Hi, my name is AJ and ever since 3rd grade (ca. 1993) I have wanted to be a writer/author. I've tinkered around with ideas throughout middle and high school, even during my two years in the navy, my one year of college (ca. 2006-07), and every day since since I moved back to Wisconsin. However, back before the end of 2011 I finally finished my first novel - the first book in a planned series I have been toying with (essentially) since high school. Yet the one thing I have been more prolific than coming up with story ideas is writing poetry. I got into it during my last year of high school and then stopped during my time in the navy until my year of college in which my interest was rekindled and began posting new poems on my Myspace page (I now post them on Facebook). At this time I have written more than the necessary amount of poems to publish a full book, which I intend to do. Well, lately I have taken an interest in joining forums (of various subject matters) in which I may chat with people about my favored interests and hobbies so here I am at the Writing Forums. I am definitely eager to share my poetry here, and discuss ideas for fiction, or even share my recent works. It'd be nice to interact with people who support and will encourage my aspiration of being a writer. So *gasps for air* once again, hello!
Welcome to Writing Forums, AJ! 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
