NEW MEMBERS FIRST INTRODUCTIONS

Hi, Lisa and FantasyWriter! Welcome aboard!

I write in my kitchen, so I know all about being too close to the fridge!

Hello,

I love to write poetry!

Currently working on a poetry book for my boyfriend to give for our one year anniversary. It's a new relationship we just became official yesterday. I figure a poem a day will give me 365 poems dedicated to him. Perfect for one year!

Lisa

A support team for Spark AND writers? That is so cool! I'm the writer that sits on his posterior all day and is way to close to the fridge. Having writer friends to encourage and motivate me in my career and health sounds like the way to go.

Welcome aboard! I love stories based on real people. NaNo is fun, but why wait until November?

Hello everyone !! I am glad I saw this group on
a friend's page.

I am a published writer in the local newspaper.
I wrote a column for 9 months about genealogy
research how-tos. I used to write poetry, but not
for awhile.

This year will be my first NaNoWriMo. I have at
least one book I want to write, a fiction novel based
on my great great grandmothers' travels to settle Kansas.

I am also thinking about writing a cozy mystery ?series.


Edited by: NWME4EVRMARYANN at: 7/19/2016 (18:57)

Hi, Kimi! The book sounds good!
Have you tried bringing your disk to a computer place? Will it not open because the software is too old? It sucks to lose that much work. :(

Hi, I've been on and off here at SP since January 2011. In that time I have gotten a BS in psychology, moved house, then left my house in the care of another so I could care for my mother, and am on the final stretch of an MS in counseling: Marriage and family therapy. I love to write. The closest I've come to finishing a book is one I began I started my undergrad work, and the 10 chapters I saved on a disk will no longer open; therefore, I have lost that book. I am planning to begin a book (series?) about a family of witches. I am going to switch between current time and ancient history to show the link between the witches and their ancestors. I usually lean quite heavily toward fantasy in my writing and I haven't decided yet whether I will write this as purely fantasy (dragons and such), or try to keep it as close to real as possible. I hope to meet at least some of you here in this group. Happy writing everyone!

You can do it!!!

What genre novel?

Hi I have probably been here before as Shirls plus whatever year it was but I recently joined SP again and have started writing again. Trouble is, once I start writing everything else gets neglected so I have to stop to do stuff like laundry and housework and cooking and lose my momentum. Okay, to be honest I spend way too much time on Face Book which I have to curb because it is a real time vampire. I live near Durban, South Africa, I am 70 years old, retired and take care of my disabled husband. And yes, I still want to lose some weight and get fit and write a novel at my advanced age!

i have decided to rejoin this group as I find myself writing more often

Good luck!!!

Hi. I've been off and on SP since 2007 and have been writing off and on since 1994. Up until 6 months ago, I primarily wrote poetry. For the last 6 months or so I have started writing a couple of books. The first is a romance. Don't tell my husband though, he thinks it's an action. The second is more fan-fiction. I'm hoping to turn it into a series and hopefully the company that actually owns the rights will want to buy them.

I hope this group will help me achieve my writing goals while I'm achieving my weight loss goals.

Yay romance writers!!! I'll forgive your jaunt into fantasy. :)
Or combine the two!

Hello group!

I've been on spark off and on over the last five years - probably longer - and have taken to writing in the last three years. I tend to lean towards fantasy, but have worked on a contemporary romance story recently.

Anyway, I've been back on spark for the last three weeks and since all I seem to do is work, write and try to work in fitness, I thought it would be nice to find a group of writers who were also working towards fitness goals.

I look forward to reading and learning more about you guys.

Amber

Welcome!

Hi Little Lady!

Welcome Little Lady!

ihi there

Hi!

Hello! Obviously, as you now know, I am a new member and very excited about being a member of this Sparkteam!

I am a writer for the Christian market. To be more specific, I am a contributing editor of a small Catholic newspaper.

If any of you have a good idea for an article topic, please pass the advice this way! I am always in search!!!!!

Thanks! Again, nice to meet you!

just to say hi

Hi, Chris! I hope the memoirs are at least interesting. :)

welcome aboard

Hello, I re-started spark people May 22 this year, and have done well so far with watching my calories and loosing weight. When I was much younger I loved to write poetry, but ended up focusing my education around non-fiction/scholarly editing type work.

