Working with a group from the World's End (neilgaimanboard.com) to self-publish an anthology, which has had me back here lurking for a couple months (really got the juices flowing again). I recognize a few of you from my earlier days here, but don't know many. Nice to see you all.

I'll be around intermittently.

I am 32 years old, married for 12 years with 3 kids. My family often sees me laying on the couch, one arm flung over my head. They know I'm not sleeping, I'm writing. The blank page does little for me but demand words, and words can't come before the story.

I'm Tim Hayes, 33 married and spend my days developing software for people who don't appreciate it, and no matter how simple you make it they fail to understand. So I've decided that after about 15 years of reading books I was ready to start writing my own.

I have almost the whole collection of the "Elements of Fiction Writing" which so far has been very helpfull in understanding what I somewhat already knew.

I just recently started writing seriously a few weeks ago. So far, its going ok.

One day I would like to see it printed and on a shelf, but with no deadlines and steady paycheck I am not in a hurry. I have discovered I enjoy writing, and want to improve my abilities to write stories also.

I enjoy all kinds of scifi and fantasy, and even delve into other areas from time to time.

I'm George, 30 years old, single. My favorite writers are Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Alfred Bester, H. Beam Piper, Alastair Reynolds, Nancy Kress, Mr. Card, and too many others to name.

I've been writing my entire life but only recently got to the point of finishing stuff. Hehe. As a lifelong lover of science fiction it amuses me no end that the first successful pieces I completed weren't science fiction or even fiction - they were essays that took personal events and drew political and economic observations from them.

It took me many years to discover the true secret of writing - discipline. I have set a goal of 1000 words a day, rain or shine, busy or slow. I've managed to keep it up pretty good - though sometimes it's 1000 words of pure dreck!

I write a lot of poetry. I find it therapeutic and fun.

Currently working on three short stories and doodling notes for a possible novel. Mainly, I'm having fun.

I have been coming to this site since I was a Junior in High School. Hence the 2000 registration date. I dont write nearly as much as I wish I did, and I don't frequent this site nearly as often as I wish I did. I don't do anything enough for myself, I suppose.

While not an active "writer", I try and create something everyday in my head, at the very least. Stories or characters, as long as I am coming up with something at all times, I am happy. I am also an art student and thus spend most of my creative time putting energy into more physical works. I dont practice anything enough, but I try to learn as much as I can about everything.

I have recently managed to put the failure behind me and have at last begun writing a different novel without the historical problems that plagued the first one. Whether it will get anywhere is uncertain, but my writer's block at least seems to have ended.

I will be a freshman this year at MIT. I've been reading all my life (okay, not ALL my life), and done some writing too, but I would sure like to get a lot more serious about it.

Favorite authors include: Heinlein, Norton, Asimov, Larry Niven, John Steakley and Clifford Simak.

I don't only read science fiction and I love classics, though I haven't read many (you want a really great book with science fiction, fantasy and horror mixed all into one?--read Dracula. The original one, by Bram Stoker).

So far this has sort of worked for me, as I have found a job that I enjoy (currently not there, more of a contractor basis) and I have gotten through half of college, into a different school, and into that schools art program. I hope to keep this trend going and eventually land my dream job (game designer), and I dont plan on stopping until I am there.

So yeah, umm...that really lost the topic. I guess it shows you who I am though.

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if you want something (in this case, to be a respected author) then just go get it, and dont stop till you have it. Keep a day job to stay alive

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That was my point. You have to keep your day job until…. There are many authors who are successful, insofar as they’ve published and are making some money, but not enough to live on, at least not yet. But -- there are those shooting stars who hit the fast track with their first submission.

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but I say, and get it {your day job} in something as close to what you love as possible.

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Actually, that might not be wise. Working in a writing-related job, especially at a computer, can be a death knell for your own writing. After spending eight hours or more at a computer at work, many people don’t want to sit back down afterward. You might be better off in something wholly unrelated, even physical, so you can approach your own writing ready to go.

Here’s some hard advice from Frederick Levy in Hollywood 101: “Make writing your full-time job….When you’re starting out, get a second job to pay your bills…..It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as it’s second to writing. It has to be secondary because writing is your full-time job.

