Hello, I'm new here, and somewhat new to forum-posting in general. My username is "typree", but I also go by "Ty". Feel free to refer to me as either. All my life, I have absolutely loved stories. Not just stories, but especially stories told through art. As a kid, I would spend tremendous amounts of time drawing characters, telling stories with my little action figures, making up little comic books filled with all kinds of scenarios for them, and so on and so forth. However, as I got older, I began focusing more on the "art" portion of my passions. Better to choose one skill to hone in on than be a "jack of all trades", I thought. A great choice, as art is still very dear to me, but it was clear that I left little room for writing and story telling to grow alongside that. Naturally, though, in the back of my mind I was always coming up with plots and backstories for my artwork that went with my characters. I just couldn't help it. But, especially in the past few years, the need to tell a story has persisted. It's grown hard to ignore. As my artistic skills developed, lurking within my subconscious were many old and untold tales, just waiting to be discovered. Though, when I tried to bring them out, they came out half-cooked and underbaked. Many people, including myself, pointed this out to me, so I decided to put those ideas back in the oven where they rightfully belong, and ask myself "What makes a good story?" in the meantime. I've done my best to learn as much as I can, and my stories have molded and shifted to follow suit. But now, suddenly, after all this time, the hum of my kettle has grown to a hiss, so to speak. In other words, I've recently gotten the feeling that now is the time to finally share those thoughts and ideas with others, and get a second opinion (Maybe even a third, fourth, or fifth!), in order to add other's feedback to what I am learning on my journey. And so, after much contemplation and a quick Google search, I've been led to this forum. I am looking forward to connecting with the people here, learning new things, reading people's stories, giving and getting feedback, and most of all, becoming a better writer! Thank you for reading.
Hello and welcome Ty, and thank you for the lovely introduction. We're glad you found us. If you want to work on honing you story-writing skills, the contests here give good opportunity for that. This would make an excellent topic for your first thread in the Writing Discussion! If you have any questions about using the site, please ask away!
This forum is the right (no pun intended) to be, if you're looking for help to improve your writing! Get involved, read, critique people's work, post your own, ask questions - that's what this forum is all about, writers helping each other.
No problem Louanne, and thank you, too! Also, on the topic on starting a thread: at first, it struck me as a quite basic question to ask, honestly. ("What makes a good story?") But on second thought, really it's one of those very broad, fundamental questions, where it's possible to get alot of many different opinions. Which can lead to great insights! Especially if people share what makes a good story to them, on top of the more objective advice. So, I think that's a good idea (Especially for a first thread). I'll be making a thread for that soon. Oh, and as for the contests, I don't see myself participating in those any time in the near future. I've got alot to do, and alot to learn first. But once I get to a place where, not only am I available to do so, but I also think I can spin a decent story from any given prompt or theme in a reasonable length of time, I might join in!
Will do! Looking forward to it, too. There were many other options for posting writing online. Many of which looked promising, but I didn't know where to start first. So instead of trying to choose all of them at once, I wanted to choose one I liked best, get acquainted and very familiar with it, and then get to know the next one. I'm willing to do this even if it takes up a large span of time, lol. But so far, like you said, this site feels like the right (write) place to be.
