Oscar Wilde once said that the most terrifying sentence in the English language is: 'I had a very interesting dream last night'. I would like to paraphrase the noble old Irish bard and say that the most terrifying sentence in the English language appears to be: 'I've written a book'. Never have I known a sentence more calculated to have people point over your shoulder, declare 'Wow, is that the time' and be gone. For the most part they are terrified you are going to drone on for hours and hours about every nuance of the plot or, worse still, you are going to ask them to help you get it published because; 'You know that friend you have in publishing...'. Actually I'm being slightly disingenuous - there are of course plenty who WILL listen to you drone on and on about every nuance of the plot – the trouble is' they're mostly related to you. In January 2012 I decided finally to do it - and hang the consequences. It's kind of gotten out of hand; I'm at 140,000 words and about 2/3 finished. This is surprising as I've always maintained that any book that's over 350 pages is too long by every page past 351, but wow, what a lot I have to say and, as Dickens sadly didn't say; 'wow, I need an editor'. All this is fine and dandy but why am I here? Frankly I'm lonely. Writing has been hard on the psyche; it's taken me to some dark places (and left me there), it possesses me and it haunts me. I am wracked with doubts, I am tormented by the idea that it might fail for any one of a thousand reasons (pick form: crap writing, crap idea, crap execution of a good idea, wrong subject, no audience, not zeitgeist but yesterdaygeist, so the list goes on). But then I thought; hold on a minute, there's a bunch of people out there just like me! Hopeless dreamers who have neglected their lives, abandoned their families and tormented their friends just for the simple stupid idea that they HAVE TO WRITE. Hello...can I come in? It's cold out here.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Martin! 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. 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
