posted
Hi! I'm a long time reader/lurker who figured it was time to go ahead and take the plunge.
I'm Cat. I've been writing creatively since before I even could write -- my mother used to write down my stories for me and despite the fact that this was 35+ years ago I still have a couple of those "books." For me it's something I can't NOT do...
...but I've always thought that only special people could be writers. Until a few years back when I took the plunge into fan fiction and realized that the old saying about 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration is true. And that apparently, I've got enough talent to be worth developing.
I've tried NaNoWriMo a couple times without success -- as a point of pride it has always been original work -- and in examining my fan fiction work I think it's because I tend to gravitate toward short stories instead of longer work. Most of my stuff is straight science fiction with a heavy emphasis on earth science and biology. But I'm female, and I write like a girl, which means it's softer than "traditional" hard SF.
I'll probably still be quiet for a long while and reply to others first, before posting anything of my own. I'm no longer lurking though!
Posts: 10 | Registered: Feb 2013
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Hmm. I think you might have gotten some faulty feedback if you think you "write like a girl". As your craft progresses, you will write like yourself and nobody else. Did C.L. Moore "write like a girl"? I think she wrote with more emotional resonance than other 30s pulp writers, but was because she was a better writer, not because she was a woman.
"Catherine Collingwood" would be a great name for a gothic story author. It sound almost vampiric.
Posts: 964 | Registered: Dec 2010
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Thanks. And yes, that's my real name. There even used to be more than one of us right here in the ATL until the other one got married.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Feb 2013
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When you say "the ATL", are you referring to Atlanta, Georgia? Because I'm from Georgia, maybe 2 or 3 hours away from Atlanta. Anyway, welcome to the treehouse. I think I write like a girl, too, but not just a girl - a really timid, mousy girl. That's me. :)
Posts: 206 | Registered: Jun 2012
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As you may know already this is a good place to learn to write, with friendly people.
If you write like a girl like many female tennis players play like a girl you have it made. And you have a very nice name, by just right for a writer's name.
But as you explore the treehouse do be careful there you never know who lurks around; like a female unicorn who can be not nice at all.
Posts: 4245 | Registered: Jun 2010
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Mayflower: yes, I meant Atlanta, Georgia, although I actually live in one of the suburbs. But "home" is North Carolina...I grew up east of I-95 but lived in Raleigh long enough that it became My Place.
Thanks so much for all the warm welcomes! I'm poking around here and there.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Feb 2013
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Which means, you realize, that I can probably guess where. I'm in Raleigh a few times a year myself and that is a beautiful campus.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Feb 2013
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Only special people can be writers. Special in the sense seeking meaning from our lives that don't play out as neatly as we plan and prefer. Special in the sense we remember where and when the writing bug infected us, maybe who too. Special in the sense we are driven to express ourselves with written word.
East North Carolina, eh? Been Down East my own self a mite. Been about mommicked by Bucanneer State or Freebooter U writing program master's school learning as well. First thing they do to writers—the floggings continue until morale improves.
Posts: 2252 | Registered: Jun 2008
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