Hi there! I’ve been lurking round this site for a little while and it seems really good, so I thought I would try to start contributing to the community and hopefully improve my craft and help others in the process — though me giving critiques would be a bit like the blind leading the blind. I could talk for ages about my misadventures in writing, but I’ll try to keep this intruduction short and leave the rest for threads that might be of more use to other members. So... why am I into writing? I’ve always loved stories and story-telling. Probably the only one of my passions that has stuck with me all the way since childhood is making up stories. As a kid, I would imagine a fictional setting with its accompanying characters for each place I went to, and I feel now is the time to put those stories out there instead of letting them die inside my head. Why writing specifically and not other media? I was an avid reader when I was little and so the written word is the medium I feel more comfortable in and the one in which I think I stand the best chance of expressing my ideas. Incidentally, my favourite authors —in no particular order— are Ian McEwan, Ray Bradbury and Virginia Woolf. I only got serious about writing at the end of last year. My short journey into this territory was made considerably easier by two books I would highly recommend to other beginners: -Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled for poetry. This book taught me the basis of metre and form, and after finishing the 20 exercises in it I have at least 2 poems that aren’t cringe-worthy xD. -Stephen —lol, another Stephen— King’s On Writing for prose. I got my writing schedule from this one (if I’m lucky I can fit 2 hours of writing and 2 of reading every day, but most days it’s a lot less unfortunately). So far I’ve written 5 short stories and a piece of flash fiction, but none of them works as a whole, plus they’re riddled with awkward phrasing and innacurate word choices —English is my second language; I’ll get there some other time. Thanks for reading and I look forward to meeting you all!
Welcome to the forum! Lovely to meet another non-native speaker of English. On Writing is a really useful book; liked it a lot myself. Sometimes two hours can feel a bit ambitious, sometimes it means sacrificing sleep, but that's how it goes. Writing can be pretty consuming. Here's our New Member Quick Start to get you started. Have fun! -Kat
Thank you both! And @KaTrian just a quick question. I saw there were some requirements to post in the Workshop, are the any restrictions for entering the contests as well or can you just participate in those from the get-go?
