Hi guys, newest member here. I found this forum from a simple google search, and it seemed the best! I'm 22 years old and been writing for the last six months, the six months previous to that I spent forming ideas and generally realising that writing was what I'd really, really like to do. So quick bit about myself. Age you have, I'm originally from Liverpool, but lived in Devon for many years before attending the University of Manchester, from which I'm about to graduate with a degree in Art History. It was... ok-ish, a lot more history and lot less art. The one very, very good thing though was it pushed me to write from the ideas I began to have in class. I'm a big reader, (as every writer should be!) my dad's often told me C. S. Lewis was said to have read 1000 books by the time he was 18, a record he sincerely believes (or likes me to think so at least) that I equaled. My genre of choice is fantasy, especially Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire etc. though this last year has seen me begin to explore Horror and War. All about expanding the mind I guess. Cheers for letting me ramble, I hope to make a good addition to the community here. Matt.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Matt! 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
What have you came up with in the past year (6 months thinking, 6 months writing). I finally finished a project I started because my girlfriend didn't believe I finished any projects I started in terms of writing, so I lied and told her I've written an entire novel, just don't share it. Of course she asked to me prove it and, at the time, I didn't have a complete story to share with her so I said fine and wrote out an entire 48,000 word novel in two days. It sucked, don't get me wrong, but two weeks later it grew to 58,000 words and got a bit better, and now it's at 61,000 words a satisfy read. So a little motivation can go a long way when put to the challenge. Now it's the actual work of the story, fixing it, making it culturally and period accurate, blah blah blah. It'll probably sit for another 6 months until she ask about it again. But it was a fun experience. Hope you enjoy the forums and hope the best for your writing career.
Welcome to the website man. You definitely found a nice home and a warm fire to sit next to. Stay a while, and listen, and I am sure the stories you hear will not only leave an impact, but have you begging for more. Message me if you have any questions or just want to say, "Hello!"
Part of my course was to do with the paintings/architects issued by kings, and I got quite involved with the politics of the court as opposed to the art. I started playing around with the idea of a lowly man in the 1500's who becomes a very ruthless, and very dangerous member of Louis XIV's court. It was quite fun and over the weeks and months it started forming into something much bigger than I anticipated, that was my first major idea, rise to wealth and the dangers that come with it. Politics in those times was a lot more fun! Second idea, the one I'm currently working on as it is much more accessible and requires much, much less research, is the idea of a soldier comes home from war, then starts killing. The war aspect is the introduction mostly, it's his mindframe I'm interested in, what would drive a man to the edge and break him. I get what you mean about the unprecedented growth - writing seems to have a naturally organic way of expanding itself. Thanks for the warm welcome guys
Hi Matt, welcome to the forums! I adore reading too, I read anything I get my hands on. Hope you have a fun time here, and enjoy your stay!
Reading books is like research for all writers. I probably beat Lewis' record twice over cuz I even read encyclopedias and the thesaurus when I was not reading fiction. I would luff to read what you came up with so far. I have ever 110 short stories and and only one is finished...I bow to you.
