Hi I've decided that I'm at the right point of life where I can start concentrating on learning how to write a decent book. I've been a writer in my mind since I was about 5 and come from a long line of journalists and writers, and then life just got in the way and I had to earn my bread for a decade or so. My sister got published about five years ago and at the time I was busy finishing my masters in philosophy so that was taking up all my time - and then kids appeared... I've watched how hard she has worked to learn her craft and how hard she continues to work to understand the components in creating a piece of work that moves you through it and grips you, and thought that the best thing I can do is join an online community and start trying to learn how to write properly. I'm reading a couple of books on writing by Sol Stein and just want to get my feet wet, even if what I produce is quite dire at first. My natural feel is for modern literature...though I do love sci-fi and fantasy, but I don't feel I have much to add to those genres at the moment. I've had an idea swimming about in my head since my teens, which is about mental illness and the different voices of the illness and I'm currently debating whether to start trying to work on that or whether to just try to start with a completely fresh idea. I'm a bit nervous...my sister has won a few awards in her genre (romance) and I'm hoping the talent didn't skip me completely! Would love to know more about the other members here if you feel like sharing. Kirsteen
Welcome to Writing Forums, Kirsteen! 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 and Cogito) 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 (P.S. I'll move this to New Member Introductions for you, where you should get some more attention and greetings )
Thank you for your welcome. I haven't written anything yet that I want to share, so it will be a while until I seek reviews and feedback, but am happy to contribute to the community - just not sure my feedback will be worth much at the moment!
quick question Thanks for the welcomes I have the start of a piece I'm working on and would love to get some feedback. Can I post it here? It's about 1500 words. Kirsteen
Read the rules. They are fairly strict about them. Unfortunately the site has a problem so no one can post in the Writing Workshop area you're supposed to use and they haven't suggested any alternative. For now we're all just waiting biting our nails, suffering from publication withdrawal.