Still, I submit there are those who write for fun, for stress release, for creative outlet, or whatever else besides making a living at it. They are those “other members” you mentioned who, I dare say, make up the great majority of writers. They just love to write. No, it’s not wrong to try and live a dream, but some dreams don’t entail a financially supportive writing career.

I say, don’t let anyone else define success for you.

Favorite authors: Card, Asimov, Diane Duane, recently J.K. Rowling.

I write science fiction, believe it or not. Well, I'm starting to. I've always had a talent for stringing phrases together and for getting the ideas in my head into someone else's (which is why I want a PhD: to teach), so I thought I'd try my hand at writing fiction.

I own my own business, I work a personal assistant for published writers (in the romance genre) handling their websites, PR, extra research, etc - which has given me the opportunity to learn so much about the writing industry (although a lot is romance specific). This is what pays to keep me home during the day so I have time to do everything I want.

I also write book reviews for five different publications - this is what pays for my book addiction. I run through four or five books a week, unless I have a paper due.

I write romances straight romance, not even paranormal or futuristic/time travel romance. Preferably historical romance (anglophile).

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My alias, +Garou+ (they wouldn't let me insert the plusses) is actually a Japanese word, meaning "hungry wolf". I am a wolf in spirit, and I feel this name fits me to a 't'. (I don't know how it's pronounced, but I like to say Guh-roo.)

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(I am obsessive about my planner, though - it's like backlash.) :> But, I've noticed that EVERY parent I've ever met is just like me.... trying to do that balance between family, significant other, work, play & personal dreams.

Anyway, I have recently picked up that old manuscript and revived it. I have an outline, charcter profiles, and I am now starting on Chapter 5. I joined a local writers group, and I'm having a lot of fun.

If I can juggle the book with my families activities, I think I can actually get this thing done!

My favorite authors are Card, Chalker, Asimov, and Rowling(can't wait for book 6!)

Thanks for having me.

I'm a 30 year old aspiring writer/artist living in Tokyo, Japan. I have a husband and a terrier mix. I don't read or write as much as I should, but I am trying. I recently left my corporate job to pursue writing and art on a full-time basis.

I credit my huge love of and interest in reading and hopefully writing sf/f to: being read to from Alice in Wonderland, Narnia, etc., reading "You Will Go to the Moon" and deciding to become an astronaut (ah, the dreams of youth), my father teasing me into watching Japanese live action superheros (Kikaida, Kamen Rider V-3, Rainbow Man) which I then couldn't stop watching, "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" comics, "The Littlest Dragonboy", discovering Tolkien, Norton's juvenile "Magic" series, Le Guin's "The Wizard of Earthsea", and Anne McCaffrey's Pern books when I was young, and an ability to sink into a story such that my family would have to yell "Earth to Lee, come in Lee!" to get my attention.

I did not grow up enjoying writing - it was for school. I remember trying to write journals and never keeping them up. I wrote a song about Mr. Letterman (from The Electric Company!) which I can still sing. I actually have a better record of helping others with their writing than doing my own. However, I decided to try writing for fun, hoping it would be a different experience. I like the exercises from my writing magazines, and started journaling story ideas, researching, and even writing. I have borrowed and purchased books on writing, and surprised myself by how much I am enjoying them.

My favorites authors would have to include Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, Heinlein (even when he is being too "Heinlein" to the point of AUGH!), Lackey, Anthony, OSC (my husband intro'd me to the Alvin Maker and Ender books - wow!), um, ok, hard to list them all. I certainly joined the Rowling fans. I am currently reading Gibson's "Neuromancer", and the newest Wheel of Time by Jordan, bought a while back and autographed, is by my bed, along with OSC's "First Meetings." There is so much still to read! Oh yes, I also read Octavia Butler's short stories, from an OSC recommendation - they were thought-provoking.

It is not what is exotic about Hawaii that I miss - it is the everyday. I never realized what I was giving up when I moved... and I cry when I return and leave. Ever heard the song "Honolulu City Lights? I love flying there or back at night - the lights in the valleys look like lava flowing from the Koolaus (mountains) to the ocean. The Koolaus are almost always topped with clouds floating in from the windward side of the island, which is much wetter. In the early morning there is always a light shower from those clouds which wakes you gently as it hits the leaves of the trees, along with singing birds - we always had our windows open, unless it stormed. No AC, or heat vents (my husband noticed that his first trip out). The tradewinds keep the potential humidity away - cool breezes help maintain moderate temperatures.