I am currently working on publishing a family member's memoir, but it is a very long term project involving a lot of research. It is it's own full time job, but I already have a full time job as a business analyst so my writing/research time is limited at best.

I was happy to find a forum like this here and look forward to getting to know folks and learn a thing or two.

welcome aboard

Hello, everyone, my name is Shanon and I've been telling stories since I could talk and writing since I've could write. I've had a few small articles and poems published but nothing major. I submit a book once and was ACCEPTED! I was so scared I thought it was a joke and wouldn't answer back.
I dropped out trying and raised four kids, whom I tell stories too still to this day, even though they are all teenagers now. They are encouraging me to write again, so I thought I'd get back on board and get these squeaky hinges oiled.

Heya, Toni!

i find writing is piece of mind as well

Good morning. I'm new to the team. I write memoir/essays and find a daily writing process is essential to both my peace of mind and my productivity. That said, I don't always accomplish that but hope to do better by joining this team.

Welcome! What do you write?

welcome aboard

new to the group....and looking to get back into my fitness/weight loss lifestyle AND my writing lifestyle which all took a hard hit after some major life changes over the past couple of years.

its all good and I know I can succeed if I put my mind to it with serious commitment!

thanks

Welcome, new people!

Hi Latisha welcome aboard. I am new to Writer's support as well. I am journalling, and go to a writers group once a week during the day when I have time available.

My name is Latisha and I just joined this group last night - I have been doing some online research regarding Freelance writing at various work at home opportunities that involve writing - I love to write, but I have not written any books just in my journal or assisting others with writing papers, etc. I would love to see what others are doing in the famous world of writing - Talk to you soon!

am making an attempt on a short story right now

Nice. :)

so right now I am writing in my journal and essays. Mostly essays on whatever pops into my brain. I hope to expand into short stories

Hi!

So what do you write? I'm a romance girl. yay happily ever afters!

Hi my name is Gwyn Leder -- I combined my first and last name to become gwynlee. I deleted that account and rejoined Spark People and so now I am gwynlee2.

Sounds like you have a lot going on! Good luck in getting everything the way you like it. :)

PS, was reading down on some of your posts and adding that I am a published writer, had poetry published and inspirational articles (you can see them at valerieswriting.wordpress.com), and I even did a horrible self help book once almost 20 years ago that never got published and when I looked at it later I realized how awful it was and why it didnt get published! lol. This is my first attempt at novel length fiction. back in college I wrote some short stories for a creative writing class that everyone always loved, they were sort of a ray bradbury/alfred hitchcock/twilight zone sort of story but my fiction now is a fantasy sci/fi aimed at young adults/teens ish. sort of harry potter (which I LOVE) age group. that probably sounds stupid to everyone, but being a big kid myself, its more me than doing something totally grown up. :) Im an INFP, I live in my head :)

new here, I am glad this group is active, I think it is just what I need!

I have had a book and characters in my head for a while, but keep brushing them aside. I even wrote an intro for the book a couple of years ago. Now recently having moved back to a place I *hate* due to lack of work in a place I *loved*, and not being able to find work here either, and being snowed in, and feeling horrible about myself.... yadda yadda. I am wondering if my lack of ability to find work is the universe hitting me on the head saying its the wrong path. That it is time to shift gears and do what I used to LOVE, but have lost touch with. If I could write and publish this book, my entire life could change. I am so tired of being depressed, cooped up in a crappy apartment, being rejected job interview after job interview, struggling to keep a roof over my head... I have been through enough in life and I deserve better!!!! My main roadblock is self-discipline, I have the ideas but I dont have the discipline to sit and write every day and thats what I need! So, here I am. creative, oddball handful that I am! I hope I can offer support to other writers with similar challenges and hopefully get some support too! oh yes and losing weight and getting in shape too. LOL I think thats a given, as this is sparkpeople. :)
sorry this was long winded... :P

Thanks Abby! I will look into that.

Andrea, are you a member of Romance Writers of America? It's a great resource for romance writers. (I'm a member!)

