What YOU want!

[Ravyn Crescent]

Sounds like we got a WIDE range of knowledge here!!! I'll get "Helpers/Teachers" thread started with this info!

[marzaally]

yay! I want to be a teacher so hopefully I can help someone!

[Ravyn Crescent]

I imagine you can! I know Raserei needs someone who knows Japanese, and Tasha(lillymoon) would LOVE byond love for you to help her improve her artwork!

[lillymoon]

yup yup you got that right i would absolutely love beyond love that ^_^

[Ravyn Crescent]

I thought so

[munchinmonster]

I find it funny that we have this wide range of subjects but not one person has put up creative writing.

[marzaally]

I figured we could let that be Ravyn's domain, lol. :-) It is my minor though.

[Ravyn Crescent]

We cannot do creative writing >_<

Beyond the fact that I am constantly having people email me to help them with their writing and I just do not have the time to help everyone, my publishers and my advocates are VERY strict on what I can do. I have to have contests, events, marketing strategies, EVERYTHING approved by these people and one of the main things brought up is about literature. I love helping people, I love being asked, but few have ruined it for many.

Unfortunately, since I am a young author, I have to carry the burdens of their mistakes. There have been too many young authors and writers who have been caught stealing other peoples ideas. I don't name names because I don't know the full story from both sides, but there have been writers trying to publish things that are already published, or are close enough to something that is already published it's a joke. There was a Harvard girl who was caught stealing paragraphs from another published work that was highly popular and her books were pulled from the shelves and a movie deal canceled... there's been so much theft among young authors (even though there has been PLENTY of theft among adult authors, too!) and because of that I cannot read manuscripts or anything that isn't published, copyrighted and solicited.

I never steal anything. I've had stuff from PTP stolen by a highly popular author who published it long after PTP was written, so I know the pain of that. However, my word and my honor are one thing and lawyers have a way of ignoring that, you know? So to help prevent any legal hassle, I'm forbidden from reading any unsolicited work.

That is why there's so much stuff here except writing stuff. My editor (main one, Jan Anderson) informs me that there are more than plenty of forums and things for writers, and that this one is for Allyson and I as authors.

Eventually, we will probably do like I had on my last forum and make it so people can post SHORT stories here. Won't every guarantee myself, Allyson, my editors, publishers, artists, etc will ever read any of these stories, but I figure you'd have to be pretty stupid to steal something that's on your forum. My idea is that if people post a story here and I steal something from it and publish it, all my fans will clearly see “hey, that's from this story on your forum!” So it guarantees I'd never steal since I would get caught possibly before the story is even accepted by a publisher.

I'm still awaiting permission.

I hope to get it, since I want to have a horror story contest for Halloween.

[Ravyn Crescent]

alright, everyone!
readptp.proboards85.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=homework&thread=86&page=1

[marzaally]

I totally agree. I didn't want to do anything about writing also because it can be incredibly personal. I don't want to critique someone's story or poem and end up greatly offending them or something like that because it was based off of their lives or something like that.

Um, something basic I know people have general problems is watch your tenses! I do this a lot, and sometimes type an omniscient 3rd person narrator in my regular speech, which ends up weird.

[Ravyn Crescent]

I do that, too XD Tis why I have so many pro-editors...

And YES! Ant writing contest we have here will be a POLITE one. If you dislike someone's work, keep it to yourself unless they ask for feedback, and even then be polite about it and only give constructive criticism.

[munchinmonster]

I never thought of it that way, but now that you point it out it is very clear, I can understand and respect wy you'd refuse to do it, but wouldn't the same apply for art as well?

[Ravyn Crescent]

*shakes head* I asked about art and it's difficult to steal "bits" of art. You can easily steal a paragraph from a story (copy and paste) and alter the names, etc... but with artwork, it's a completed piece. MUCH harder to alter, and also, I'd have the original right up on the forum! Why steal something that is right there? Artwork is also easier to copyright. You can film yourself creating it and it can pose as a copyright so long as you do something (like sign on to msn.com or aol.com) to prove what date it is IN the film. For writing, you cannot really do that and have a good result that's not 12+ hours long.

[marzaally]

Not to mention I would be doing basic how tos instead of a critique on someone's work.

[munchinmonster]

Oh ok, that cleared a few things up, thanks.