I would love to do something like this! How do I get started?

I would too. I probably don't have the educational requirements though.

Are you serious? Do you or do you not hold an MFA?

If you know anyone at any college/universities, I would get them to find out who is in the know. Otherwise, I would craft a generic letter that could be sent to the dean of the graduate school, the heads of departments, and posted on any blackboard type pages at Universities. If you have done any professional or research oriented type of writing, attaching that would be good as well. Or even contact the place you did your MFA.....they can attest to your education and might have grad students there who need help. It is amazing how many really really smart people are terrible writers when it comes to fluidity, clarity, grammar, etc.

CWMI, do you write like that consistently? I am a spurt writer. I will write TONS in a short time and then have to regroup for awhile. The BP meds have messed with my writing some, sadly

I write in psychological horror as a genre, but I've been published in fantasy, horror, self-help, mystery, romance, and middle-grade fiction.

What does that have to do with anything? Just because I hold an MFA doesn't mean I have any experience in this sort of thing. No, I've never done editorial work for a university, so yes, I have some questions about it, which Tawanda answered, rather than attacking me, which seems to be your favorite hobby at the moment.

ooooooohhhhhh....psychological horror. That sounds very cool. If it weren't for privacy I sure wish I could ask the names. Reading a book when you "know" the person who wrote it is especially cool.

I used cool twice in a post full of writers....now I am paranoid.

I don't know much about any of those, though I did read a little horror when I was younger. But I would suspect the requirements are a little different.

My favorite author, Anne Tyler, has said that she stopped writing altogether for 5 years following the births of her two children. She simply couldn't write with children in the house, and she didn't want to hand them off to a daycare. There's people at both ends of the spectrum here. You're at one, and Tyler is at the other, and I suspect I am somewhere in the middle. What works for one person won't necessarily work for another. My situation is complicated by the fact that my 2-year-old is essentially an only child, since she's the only child in the house, so I'm pretty much the only person she has to play with and she isn't at the stage where she plays well alone yet. It's getting better, but we're not quite there.

I gained editorial experience in my freshman year, for my Unis literary mag, on recommendation by my Prof.

You may have to face the fact that you're not cut for your chosen profession.

It kind of does suck that we have to remain anonymous. I love reading stories and books that my friends have written. In fact, I have a friend who has a book that is being released today in fact. I wonder if I can name that?

Yeah, you should be. Now you're a '[censored].

J/K.

Uh, okay. Well, my MFA was through a low-residency program. It was in Vermont and I was in CA. I travelled to Vermont once every six months for the residencies. They do have a lit-mag, but the interns had to be local enough to come into the office, so I didn't exactly qualify, since I was 3000 miles away.

Have you ever heard the old saying, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all?" You have not said one nice or positive thing to me on this entire thread. Is this how you generally talk to people? Because if it is, I'm sort of starting to figure out why your H stays away so much. (And yes, that was a low jab, but hey, a person can only take so much before they start fighting back.)

I used to be able to write anytime, anywhere, any mood. I literally blocked out the world. Now I have so many ideas and words in my head....but I can't always get them out. I have tremors sometimes that make my typing more trouble than it's worth, and I never realized how much my hypomania fueled my writing stamina. So I can sympathize with you writer. I feel like my writing is a causality of my treatment, and it makes me mad.

Sorry, that has nothing to do with the 11th need...unless my 11th need is the need to whine.

Hey, you started it, with your 11th EN of Ambition.

If you want an ambitious man who is never present, take mine! You don't seem to care about vows anyway, and boredom bores you, so maybe you'd like a guy who threatens to divorce you when you're unhappy with his doings?

It's exciting! Not boring!

I'll say something nice about you writer1:

I think its spiffy that you're a writer

I have a BA in English (Renaissance Literature primarily).

I found out the last semester of my 5 year plan (leol) that I really enjoyed copy editing. Didn't want to stick around for another 2 or 3 semesters to get a major in it, however.

Always wanted to write a book/novel/what have you.

Started a couple of times. Kept a dream journal for a bit for ideas.

So, I admire your dedication to "the craft" Kudos to you!

edit: and Kudos to all the other writers out here too. Looks like I'm not alone

CWMI You are in rare form today.

That was a low blow. More than that: it was despicable.

Really. Explain to me how starting a thread that had absolutely nothing to do with you was a personal attack against you? Because all of your attacks have been pretty darn personal, and I can't see anything in my original post that had anything to do with you at all.

This can be a legitimate need at times.

Thank you. That was very nice. And Renaissance Literature sounds like a fascinating major.

If you really want to write, I say go for it! What have you got to lose. Try reading "The Right to Write" by Julia Cameron.