Post by jazzsue on Aug 8, 2008 19:39:40 GMT -5
I added this site to my 'favourites' some time ago, but this is my first post. I'm in Surrey, England, a divorcee with 4 kids aged 9 - 19 and three rabbits of indeterminate age and breed. I've just So-Not-Celebrated my 50th birthday so I'm quite a bit older than some of you guys. Not too old to be a 'newbie' to writing though (at least, so others can see it - I've been writing for years, in secret!)
Actually, that's not quite true, as I used to work in a pharm. lab (till they closed the plant down and made me redundant) and my work involved writing and presenting reports - boring. A spell as a very uncreative fitness instructor being abandoned due to ill health some five years ago, I'm now at a crossroads in my life: surviving on incapacity benefits, waiting for an important operation and weighing up my future career options. Buying this computer was supposedly a way of dealing with this latter problem.
So far, my new 'puter hasn't brought me any work, but it's certainly been a lifeline to the outside world. Horley isn't exactly the 'back of beyond' but it's a desert when it comes to outlets for creativity. I've a fair few interests so, as you can imagine, I subscribe to a lot of other forums. This includes one run by the author Jasper Fforde (which I can heartily recommend even if you've never read his books) but this is the first writers' forum I've subscribed to.
Since I was 10 I've had an interest in writing but it waned during my working career - I guess publishing papers on R-groups and sub-structures kind of killed the creativity! I used my redundancy payment to train as a fitness instructor - rash move. I quickly realised I hated the bitchy competitiveness of working in a series of top health clubs (the only way you can earn a decent living) Also, there was no creativity involved; the 'TM' style classes meant you simply followed the routines laid down by other people. I also wasn't prepared for the negative effects the job would have on my own health - both mental and physical. This, plus the loss of my home via an ailing marriage, was the cue for a massive breakdown, long-term unemployment and ... an unexpected reinstatement of my creative writing interest. I bought a second hand PC and started on a novel I'd had in my head for some time. The fact it was unlikely to be published any time soon prompted me into signing up for the Writers Guild creative writing course, in the hope it would lead to a writing career as promised on the adverts. Unfortunately, I've never got further than Module 1 - familiar story, anyone?
Whatever, once my life had settled down a bit (via the correct antidepressant, otherwise known as HRT, I guess) my creativity - and need to write - wore off, darn it. Since then I've tried over and over to get going again but a curious 'something' has always blocked the flow. I was even told by a careers advisor (who read some of my work) that writing was the best route to a much better life for me and my kids; hence, the 20 unused course books and half-finished novel burning a hole in my conscience! I'm hoping the adage 'only manic depressives make successful writers' doesn't ring true in my case or I'm a lost cause - I realised the true cause of my ill health wasn't my past career or the perimenopause but my husband, and dumped him. It certainly cured the 'blues' but not my creative blockage! I'm still scrabbling to get a hold on that ladder which I first started climbing 40 years ago. I'm hoping this site is a way to do that; even if the financial rewards are zero, at least I'll be with people I can identify and become friends with - a first in my career history!
Age, thank God, is no barrier to our line of, erm, work. However, anyone embarking on a hopeful paid career as a freelancer will know the familiar Catch 22 we 'newbies' face, i.e. that of providing two examples of previously published work to our prospective first employer. To this end, I've subscribed to an ezine article writing site - you don't get paid, but they do publish your short articles on their site and add them to their directory (so you've a chance of getting your work 'googled' by prospective ezine clients, as well as having examples of proven editorial work to show them) I got to the article page quickly enough, but when writer's block caused me to try logging on to the forum for a chat, it wouldn't let me in! By then, I was chomping at the bit, desperate to 'talk' to other writers. I accessed my favourites list, found this long forgotten site in my 'things to do' folder aaannnnd ... here I am.
Sorry for the long post but this is a writers site (as the 56000-odd remaining characters proves), so howdy folks!
