Your Background

[maxonennis]

     My writing career began at the age of eight, when I wrote a whopping 3 page novel (1/2 of each page was illustrations). I have no idea what is was about. At age nine I wrote the sequel, about 10 pages, in which the bad guy was Megaman. . . I had drawn a picture of him in the same notebook as I was writing, so when I got to that page I just decided to incorporate it into  the story. Later that year, I wrote my third book. 30 written pages (each one 1/2 illustration (stick figure style)), Entitled "Crono and Scott". It was about me going on an adventure with my favorite video game character. . .
     I didn't write anything until seventh grade when I wrote 100 page book.... notebook page... it came out to about 50 pages typed... it was pretty lame....

Wow, are we related? This is basically what I'm child hood writing experience looks like. But I wrote my notebook novel as a senior in highschool.

[AvalonDreamer]

I wrote a short story where the hero was Megaman... Never did anything with Chrono Trigger, though (too busy playing the game lol)

@M: You aren't a noob amongst seasoned writers, by a long shot. I've personally written only about 120 pages as my longest bit of work (don't know what that comes out to word-wise...), every other time I get to about half that and end up scrapping it in favor of a massive revision or a new idea altogether.  You are amongst peers, some of whom will have done more than you, some who have done less, but peers just the same.

[M]

@M: You aren't a noob amongst seasoned writers, by a long shot. I've personally written only about 120 pages as my longest bit of work (don't know what that comes out to word-wise...), every other time I get to about half that and end up scrapping it in favor of a massive revision or a new idea altogether.  You are amongst peers, some of whom will have done more than you, some who have done less, but peers just the same.

@ AvalonCreamCorn:  Thanks for the thought.  It is comforting to know that.  Regardless of who I am around, I planned on submitting my work, but now I won't feel as intimidated...I'll still feel intimidated, but not as much!   Looking forward to reading all your work. 

[little wilson]

My name's Kendra, and I guess you can call me that, or little wilson....or something else new and original. Doesn't really matter to me.

I'm 21, and I'm a junior (almost a senior) at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg. My major is English, with an emphasis in Creative Writing. My goal is to be an author. That may or may not fly....We shall see. I love music. I adore playing the piano (even though I really wanted to quit lessons when I was younger...). I'm crazy (not literally, but one of my friends did once refer to me as being quiet, meek, and psycho...and those first two are first impressions. The last is actually fairly accurate, sadly enough). I'm sarcastic. I'd like to think I'm funny. I love learning new things...I'm also the queen of geography quizzes (has anyone ever taken the traveler IQ test? love that thing...)

Now onto my writing style, or whatever:

I originally wasn't planning on writing. In 5th grade, I decided I wanted to be an architect because I loved drawing houses. In 11th grade, I realized that architecture wouldn't work, because there's lots of math involved in getting a degree. Now, don't get me wrong--I love math. Intellectually, we're best friends. Work-wise, though, we're bitter rivals. You see, I don't see the point of doing homework when I already understand the concepts. Hence my horrible math grades! I am the queen of slacking off...Anyway. My horrible math-homework-ethic led me to the English department, and from there to writing.

I've been writing almost as long as I've been drawing, but I have no finished works to speak of. I do have about 10 very different novel ideas though. The cool thing is that they're all pretty original. Or so I'd like to think....

At first, I didn't want to dabble in fantasy. I've read too much great fantasy, and I knew I couldn't even come CLOSE to anything I'd read.....My ideas didn't really flow around this choice, though. I only have one sci-fi idea (and my brother pretty much ripped that one to shreds.... ), and the rest are fantasy. So here I am, writing fantasy.

And I think that's pretty much all the relevant personal info.

[Necroben]

My name is Ben and I'm 31.  Unlike most of you who have graduated or are going to collage, I am not.  I am currently working and putting my wife through Vet school at UGA(Junior).  I'll go when she's done, going for my MD/PhD.  I never got through High School but my Sat's where really high so I can probably get in.

