Much like everyone here, I'm working hard towards becoming an author. I figured it was about time I start reaching out to my fellow travelers. My name is Ian and I'm working to write and self publish a trilogy of books starting November 2011. Self publishing for a -lot- of reasons and pushing to do it quickly for even more reasons... As I'm sure a lot of folks here are shy about describing their books, I'm going to attempt to crack that by being straight forward about what my story is about. I'm writing a young adult trilogy taking place in New England that spans across several genres. Romance, fantasy/sci-fi, inspirational, etc. All cliche taglines of course, so an actual description might be more appropriate: The first book centers around two characters. A seventeen year old girl, Sara, who is struggling to escape her family and their self-destructive ways. She's desperate to make her way in the world and become more than what her family has raised her to be. It's the summer before college and she's all ready to to run. Until, of course, she meets Gabriel. Gabriel's a seventeen year old guy who cannot find his place in the world. Raised by a loving family that he was not born into, he doesn't know who he is. To make matters worse, he's been having traumatic night terrors for months vividly showing him that the world will be coming to an end. And each time, he knows it's his fault. And now he's started having dreams about the quiet girl he met in the coffee shop. Every dream with her, he fails to save her life and when she dies, the world soon follows. That'd be GUARDIAN: RELICS OF PROVIDENCE. The first book in the Relics of Providence trilogy. www.relicsofprovidence.com My first draft (what I refer to as the skeleton draft) is wrapping up in the next few weeks. Then it's to three months of editing, rewriting, and hopefully getting some critique's/reviews from about a dozen people. While I have plenty of friends/family offering to do so, they don't have the capability of giving me unbiased, constructive input. So I'm shopping around to forums to see if I can find myself a few people who don't know me at all who would be willing to give a 300+ page novel a read come September/October so I can be sure to put out the very best come November! And, to be honest, I'd like to do some peer reviewing myself. Having finally come back to my dream career I had in high school, I'd like to help others work towards the same goal. So hello! I'm hoping to make a decent impact in these forums. And I'd love to hear from any folks who have interest in helping me out!
Welcome to the Writing Forums, ianhiatt! Looking forward to your stories as I can already tell that it's going to be a good one. Hope you enjoy your stay and hope to see you around!
Hello Ian, Welcome to the Creative Writing Forums. Please read How to Use the Writing Workshop before you try to post there. Posting your own writing for people to comment on should not be among the very first things you do here anyway. 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!
Thank you kind folks for your warm welcome! I'm looking forward to finding myself a nice little niche in this corner of the 'net. With any luck, I'll be able to give some folks a hand with their writing as I do think of myself as a good editor. Thank you, Cogito for giving me a great rundown of the forums. I'll definitely read through the policies. I'm a moderator on another forum, so I think you'll find me to be a stickler for rules and keeping the peace. The 'net is quite the jungle....heh. I don't tolerate any maneaters in my camp...
