Hi everyone. I signed up a while ago but I was a little too nervous to say hello. My lifelong dream is to publish a book, obviously haha, but I don't have the confidence to write it yet. Instead I air out all of my ideas for it in a fanfiction series. I've been at that for far too many years, it's probably about time to move on. The trouble is my grammar and spelling is atrocious. Also even though I have plenty of ideas and can (sometimes) carry a plot, I feel like my descriptions and whatnot are very basic. It works for a fanfiction I guess, but with a novel not so much. One of the reasons I'm here is to learn a few/lot of things, as well as talk to people who love to write as well. (Yeah I'm not very good at intro posts, sorry) So, how is everyone?
Hi, welcome to posting. You don't need confidence to start writing, you need someone you can share it with that you don't care what they think of you for it. I think it was an advantage for me knowing I didn't know how to write fiction when I took my work to a critique group. I was able to tell everyone I knew it was bad and that's why I was there, to learn. I've seen other writers bring their work and go away annoyed because they didn't hear how good it was, they heard what was wrong. I never had that problem.
Welcome to the forum! I hope we'll get to see you around and you'll find inspiration and confidence here to write the stories you want to tell. It's a lot of work, but it's also absolutely awesome. By the way, here's our New Member Guide if you haven't found it yet. Have fun! -Kat
Hi GingerCoffee - love the name by the way - nice to meet you. Thanks for the welcome. Sometimes I can just start writing and tell myself to worry about it later, but that's just the freedom of writing a fanfiction no one will ever read (don't worry, that's not a hint. I doubt I'll link to it). Other times I'm just hard on myself about every little thing, so I get nowhere. I'm probably not the only one, right? Edit: Hi KaTrian, thanks for the welcome I've been browsing around the forum, I never know where to start posting so that guide is definitely useful. Thanks!
I feel you! I can write excellent dialogue, and I think that I've got some really cool plot ideas, but when it comes to setting/description, I'm like...'oh, crap. Is that enough? Is that too much? Do I even know what I'm saying anymore?' Description isn't my forte by any means!
Hi frinkprofessor. Yeah that's it exactly, I'm the same I'd love to learn how to do it. Right now my characters are in such a bleak environment and the story needs it to be described, otherwise I may as well have stuck them in any old place. The only way I can seem to do it (badly) is to switch from third person to first and have it described by how one of the main characters is seeing it. Yikes. Maybe we should work at it together