I miss the scent of plumerias, the fragrance of pikake. I miss the ease of buying leis for any occasion, a palette of blooms so rich you cry for the colors. I believe the truest blues can be found in the Pacific - the clearest aquas to turquoise to royal to navy. The air is so clear everything you look at is in crisp definition - leaves, buildings, people. You have a "view" almost anywhere you go. While Waikiki is built up, it takes little effort to see beyond it, especially from up on Tantalus.

The food is incredible - a diversity of delights from steamed pork manapua buns, sweet malasadas heavily dredged in sugar(portugese donuts) - especially the ones you get for a quarter at the Punahou Carnival, salty kalua pig fresh from an imu, ahi sashimi just off the boat, plate lunches that will feed you and your sweetheart for $5.00 (always with two scoops of rice and mac salad), apple bananas that will ruin you for any other banana, mangos that hang heavy on their trees, deep red and orange and sweet, so numerous you can't give them away. You spend the season picking, peeling, jarring, baking, freezing, using every mango recipe your mother has created over the years.

The culture is rich and varied from years of immigration. Visit Shirokiya's, the japanese department store, for lunch bentos, the latest electronics, or Hello Kitty toys (we had them first!). Close your ears quickly against the thousands and thousands of firecrackers your chinese neighbors set off for New Years (theirs and ours). The air becomes so dense you can't see. The smell is exciting. The streets and lawns are buried in a avalanche of red paper. Study Hawaiian hula, learning the seductive swaying of hips, the story-telling movements of hands and body to beautiful chants that were once forbidden by missionaries and had to be practiced in secret. I remember the brush of my muumuu against the top of my bare feet as I danced to Liliu E', a song about Queen Liliokalani, Hawaii's last queen before her overthrow and the subsequent annexation by the U.S.

I already gave a bio before... here is a copy.

My Bio: I am 32 and graduated with a Politics degree. Now I work for a German bank in Tokyo. I used to write a lot of poetry but dropped the habit in my late teens. I still write but; while my output is boring, the actual topics could be great story material. My last effort was a 60 page disaster response manual for my firm covering natural and man-made disasters like volcanoes or chemical contamination.
I want to try creative writing and get away from the manual-speak of duck, cover and kiss your backside goodbye. Anybody have some good sources for short story idea and character development? Guidelines for story structure would also probably be useful as I know nothing about how to start a story.

I am looking to write an eccentric story. I am an eccentric girl........

I know I am not supposed to care, but I actually have 150 words down in one's and zero's on my harddrive. I even have ideas for other stuff to say in my story.

*Previous presence on the boards, ensuing disappearance, magical new reappearance.
*Love of writing, disenchantment with my physical locale, many unfinished works.
*Three adopted children (all boys). I recognize this only appears to work for one other person, but it makes ME feel good to know there are two of us.

Other bits:

*I love the English language even more than I love story creation. I'm not sure what that means.
*I have OCD, managed mostly, and message boards are dangerous to the orderly progression of my family life.
*I have a driving agenda and am in the market for allies. I will someday become a major force for change in the publishing world. Those authors with the desire and ability to direct the fate of their works should have the market in which to do so with some expectation of compensation and without the unmerited "second-rate" stigma (unless of course, it's merited.)
*Mr. Card jumped to the top of my favorite writers list just today when I read his review on "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Incidentally, I am 25 years old, female, married to a software/web programmer who endearingly supports my inability to do anything for any length of time, and my mother says I am too smart for my own good which I doubt has anything to do with my intelligence quotient and is really code for "let it go and get on with it." Right now most of my time is spent in homeschooling my children.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience in writing hyperfiction, even if it was just for fun.

Proof of my obsessions: it took me an hour and fifteen to write this post. It is my third, and by the graceofGod, last. Today.

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Ever heard the song "Honolulu City Lights? I love flying there or back at night

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You may assume I'm a Hawaiiphile. Visited twice and fell in love with monkeypod trees and stark lava fields. Particularly love Waikiki, tourists and all. The Maui Writer's Conference is on my list of things to do.

See, first I was avoiding reading because I didn't want to copy others. Then, I realized I had read so little I was unqualified to have an opinion to write about. But since reading Dune and seeing how much in common Card's Homecoming serries had with it, I've decided to loosen up about the whole influence/originality issue.

