready to hear it yet. So don't be too quick to post your work for review. That would be my personal 'jannert' advice. But keep writing! Keep thinking and planning and feeling and crafting. The more you write the more you'll gain confidence. Not confidence that you'll get everything right first time—because you won't—but confidence that whatever mistakes you do make can certainly be fixed later on. And wow. A new writer is born!
Thanks so much for taking the time to lay forth all of that wonderful wisdom! I must say it it is breath of fresh air to such a genuine response and not simply hollow words. As said earlier, I truly hope to absorb what I can and be a valued contributor here myself and having people like you to steer us a bit when needed whether for knowledge or just for a simple push ahead is such great resource! Cheers!
