Hello. I suppose this is where I introduce myself somewhat. For all practical purposes I'll refer to myself as Samuel Paul which is just my full birth name with my surname chopped off. I do not have much in the way of a formal education due to some bad decisions though I did eventually get about two years of college under my belt. There is not much to say about my writing. I have yet to have anything published except a handful of short stories and poetry back the high school paper twenty-plus years ago. What I write seems to go from one extreme to the other. Sappy romantic poetry to the somebody has to die to prove a point type thrillers. I'm sure you've heard it all before but I admire the Hemingway and Steven King approach to literature. They are what I call "minimalist" They are so fluent in the English language that they do not need a lot of pretty words to convey the story. Speaking for myself I have found it difficult to put my ideals on paper without using a lot of pretty words and adjectives. When I do this I feel as if I am using a piss-poor substitute for what it really needs to be. Basically what I saying is that I can"t construct a sentence that conveys my thoughts simply by using a thesaurus. I'm also a hack on a keyboard. You folks that can actually type do not know how lucky you are. Constantly having to hunt and peck hinders your train of thought. Too often I find myself having to step back and regroup because my typing skills lag behind my train of thought. It's frustrating when your engine stalls every thing you hit the accelerator to get there a little faster. I hope nobody takes my criticism the wrong way. I expect the same tough love from those considerate enough to give it to me. I suspect most of us are here for the selfish reason of honing our ability to communicate with the world. I believe we as lowly writers influence the world. There is something called the Chaos Theory that is used to predict the otherwise impossible such as the weather or geopolitics. It all goes over my head in a hurry. The Chaos Theory applies some called the Butterfly Effect which states that small random events will cause a domino effect that has far reaching consequences. Hemingway, being a man's man taught us to be a man. Steven King, being a psychopath's psychopath, for better or worse, taught us to once again be afraid of the dark. However, Hemingway and King were inspired by writers such as us. When we write something remember the Butterfly Effect. We write something that inspires somebody to build on it and it eventually makes it way to the big screen that influences the whole world. It's as if we are sitting in a control room somewhere and you have to wonder... What happens if I push the button? I look forward to being part of this community and hope y'all can except my psycho babble.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Samuel Paul! 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! We also have a growing short story club (think book club, but with short stories!), which you can find stickied in the Book Discussion forum. 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
