Joined: 3/18/2013
Posts: 3
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Hello! I don't have a pen name for myself yet, so I'm not sure what to go by other than V.A. Diaz. I just recently found this site a few days ago and it looks like a very promising place for me to grow as a writer. Currently I'm a 20 year old community college student trying to find my calling, and I believe it has to do with writing. Drawing and writing have been my hobbies since childhood and I'm always looking for new ways to hone my skills in both arts.
In childhood, I wrote simple stories, the earliest of the ones I can remember being about a cat princess. During the teenage stage of my life, I tried my hand at fanfiction of shows I watched, which proved to be productive for my writing. I received a good amount of constructive criticism about writing in general, which is when I realized writing a character is a lot trickier than I had first imagined, and that they must have some depth to them, otherwise the audience won't be able to connect with them. It made me appreciate characters as a whole and recognize that they're the most important element of writing a decent story.
Since I've entered young adulthood, I've transitioned away from fanworks and have entered the sphere of original works. Currently, I'm writing my own story set in a fantasy world that contains regions of the planet set in different eras similar to time periods of Earth, but I have yet to decide what format I wish for it to be published in--book or web comic--so for now I'm merely writing everything in chapters. But, everything is still in the brainstorm stage. A part of my writing process is "winging it", and another part is planning it out vaguely. My ideas come to me as I continue onward and everything doesn't always go according to plan. I know what I want to do with the beginning, middle, and end, but all the details in between are the problem. That's always been a bothersome barrier though ever since I started writing actively.
So, I'll save the details of my issue for another discussion post in a more relevant forum. I hope I'll become an avid member of this site and that I can gain an invaluable amount of knowledge from other aspiring and established writers, and maybe even give my own advice if I can. 
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Joined: 6/18/2012
Posts: 228
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Dear VA,
Welcome to Book Country! It's a wonderful community of writers.
Here are some links to get you started:
Our Community Guidelines: https://www.bookcountry.com/CommunityGuidelines.aspx
How to Write Reviews:
https://www.bookcountry.com/Community/Discussions/Default.aspx?id=102413
A great how-to from another member:
https://www.bookcountry.com/community/discussions/default.aspx?id=108779
The fantasy forum is a great place to meet fellow writers and talk about your work and process. https://www.bookcountry.com/community/topic.aspx?id=1
Let me know if you need anything. I can be found here, on Twitter at brandilarsen, and at brandi at bookcountry dot com.
Best,
Brandi
Book Country Director
PS-I'd argue not to put too much pressure on yourself to find your calling, but just continue to write and hone your craft. Your calling will find you.
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Well Come, VA Diaz!
Book County is a great place to find paths. The writers here have more paths than do squirrels running through trees Pick one or make your own.
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