I'm seeking a writing mentor.

- CROSS-POSTED FROM THE WRITING GROUP -

Would anyone with proper experience in writing and publishing fiction be willing to mentor me? I have been reading since 3 and writing since 7. I wrote 50 pages of my first novel at 14. My creativity and concentration have since been punished by the realities of my teenage years, and now, at 31, I would like earnestly to commit my time to developing my writing.

If there is such a person out there, I would very much like to speak to you. I would be happy to send you writing samples, as well.

Thank you.

But there seem to be a group of writers at DU. Maybe you can form some sort of writing group.

:shrug:

I'm just wondering if I might be so lucky as to find someone who would want to help me for the next few months.

and just inspire you or something

:rofl:

but it obviously won't be in writing!


:evilgrin:


:hi:

:blush: :faintingemoticon: :blush:

as if...


:rofl:

And I'm a damn good editor, if I say so myself.

And a nationally-published author. (No, I'm not telling you under what names.)

Send me a PM, and we'll see what we can accomplish as a team.

Redstone

My kindergarten teacher was shocked when I made a real campfire in the sandbox. After that she didn't mind so much me reading all by my lonesome.

I really didn't start talking until I started reading -- in my mind they are sort of the same. Before I started school my mom was very big on flash cards as a way of making me talk.

Getting back on topic, Redstone, what do you think of all this advice not to write on the internet? I think it's bad advice. Most people are not going to make a living writing fiction, and you sort of have to go into writing as an adventure that may or may not pay off. So maybe you keep your dream novels and short stories in reserve, not published on the internet, and then share the stuff you do write just for fun with anyone willing to read it. It's like if you don't make it in pro sports, it doesn't mean you shouldn't play ball with friends. Write some fan fiction (heh, google "spock licked"...) and polish your skills a bit.

But then again, I'm an open source software geek, so what the fuck do I know?

:blush:

All great writers are/were great readers. Figure out who you like to read and then find out everything about them, their writing habits, what authors they liked to read. Once you read what they read and see who they were emulating, go back and see who those guys read. It all starts to make sense or it makes no sense at all. Eventually you will reach the ancient Greeks. This is an old old game.

I am a hell of a lot older than you and one by one I am knocking the classics. I will never get to them all. Henry James Portrait of a Lady is an important piece of of American Literature as is Huck Finn and Moby Dick. I stick with American Literature for the most part. I used to read a lot of crime novels. Not so much anymore.

Oh yeah, Google is your best friend. Go look up Mark Twain's tips for writers as well as Hemmingways. I DL'd both of them. They are brilliant. Visit Rudyrucker.com and DL his Writers Toolkit (notes for organizing a novel). Great stuff. I also like writing tips by William Price Fox, a novelist and teacher at USC. He is unpretentious and all bout relaxing, being specific and just going for the sound of words sound as they are put together".

Approach your work systematically. Do lots of research. Save a lot of stuff to your PC and back it all up. Its all out there, my friend.

It's entirely undisciplined unless I have an editor standing over me waving a baseball bat.

Writing classes and groups don't even work for me unless people are nasty and critical and nit-picking and cynical.

:spank: