A Little About Me · 6:00am Mar 1st, 2019
If any of you want to learn what true introspection is like, sit on public transit for an hour and a half with no access to the internet and start contemplating the meaning to your existence and where you are in life. It also helps to have just have written a story where such a concept is explored and based in a large portion on your own experiences and insecurities. Also, Lovecraft, Lovecraft helps this too. In short, I got to reflecting on why I do what I do and where I see myself in this fandom. And before you jump down my throat about this being another "member leaving the community" post, no, I know I'm one of the cynical and grim-dark people on this site but I'm going to be around for the foreseeable future. I'm just referring to why I'm reading, reviewing, writing, editing, plotting the end to happiness, and contemplating what ideas would make interesting story ideas. So, for your enjoyment, I present, ME.
So in order;
Reading:
Well, in short, I like to read. One of the first memories I have is from when I was in first grade and as the teacher was going over a lesson, I just flat out stood up and began to walk over to the bookshelves in the class so I could read because I was bored with the lesson and I was not motivated to continue learning at the time. Fortunately, my dad was there at the time and kindly told me I was being a little shit and I couldn't read them and I needed to go back to learning. There was also a contest in the class to see how many books we could read that year. I was either tied or just behind another student for the most books read.
Reviewing:
You know what's the best part of pouring your heart and soul into something and putting it out there for all to enjoy and hoping to learn how you can do it better the next time? That's right, when the number of people that tell you what you did right and/or wrong can be counted on the digits of a quadruple amputee. I hate that just about the only input I have had on my stories in the last six months has come from the people I wrote the stories for and my editors. So when I learned a friend of mine I edited for had a group dedicated to reviewing and that he was just about one of the only people reviewing stories on the site I jumped at the opportunity to review stories. Why you may ask? For one simple reason, "Be the change you wish to see in the world". There is no use bitching about there no longer really being any reviewers left on the site, might as well help review stories and hopefully encourage others to follow. At least that way you can bitch and not sound like a useless twat.
Writing:
I exist in this weird limbo where I'm very much a creative type but I lack the skills to draw, work in photoshop, 3D model, and basically do well at any other form of art. I am, however, one of the most arrogant SOB's you will ever come across. When I was in middle school I went to a book fair and while I was looking through a book a thought came to me; I can write this good. It wasn't true, and I have no clue where this thought came from, but the idea got into my head. I had received a "writer of the month award" in grade 5 and I had always loved to tell stories so I think it was just me being a little too arrogant and looking for an outlet for my creativity. In grade 9 I thought I was hot shit when I was placed into an advanced English class and one of our first assignments was to do a creative story. I was so proud when I turned in that story thinking I would be getting at least a B+ on it, I got a D-. That one assignment got me motivated to do better at writing. That teacher, Mr. Olson, was the reason I became motivated to get into creative writing. By flat out telling me my writing was crap, he motivated me to get into writing. I respond well to negative criticism and I have a tendency to go out of my way to do things out of spite. The first book I'm working on is a modified version of the fist for fun creative story I started to write after Mr. Olson motivated me to get better. Since then I have been practicing on this site and in a pseudo-journal (one of the biggest ironies is I am taking an intro to creative writing class now and I have learned more from reading and self-teaching myself than I have in this class. At least it gives me credits for my degree.)
Editing:
I was knocking around, I think it was writing process, and I was pissed as hell because I had tried to get in contact with 5 editors to get some help with my stories. I wasn't rejected by any of them, they just never replied. "That might not be so bad, maybe they were busy and couldn't reply very soon", you might think. And you would be right, if I didn't wait a week for each of them and I still haven't gotten a response from any of them (this was two months ago). I was looking through a thread on a group and came across two stories in need of an editor. I hadn't received any negative feedback on my writing on the last two chapters of my first story despite it not being edited so I thought, "Fuck it. I'm good enough at writing to help some people". The first story didn't interest me, but the second. The second was written by a person with a German user name, their user name had drache like mine, their story was about a less than moral dragon, it was going to be mature, and their post was written in a way that I could tell I had a better grasp on English than they did. After I edited their story and we became friends and the story received massive acclaim, I decided to offer my services to everyone that wanted it.
Plotting The End To Happiness:
I have always been a strange kid. I would only ever check out Halloween stories or horror stories from the public library when I lived walking distance from the library. I have always preferred villains to heroes and I've always had a tendency to imagine the worst possible outcomes for myself and have been afraid of just about everything for as long as I can remember. In other words, I was a miniature Lovecraft, still am ( I even had a cat at one point. It was a she though and not named Mr. Niggerman). I LOVE darkness and tragedy, I actively advocate for people to darken their stories to make them grittier and more unhappy. I firmly believe this makes stories better, even if it is small, any amount of darkness just make a story feel more real and makes the characters more empathetic.
Contemplating What Ideas Would Make Interesting Story Ideas:
In short, I have a binder of at least 20 story ideas that I will either get around to later or not at all. I come up with dozens of ideas per month with only about 3-4 getting any serious consideration for making a story about them.
So that's me in a nutshell. If you have any questions, I'm very much an open book.
Wow. So much of that seems like me. Reading that at one point I felt like I was reading my own future memo with some slight alters.
You meant one should imagine to send to hell for 1,5 hours?
Writing is art too!
Thank you Mr.Olsen! Also for your actor role in 'our litte farm'
An english hamster with a pen could write better english than that person, though his luck you showed up and make his story a success!
An interesting read, though you could have worked a bit more on the cover
5021580
Who said I was good at writing? I just suck less at it?
I know I'm not the most attractive guy out there, there's no need to remind me.
5021573
Hopefully I can help teach you the shit you should avoid doing and help you stear clear of the mistakes I've made.
5021647
Your a still a little cutie
5021648
Thanks but that doesn't mean I'll avoid them altogether, I'd like to hear what you have to say but I prefer to experience problems myself and learn through my own way. That doesn't mean your information isn't valuable.
5021827
If you ever want, I could review your story when you finally write it.
5022126
I would like that.