Greetings. My name is Andrew, live on South America, and I'm been writing sporadically from a couple of years, though only lately have felt the need of publish some of my work, mostly due to language barrier, and the lack of skill on that respect. Here I am, since I really felt the need of expand my small world, and to improve beyond my own small, limited scope. I have trouble sharing something so intimate as thoughts, specially when you grow fondness at them... and I know that, many times, the lack of share makes my work behave like spoiled little kids... that's what I wanted to overcome by joining this forum, and time will tell if I succeed or stay on mediocrity, which is the risk of writing only for self. I dream with achieve a good level on story writing, polish my previous work, and improve my English (considering that my native language is Castellano -Spanish -). This is the first time I dare to expose my work broader. Thank you for the chance, and see you soon. Andrew.
Hola, Andrew, and bienvenidos--- welcome. This is a good place to sharpen your English writing skills. We have members from all over the world, so there's a whole world of experienced people to learn from. What's your favorite genre? A lot of people here like to write science fiction and fantasy, but you don't have to be into that to get a lot of good out of this site. If you haven't already, check out the "New Here? Read This" link below. It'll give you a lot of great information about WF. And again, welcome!
Hey, thank you for the warm welcome . I like English for it's obvious spreading, and that has advantages to convey info fast, rather than my language. But I struggle with the classics "past and present", too many "and"s and other connective expressions, amidst other faults I hope to overcome some day . I started with drama, most precisely, I like to depict the struggle to overcome hardships in life... basically, past the message that the struggle for happiness is never a lost cause, even if you lose at the end. From that, I have explored fantasy, a little of historical - not much due to certain technical concerns-, lately made a noir-theme (light) novel, and my dream is to achieve science fiction, which concepts I started to build inside my head. I tend to link my characters across the tales I make, to make a big universe with many stories to tell. It has been really rewarding. But I want to move to do things properly. Also want to do my best to behave and not make too many rookie mistakes about the forum rules. Thanks again for the link related, and the welcome .
I think the biggest rookie mistake newbies make is quoting long portions of their work in the writing advice sections, whereas that goes in the Workshop once one has Workshop privileges.
I see. I'm kinda anxious to start submitting my work here, but understand the why of the limits and the privileges. I will have not issue to abide. In fact, just by reading the workshop right now, I'm already having a lot of informative by looking other people's work getting criticized. My greatest issue is the lack of someone who tells me if I'm making sense or not at all. It will be very interesting two weeks. Is there any limitation or structure to perform a critic review, and fulfill the requirements to access the workshop? I mean, length, or pertinence, or an ideal extension of the review?
It's late and I can't go into too much detail now. But this thread might be helpful as you think about reading and critiquing other members' work in the Workshop. https://www.writingforums.org/threads/why-write-reviews-before-posting-my-work.4705/ I'd say the most important thing is to be specific, and know that "Great story! Loved it!" doesn't count as a review. Nor does, "This was a stinking tower of cow patties. Hated it!" You may sincerely think the story was a stinking tower of cow patties, but it's not a legitimate review until you can say why.
Hi Andrew, and welcome to the forum! I see @Catrin Lewis has filled you in on some of what happens here. She is also right that there are MANY members here for whom English is a second language. I'm not one of them, but I am so impressed by anybody who is fluent enough in two languages to be able to write coherently in their second language. My advice to you, regarding getting going here on the forum, is don't go too fast. Take your time to read threads, and get to know the other members by what they have contributed to the threads. Read through the list of threads to see if there are any that might be of help to you. And definitely read critiques of the kind of writing you do, to get a feel for how it's done. Genuinely interact with the Workshop offerings, and figure out what you can say that might help the writers. I love this forum, because it offers so much to so many people, and our ever-vigilant Mods keep things civil when members can't seem to. When you do finally submit work to the Workshop for critique, I find it helpful if you can give a little bit of history of the piece, as well as remark upon any particular issues about the piece that concern you. That way we can help to focus our remarks. Just an example: if you are writing a novel, and you want Chapter Four to be critiqued, make sure you indicate that it IS Chapter Four, and maybe give a short summation of what has gone before. Otherwise people will assume it's the start of your story, and critique it that way ...which won't be helpful to you, and will be a bit of a waste of their time as well. It's also fun to read the competion entries and vote for your favourite. We have a short story competition every month, poetry competitions, flash fiction competitions, etc. I'm not sure if there are others, but there may well be. Anybody can vote on these. I'm not sure what the requirements for submitting work to the competitions are, but I don't imagine they're too hard to meet. Anyway, good luck and have fun, and welcome! I found your favourite writers list very interesting. What a mix of writers! And I am fond of Gogol, myself. I should read more Russian writers, because the ones I've read I do like.
There are so many features to see, so many threads and discussions and so little time! Catrin Lewis has been really kind to share with me the fundamentals. And thank you for this nice one. In between reading other people's critiques and forming the ones I have no excuse to apply one-liners here Hey, really nice to meet you too, and thank you for the warm welcome also! . I confess that the language learning has been difficult, and still is, since requires constant practices, and there are many local and regional resources I like to use on writing about expressions, but to know them well is quite hard unless you live into an area... to generalize a particular expression into different contexts and groups also rests coherence at my writing. And also double or triple check as much as I can. Indeed I'll try to go slow around, and learn as most as I can meanwhile. I use to begin a tale with only general ideas, and when advancing, the events sometimes just appears by themselves; I'm sure that new ideas will grow once I temper my patience with the nice tips and reviews here... It's like a big, really big candy store! Thank you for the guidelines for a proper presentation for a review. I'll keep them in mind also for my own tale's structure. To explain the context is as important as the prose you're presenting, and I'll be careful on that - trying to avoid the spoilers, of course. Mistery and confusion in a novel are good things... I liked that quote from your signature. Hehe, about the books, well, I'm more a book follower than a people follower, and the ones I listed have a certain meaning not only for my writing, but in the time their books came into my hands, and what inspired each. Taras Bulba has been the only book that has made me drop man tears, so I'm happy, but not surprised that Gogol has left an impression on you. Certainly did on my spectrum of ideas. I'll look forward to check your works when available, too! Thank you, again, and be very well.
