Hey all, I'm Laurus. I've been getting back into the swing of creative writing for about a year now and it's easily my weakest writing style, but I do enjoy it when I can manage to motivate myself to actually press the keys. I've been writing all my life though, with about 80% of my experience in academia (APA), 15% split between communications and philosophy, and the last 5% in actual creative writing. I suppose that explains my propensity towards the concise genres of writing. Anyway, I'm looking forward to mingling, learning, and helping where I can. Glad to be here!
Hello and welcome! Creative writing can be tough, but it sure is fun! Are you a math person? Those percentages have made me curious.
Thanks for the welcome, Elven Candy. I like your name. Those percentages are just my best guess based on my time spent formally practicing each, and works produced in each area. Creative writing is steadily rising though! Mostly in poetry at this point. I'm more of a stats guy, really, but that's a branch of math, so to answer your question - kinda. I'm kinda a math person.
Nice! I've never been good at math, and the stuff I do learn (and understand), I generally forget within a year . The funny thing is I was never good at writing and grammar, either, and now I'm writing a book. Go figure!
Hah, yeah, I feel you. It's just about practice I suppose. I doubt I'd be able to any of the analyses now I could do just a year ago when stats were all I was doing. What kind of book are you writing? Or can I ask that?
Hey Laurus, I'm also a teacher, but I let my apps do the math for me. EFL, and composition (in English as a Foreign Language), so as long as you can remember to stay away from: 1 Topic Sentence including thesis statement 2 Preview of main points 3 Main Point 1 3.1 Supporting point 1..... You know the drill, we drill our students with it. Just let it go, and the creative juices will flow.
Hi Laurus and welcome I'm not a teacher as such, but done teaching unofficially. And I know plenty of teachers, and plenty who would like to write but for the crushing amount of work they have to do (already the teachers I know don't have a life, and nor do many writers I know for that matter, so combining the two... well, is it possible to not have a double-life?)
I've taken courses towards being a writing tutor and I've tutored at a college level personally. I've also taken upper level collegiate writing courses. I can honestly say that only approximately 1/5 of my writing knowledge comes from college. I recommend writing podcasts. There are a few out there by some famous authors, where each episode they discuss a different writing topic. I recommend "Writing Excuses." Which are 15 minute little lessons for those that don't have much time.
Though I was on track to be a professor, I uprooted myself from that career path a little less than a year ago. Apologies if I was unclear, that's actually one of my biggest weaknesses as a writer and speaker. I can tend to be a bit ambiguous. Hah, I remember these! God. I had to follow these rules all through high school, though I often didn't. Staying away from them will be no issue at all. Nice to meet you, though. Hey, thanks for the welcome. I only know one teacher who writes and that's preeeeetty much his life. Teaching and writing. And I can only wish I had that sort of dedication, but I make do with whims and wisps of inspiration. Love Writing Excuses. They're pretty much the only reason my writing has any structure whatsoever. I've never had formal creative writing training beyond an entirely online freshman-level college course, so their advice has been invaluable. There's been times when I've questioned their advice, especially as I've seen it contradicted in successful writing, but they do say that rules are meant to be broken. It's just a matter of breaking them intentionally, for good reason. I'm sure you know all of that, I just like talking and reiterating useful things I've heard.
They have an anthology out as well that shows the first/rough drafts of some of their short stories. The Writing Excuses Anthology is what it's called.
Hehee, Stats Man. I'm okay with that. I bet you'll love it. Writing Excuses is like the users manual to writing.
