Hi everybody. My name is Mike and I'm very excited to have found this site. I started making up my own stories since before I could really write them down (pre-K). Writing has always been a passion of mine but I had gotten away from it for about five years or so. Struggling with bipolar disorder during that time didn't help any but I had felt like my creativity had largely gone away thanks to my meds. Today I read some things I had written years ago and I'm really getting the urge to write again. No, my mind isn't running non-stop any more (and thank God for that) and no, I'm not constantly bombarded with ideas any more (I'm mixed about that) but ironically my ideas seem to be stronger somehow these days. I'm actually able to focus on one or two good ideas now and really be able to massage them, let them develop more naturally. I've read the forum rules and knowing me I'll probably do way more critiquing than posting for critiques. I mostly write short stories so that's where I'll be doing most of my critiques, but I'm sure I'll be reading at least some things in every category. I've found that exposing myself to different genres actually makes my own writing better. See you around the boards.
The writing bug is always a good feeling to have. I'm sorry that you went through a tough time, but it's good that you're writing despite that. I've also been writing stories since early years, like 5. (I even illustrated them myself, lol.) Hope you enjoy your time here.
Thanks both. It's really weird how some of us just naturally started doing this when we were little. I don't know about you TheWritingWriter, but when I was young I never even imagined that what I was doing to amuse myself would one day become something as "serious" as being a writer. Heck, I was just making up stuff that sounded good. My stories seemed more interesting than the drivel authors were coming out with in the 60s and early 70s. ("Oh look. See the car. The car is red. Go car go.")
I actually told myself that I'd never be a writer, lol. I didn't even have anything against writers. I just said to myself, "I'm never going to be a writer. I just don't see it happening." Oh, look what happened. Haha.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Mike! 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
