So... I'm new here. Obviously. I'm currently an active duty combat units soldier at... Well, it doesn't matter what country. I rarely come back home, but in the spare time I have at the army I try and write as much as possible. I love writing and I'd like to think I have some potential of being good. Either way, I love writing stuff and I've joined this site due to the fact that over the past week I've had a story cooked up that I think would be great, and I need people to critique my work as I write it. So... Hi.
Hello Nazgul Killer, Welcome to the Writing Forums. Before you can get critique, you must first give constructive critique. This is not just a quid pro quo, it is because improving your critiquing skills is the primary focus of the Writing Workshop. Improving your critiquing skills will improve your ability to find and fix weaknesses in your own writing. Please read How to Use the Writing Workshop before you post there. Posting your own writing for people to comment on should not be among the very first things you do here. 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 Writing Workshop, 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 Writing Workshop, 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. We also impose a two-week waiting period before you may post writing for critique, to give you time to become familiar with what is expected and how the site operates. The Writing Workshop 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 Writing Workshop 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 the RPG forum for improvisational fiction. Also try 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!
I would like to thank you for your services. Don't let go of your story write it down to share with others. That is why I started to write. I had a good idea so I went with it and now I have three storys started with another going. Good luck and I will be looking for your work.
Well, to be honest, I wasn't planning on publicizing anything. And I barely have the time to write this, so starting to review other people's work, in terms of time, would be impossible for me honestly. I have a 3 year service in the army ahead of me, halting any possible publications... I write for fun, I don't write for publicizing stuff.
Hi Nazgul-Killer, Welcome to the boards. I think you'll really enjoy it here. Three years is plenty of time to improve your writing to the point of publication potential, depending on how good you are right now. Never say never, right? What types of stories do you like to write - any particular genre? Or a series of any kind? Thank you for your services, and I wish you the best. Hopefully you and your fellow servicemen and servicewomen will be able to come home soon. By the way, cool username. I love the LOTR movies.
Heh... Thanks guys. I'm happy to do my service, trust me. In any way, the stories I like to write seem to go hand to hand with my profession to be honest, they are more the war-SciFi-political aspect focus kind of stories rather than the character developing drama kind. In the current story I'm working on there's actually very little character development. I actually have around 3-4 new heroes for each chapter with very few recurring characters.
I have a question however, do I have to write 2 reviews before actually writing my own story? The question comes because I would be horribly disappointed to write half-hearted half-arsed reviews instead of two proper reviews which I would put thought and true criticism in to, brutal honesty is my motto, and I really do not have neither the strength to stay awake nor the time to do so at the moment due to my current 'employment'. I would really love to write my story and I would likely do it with a lot of enthusiasm, but I doubt the reviews would come with such enthusiasm with the lack of time I have at the moment and, to be honest, the lack of experience. I consider myself a somewhat bad writer, possibly decent even, I don't see how on Earth I could review another writer's work with a full heart.
Yes, you must have two constructive critiques, twenty posts on the threads, and you must spend a minimum of two weeks as a member before posting your work. But this is to ensure the quality of the critiques here, since it has been suffering as of late from flat, two-sentence reviews. Also the Writing Workshop Rules have had to be updated recently because members would join simply to post their work. Now I'm all for new material. I enjoy reading the variety of literature and meeting new people, but it comes down to how much the forum's system can take. It gets bogged down from time to time. But feel encouraged that we are eager to read the work of new members. We're a community, and so we work together like one.