I used querytracker.net for my agent search. You have to register, but it's free. You can see what agents are looking for and keep track of the queries you send, including agent response times.

Welcome back Andrea. Like you, I have three children and some grandchildren, 7 to be exact. With the exception of my three small doggies and a devil cat, My husband and I are alone on the farm. I wish you the best in finding a good agent and publisher. Keep me up to date with how you are doing. I love to hear about authors and their works.

Peg

My name is Andrea Boyd. It's just me and my husband at home now. Our family consists of three adult children, their spouses, and one grandchild.
I joined Spark people years ago and lost 50 pounds. Half of it has found its way back to me since then. I'm ready to get back into it now.
I am working on book 2 of my Christian Romance/Adventure trilogy. I have just begun my search for an agent.

I write plays for high schools and church youth groups. The directors there tend to want a fully completed script, with stage directions. I also write poetry. I am a novice in writing articles, but I think I will find it interesting.

For me, the best time to write is in the middle of the night between 2:00a.m. and 5:00a.m. I am always awake at that time no matter how hard I try to sleep so I have learned to take advantage of my wakefulness. I can always sleep during the day, if I get tired enough.

I am a true insomniac.

Oh, yeah, lack of time is something we all deal with. I've cut down on TV shows and (sadly) reading. I used to read about two books a week. Now I'm lucky if I can read two books a month.

Welcome.

I find the best way to make time to write is to put it onto the daily calendar, like an appointment. Don't put it off until everything else is done. If you can, do it first thing in the morning, before life intrudes.

Greetings, everyone! I have been doing primarily business writing for the past 20 years or so, and wanted to expand into other areas. I have started a novel (but just barely) and have been trying to be more dedicated in my SparkBlog to write every day. I like inspirational writing, and that is the theme of my blog here, but want to expand into more fiction. I'm currently unemployed (on disability) but will be looking for work in the next few weeks, as we transition from city living in Sacramento to small town life in the town of Clearlake, California, a couple hours away.

My biggest challenge is making the time to write. Even without a job, my day gets full of mundane tasks like cleaning, shopping, and managing the household. I saved an email from iTunes from a month ago that has many apps and videos for budding writers and haven't looked at one of them.

I look forward to getting more tips and resources here in this support group!

Thanks for the reactions! I am hoping my goal will also keep me motivated and it reminds me now I really should write something. Now that I have lived in the US for 11 years and have at least as much experience with British English (or even almost twice that) I find I don't know what is what anymore and use British and American English interchangeably.

It's weird that I'm a better writer in English than Dutch. My Dutch writings and poems sound oldfashioned. I use words that people normally don't use anymore, and I am not comfortable using slang that everyone uses. In English I dont' seem to have that problem, and words feel more powerful. There are more words that have different nuances so it's easier to find the nuance I want to use. And English is shorter in word-length, there is less of a need for cumbersome descriptions of things, it's easier to get to the point. I remember when 'The Lord of the Rings' was translated in Dutch it was about a third longer (more pages, so more letters) than the English original. So maybe I'm not the only one struggling with that.

That's my rule, too.

I was about 14 when I came across my first British book, and kept wondering why they were spelling words that end in -ized with an s. Somehow I knew that there was an extra U with favour or colour , but that one threw me.

I got used to it. :)

Greetings Amaranth.

In my job, I work with a number of people in Britain and Ireland, as well as folks from Germany, Poland and Norway. Not only am I used to British English, I'm used to reading German and Norse sentence constructions directly translated, which can be amusing at times.

As for corrections, my general rule is not to correct people's grammar and spelling unless I am asked. Even those with outstanding skills can make occasional mistakes. As long as the post gets your point across, then it's fine.

I hope setting a writing goal will help you stay on track with your goals.

Good luck!