Enough for this post. I wrote a prologue for my novel which I am now not going to use. Instead, I'm tinkering with it to create a short 'stand alone' story that I can send up to Writers Forum magazine (UK) This prologue, in its original form, will be my first submission to this site - I look forward to sharing it with you, as well as reading your own creations!
Actually, that's not quite true, as I used to work in a pharm. lab (till they closed the plant down and made me redundant) and my work involved writing and presenting reports - boring. A spell as a very uncreative fitness instructor being abandoned due to ill health some five years ago, I'm now at a crossroads in my life: surviving on incapacity benefits, waiting for an important operation and weighing up my future career options. Buying this computer was supposedly a way of dealing with this latter problem.
So far, my new 'puter hasn't brought me any work, but it's certainly been a lifeline to the outside world. Horley isn't exactly the 'back of beyond' but it's a desert when it comes to outlets for creativity. I've a fair few interests so, as you can imagine, I subscribe to a lot of other forums. This includes one run by the author Jasper Fforde (which I can heartily recommend even if you've never read his books) but this is the first writers' forum I've subscribed to.
Since I was 10 I've had an interest in writing but it waned during my working career - I guess publishing papers on R-groups and sub-structures kind of killed the creativity! I used my redundancy payment to train as a fitness instructor - rash move. I quickly realised I hated the bitchy competitiveness of working in a series of top health clubs (the only way you can earn a decent living) Also, there was no creativity involved; the 'TM' style classes meant you simply followed the routines laid down by other people. I also wasn't prepared for the negative effects the job would have on my own health - both mental and physical. This, plus the loss of my home via an ailing marriage, was the cue for a massive breakdown, long-term unemployment and ... an unexpected reinstatement of my creative writing interest. I bought a second hand PC and started on a novel I'd had in my head for some time. The fact it was unlikely to be published any time soon prompted me into signing up for the Writers Guild creative writing course, in the hope it would lead to a writing career as promised on the adverts. Unfortunately, I've never got further than Module 1 - familiar story, anyone?
Whatever, once my life had settled down a bit (via the correct antidepressant, otherwise known as HRT, I guess) my creativity - and need to write - wore off, darn it. Since then I've tried over and over to get going again but a curious 'something' has always blocked the flow. I was even told by a careers advisor (who read some of my work) that writing was the best route to a much better life for me and my kids; hence, the 20 unused course books and half-finished novel burning a hole in my conscience! I'm hoping the adage 'only manic depressives make successful writers' doesn't ring true in my case or I'm a lost cause - I realised the true cause of my ill health wasn't my past career or the perimenopause but my husband, and dumped him. It certainly cured the 'blues' but not my creative blockage! I'm still scrabbling to get a hold on that ladder which I first started climbing 40 years ago. I'm hoping this site is a way to do that; even if the financial rewards are zero, at least I'll be with people I can identify and become friends with - a first in my career history!
Age, thank God, is no barrier to our line of, erm, work. However, anyone embarking on a hopeful paid career as a freelancer will know the familiar Catch 22 we 'newbies' face, i.e. that of providing two examples of previously published work to our prospective first employer. To this end, I've subscribed to an ezine article writing site - you don't get paid, but they do publish your short articles on their site and add them to their directory (so you've a chance of getting your work 'googled' by prospective ezine clients, as well as having examples of proven editorial work to show them) I got to the article page quickly enough, but when writer's block caused me to try logging on to the forum for a chat, it wouldn't let me in! By then, I was chomping at the bit, desperate to 'talk' to other writers. I accessed my favourites list, found this long forgotten site in my 'things to do' folder aaannnnd ... here I am.
Sorry for the long post but this is a writers site (as the 56000-odd remaining characters proves), so howdy folks!
Enough for this post. I wrote a prologue for my novel which I am now not going to use. Instead, I'm tinkering with it to create a short 'stand alone' story that I can send up to Writers Forum magazine (UK) This prologue, in its original form, will be my first submission to this site - I look forward to sharing it with you, as well as reading your own creations!