Hello, My name's Regan and everytime I start a post with my name I feel like I'm attending some self-help group. And maybe I am, cos writing is a pretty awful hobby to have. You slave and you obsess over one word in a sentence. Punctuation gives you nightmares. Email becomes a linguistic battleground. You can't sleep for thinking of what should happen next. You thirst for new material to devour. Where's my next Self, Philip K. Dick, Mansfield, Du Maurier! You worry over losing that 'style' you hit on which just seems perfect! As if it's a shadow just passing over the wall of your mind, you fear it will have slipped away by the time you next take to your writing desk... ....Or is that all just me? Well I always was a bit of an obsessive type. But seriously, I really do love-hate creative writing and words and language in general. I've always loved reading and I started writing my own stories almost as soon as I started writing (according to my mother...I don't personally remember) Due to being overly self-critical though - and not receiving the parental praise I felt I was due - none of my early creations survive, and for a long time I buried my desire to write. Then over the past year (I'm not quite sure what set it off), the desire unearthed itself again and I am now more dedicated than I ever was before. I'll admit that I used to think that perfection would flow from my pen without effort, and that people would shower me with endless praise... I know better now. I've been humbled. I now see that writing, to a large degree, is a thankless and lonely venture, involving much self-criticism and mental chit-chats with long dead authors. You need to love it for itself and be willing to edit over and over again...and then again. (That's just my experience of course!) And I'm trying to address the 'lonely' part by joining this forum. I'd really love to hear some objective criticism on my writing and I also want to read other people's work, too. Well, after that somewhat long-winded introduction to my fraying brain...nice to meet you all!
RHK, welcome! My desire to write seems to have ebbs and flows as well, and I take full advantage of the 'strong swells'! We're glad you're here and hope you will enjoy your stay. ~ J. J.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Regan! 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
JJ_Maxx: Yes, writing moods have to be exploited to the full! One week I'll write like a mad thing and the next I won't write a word all week. I've taken to forcing myself to write regularly regardless of mood though, but things just seem to flow better when you're in the zone. Banzai: Well that sounds reasonable; I've not had much practice commenting on other people's writing but I'll be happy to get stuck in and give it a go. (There goes my Sunday ) Thanks for the welcome guys!
Hi RH! Of course, writing is not a thankless hobby. It is parallel to science and in the same flow as movies. In fact, movies owe themselves to books. A movie is storytelling with animations. Hope you enjoy your stay!!!
Hi Timewalker, Of course you're right, writing is actually an area where you can achieve many high accolades, and storytelling underpins the bulk of popular entertainment so it can also be very lucrative. And even if you don't get published, writing can be its own reward if you really enjoy it. So writing isn't really thankless. What I meant is that it can feel thankless (perhaps I should have said frustrating) at times when you get negative feedback or you yourself decide you don't like what you've written, but it still took work to produce what you dispose of/put aside. But such moods pass...and all writing is useful, even 'unsuccessful' writing, because it all helps to improve your style and technique. Thanks for the welcome
