Ashleigh

ACTIVE CONTESTS
I'm always looking for new reading material on Writers Cafe to review. I regularly create contests to give me an opportunity to read things tailored to my interests. I'll post any active contests I have going here. Even if you can't enter the contest yourself, if you have a friend who would want to enter, don't hesitate to let him or her know.





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"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." - Albert Einstein



~ Who Am I? ~
I'm an undergraduate student at university, majoring in Creative Writing. I have been writing all throughout high school, but after I graduated from high school, I had a "not-quite-a-fifth-of-a-life crisis" as I like to call it and started to question whether writing was what I really wanted to pursue in my life. I stopped writing and fell into a sort of stupor. My loss of confidence and lack of self-assurance soon led to problems in my relationship with my boyfriend and within my family. Ironically, it was both my boyfriend and my mother who helped me to realize that I needed to start writing again. Writing was the key and the root of it all; write, and everything else I want in life will follow. For a more detailed account of this particular obstacle in my life, read my blog on my personal website.

~ What Do I Write? ~
Although my favourite and most preferred genre is fantasy, I write a vast amount in many different areas. You will find many different forms of literature in my collection, as well as many different genres. I tend to write about anything that I feel is important enough to put down on paper and be read by others and of course, there is no single type or genre that is of sole importance to the world; therefore, I have written a vast variety of literature. You will find books, chapters, stage plays, essays, reports and short stories in my collection, as well as fantasy, fiction, non-fiction, biographies/memoirs, romance, adventure, and much more.

~ What Are My Strengths? ~
I would have to say that my strongest writings are of the fantasy and non-fiction genres. This is because fantasy is something I'm passionate about and non-fiction is based on true events that I find of enough importance to record in my own words, and so put much effort into describing these events in a way that will intrigue others. My best types of writing in my opinion are my books and short stories. I enjoy the freedom these types of literature provide for me; I am able to describe things in as much or as little detail as I please, embellish what I find to be important and otherwise be completely free to use the whole of both my technical writing skill and my imagination.

~ What Are My Weaknesses? ~
It would be both ignorant and pretentious of me to claim that I have no weaknesses. Every writer has his or her own flaws and one cannot hope to ever grow in his or her writing or in his or her own understanding of oneself if one cannot see these flaws. I will freely admit that I am terrible at writing poetry. I find it horribly constricting and confining; I can never fully express what I want to within the limitations of a few short, tightly structured stanzas. I do enjoy reading, listening to and critiquing poetry, however and I have found many great poems on Writers Cafe, as well as throughout my life. I just cannot hope to ever replicate this skill with my own poetry.

~ What Am I Working On? ~
Right now, I am focusing on completing any projects that remain unfinished. Afterward, I will begin to edit and re-write some of my existing work. In particular, I would like to lengthen and add more detail to a few of my short stories. Specifically, I am working on completing a book called "Tharion's Beginning", which is loosely connected to "Fiera's Beginning". The book I hope to write after completing "Tharion's Beginning" will be a full integration and meshing of both "Fiera's Beginning" and "Tharion's Beginning" into one seamless story.

~ Who Are My Friends? ~
As a general rule, I only add other writers on Writers Cafe as my friends if they've given me at least one constructive review of my work and I have had several positive conversations with the person. I will not add people whom I have never spoken to; I will not accept every friend request that is sent to me. This is not because I want to appear callous or abrasive. I am simply selective, because I do not see a point in having a large friends list compiled almost entirely of people I don't know or whom I've had only one brief conversation with. If you have requested me as a friend and I have rejected it, try reviewing some of my work with constructive advice and messaging me. I will not talk about my personal life strictly due to internet safety reasons, but I love to talk about anything literature-related or Writers Cafe-related.

[Last Edited: 01/08/09]