Okay, I'm a newbie, so I suppose it's good to start here. Don't know the rules, but it seems that people do the introductions? First off I'm not a native English speaker, just English side of the Internet is a lot broader and I'd rather get myself involved here. I've been writing my whole life, half of which I spent on... uh, let's go with a "book" but I don't know if I'll ever get close to publishing it. Also, I really don't know what I'm doing, how does this site work? How does the community work? What to post and not post here? And, hey, great to meet you all, have a nice day everyone!
Welcome to the site! First, your English is better than that of a lot of Americans ("Ha ha," fake laugh hiding real pain ) Second, I didn't create an Intro thread until I'd been here for about 2 weeks (still sorry everyone ) Most importantly, this site is more about how people write than it is about what we've written. If you ask 3 different writers how they turn their beginning ideas into finished products, you'll get 4 different answers. Finally, if you have a passage that you want feedback for, the main options are 1) Go to the Workshop when you've been here for 2 weeks and have 50 posts. You have review 2 pieces from other people for every piece that you ask other people to review. This is not just a courtesy. It is important for making sure that people actually give feedback (instead of everybody asking for feedback and nobody giving any), but it's not the only thing that's important. The other thing that's important is that critically reading other people's work and looking for mistakes is the best way to practice finding them in your own work. 2) Go to the Collaboration forum and put up a quick description of the piece that you want feedback for. Some people might ask you to read their work in return for their reading yours
You're only 18, a non-native English speaker, and you've already written most of a book? That's totally impressive. From your post, your grasp of English seems fine. Look forward to seeing more of you on the forum. Just explore around, post comments, and definitely do a few critiques on other people's efforts in the Workshop. It's a great way to get started, and your reactions will help other writers see their work through another person's eyes.
I couldn't resist once I saw your username Welcome to the forum! The FAQ might help you. You can post anything you like really, the more closely related to writing, the better The Workshop is probably our most valued section in the forum because that's where you get critique for your writing, but there are requirements to meet before you can post there, which you can find in the rules or the FAQ. The Lounge is where you can just have fun talking about non-writing stuff. Come, dive in, enjoy! Tell us about your book
Ooh I'm shocked you know what Malina means, and I'm definitely saving this pic for future use. It's my real name actually. I know, original username. That's right, do people just talk about their books? And if so, where? Sorry for silly questions but each site has its own rules and it can be annoying when newbies start threads in wrong places or on wrong topics. Better safe than sorry, yeah?
Your parents named you Malina? I mean, in the English-speaking world, that actually sounds rather nice. But... but it's like calling your child Apple... which I think some celebrity did actually do, although I don't remember who now. It's 'cause I live in the Czech Republic. If your thread is in the wrong place, mods will move it to the right area. Use your best judgement If you're unsure about anything, hit one of us mods with a specific question and we will endeavor to answer! It only gets serious really if people start trolling or attacking each other. If any external links in a post somehow break the rules, mods usually just delete the link, assuming the entire post wasn't spam. (Spam obviously gets deleted completely) I think we're pretty relaxed here. Ask away if unsure
Aha it's a Polish name! Rare is definitely better than common. It beats being the 10th Lenka or the 20th Katka in class...
Hi @Malina, welcome to the forum . I hope you enjoyed it so far, it's a pretty great place. I'm not a native English speaker either, though I write exclusively in English for various reasons. Anyway have fun here and good luck with your book. BTW, as a huge cat person I absolutely love your profile pic
Welcome. Your English is great, don't worry about it. The only thing that may not translate that well would be idioms, if you have any trouble with them, don't hesitate to ask me. If I can't answer it myself I can ask a couple of colleagues of mine (one's Polish and one's Slovakian). Anyhow, there's an automated private message sent when you register, that should link you to everything you need to get started.
Have to say in turn, love the HP quote! And I strongly believe I had to be a cat in one of my past lives, ha. My cat is my only "significant other" I'll ever have. Thank you for offering help, as I may take you on that one day! Being fluent in a language is one thing. Translating is completely another. (I'm rubbish at translating.)
I know what you mean, I'm multilingual myself and idioms are the biggest one. The Polish colleague I mentioned and I sometimes exchange them across languages.
Ha a fellow HP fan! Yeah I love that quote, couldn't think of a better one for my signature. Oh and I'm a Hufflepuff . I grew up having cats around me almost all the time, they're amazing animals, and as much as I love all kinds of animals, cats will always have a special place in my heart.
With you on Ravenclaw, my family have been more into dogs, but when we lived in France my neighbours and the house next to that both had cats (a Siamese and a tabby with white patches respectively), so we cat-sat a lot.
Haha, they can have a diverse range of moods and personalities can't they? But as you can imagine, I like qualities of both. For cats, I love how independent they are and how graceful they can be. With dogs, I love how they seem in tune with certain emotions (there was one time I was bottling up my emotions and was given away by a dog).
Cats seem so unperturbed and cool about everything, but if you pay close attention, you'll see it's not exactly true. They're incredibly smart creatures and I feel like they're just guarded. It may sound weird, I know, but my cat gets visibly embarrassed when he fails at being graceful and tries to play it cool when we laugh at him. I relate to this so much. Though dogs have moments like that too, they just react differently; more in the lines of wiggling tail in embarrassment.
Dogs try to play stupid things cool too. My family adopted a Dalmatian days before my godmother died, and the house went sombre until this daft dog walked under a curtain, turned around, and walked smack into a wall with the curtain over his eyes. When he heard my mother and I laughing, first time in days, he trotted over towards us wagging his tail and looking at us as if to say, 'Totally meant to do that!'
Ooh Ravenclaw, the house of knowledge and wisdom, there's a alot that I like and can relate to, about Ravenclaw. It also helps that it's the house of one of the coolest, sweetest and most unique characters in the entire series: Luna Lovegood.
I used to wear "You're just as sane as I am" on my wrist all throughout middle school. Luna is a gem.