Hi, I'm Amaranth, I'm in my mid-forties, a woman, dealing with type 2 Diabetes, Binges and several physical as well as mental health problems. This makes it a challenge to work on my weight and control my diabetes. I am hoping to write regularly (say 4 times a week) in my blog on my Sparkpage to report how I'm doing and what I'm thinking. I am not a native speaker so if something sounds wonky that's why. I tend to turn word-order around and such things. But please only point out an error if it would be wrong both in British and American English? I feel if my sentence or word would work in British English (the English I learnt in school) I don't need to change it to make people of the US happy (sorry, it just frustrates me to be pointed out errors that are not wrong but due to US people not being aware of British conventions).

I recently got a Fitbit so I'm also spending a lot of time making sense of my daily amount of moving and what I'm eating, when I'm sleeping and all that. Fitbit and Sparkpeople is a pretty cool combination!

...I thought plays were written as dialogue only?
and then the stage directions are put in by the first director?

It's been a while since I had a drama class.

Why not go ahead and talk about body movement and emotion in poetry and plays. I think that is what makes it better.

Oh, I'm awful at poetry! I think it would be cool to write plays, but I don't think I could write something without adding in emotion and body movement and all that stuff.

I think I am better at poetry, but I like to write short stories too. I have written a couple of high school plays. I haven't ever tried to write a novel. I wonder if I have what it takes to do that many words. Anyway, I just like putting words together, published or not.

Hello, y'all! Welcome aboard!

What do you all write?

And congrats, Maggie, on your submission. Where did you sent it?

A writers team, that's great! Dang, now the English major part of me itching to put an apostrophe after that S but no! I read that for the names of groups, you can leave off the apostrophe..
Anyhow, I saw a thread here called "When Can You Call Yourself a Writer" ~ interesting because I just sent off a submission, which makes me feel like one at last. Maybe the fact that I actually completed something makes me a writer. Normally I just have a head full of snippets which I don't even commit to paper...
Anyhow, I'm glad this team exists. Looking forward to getting to know my teammates.
Cheers!
Maggie

Returned to Spark People during a sleepless nite. I am ok,just was not sleepy. I have nights like that now and then. I am working on two book length stories. One is apocalyptic and the other is time travel back into US History, the westward movement stuff.
I need to organize my living room and the whole little apartment where I live better, so that is also a goal. So, one hour writing, huh? Ok, and how about an hour puttering around my place and sorting it out better? Sound good? Gee, the things I get myself into these days when I stay awake all night!
Glad to be back in the fold, however. I look forward to folks posting here.

Hi all! I'm new to the team but not new to writing. I've held just about every job there is that involves putting together sentences coherently in my quest to earn a living. I'm looking for support now because I'm trying to commit to writing for myself. (I know, maybe I should've started in November...).

I don't have a pet project at this point, but I'm setting aside at least an hour for creative writing time. What comes out, comes out. At the very least, it's getting the juices flowing again. I know I'm mentally healthier when instead of stress dreams I have crazy flights of fancy!

Wishing all a productive, healthy day!

Welcome new people! I hope you enjoy our discussions.

Good luck! I'm a romance girl myself. :)

Everything, Anything. Umm... the last book I started that I will probably pick back up is a Mystery/Drama I may add some romance too, haven't decided.

Write write write!
What genre?

Welcome to the team!

Hello all!! I just joined the team this week. I have been a sparkpeople member for a while now. I have never finished any 'novel' I've started. I always find something more 'important' to do than to write. I know that I'm destined to write because I have been 'writing' since I was 10-12. I used to write notes to my best friend a few times a day and the 'notes' were a romance story featuring my friend, a continuing story. And her and I along with my cousin and I at different times had a note book we passed back and forth writing the same story.

Now I have many note books with 'ideas' and story lines wrote down. And now instead of focusing so much on weight loss. I'm focusing on habits. I'm focusing on the things I would be doing if I were to sit down and write what I want my life to be like. From coffee in the sun, to cooking more, to writing more, to taking off my make up before bed.

As I've gotten older I think about what I want to do. I know I want to write. So I have joined this team hoping to find motivation and inspiration.

Welcome to the Team Wordcaster!

Just wanted to say hi and how pleased I am to have found Spark People and especially this group! I'm a little out of practice as I wrote my first novel seven years ago, only now working on the second. But I'm aiming to keep the blog posts flowing to sharpen my instincts and get back in the habit of delivering a daily word count. I live in the South West of England and juggle writing with a full time job and heaps of volunteering. So one reason I'm here is to let go of all the excuses and make some positive changes to my lifestyle. Looking forward to getting to know you and wish you well with your goals.

