Hey! I stumbled across this place while looking for a writing community after a strong desire to start writing again. This place looks the most active and the most centered around helping people more than everyone just posting their work with no critique. I am looking forward to being a part of this. I stopped writing probably once I started college, I had a piece I had been working on for over a year that I completely lost interest in. I recently found more time on my hands and wanted to get started again, only to find multiple frustrations. I found I have lost a lot of my inspiration and drive like I did in high school. I have 4-5 works that haven't gotten past their beginnings because of that. I have been looking for ways to get it back ever since. I'm hoping this will be a resource I need. Just recently I came up with a new plot-line and am starting to lay out my foundations in character development, plot and background information. I'm probably a little while off from starting the writing just yet as I want to lay out a path, and hopefully I won't get as stuck as before, because I will always have a whats next in mind. Anyhow, I'm glad to have found this place and am excited to get to learn.
Welcome! And welcome back to writing! I've written very little since I started college. Well, very little of what I want to write. I've written plenty on class materials. But that's beside the point. Every time now that I try, it's a strenuous affair. That part of our brain that allows us to write is just like a muscle. With lack of use, it atrophies just like any other muscle. I've gone through this time and again. There will be a lull in my classes and I'll buckle down on writing. It's hard at first but slowly, the more I try, the easier it gets. Hopefully the same will be for you. Just work your way back into it and don't expect more of yourself than you can deliver at the moment. That will only lead to frustration. If you had passion before, I'm sure it's just buried under years of dust and rust. I hope this forum helps gets things going for you again!
Thanks to both of you. College does take up so much time and brain power. I had found that by the end of the day, I would be sadly empty in the thinking juices department. Just staring at a piece of paper or an open word document never did much for me. As much as I wanted something to get done, my bed always called louder. I am finally getting into a place in college where learning is becoming easier and not as stressful. I am finding it leaves me with the much desired thinking power. I wish the same for you in getting back into it.
Thinking juices? Awesome. I'm nearing the end of my journey toward a BA and I'm looking forward to having more free time afterward. As it stands now, though, I can't really get much of anything accomplished at home. It's always so noisy and distracting... So I only get to do school work while I'm at work and that pretty much takes up all my time there. Once I'm free of homework... It's going to be glorious. Maybe I'll actually be able to finish my book! One can always hope, right?
Haha, yes, my family has always used that phrase. I forget that most people will not have heard of that before. Lucky for you. I'm getting close to my BS but will have about 4-6 more years after that to get my Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. Seems like it will never end. I am currently out of work, which is why I find so much time on my hands. One can always hope! Possibly you will have so much free thinking tie you can dedicate it and get it done. Thats what I'm hoping for. I'm starting to get to the point where I have to not look at quantity of work done over time but just make sure I keep working on it. Otherwise I would never get anything done. I just don't have the time to sit and write for hours at a time. High school was so much nicer with free time on the weekends.
I've heard "brain juices" but never "thinking juices". I like it. A Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine? Wow. That's an intensive field of study (not that I need to tell you that!). I've been looking forward to graduation for so long that it's hard to imagine having years and years more ahead of me. I will eventually go for a Master's in something but I think I'm going to wait and get rid of some of this debt I've accrued. I am looking forward to further study, though. There are so many classes I wanted to take but didn't have time for... Yeah, wow, I remember those free weekends back in high school... That was the only time I really got to write thanks to the insanity of my mother. I would stay up late and get up early just so I could write as much as I possibly could. Ah, it was glorious. Maybe I can get a cabin in the middle of nowhere some day and make that my whole life. That would be delightful... I'm drooling a little at the very thought.
Use that in the same context I believe. "Get those thinking juices flowing!" my mom used to tell me when I would start on homework back in elementary and middle school. We'll see. 0.0 Its a lot of school and I keep bouncing back and forth if I want to go the whole way or just be happy with my BS. What are you majoring in? (If you don't mind me asking) Sounds like you have a smart plan. I know after I get my BS I will also be taking time off to just relax. At least a year, then I'll see where to go from there. I know there has been a ton of stuff I want to take but can't because I'm so constricted in sciences. Some of my favorite classes were the english ones I took. I would love to take more advanced english classes but alas its not in it for me. We are alike in that then! I have always dreamed about a little cabin out somewhere far away from any suburban life. I've always considered the middle western states....Colorado, Montana Wyoming.... I'm actually hoping to go to graduate school in Colorado if I choose to go.
