Hello every one, My name is Dean, though I have gone by Tolyk for years and respond to it equally. I've been a struggling writer since I was 16, when I started world building my fantasy world. Originally I was basing a video game off my ideas, but the more I worked on the world the more story I wanted behind it. I wrote several short stories based on it, but wanted to evolve them into a novel. I've been suffering from severe writer's block for the last five to six years, bad enough that it's difficult even writing out this introduction. I suffer from the curse of self-editing, where I constantly go back and re-write what I've just completed. It makes completing a novel incredibly difficult. I've had a new story idea brewing lately, but have not managed to get anything down on paper. I'm joining this community in the hopes that something in my head will click and I'll be able to write again. I have vowed to myself to stop editing my own work, to get the words down and send it to an editor upon completion. We'll see how that goes for me though. Anyway, hello every one. It's a pleasure to be here. -Tol
Welcome Tolyk! - I know what you're going through. I have the problem of re-reading what I've wrote and then going , argh! I can do better than that. And starting over. Lately I've been pushing myself to keep writing , but no read-overs. Even if I have to open another word document the next day.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Dean! 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, Cogito, Lemex and Dante Dases) 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
Hello Banzai, Thank you for the welcome, and the re-cap, I have indeed familiarized myself with all the rules. I do however have one question, while starting to peruse The Writing Workshop, I noticed some threads have a blue envelope and others have a red one. I cannot find what this signifies. I initially thought it was perhaps the "Locked" symbol, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Could you please enlighten me?
Thanks Peach I write primarily with pen and paper, but I've essentially done the same thing. I'll leave my notebook alone and grab a new one, or some scrap paper to jot down my thoughts upon. Back when I first started writing, I must have rewritten chapter 1 at least 10 times, if not more.
The red envelopes are hot topics. You'll also notice that some envelopes are open and some are close, the former being ones with new posts in them.
