My name is Ed but I have registered as Sam Brook because that is the name under which I write. I am in my fifties and live in rural England surrounded by fields, horses, cows and sheep. I work as an expedition leader for my own adventure holiday company based in the UK. We take people on canoe camping trips in Finland, France and Canada. I have always enjoyed writing since boyhood and have had a couple of articles published in adventure travel magazines although I have never really thought myself gifted enough to be a "real author". I am particularly interested in learning to write fiction with a view to writing a novel based on a character that I have used in fireside stories for a few years. Despite having been published I consider myself to be a complete novice and I am really looking forward to swapping ideas, learning and developing as a writer. My present writing project is called 100 x 1000. Essentially I have set out to write one hundred essays and stories of 1000 words or less. So far I have written five! Well, actually I have written far more than five but I have only been brave enough to post that many on facebook! If anybody wants to find me on facebook I am registered as ed canoe and I have a page on that account as sam brook. Anyway, I really am looking forward to learning and hopefully contributing to others. Ed
Welcome to Writing Forums, Ed! 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 requirements. 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