Haha, excellent! Sounds like your mom's pretty awesome. So I say with next to no information... I have no idea where I encountered and/or picked up "brain juices"... Well, I suppose if you're getting a degree for work, look at the jobs you want and see what they require. That might help inform you as to whether you should be content with that BS or continue onward. I'm majoring in English so I can edit professionally. I imported so many credits from another school that I had virtually no electives free for me to select. It's kind of sad. I had this huge list of classes I wanted to take... But I will be downloading my school's detailed course catalog and, at the very least, seek out the textbooks for all the classes I couldn't take. Not quite as good but it will do. Those sound like some nice locations, though I must admit I've been to none of them. I'm originally from Washington State and I'm rather fond of the geography there. If I could get a cabin in the foothills of the Cascades, that would be fantastic. Snow, rain, gorgeous mountains, forests that just won't quit... Mmm.
Just one of those things I guess. I am currently majoring in animal sciences. There is actually not much to do with decent pay (if you're not going the grad school route). Despite that I have a few ideas that branch off from that, from becoming a geneticist to becoming a paramedic. I will have taken so many science courses that has to count for something. Thats too bad, its hard how schools can be fickle like that. Always such a disappointment when you would prefer to take some of those classes. I feel like thats why we go to college is to study what we want. Instead we are still stuck on a path and can not afford to have some electives. Washington is very beautiful! I've been there a few times, all the landscape is just amazing. Just seems to be a little more wet and cold then what I'm used to. I've done a lot of traveling, and have fallen in love with that mid west area of the United States. The rockies are just breath taking, and all the fields and rivers...yeah definitely would be a dream.
If I may ask, why animal sciences? There are so many great opportunities in science. Studying genetics would be fascinating! I want to get my genome sequenced at some point and see what comes up from that. I would love taking more science classes but I am dreadful with math and I am under the belief that science requires a lot of that. Paramedic would also be interesting, but very stressful I imagine. I've never seen the Rockies. I'm sure they'd put the Cascades to shame! I hope to see them one day, though, along with, well, everything else. The idea of traveling is intoxicating to me but as soon as I seriously consider putting it into action I start to get anxious and abandon all thought of it. I may have a problem... but if I don't admit it, it's not real.
Technically I'm an Animal Science major with the option Pre-Vet. It gets me to finish all of my pre-requists to get into vet school. I didn't start doubting whether I wanted to get my DVM until after my second year. At that point I just wanted to finish and get my degree in something. There actually is a lot of opportunity for animal science majors in the genetics world. Most understanding and testing of genetics is done on animals first. I didn't find my love for genetics until recently after studying the subject and basic animal anatomy. There is so much we don't understand. I never thought about getting my own genome sequenced though. Interesting thought. How much math you need is entirely up to what type of science you are taking. Physics...yes you need a lot of advanced calculus. But with biology? Nothing so far. Chemistry requires a lot of calculations but the math itself is not that hard. Its just knowing the correct formulas. You should though! Traveling is such an amazing experience, and as a writer I would assume you will eventually have to. Its hard to figure out how to organize everything. The past few years I have been organizing my own road-trips and vacations. The stress is always worthwhile. I have found that exploring on my own with a few friends has been more than amazing. We are never really sure where we are going or what we will see.
