Here is my obligatory introduction post. I’ve only been writing for a couple of years and most of that time not very seriously. I’ve come to writing a little later in life than what I’ve read in other introductions here. I became addicted to books as a small child and they constitute a huge portion of my life. There was a time I wouldn’t leave the house without a book, these days I’m just never far from my Kindle. For the most part my reading tastes land firmly in speculative fiction. I have a long love affair with science fiction and will eat a good epic fantasy novel alive. I’ve been known to branch off into thrillers and horror books and I have stopped once or twice in the westerns section of the library. For the last year or so I’ve been immersed in steampunk and love just about everything I get my hands on. This stared when a good friend of mine published a steampunk book. It served as a great introduction the genre and it got the wheels of my mind turning. I played with a few plots and tried out a couple story lines. Some were OK and some were less so. Last month I got hit in the forehead with an idea and a group of interesting characters and I’ve been writing nonstop ever since. Right now I’m somewhere in the middle of my first revision. I’m out hunting for a writing group and that is how I found writingforums.org. it looks like a great and supportive place and I’m looking forward to being here. Mike
Welcome to Writing Forums, Mike! 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 requirments. 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
