Noticing Newbies

Greetings fellow writers. I came here by recommendation of a friend and writer. There is so much on this site that I'm uncertain of where to begin.

My real name is Mindy, my pseudonym is Dianne Dykstra. I chose to do this because I don't think that my real name is marketable.

I am a student at Western Iowa Tech CC working on my Associates in English. As WITCC does not offer the other programs that interest me, I plan to transfer to another school to learn German and Horse Sciences (equine studies). So far, Kirkwood CC is at the top of the list.

I'm also an on-again / off-again member of WIT Masters- my college's chapter of Toastmasters International- a public speaking club.

In the mean time I'm focused on my writings of cross-genre novels. At last count I had 63 stories in the works. Each one is at a different point or stage of the process.

Sadly, there are days when I feel over-whelmed, bogged down with no idea of where to pick-up and get to work. I admit it- I need help. And this is why I have been looking for a writing community.

I took the course "Breaking In To Print" from Long Ridge Writer's Group. It helped me tremendously. And I highly recommend it for anyone interested in short-story and article publication in periodicals.

Some of the short stories I wrote for the course blossomed into full fledged novels. And my English professor allowed me to use one of the non-fiction articles for a composition paper.

Academics aside, I need more. I am hopeful that writing.com is the shot in the arm that I need.

- M/D