Hi everyone! My name is Shane, and I am dropping in not only to say hi but also to hopefully get some advice from you all Well, a bit about myself. I recently graduated from New Mexico State University with a Bachelors in English. Shockingly, I never took any creative writing classes, and towards the end of my final semester I kind of started to regret not taking any. This all stemmed from having to read a ton of fiction during my final semester and, instead of writing term papers, all I wanted to do was write short stories, poems, and fiction. Something else that I realized recently was that ever since I was kid I wanted to write stories; grant it, I wanted to make movies and video games, not fiction; but, it was always the stories I was most interested in. So, since I don't have a job, nor do I have a degree that gets me one easily, I have decided to take up the practice of writing short stories, poetry, and plays (scrips for movies and games). Some questions I have: I have very little experience in writing the aforementioned, but I do have a few "how to" books on poetry and short stories that I have been reading at a leisurely pace. I am thinking on the track of something like this: Poetry -> Plays -> Short Stories. What do you think of a practice schedule like this? What forum do you think I should drop into first? How do I upload a picture to my profile? How do you post a new thread? I am trying to post a poem of mine but the "New Thread" tab does not show up. DO I have to a member for awhile before I can post?
Hi and welcome, You have to critique other members work before you can post your own work for critique. Between; stories, poetry and plays, I'd stick to which ever one interests you the most and try to develop your skills in that medium, rather than trying to master all three at once. Writing is a craft and a playwright has different skills to master than those of the poet or the story-teller. Good luck.
Hi there. Rather than that plan, I'd keep a journal. Write daily. Describe a scene you witnessed as you waited for your take-out order at Burger King. Put your poetry in there too. Got an idea for a character or a book? You know where to put it. Bu the key: write daily. As for which order to practice in, I'm not sure that would be very pertinent to developing this or that skill. The three formats you mention are pretty disparate. I wouldn't place much stock in "how-to" books, particularly in a format as personal as poetry. I'd browse the forums for the above formats. Put the picture into a file on your hard drive that is no more than 100x100 pixels. Once you've done that, go to the "Settings" button in the upper right corner of the screen next to "log out". In your Settings, on the left-hand side, you'll see sections for customization, one of which is headed "My Settings" -- under that you'll see "Edit Avatar". Select that. In the next screen, select "Use custom avatar", and then click on the "browse" button. A pop-up window will open allowing you to navigate your hard-drive files. Find the 100x100 picture you want to use, select "open", and then when you've done that the selection window will close. Press the "save changes" button, and you're good-to-go. The forum rules require a couple of weeks' membership before posting one's works, yes.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Shane! 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
Does that include all books on the craft? In my opinion, poetry is a craft and therefore has techniques etc. One can find out about those techniques by reading books on the craft. For instance, in your opinion, what is the best way for a student of poetry to learn about scansion? Or formal structures? So, I'd say that it depends on what the PW meant by 'how-to book'.
Maybe go through the how-to books as you're writing or working on a story. And use all of those mediums to communicate a single story. This way, you learn a bit about each one and you're getting the practical experience. Eventually you'll find out which draws you in the most, and you can study it in-depth. Sort of like this: -- Write a short story (first draft) and read a relevant chapter from a book about short story writing. -- Write this story as a poem and read a relevant chapter. -- etc., -- As you learn more, you can review this story, and write the 2nd draft, etc., Supplement this with vocabulary building tools, grammar tips, (analytically) reading of other people's work, and getting critique of your work.
Thank you all for the kind welcome The reason I ask about the Poetry -> Plays -> Short Stories is that, if I remember right, Ralph Waldo Emerson mentioned something to the tune that to be a good writer one should first learn poetry, or something like that. I understand they all hold their own weight in value, but, in some ways, all writing is connected, and it was either Rand or Thoreau (or someone else, tend to confuse many authors) who thought that all writing, in some way, is political.