X

What do you write?

I'm about 1.5 hours west of you.

Welcome to the Team!

Hello everyone! I am new to this team and excited about being a part of the team. I am not a published writer but I do love to write and read as well. I have ben writing in my own personal journal for may years. I kind of got a way from writing after my grandfather passed away several years ago but in the last year since I have relocated to Jacksonville, Florida I have been writing a little again. I have been using it as a tool to keep me motivated with trying to be healthy and lose some weight. Nice meeting you all and looking for to connecting with each of you.

OOOOO...I like that Abby!

Jessi, I think that's what you should name your blog:

Modern-day Hippie with Practical Applications

Welcome to the Team Jessi!

Welcome , Jessi! Good luck with the goals.

I'm having the same problems, LakeMIchigan. I finished my first draft of my book almost two years ago, and I've gone back and forth on it. Sometimes, I think it's salvageable with re-writing and sometimes I think I just have to move on.

As long as you are enjoying the writing process, I don't know that it's ever time to give up on writing itself.

Giving up on a particular project? Three years may be enough. How many times have you changed it up and re-written major parts of it? If it's more than twice, I'd say it's time for some mental housecleaning.

Try a new project. Set the old one aside and put it out of your mind. Start something fresh, with all your experience under your belt. Your writing will be better for it.

For me, I tried. Really. I have started two different books since I tried to put my first one away, but it was nagging at me. I set myself a concrete timeline, though. I will finish my final round of re-writes at the end of October, then I will not mess around with it again until and unless I have an agent or editor asking for changes. Starting Nov 1, I'm doing my own NaNo. Ten 5,000 word stories in the month of November. Time to use some short fiction to get my blood pumping again.

Edited by: MYREALANA at: 10/21/2014 (12:36)

I like to read and write fantasy--like Tamora Pierce and things like that.

I'm not sure what I would blog about yet. I'm sure some rants would be there about the health system and how it's broken and how people are addicted to sugar, etc. I could also write about positive forms of rebellion like learning to grow your own food and self sustainability and things like that.

You know, the usual modern-day hippie kind of topics with practical applications. :-)

Yay NaNo! What do you write?

And what would you blog about?

Hello! My name is Jessi and this isn't my first time joining SP. I'm trying to re-structure my life, and I want to include healthy living, reading, writing, crocheting, and self-sustainability more than I have in the past.

I'm still working on my SparkPage, but most of my personal fitness and nutrition/diet goals are there, so feel free to review those.

I'll share more specific writing goals:
--Continue daily Gratitude Journal.
--Start a blog (in the next 5 years)
--Try to win NaNo again (November, here I come!)

I hope everyone is having a great day! Happy writing!

LakeMichigan - write a new book.

Seriously. Take what you learned writing the first one and write a second one. Most writers don't get their first book accepted (yes, there are exceptions) and spend their time rewriting and being pulled in different directions by advice and comments.

So, yes. Give up on this book, but don't give up writing!

Does writing make you happy? Does fill something in you? Are you proud of what you've written? I'd guess that if you said YES to those questions, then don't give up! Like anything else in life, if YOU enjoy doing it then keep doing it.

If it becomes a chore, if just thinking about writing makes you feel unhappy, blah, etc. Then it may be time to re-evaluate if you want to keep doing it.

I'm only 10 (well...9 2/3) of the way though my first draft of my first book. But I know I look forward to working on it...even when I can't seem to get it just right!

And Welcome to the Team!

I have been writing the same novel for three+ years/I've had positive rejection, negative rejection, been to conferences, writers groups, taken breaks -- my writing has strengthened but when is it time to give up?
YA - Dark Contemporary ---

Thanks everybody!

Welcome! I'm kind of new here too. You'll find everyone is really helpful!

Sounds interesting. Good luck!

Welcome, Neanie!

Hello again and good morning! I like to write what can be best described as motivational fiction based on real life events. I have so many stories in my head, but I know I can only write one at a time.