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« on: March 09, 2011, 08:09:36 PM »
Hello, everyone. I am a twenty year old college student from New York. I am currently majoring in English with a Creative Writing focus, and I plan to have at least one minor or a second major, probably History or Psychology. I have also been taking my school's Publishing Certificate Program, which is geared toward getting people jobs in the industry. It's basically my not so much fall-back as something to do if I don't get published before I finish school, and the publishing classes may have even been more useful than writing classes, as I have learned quite a bit about publishing, which should help make me a more savvy writer. (Not to mention that part of the program involves getting an internship, which will allow me to meet people in the industry and form relationships that could be helpful when I get to the point of being able to submit a manuscript.
I have been writing, on and off, since eighth grade, when I first got the idea for a novel that I finally think has a proper direction, and I have sufficient writing skills to finally complete a draft (longest previous draft was somewhere around 120 double space WORD pages long). As of now, I am at almost 12,000 words into my novel, and I have a full chapter-by chapter outline.
My novel is probably best described as an epic fantasy in space, or a sci-fi epic (I'm really not quite sure exactly what classification it would fall under). It has a sci-fi setting, but to me the novel feels more like an epic fantasy, and there are some fantasy elements in it. I also have several ideas for fantasy novels, which are all still in the worldbuilding/outlining stage, though I have written short segments/scenes for some of my writing classes (including a scene which I workshopped in my Fiction Workshop class yesterday, which makes me confident that I am capable of making a living writing). I don't intend on telling that whole, strange story in this post, but to put it simply, the class liked my writing, and gave some good feedback (as they have in my other classes where I wrote sf/f stuff) and the older professor said he 'could not encourage that' and did not give me any useful feedback.
I really should have joined Timewastersguide a long time ago, but I'm glad I did now. I desperately need people who actually read and write in my genres to give me comments on my writing, and everyone in my classes writes the most dull literary fiction (which my current professor, of course, loves). I hope to get useful feedback that will help me finally complete my novel, and get me working on more things. (I apologize for the length of this post)