I'm 28, father of one. I'm an advertising copywriter in Montgomery, Alabama (I know, I know. Bring on the Roy Moore jokes).

Truth be told, I'm more a poet than a prose writer...but I'm not going to let that stop me. I'm a voracious and omnivorous reader. Even on days when I forget my wallet, I always have a book and my journal on hand.

However, I derive too much pleasure from the process of writing. It's hard to get motivated to revise and I procratinate when it comes to polishing my work to submit.

That's the biggest obstacle I hope to overcome here.

I engage in drawing, inking, coloring, painting, computer imaging, computer design, website design, HTML, clay sculpture, woodwork, leatherwork, beadwork, knitting, houseplant-tending, bonsai, roleplaying, kid's crafting, poetry, and other, even more bizarre forms of creative pursuits; but I only feel like I'm accomplishing something truly worthwhile when I'm working on a novel.

I have to do something creative every day, preferably for several hours, or I begin to experience symptoms of creative withdrawal-- others might characterize this as "depression".

Beyond creativity, my passions are my husband and three sons (ages 5, 3 1/2, and almost 2), philosophy, languages, reading, nature, and animals of all kinds. My latest obsession in the animal world has been carpet sharks (that's ferrets, to the unenlightened); I've been devouring information about them and hope to scrape together enough money to adopt one soon.

I grew up with a variety of dogs, cats, birds, rabbits (curse them!), chickens, guinea pigs, rats, mice, fish, lizards, snakes, salamanders, frogs and toads. One of my favorite pets growing up was an Axolotl, which is a neotenic salamander native to Mexico that grows to around a foot long. I fed him goldfish by hand. I currently have no animals at all, and am suffering withdrawals from that, too.

The other major addiction I suffer from is the forest. I grew up in Northern California, within a 40 minute drive of a variety of forests. Four years ago, I found myself living smack in the middle of dry, dusty Texas. Then two months ago, I moved to Northern Arkansas, and am now living in a small town carved into a forested hillside; the withdrawal symptoms from lack of forest are finally beginning to fade.

I always hated English classes in school. Hated them with a passion. Aside from a bit of vocabulary, I was never taught anything I hadn't already learned from reading. By the time I was in Junior High, I'd learned the rules well enough to break them artistically, and either my English teachers hated me for doing it and getting away with it (this usually involved proving I knew the rules and showing them an example of how a published author had broken the same rule successfully), or I hated them for being blind to my artistry and telling me I did it wrong. Of course, there were a few exceptional teachers who seemed to see eye-to-eye with me. That generally lasted until they photocopied something I wrote and made the whole class read it. One, in high school, made /all/ her classes read it. Augh! I would have been extatic if all the other kids hadn't hated me because of it.

The results of this, of course, are that I've learned everything (I think) I need to know about writing from other writers, either through their fiction or through books on writing. And I don't see anything wrong with that.

I dictated my first truly good story in first grade, to my mother, and she typed it out for me. It dealt with a guy shrinking into nonexistence because he lied too much.

The closest I've come to being published by far was completely by accident, and happened on this forum some months ago. There was a thread going on how to do rewrites, and I, fresh from a war with an overgrown rose bush that I had managed to win, decided that the pruning of said rose bush made a good analogy for rewrites. So, I submitted my thoughts on it. A month or two later (of course she asked first), it appeared in the writers' periodical Kathleen edits. ...that was fun. Unexpected, but fun.

Shortly after that, I took a long break from this forum and from trying to write in general. Had a big bout with burnout. Now I'm back, and raring to go, so I hope y'all don't mind me talking your ears off, as I'm rather opinionated. I'm working on a novel; I can't really say it's a different one than the one I was working on before, as it grew out of the same idea-- however, it's now gone through two more drastic evolutions and doesn't resemble the previous version at all. I'm hoping to stick around and maybe bolster my self-confidence enough to finish this one...

Shasta

P.S. Oh, and I'm 24.

*gasp* No! Get out! Get out while you still can!

I too once had one of those "other jobs." Mine happened to be Hotel Management-- a vile, soul-sucking cesspool of a career as deeply intenched in the evils of corporate America as anything out there.

I urge you whole-heartedly to join the ranks of us who found a way to write for a living. If you know where to look, you can find one that offers Salary AND Benefits.