A little intro about me. I'm 22 (yes another one) and I've lived in southern California my whole life. I've been writing well.. I still have my fourth, fifth, and eighth grade young author books--boy are /those/ funny. Writing has always been a part of my life since those early years and it helped that my dad had a lot of scifi and some fantasy books. In eighth grade I read a few of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series and after that started constructing my own world when I grew frustrated with hers. So since then I've done lots of Pern Role Playing and just RPing in general.
I think it was my sophomore year that I began really writing short stories. I don't believe any of them went over 6k or 7k words though. I took a creative writing class during that time too but didn't really get much out of it. Since then I've been putzing around at one of the local junior colleges in the area for the past 4 years. It was only until last fall (03) that I took another creative writing course hoping to get a bit more then I did out of my high school one. Well let me tell you, that class sort of changed my life. Needless to say I went from not knowing what to do to deciding being a Novelist was the thing for me. I'm not sure if my teacher actually expected me to do it, but on Christmas day, this.. er, well last year (04) I finished the rough draft of my novel. *cheers* 150,000 words and in dire need of edits.
It's because of the rough draft completion that I have come here in hope of getting helpful input and impressions on it. It is a fantasy book, the idea might seem a bit cliché if I try to write a brief summary, but I think it has a good story and the characters are pretty realistic. But I might be just a /little/ biased. I don't really want to post chapters up on the forum due to loosing publishing rights and letting just anyone see what I've written. But if anyone is interested in helping with critiques that don't involve grammar fixing, gimme a poke or something. And if anyone has any type of fantasy or scifi novel they're working on, or even a shorter work, I'd love to try and help out and polish my own critiquing skills. I'm just not a grammar editor so don't ask me for that sort of help.
I guess my little intro got a bit long... But I wanted everyone to know about me before I started posting and making an idiot out of myself. *ducks head and scampers back out*
Anyway, it is good to have you here. And with a little bit of sweat and tears you'll have that novel sitting on the book shelves of many a store. (Don't worry about cliches: any idea can be considered cliched if done poorly. Do it well and people will buy it.)
Still, if you need a reader, you can send me the first three chapters. Plain text in email or Word doc is fine; either way.
eli.evans AT gmail DOT com
I promise I won't be any harder on you than I would be on myself.
The Fragments and Feedback foprum is a great place to start. Try to give as much as you receive, by offering to critique. Critiquing is a great way to learn. Taking critiques of your own work with all due humility and an eye for useful advice is even better. It can be hard, but it is well worth it, and it's good practice for being married, should you ever be so inclined.
quote:Since you would only be posting 13 lines (in standard manuscript format, which means Courier 12 pt), you don't have to worry about publishing rights. You'll probably get more response if you do it that way.
I don't really want to post chapters up on the forum due to loosing publishing rights and letting just anyone see what I've written.