Hi everyone, I'm Aurora from Cali! I've been writing for what feels like my whole life, but really is just like three or four years. Got hooked on a high school creative writing class and I just felt like it was what I needed to do. I don't really have too much actual experience, except a few paid poetry contests I made the mistake of entering...and I guess some college courses this year, but they're online...I just want to get some actual experience with others that are kinda trying to be serious. This place looked pretty nice, but I'm pretty new to the whole forum thing, except in class. I write a lot poetry (big eye rolls from my family) and a good amount of flash because they are short and I'm just not ready for bigger stuff yet. Mostly general fiction and a few romance stories. Tried fantasy once and was a total failure, but maybe willing again. I do, however, read a lot. Not just college course books, but pretty much anything associated with movies I like. Like Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I absolutely love both that book and the movie! I could literally talk about it all day. Okay, I won't...but no promises. Anyways, just another Cali girl on Huntington Beach reading and writing her life away, hoping she can do something with an English degree...
Hello and welcome. You're new to the forum thing? My advice would be to browse as much as possible till you're comfortable and confident enough to contribute. "Cloud atlas"? That's actually a movie (or book) I've always wanted to watch, but never got round to it. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks! It's totally worth it, even though it's really long. It keeps you going the whole time though. The book is equally as good, just ordered different. I'd like to hear what you think if you ever get to it. And yeah...I just need to wander around. There's a lot to read here and it feels a bit much. But I'll get there I hope.
Thank you! Ummmm...a few I think. It's sort of out there, but I really liked Mary Wroth from my British Literature class I was doing a little while ago. It's an old sonnet style, but she has some really cool imagery and sort of Gothic style with all kinds of crazy dark themes packed into small poems. I think I like Julia Alverez and, of course, Emily Dickinson a lot too. But I'm nowhere near being able to keep up with their styles!
You are Welcome. Just looked it up. The movie has a runtime of almost 3 hours?! Yikes! Better be worth it! Oh. I'll let you know if I like it... I'll also send you my wrath if I don't! Yeah. You'll get there. Just take it post by post and sub directory by sub directory. It's easy to get overwhelmed, but if you stop, take a slow motion approach to things, all will be easy. I love Emily Dickinson, too. If you add Edgar Allen Poe to your list then I conclude that you're awesome.
I'm already terrified. Been here half an hour and already threatened! Thanks for the advice. I'll try to stick to small sections first. Maybe some reviews or something, like I've done in class. Hope to not get more hate! I've read Poe too, but...not enough I guess. I mean everyone's read "The Raven," but I just need to read more I guess to be awesome.
lol! Yeah. I usually threaten people on my initial post, I must be getting soft. Yeah. Piece-meal is always the way to really acclimatise yourself. lol. You won't get hate... unless you write pro Nazi stuff... so.. are you a Nazi? You can be honest.. Yeah. "The Raven" is pretty much what won my heart from an early age. There is a lot more, as well as short stories, etc. Well, "awesome" is a destination that many happen upon, but few reach.
There is a lot of explore on the forum. If you are feeling up to a challenge, you could always try to enter into one of our monthly contests or try critiquing in the workshops~
Contest? That seems a bit much. I just got here. Looking for a little more chill place. I'm too shy for any of that yet. Workshops sound like a good start. I just took a class on poetry a couple months ago too and maybe I can use that and see if anyone like . Who knows if it was worth it...
Another view point is always valuable! If you took a class on poetry, I'm sure you will able to add to the conversation~
I applaud your honesty! But don't think of any piece of writing you've done is a failure, if you learned even a little bit about what makes something work and something else not work. It's a sort of given that a writer needs a few million words to get good, just as a musician needs 10,000 hours of playing to get good. So don't worry about being good at this point; just concentrate on getting better. But it's fun to try anyway, isn't it? And the more you play with the styles of other authors, the more tools you'll have in your toolbox when the time comes to apply your own style. Thanks for commenting on my song "Let's Pretend," by the way. In my view, there's an impressive amount of good poetry in modern songwriting, mostly by people branded as "country artists" or "folk artists"... John Prine, Merle Haggard, Steven Fromholz, Tom Paxton... all with astonishing insight into the human condition and the way an artful use of the language can invoke resonances with your soul. And Joni Mitchell's Blue album flabbergasts me every time I hear it. And there's that fellow Bobby Zimmerman who recently walked off with the Nobel Prize for Literature. That sure bent a lot of people out of shape, but there's no denying his influence on the styles of countless imitators, in both music and poetry.
That's a pleasant way to think about it! Maybe I'll get around to posting something here, being that that's why I'm here and all, but I'm probably just going to practice editing for a bit at least. But I guess I need to practice more too... I suppose that's true! I've always thought songs were poems anyways. Just sung instead. That's sort of how it was in the past anyways, and with all the old dramas. I can't say I'm super into songwriting, as I've literally never tried it, but I wanted to look at your song from a poem standpoint because I know that a little better than the sound bit. But from what I did read (hear?) it really flowed like it wanted to be sung. I guess that's the mark of being on to something! I don't think I know that story with Zimmerman, or who he is even for that matter. Guess I need to go look that up!