I'd actually read a little blurb in New Scientist about how geneticists had found the genes for tails and teeth in chickens, and had activated them. The chicks couldn't be allowed to develop to maturity, of course (unfortunately), but they still got some very interesting results. I hadn't really considered the applications of animal science with genetics and that story just snapped back to my attention. I'm sure I still don't understand the full breadth of opportunities, though. I've been told that the Human Genome Project will sequence your DNA for $400. With a quick browse through some Google searches, I can't find it. Perhaps my source knows where this can be found. He'd said they can give you information on where your genetics came from. I think that would be fascinating. Biology would pretty much be the only science I'd want to pursue I suppose. While chemistry would be fascinating, I think I'd rather just read Wikipedia articles. The math is done for me there. And physics... that's a bit beyond my capabilities from what little I know. Haha, you're right. I'll have to get used to it eventually. I've been on two road trips before, though they were organized and orchestrated by others. Once I went to New Orleans (for too short a period of time) and the other time I went to... Ohio/Kentucky. Though we stayed in Ohio, we visited the Creation Museum just across the border in Kentucky. Both trips were of vast amusement. It seems, though, like there's never the time or money to go anywhere... You have to spend money to go all while you're losing money from missing work. Maybe when I have a better pay grade and a job where they actually care about their employees it'll work out better.
Chemistry covers a broad range of science, and some requires a great deal of mathematics, and not merely plugging values into formulas. Physical chemistry, for example, can involve reaction rates when gaseous or liquid reactants flow into a container, such as fuel and oxidizer being injected into a rocket engine's reaction chamber. You can imagine the kinds of calculations involved, including higher order partial differential equations and linear algebra. I've worked as a research chemist, decades ago. I worked primarily as an electrochemist, with quite a bit organic chemistry thrown in. The mathematics I used for those areas wasn't terribly challenging, but I did study PChem in college under a professor who was an expert in atmospheric chemistry. A good grasp of mathematics is valuable in any field of science, although some fields don't require as much as others. I even use higher math for writing, in developing my science fiction settings. Welcome to the site. And have fun!
What is electrochemistry? It sounds tantalizing. I've found myself using more more than I'm comfortable with in my writing. I laugh at myself (after the fact) about it, though. Those math problems where you have to figure out when Train A and Train B will cross paths? Yeah, I had to use that once. Of course, I never understood how it worked and had to do wild and crazy things to get an idea of the answer. I probably could've benefitted from looking up how it was done... Maybe next time, though. I can only imagine the math that would go into a (good) sci-fi setting, though!
I'm pretty sure I don't either, I have a lot more research to get into still. For the most part I don't even want to think about it. Just getting school finished seems to be the only thing I have on my mind. I have to say I do not know much more myself on the subject. I know that DNA testing can be done for a lot of the things. I mostly have heard about getting sequenced for coat colors in horses. A lot of people want to breed for a certain color so stallions are often typed to determine the type of foals it could produce. I enjoy biology quite a bit. I just finished up Microbiology which I just loved, and technically genetics is under biology as well. Its so hard to travel to big cities for a small amount of time. It can be frustrating for sure! I spent a week in New York once and it was by far not enough time. I was rushing around to see everything when I just wanted to sit in time square and watch all the different tourists mill about. I was amazed that at 2AM there would be the same amount of people outside as the afternoon. Some of the more satisfying trips are camping for me, where I get more time to my own thoughts. Sleeping where I can hear running water always seems to help me rejuvenate my soul. Thank you for the welcome! I have yet to get into my advanced chemistry classes, but I have a lot that are required for me. So I guess I have more to look forward. I hear Organic Chem is hell. Though I believe the rest are more biology based? Despite that I was shocked to find that the highest level of math required for my major was only Trigonometry. I took calculus in high school, and thought I had more ahead of me. I was wrong. At least for my undergraduate studies.
Hi! How are you? All the best with your writing. I just joined yesterday. I'm going to start my first novel soon so i thought i'll join and get some advice. Good luck! Take care
Hello there! I'm doing very well thank you. How are you? Thank you! I've just started writing last night after a few weeks and planning. I'm hoping for the same with the joining the site. More help would be great to get things rolling. Good luck with your writing as well.
Welcome to Writing Forums, FinishingFlight! 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 requirements. 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. The requirements of the Writing Workshop don't apply to the contests, so new members are allowed (nay, encouraged!) to get stuck in and enter! If you have any questions or problems, then the moderators (myself, 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
