Hi I have been a member for a few months now and starting to really like this site. The weekly short story comps are great as it has given me a good push to start my writing practice. I'm not a published author so it's great to know that some people like my writing - I won the weekly comps 87 and 90 and the positive feedback really is a great prize. My main focus at the moment is trying different writing styles to stretch my skills. I am saving all my stories in my blog on this site, and you'll see I'm trying to make the style of each one something very 'different'. Some of them have had a great response, some people absolutely hated them. The latter is definitely fine with me because the purpose of me writing them in an unconventional style is to try something weird/different and see how people react. Even the people who hated the stories have given great constructive feedback, which is a good thing about this forum. About me - I am 34yo, I live in Auckland (New Zealand), am married with one daughter (toddler), and work in the field of public health emergency management. When I am not writing I am studying emergency management, reading mostly non-fiction, training for triathlons and spending time with family/friends. I have always loved writing, especially science fiction as I grew up on Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, Asimov and other old-school hard science fiction. My reading/writing interests are mostly about near-future (next 50yrs) speculative fiction and the implications & consequences of social changes. My goal this year is to make a big dent in my first novel (my other goals being to spend time with daughter/wife, run my first marathon and learn the piano!) but the problem with speculative fiction is when the world changes (recession/Middle East protests/earthquakes/etc) a lot of your near-future world building goes back to the drawing board. While I mull over what my first novel idea will be (yes, that sentence is intentionally double-edged), I'll be logging onto this site, trying for fame and glory in the weekly short story comps and trying to be as helpful for others in the forums as y'all have been for me in the short time I've been here.
Hello Ric, Welcome to the Creative Writing Forums. Please read How to Use the Writing Workshop before you post there. Posting your own writing for people to comment on should not be among the very first things you do here. It is worth taking the time to see what other people have done to improve their writing, and see if some of it applies to your writing as well. That is part of why we require members to review other members' work before posting their own for review. On the other hand, there are no restrictions, other than content and copyright rules, on showcasing your work in your member blog. Also, be aware that posting a piece of writing on any public site, including this one, will greatly diminish your chances of selling it for publication. Removing the writing later does not alter that fact - once posted, it is irreversibly considered published. So do not post anything more than a small excerpt of any piece you are planning to submit for publication. If you haven't explored the site yet, you should probably do so soon. Newcomers often gravitate to the Lounge, the Word Games, or the Writing Workshop, but there is much more to be discovered if you poke in the corners. Remember to check out our FAQ as well, and be sure to read through the forum rules, too, to avoid any misunderstandings or hurt feelings. Respect for one another is our principal mandate. As for the Writing Workshop, new joiners often wonder why we do things a bit differently on this site than on other writing sites. We emphasize constructive critique as a vital writing skill. Training your eye by reviewing other people's work helps you improve your own writing even before you present it for others to see. Therefore, we ask members to review other people's writing before posting work of their own. We also impose a two-week waiting period before you may post writing for critique, to give you time to become familiar with what is expected and how the site operates. The Writing Workshop forums on this site, therefore, are true workshops, not just a bulletin board for displaying your work (and on that note, please only post each item for review in one Writing Workshop forum). Also, please use the same thread for all revisions and additional excerpts from the same piece of writing. See this post, Why Write Reviews Before Posting My Work? for more information. And while you're looking around, don't forget to check out the RPG forum for improvisational fiction. Also try our Weekly Short Story Contest and Weekly Poetry Contest. They actually run more than one week apiece, but any member may enter, and all members are urged to vote for their favorites. Enjoy your stay here, and have fun!
The problem is I feel like a hypocrite because I am telling others how to write and they do not have a chance to look at my writing. Also, I continue to write my novel and really get no input on how I am writing, while I continue to write. I am perpetuating the problems that I am unaware of until I can post to let others see. It just does not feel write or logical.
It's a case of a necessary evil i think. If you google 'writing forums' you will get a lot of websites where people just go and 'dump' their material on; and the way it works out is that nobody reads anyone's material and it all becomes just a pointless exercise. But when you have to wait two weeks, it makes people stay with the website, there's lots more activity as a result, and in the long run a better web site. Hope that makes sense lol
