I am nobody important. I came to this site because I've been working on a book series of mine since I was about 10 (Of course I've made improvements on the plot since then) but I'm going super slow and came here to help motivate me. I actually only have 1 chapter that is close to completion so that's how slow I'm going.
Hello Important, Welcome to the Writing Forums. As Dalouise pointed out, a series is pretty ambitious if you haven't even written one novel yet. Write your book as a standalone work - you should anyway - and don't worry about making a series of them. Posting your own work 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. 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 Review Room, 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 Review Room, new joiners often wonder why we do things a bit differently on this site than on other writing sites. We emphasize reviewing as a critical 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. The Review Room 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 Review Room forum). 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 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!
Thanks for the warm welcomes everyone and thanks for the tips Cogito. I will look around the site for a while and do that reviewing stuff you mentioned before posting my story stuff. Keeping this brief (we are only in an introductory thread after all), this book I have is way too large for it not to be a series with all my ideas for it. I know writing an entire series is going to be hard, especially being my first real attempt at writing a book, but I have no choice but to make this into a series. I could put it on hold and have a smaller book first, but I like my idea for this book a lot so I would like to give it a shot. I will try to concentrate almost all on the first book as of now.
Hello - and welcome. I echo the other sentiments in this thread - focus on one book - BUT - I'm not sure you ABSOLUTLY need to focus on Book One. Sometimes it might help to get the strongest story out - that might be Book Six. Remember how each book stands alone - it needs to. The Potter books are of course very good examples - but I think more of the Star Wars stories. George Lucas thought his strongest story was Book Four - so that's where he started. See where you brain and muse takes you, my friend. I'm not an old hand at writing - but I'm older than anyone else I've found on this site - so perhaps a lot of life experience might produce helpful advice. Good luck on your ambitious task - and hope to see your name in the contests, reviews, posts, Word Games or if nothing else - Raven's Tavern (chat room kind of thing).
I'm gonna kall you Important To Someone-because we always are important to one person, ourselves. lol-anyways, Welcome to WF, hope you have a grat time here..
I can understand having an idea that's too big for one book. But then what you do is focus on one aspect of it and make that your first priority. Like, right now, I myself am working on a book that will probably require a series, but I'm focusing on writing the background (the past) of my main character (I write in 1st person p.o.v) so that when I can finally focus on the next part of it, readers won't be confused as to the jump. It's definitely important to narrow your focus as a writer or it can be very difficult to write much at all. And, aside from that, welcome to the site ~Lynn
hi! awww... course your important! anyways - there's nothing wrong with being slow, so long as your enjoying the journey! it sounds like you've got a lot going on in that head of yours! best of luck with it, i look forward to seeing you around!
