Hello everyone, I am new. I like to write, but English is not my native language. I am wondering if I post anything here, could anyone whose mother tongue is English kindly make some corrections in my English writing? And if I ask grammatical questions, it will be okay, right? Thanks!
Welcome Gaida And yes, people will fall over themselves to help you with your writing in here. Just try contributing constructively (as often as you can) and I'm sure we'll all reciprocate. I'll certainly try to. So where are you from? (ie. what is your mother tongue? Spanish?) and what do you like to write about? Also, you read the forum rules yet? Neil
Welcome! Be sure to read the rules about what requirements you have to meet before putting your work up for critique. If there's anything I can do to help, feel free to message me.
Hello Giada, Welcome to the Creative Writing Forums. Before you can get critique, you must first give constructive critique. This is not just a quid pro quo, it is because improving your critiquing skills is the primary focus of the Writing Workshop. Improving your critiquing skills will improve your ability to find and fix weaknesses in your own writing. Please read How to Use the Writing Workshop before you try to post there. Posting your own writing for people to comment on should not be among the very first things you do here anyway. 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 Writing Workshop, 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 Writing Workshop, 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. We also impose a two-week waiting period before you may post writing for critique, to give you time to become familiar with what is expected and how the site operates. The Writing Workshop 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 Writing Workshop 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 the RPG forum for improvisational fiction. Also try 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!
@Eunoia and Jayyy1014: Thank you! @elneilio10: My native language is Chinese. I write blogs in some Chinese sites and have written about 10 short stories while blogging. They were all based on the real life stories I saw or experienced. I have been in the US for many years, and always want to write something in English. @Mallory: I certainly will ask for your help. There are many small things in the language that a native speaker will not realize how hard they are to a non native speaker. Such as, the usage of prepositions - at, in, on, for, with, etc... Many of them come as idioms and are required to be memorized. I can name a few such things. @Cogito: Thank you for the information. I have roughly read it and think I should read it again if necessary. I have this impression that I should read other threads on the forums before I want to post something, is it true?
Thanks everyone, for your friendly replies! I actually have a couple of questions: 1. What is the difference between posting a writing and writing a blog? Is it true that in the blog I can write whatever I want as long as I follow the forum rules and posting something is more formal? If this is the case, I think I can just blog before I post anything, but can I ask whoever read my blog to correct my English? 2. What is the difference between posting something to start a thread and posting it in the Workshop? Is the writing used in Workshop not allowed to be posted in the other areas and vice versa? Thanks in advance for your answers!
You can post your writing in your blog and re4quest feedback, but don't expect much. The Writing Workshop is just that - a workshop, for honing your critiquing skills (giving and receiving). It is also the only place, apart from your blog or the weekly competitions, where you may post your writing. And the only feedback you can get in contests is whether it got the most votes. Also, comtest entries are restricted too, They cannot be posted elsewhere on the site until after the voting has closed.
Definition of BLOG Hello, Since you asked about the function of a BLOG, Wikipedia explains it well. The main purpose of a BLOG is to inform. If an Australian blogger writes about the escalated price of bananas after the recent storms there, the message is informative. If a blogger in N. America explains the cool new app he is using on his cell phone, that is also valuable information. If, however, there is a entry from someone who writes about a fight with her boyfriend and is how she is feeling, this is journalling rather than blogging. pmhlb
Ah, okay, so I can put something in my blog first and then modify it and re-write it, eventually put it in the Writing Workshop section. thanks for the explanation!
Thanks, I only want to know how the blog and other forum functions in this particular website work. Nowadays, it seems people don't distinguish much about blogging and journaling when they write their blogs.
