Which does not necessarily mean that fact is an important one, but it is true nonetheless. Quite frankly, I never expected to find a 'grist mill' area here. Mainly because we never had one (back in the day). However, now that I've had a chance to hear my voice bounce off the millstone...I LIKE IT!

Who's idea was this, anyway? Bloody good idea.

Anyway, I guess I realized how much I missed hanging around here. Though the faces have changed somewhat (with a few exceptions), Hatrack seems to have remained the same: a good place to be.

My writing has been through some tough changes of late. I spent ten months on a project I cannot do anything with...just for the sake of finishing something I began. Some of you may remember how much trouble I had with that (back in the day). It seems I've finally gotten over that odd stumbling block (finished a 66k word short novel...which, again, I cannot publish). However...I did finish it. And what's more...I finally found my voice in the process of writing the damn thing.

So why am I posting all this rubbish here? No clue. Perhaps I just felt like sticking my head in the door and saying "Hey! What's up?" Perhaps it seemed a more polite way to slide back into the Hatrack family. Like a cousin who arrives late to the wedding, changes in the restroom, and surreptitiously sidles in amongst the guests throwing rice.

Yeah.

Inkwell
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"The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp."
-Anonymous

I'm glad you like the "Grist Mill."

The Hatrack River Writers Workshop forum has truly evolved over the years (and there have been quite a few of those years). It means a lot to me that it continues to be helpful to people.

Edited to add: I just checked, and I've been moderating the Hatrack River Writers Workshop forum since January 1997 -- coming up on twelve years. Wow!

Write on!

That being said, it's good to see you're still running the show. Not that I'm calling you a fixture or anything...more like a constant (though the word is a bit bland in this context).

Thanks for the "welcome back."

quote:

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Posted by tempest:
i look forward to reading something from you.

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I really appreciate that. However, I will probably comment and critique more often than I will post (if I post my own work at all). I've been getting a lot of practice at both writing and critiquing over the past few years, and want to give a little back to this community that helped me out so much as a beginning writer (which I still feel like 99% of the time).

Inkwell
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"The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp."
-Anonymous

Virtual cake is always perfect, no matter who "cooks" it, so thanks for that as well.

It started as little more than a writing exercise. Rehab, if you will (I was coming off of a six month dry spell, having burned myself out). At the time I was also playing with screenwriting, doing spec scripts and the like, so I decided to take the same tack with the exercise...playing in someone else's sandbox. This was great for my psyche at the time, since it meant there was no pressure to get it done.

However, I got so hooked on the plot and, especially, the characters that I decided to take it wherever it wanted to go. That trip didn't end until after I had 147 Word pages written and edited.

So, in a nutshell, it falls under the category of non-profit attribution. As I said, the fact that I can't do anything with it doesn't bother me. I gained three things from the project: found my 'voice,' actually completed something for a change, and proved to myself that I am more than capable of writing long works of fiction. That, plus a host of other positive experiences during the writing process, made the whole thing more than worth it.

You remove everything that makes it identifiable as being from that other, copyrighted, universe, change names, call weapons or places by some other designation, and so on.