I was a late reader and consequently a late writer.  I too have never finished a story (I have a plethora of ideas) but alas, my ADD also gets in the way.  Fantasy is my Genre of choice but the book I'm working on now (NaNo) would not I think, be classified that way.  I mix way too many other concepts.
For some reason I think I'm funny (my wife just shakes her head now and then when I give it a shot) so I could be.

But the reason I'm writing, is because I love it, the freedom of thought and creation actually gives me an Adrenalin rush.  I'll stay up 1, 2, maybe 3 in the morning just writing or thinking about a story or world building.  I just enjoy writing, probably not any good at it, but I do have fun.

[AvalonDreamer]

I think we should have a mandatory format for these things:

"Hello my name is _____, and I'm an aspiring writer with ADD/a social life/children/[insert other reason and/or excuse]."

Then we reply:

"Hello ____!"

[Necroben]

Hello!  Haha!

[GreenMonsta]

Hey whats up? My name is Erik and I'm 23 from Massachusetts. I personally never took any writing classes or any English classes beyond whatever my vocational high school required. I'm not going to say that I have written much before because to be honest I haven't ever written anything before. I went to high school to be a mechanic. I then worked on cars for a while before I joined the army national guard to be a mechanic. Now I do security along with my national guard duties.

I find as a reader there aren't many books out there besides fantasy that really interest me. Don't get me wrong I love learning and reading up on subjects but when it comes to fun reading I need fantasy. Now when it comes to expressing myself I always leaned towards drawing and I have spent a long time taking a couple of classes having to do with that field. The funny thing is I would find my self creating characters and worlds in my drawing. I would almost create a story with sequences of drawings. I think that is the reason I would like to try my hand at writing. I have no shortage of crazy things going around in my head that I'm sure I can spare a few.

Oh and by the way as a person who has never written anything before I am not afraid to be shredded by criticism. I know that isn't the idea here but its bound to happen and I look forward to it.

[Karl]

Hello, my name is... um... Karl. You can call me, er, Karl.

First I'll mention that I did take the time to read each of your bios. I am fascinated by the breadth and depth of experience and backgrounds here.

Oh, and I feel like the old man of the bunch. I'm probably twice the age of the average member...

I have my degree in Art, in particular photography and film making (yes, film). Later I taught myself video. Oddly enough, Chaos, I started out as a physics major! Writing for me came out of the necessity for a cheap script. Since I don't have the budget to pay a writer, I might as well learn how to do it myself. Besides,  I can hyphenate my title: director-producer-writer-chief cook-bottle washer.  However, I have taken a couple of standard creative writing classes, and have a couple of modest short stories under my belt.

My first feature length script, written many moons ago, was written and edited literally by cut and paste. No really. At the time I didn't own a computer or type writer. So I hand wrote a first draft, photocopied the whole think, the cut the copies apart to insert or delete various parts. Finally a friend gave me his old 386 computer that was not much more than a typewriter with memory. The first script was called My Requiem, contained just about every rookie mistake, and shall never see the light of day.

Currently I am working on a series of shorter scripts that are supernatural thrillers (not quite horror, but touches on it). Keeping my prospective budget in mind, these stories are set in contemporary time in a modest sized Mid-western college town. Coincidentally, not unlike the town I live in. Convenient, eh? This will be the series that I would appreciate feedback on.

As an aside, I am working on a prose short story as a break from script writing. It is mostly as self-indulgent exorcise and is better categorized as fan-fic. I am a huge fan of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. After buying the first book in the series for my nephew, I decided to re-read what I owned, and have gone on to read almost the entire series (I only have a couple left).  My short story is set in McCaffrey's Pern.

My favorite author is Roger Zelazny. I had the pleasure of receiving a letter from him allowing me to use one of his short stories for the film that got me out of college. Sadly he passed away before I could present him with a copy of the finished film.

I am probably more influenced by Katherine Kurtz Deryni and Adept series.  Also, in the last few years I have been reading a lot of historical fiction such as Horatio Hornblower and the Aubrey-Maturin novels, as well as the Richard Sharpe series.

