Greetings...

[breezeshadow]

Hello all.

I'm not really sure what to write for this, because I'm horribly shy and thus my ability to write introduction posts has been slowly deteriorating. *cough*

But anyway.

My name is Breeze, I'm a twenty-something-year-old to-be grad student. I have been writing basically since I was in sixth grade or so. My first piece of writing was a screwy thing about some girl being visited by an angel. My first novel is here if you're ever bored and want to read something so awful it's absolutely hysterical.

I specialize in what I call either weird or semi-realistic fantasy. Basically instead of writing about people going on epic quests to slay dragons, I write about a therapist trying to treat her patient who is basically a human-animal hybrid, and also an illegal immigrant. I dabble in other genres occasionally but fantasy is my focus.

I've wanted good advice for writing for ages but after being basically ignored on sites like Fictionpress, I've become really shy about it and so barely show my work to anyone anymore. I'm hoping maybe talking about writing on this community, or just reading what people post, will give me both the muse to write more regularly, and maybe the courage to post my stuff online more often.

So yeah I think that's about it. *waves*

Comments

[scarylady]

Welcome!

We're still quite small and new, so if you don't get much in the way of responses please don't think we're ignoring you, it's just because we're still finding our feet. Stick around and be a part of making us big and friendly :)

[breezeshadow]

Haha, thanks for the encouragement! I've been taking a look at posts and reading, so I should be sticking around, if a little quietly for now.

[intothewood]

I'm shy too, pretty hesitant to share stuff I'm truly focused on, and I'm also looking for some different perspectives, so you won't feel alone. Everyone here has been really nice, and they all have interesting things to say.

I love your idea for your story, truly creative!

[breezeshadow]

Thanks! That's actually just one (rather big) subplot of the first part of the novel... It's a bit complicated, and I get confused writing it sometimes. Whoops.

[auguris]

I know exactly how you feel re: places like Fictionpress. It's hard to get yourself noticed in a big community like that without already having a circle of friends. DW in general seems to be much better about that, and hopefully this community will follow suit. :)

And since you've admitted you're at least as shy as I am, I should probably write up an into post...

[breezeshadow]

Yeah, I keep getting random e-mails about people appreciating my stuff on FanFiction.net... Which isn't exactly what I want, haha. I've noticed that as my writing improved, the number of people who were willing to read it went down... Strange world.

[niniane]

It's hard to get noticed in general. The rate of acceptance in most "professional" (i.e. >$0.05/word, not really enough to live on, but...eh, money) is <1%. Writing fiction is tough!

The best advice I could give you is to find someone or other to critique you. And to give a good honest critique (which will sting, but which will help if you're willing to listen to the advice and take most of it). My favorite so far has been www.critters.org, although www.critquecircle.com is also decent.

[breezeshadow]

Oh, Critters looks very good. Thank you for the tips and links, and also for the welcome. =)

[niniane]

I love Critters for sci-fi and fantasy. (I'm not sure how they are for other genres.) They're professionally orientated, mature, and give solid critiques that tend to be helpful (neither too soft nor so hard that you're like "OMG, why?!!" Although I've found that the hard ones are rarer than the soft ones.). They're definitely worth checking out. The only sad thing is that they're a little slow (i.e. it takes about four weeks for something to get through the que - not so good if you have a deadline!), their formatting gets wacky, and I've noticed that a lot of novels get very few critiques. (So if you go that route, I'd definitely recommend doing it only after establishing relationships by critiquing a lot of other stuff/submitting a few shorter pieces.)

If you do end up becoming active, you'll have to look me up. ;)

[analect]

Hello Breeze, and welcome! (Welcome to auguris too!) Like scarylady says, we're still very new, but we don't bite, and we're all here for the same reasons.

I look forward to taking a peek at your novel when time allows - and I love me some magic realism and contemporary fantasy! If you're hesitant to post any fiction, do feel free to just kick off some chatter. ;)

[breezeshadow]

Thanks for the kind words =) I have posted a story or two on my DW, and there's a chance I'll post something here because I have NO idea where to go with it. We'll see, though.