Hey everyone! My name is Matt, I am a 39-year-old guy from Rockville, Maryland. But I usually go by the pen name, “NeveroddoreveN” when applicable. I became a newbie member to this site a few days ago and am excited to dive right in on the hijinks and fun! I am not usually good when it comes to writing a bio about myself, but here is a bit of an introduction on me... I am not sure what to say here, with all the practice I have acquired I never really was good at writing outlines of myself. I actually find it rather embarrassing. And I am trying to avoid writing a whole novel here on myself – that might express a degree of over-zealousness! I am the type of writer that goes into great detail and opting to weed out unnecessary points later on. (And just to let you know, this is the fifth time – or “draft” – that I have written for my bio. That’s pretty much the kind of writer I am!). I have always had an overactive imagination. As a kid I was always on some fantastic, magical adventure. As I grew up and matured, inventive outlets became more and more the standard, and I found creative writing to be a bit of a release from that inspirational tension. I have been writing short stories since elementary school, was part of literary magazine in high school, and even took creative writing courses in college. I also am an avid gamer – both video and tabletop. Not sure of that really explains it in minute detail, I am curious to find if there are other gamers on this website! (Note: I am speaking about other novelists who might use the same writing strategies as I do – using RPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons as a level and template for my work.) With writing, I was a long-time part of a different website forum, but that one kind of dried up to the point that entire months would pass before any activity graced those pages. I wasn’t really finding the activity that I was craving, I had to find a place where I could post my work and be free to critique and get to know the other members on a more intimate level. Anyway, that’s a bit about me, I can’t wait to finally post this personal little biopic on myself, and to start meeting other writers, chat about the fine art of composition, share our work, and have a great time in the process!!
Hey, welcome to our little corner of cyberspace! Cool name, I always liked palindromes. Here's one from the Lankhmar series by Fritz Lieber: Rats live on no evil star
Hi there, Neverod/(mirror) I’m one of the forum moderators, and I want to welcome you to the forum. I spent a bit of time I'll never get back trying to pronounce your username ...till it dawned on me. I'm slow, but I get there eventually. Most of the time... I'm exactly the same as you, when it comes to writing. I over-write like mad, then edit like mad as well. Must drive folks nuts when I keep changing what I said, but there you go. I feel that overwriting gives you lots of raw material to work with. I highly recommend it. (Others are not so enthusiastic.) I should warn you that, as a New Member on the forum, you're only allowed a short window of time (I think it's only 60 minutes) to edit any of your posts. (It's a spam-catcher trick of ours.) So try to make sure that what you say is what you want, before you click "Post Reply" or you might end up screaming at the screen 61 minutes later. After you achieve full Membership, you're allowed to edit, within reason, whenever you want. (Okay to tinker with wording, spelling, etc ...but not to change the basic content, especially if people have responded to your post. But hey....) In order to help you get oriented and get settled, here are a couple of links I strongly recommend that you read at the start, if you haven’t already. They will give you a good idea of how we operate here on the forum: New Member Quick Start Forum Rules You will notice in the New Member Quick Start that in order to post your work in the Workshop area—the only area of the forum where you are allowed to ask for feedback—you will need to do at least two critiques for other people, in exchange for receiving feedback on one of your own pieces of work. This site is designed around the concept of members helping each other out by ‘paying it forward’—through our two-for-one critique system. Do two critiques, THEN you can post something of your own. This advance 2:1 ratio lasts as long as your membership here. In order to help you get started doing critiques, here is a link to a good article written by one of our former moderators: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/constructive-critiques.20627/ One of the popular areas of our forum is our contest section. There is a monthly contest running for Short Stories, Flash Fiction and Poetry. You can enter these ongoing contests, even as a new member. And we really encourage you to visit the site, read the current entries, and vote for your favourite when the voting period starts. This means a lot to the people who have written these entries. And it will also give you a good idea of what our members are capable of writing. https://www.writingforums.org/writing-contests/ While the Role Playing Game section is not new, it’s being given a revamp. So if you are interested in playing and writing Role Playing Games, you might want to visit this section and get in on the fun. https://www.writingforums.org/threads/resurrecting-the-dead-rpg-section-rebuild.165055/ I hope you have fun getting to know us and let us get to know you, via the posts you make. Please feel free to explore the forum. There is a lot under the hood. This site map might help you find your way around more quickly than the menu bars do, so feel free to use it. https://www.writingforums.org/faq/ If you encounter any difficulties, don’t hesitate to contact me or one of the other moderators, whose names appear in yellow at the bottom of the Community page. We will be glad to help. Again, welcome! You sound like a fun guy. Cheers for now, Jan
And a merry good morning to you, Jan! I thank you for your kind words! And I am glad I am not the only writer out there that adds tons of detail into their writing! I will certainly and definitely explore those links you sent me - this is so exciting, having a fresh, new place to express myself. It's about that time for me to hop into my work - with the Corona virus being prevalent here, I am working from home - but I will certainly be back on this site ASAP! I hope you, and everyone, has a great day!
Many thanks to Dogberry's Watch and dbesim! I really appreciate your replies to my intro post! I am excited to get started with this forum!
