hey everyone, my name is Jessica and of course I am new here! (and may I add am rather nervous haha) A little about myself perhaps. I am 20 and live in Adelaide, South Australia (moving back to rural New South Wales with my partner soon, whoo!) I come here in search of a good community in which I can settle while I pick up where I left off with my writing in my teens. I have always been a reader and writer (as well as other arts - mostly drawing) and grew up spending as much of my time reading as possible, particularly fantasy and biology related non-fiction. As a child (8-13ish) I wrote a lot of poems and jotted down many fantasy story ideas. A small number of poems / short stories were published during my childhood and teens. Sadly I have not found the time or perhaps the passion to write the last few years but finally I am finding my fingers itching and brain chewing at ideas once again! Its so wonderful to feel the rush again, seeing my ideas spilling themselves over paper! My dream is to finish a set of fantasy stories I started work on when I was about 15. I went a little crazy, locked myself in my room and wrote around 50,000 words of a book in 6 days. May I add it was the best week of my life! Sadly I switched back off again and my poor story has lain stagnant ever since. With a re-work of the plot (was a little scattered) and a new start I am back on track. And I apologize for the following things : I have a tenancy to rant on (you may have noticed) my grammar is shocking, my spelling is worse, I have a tendency to get distracted and am so shy chances are this will be the only post I will make haha :redface: Any way, I will leave you in peace, I hope to get to know you all over the next while. Jessica
Hi Jessica, Welcome to the forums. Im new here too...this being like my 5th post or something! I am 21 and like you I am looking to start writing again. I was never good at English in school, but for the last few years I have read everyday and felt myself start to write whenever I "felt bothered". I have been told I am good with words and should really start to write some serious stuff. Looking to begin writing short stories and hopefully a novel sometime in the future. Hope you get what your looking for here on the forums. P.S. Im from sunny ole' Scotland.
Thanks for the welcomes! Looks like such a nice helpful and friendly place, fantastic to use as a procrastinator...wait...I didn't say that I have spent the day setting myself up with some free online writing courses (http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2799 is looking great. Its by OpenLearn, they have others too) so I'm getting some great little prompt ideas down. Its all very exciting! Haha its so funny, getting back into it and making so many typical writing mistakes ('then' is trying to pop up every second word lol) ones that when I look back I see that the 15 year old me wouldn't go near with a 10 foot pole. Baillie, welcome...you and I should be newbie writing buddies I think!...hehe That way I can nag a few photos of Scotland off you...such a beautiful area of the world, so inspiring! Good luck with settling back into writing, I hope it goes well! Again, thank you for the welcome, back to the next activity in this course. Jessica (P.S. Feel free to check out my homepage in my profile, has some of my artwork there )
Jessica, That sounds like a plan. Perhaps some Scottish pictures would give you some inspiration for a next bestseller If you ever had to read any of my writing you could probably relate much more to it aswell! Thanks for the link to the free writing course, I will look at it later tonight (im currently in work just now lol) and I may even begin to work through it! So what kind of things do you write about? I myself like the crime and horror genres, and I have started several short stories, but unfortunately get bored rather easily and always fail to complete them :-(
Hello Jessica, Welcome to the Writing Forums. If you really are having difficulties with spelling and grammar, that will have to be a first focus. Competency in SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar) is essential for a writer, and no one else can do it for you. Posting your own work should not be among the very first things you do here, though. It is worth taking the time to see what other people have done to improve their writing, and see if some of it applies to your writing as well. That is part of why we require members to review other members' work before posting their own for review. On the other hand, there are no restrictions, other than content and copyright rules, on showcasing your work in your member blog. Also, be aware that posting a piece of writing on any public site, including this one, will greatly diminish your chances of selling it for publication. Removing the writing later does not alter that fact - once posted, it is irreversibly considered published. So do not post anything more than a small excerpt of any piece you are planning to submit for publication. If you haven't explored the site yet, you should probably do so soon. Newcomers often gravitate to the Lounge, the Word Games, or the Review Room, but there is much more to be discovered if you poke in the corners. Remember to check out our FAQ as well, and be sure to read through the forum rules, too, to avoid any misunderstandings or hurt feelings. Respect for one another is our principal mandate. As for the Review Room, new joiners often wonder why we do things a bit differently on this site than on other writing sites. We emphasize constructive critique as a vital writing skill. Training your eye by reviewing other people's work helps you improve your own writing even before you present it for others to see. Therefore, we ask members to review other people's writing before posting work of their own. The Review Room forums on this site, therefore, are true workshops, not just a bulletin board for displaying your work (and on that note, please only post each item for review in one Review Room forum). Also, please use the same thread for all revisions and additional excerpts from the same piece of writing. See this post, Why Write Reviews Before Posting My Work? for more information. And while you're looking around, don't forget to check out our Weekly Short Story Contest and Weekly Poetry Contest. They actually run more than one week apiece, but any member may enter, and all members are urged to vote for their favorites. Enjoy your stay here, and have fun!
oh I didn't say much about what sort of writing I do...hehe...silly me! My book(s) im working on are all action type fantasy...you know...dragons, magic, far away lands hehe. My short stories lean more towards surreal psychological, long metaphors and real life what-ifs centered around major events (eg a person's point of view during a natural disaster). And my poems...they are (were I suppose is a better word there) sweet little things about nature. Cogito, thanks for the advice! I'm having a good procrastinatory snoop around right now hehe. Thanks again all Jessica
