Hi! I'm new here! ( No...no, that won't do! ) Greetings, fellow citizens of the wri- ( Hmmm... ) Okay, so, hi! I'm new! I'm a novice writer that has had an idea for a huge dynamic world kicking around in my head for years now. It finally hit a point that I felt it was worth writing. I'm currently writing a story - without ANY real official training - to explain some of how the world operates. This in itself will likely become novel sized. I've not been through freshman comp I, nor did I finish my grammar class in homeschool. So I'd say I am at least 80% self taught. ( What we did do was done well. ) I'm here to poke around, learn some new tricks, and ask a few questions.
Hello Wolvenmoon, Welcome to the Writing Forums. 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 Review Room, 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 Review Room, 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. The Review Room 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 Review Room 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 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!
That raises a question for me. What I've been doing is working on another site and posting a rough draft of my story up as I go. I wasn't sure how wise this was and have been keeping parts of it to myself, and planned on stopping at a point in the story. How would I go about safely showcasing my work-in-progress while still retaining a chance to publish it later? I was considering creating an image out of the text and making a private gallery, so that copy/pasting and printing without a watermark would be more difficult, but am not sure that's enough. ( Or should I make a new thread about this? Hmmm... Probably a new thread if no one's answered it here when I get back in a few hours! ) Thanks for the info!
If you plan to publish the piece, don't showcase it. A short excerpt is ok, to work on your writing skills, but keep the majority of it close to your chest.
Ah, I was going to post about a third of it up, and leave both threads of the story ( two stories in one really ) at major cliffhangers. I suspected that posting the whole thing up might make it difficult to generate sales, but I didn't think it'd be a barrier to actually getting it published. Thanks for the heads up, I'll probably stop where I am now and send additional stuff privately to the tiny following I've generated. Thanks! I'm very glad I registered here!