And I wouldn't be much of a film maker if I didn't mention the fact that my favorite director is Terry Gilliam.

[Chaos]

Welcome, Erik (DARN YOU FOR SPELLING YOUR NAME WITH A "K"!)! I look forward to seeing your writing!

Welcome, Karl! That's cool that you are a film maker. I think that having you in Reading Excuses will be a fantastically rewarding experience for everyone that you come in contact with. Experience is very, very good, and I look forward to seeing your stuff!

Coincidentally, I've read the original 11 Richard Sharpe books, along with Sharpe's Devil, I think. I haven't read any of the India ones yet. Still, they are fantastic military novels. I really should do a quick reread of a couple, considering that my epic fantasy has strong basis in war. Learn from some of the best, right?

My dad--who introduced me to Sharpe--has always tried to get me into Hornblower, but I couldn't get too far into that. I probably should, though.

I am very exciting with all the different writers here. Reading Excuses will be an incredibly rewarding experience for everyone!

[Flo_the_G]

I assume the Sharpe novels are better than the movies, then? Don't get me wrong, I liked those. But I also liked the Hornblower movies, and those were significantly inferior to the novels. Not because they were bad, but because the novels are awesome.

[Chaos]

I don't remember the movies very well, but I remember that they grouped a few novels together for each film, which didn't work so well (but then again, it is very foggy in my memory). The books were excellent, though.

[sortitus]

Hello, my internet name is sortitus. Titus is my real name, so you can choose which to call me.

My writing history begins in 3rd and 4th grade, when a friend and I collaborated on a series of novels in a sci-fi setting. I've lost all but about 10 pages of my writing from the books, which is a shame since it's HORRIBLE! I really wish I had some of my friend's writing, but I left that school unexpectedly and he had all of the manuscripts. All I have is pages I was working on at the time. 

In 5th grade I got interested in poetry, where I spent my time until 7th. In 7th grade I had the best English teacher in the world. She got me into short stories and reinforced my interest in sci-fi/fantasy. My HS teachers sucked enough to actually diminish my skill in writing, and I actually stopped writing for a few years. My 9th grade year I had the idea for a novel, but wrote two pages and scrapped it. I wrote a bit of poetry my senior year with a friend, which got me back into writing.

My college writing experience so far has been good, though I haven't taken any English classes. I have continued writing poetry, and have some posted at my deviantart. Listening to Writing Excuses made me a bit nostalgic for the good old days in prose, so here I am, writing a novel for NaNoWriMo and considering two short stories for after it's over.

Reading-wise I am pretty inexperienced compared to a lot of my friends but I get most of the references people throw down. I'm cool like that. Writers on my list to read: David Farland and Michael Moorcock come to mind, though there are many others. :\

I'm not sure how good my writing is, as I rarely share it with anyone. Often I actually destroy what I've written, which makes it hard to tell if I ever had any skill at all...

[Karl]

I believe I've read all but one of the Sharpe novels. All are quite excellant. Bernard Cornwell does really well at doing exacting research, and then breathing life into history.

Okay, here's some trivia to wrap your noodle around: I read Moby Dick, A Tale of Two Cities and the Hornblower series because of Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn. Both Moby and Cities were used as metaphors in the plot, and the director has admitted that he characterized both James T. Kirk and the ship battles on Hornblower (sea battles in space)!

Bernard Cornwell has admitted that he characterized Richard Sharpe as the land-based, army version of Horatio Hornblower.

I'll give credit to the folks that made the Sharpe movies (I own the original batch) for doing an amiable job portraying the Battle of Waterloo with only about 80 extras. I did not like the Hornblower films which deviated too far from both the spirit and the text of the books. I did greatly enjoy Master and Commander.

[Chaos]

That's a really cool chain of logic, there. Wrath of Kahn is certainly the best Star Trek film for the sense of space warfare. I don't think the others really capture it as well.

Also, my dad was always telling me that Hornblower was the sea version of Sharpe.