Random question here... If you want feedback on a few short paragraphs you're writing is there a place on the forum for this? I want to make sure I post things in the appropriate area.
Make sure you've met our forum requirements before you post any work for feedback. You'll find everything you need here in our New Member Quick Start Guide.
50 is far in my rear view mirror. I have written three books I am trying to publish. Two of these books are in screenplay format. too. It's funny, this started out as a hobby and now it has become so much more. Dealing with the difficult challenge of querying. At times the process makes me feel like a kid, for all the wrong reasons.
I have some issues with the Future Learn program. Big one....WAY too many people. I lost interest almost immediately because there's simply too many people and because of that there is no way to get any feedback on your posts and you have to sift through hundreds and hundreds of posts and is way too time consuming. I dropped out of the course after one week. To each his own but I'm going to look for something in the future in a writing class where you get better feedback and the class size doesn't number in the thousands. I understand it's free but that's a little ridiculous.
Over 40? Look at it this way: I graduated from high school two years before Tricky Dick Nixon resigned. And I still don't feel grown up.
Over 40? I remember when Tricky Dick Nixon was still the vice-president! God, I am OLD! Not grown up. Just old. I started writing my novel in 1996, when I was 47 years old—two years after we got our first home computer. I could never write on a typewriter or longhand because I make too many changes as I write. My drafts are always a mess. So it was the advent of the cut-and-paste wordprocessor that made me get going. I finished my first draft in 2001. It's only just now being readied for publication. I'm slow, but I do get there in the end. I had only my voracious reading habit to guide me at the start, and didn't discover 'how-to-write' books until I started editing. I think this was the way to go, really. I wrote what I wanted to write, so it all came out in an uncriticised flood. Crap, but enthusiastic crap. I learned afterwards about all the mistakes I made. I don't consider that time wasted at all. I believe enthusiasm is something a writer ought to nurture throughout the creation of a first draft, and it can certainly get stifled by over-awareness of writing 'rules.' Okay, I did take about a 6-year break in the mid-2000s. Technically, my novel could have been ready for publication about 6 years ago. But the break did me good, because I was able to return to the MS with very fresh eyes and was able to dump lots of bad stuff without pain.
Sign me up for the over 40's club. I was 36 when I started writing but didn't get really serious about it until my 40's. If you're looking for something on-line try looking up Brandon Sanderson. He's on you tube, his website and there's a link on here somewhere too. I watched his on-line lectures and learned loads from them. Its mostly aimed at fantasy writers but I think any writer will gain a lot of knowledge from watching them. I certainly did.
