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The Writers' Group introduction thread.

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I'm Hacker, as you may have discerned already.

I've been in Sheffield 14 years, it's been even longer than that since I last did any creative writing of any length, apart from a couple of children's stories.

Treasure Island appears to be an early candidate for the group's favourite book. I love it too, having last reread it only about four years ago. However my own personal favourite is Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabakov - a beautiful chess puzzle of a book.

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Grew up in a little village in the middle of nowhere in the Midlands, learnt to read before I went to school, and by the age of about 9 I'd read all the books in the village primary school, including Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth which probably helped to start me off on a life of crime. Well, crime, science fiction and fantasy largely to be more exact. By the time I was 9 or 10 I was taking about 20 SF/fantasy books out of the travelling library (which came round once a month); I'd always finished all of them by the time it came again. That's when I got into people like J.G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick and so on. Basically exhausted their supply too, then started buying books as well as reading them...

 

As for writing, I used to write things for the science fiction society at university, and I did once go to a creative writing class, but the only things I write now are scientific papers and reports. Hopefully I'll find time to get out of the past tense and passive voice for once.

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I'm Kiddick - don't need much of an intro really.

I read a book once - I think it was green.

 

I can do that - I thought. So watch this space :mrgreen:

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Hi y'all.

I'm the worn-out stressed-out forty-something mother of a pair of smart, funny, bleedin'-annoying teenagers.

 

I used to think I could write but years of working in the scientific world have stifled the creative juices a little, if it doesn't have an introduction, a method, results and conclusion, then it don't get writ!

 

So forgive me if it takes some time to actually submit anything.

I'll welcome constructive criticism but be gentle with me..... I don't want to be the writing groups' first hari kiri! :shakes:

 

:)

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Alreeet peeps.

I'm DaBouncer.... yes that's right THE DaBouncer.

I'm 20 (something :suspect: ) and I'm an alcoholic... no wait... wrong group.

 

*cough*

 

 

Erm (chest puffed out - deep voice) Hello Everyone, I am DaBouncer.

Well... erm... I like books... they make good door stops.

I have lots of books which I haven't read, they make me look intelligent on my bookshelf. Spot the Dog... a classic and very high level reading :D

 

Seriously I am interested in writing scripts. I'm an avid movie fan (buff some may say) and I would love to write a horror movie which actually promotes some level of terror in today's population rather than the usual hollywood big brown pants that's released today.

 

That's it really. :bigsmile:

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Introductions eh?...never really good at them, I'd rather just hide in the kitchen and nibble on the cheese and pineapple pieces on cocktail sticks (skewered into a cabbage wrapped in tinfoil, what ever happend to that?).

 

I mainly read genre fiction (Sci Fi, Horror and some fantasy), the bleaker the better in my book. I find it strange that I've read more children's fiction in my 30's than I ever did as a child (JKR & PP) but then again I was a freakish thing that just listened to Radio 4 all the time and grew up to be an older version of the the freakish thing. The first book I 'loved' was Lord of the Rings based in no small part on the Radio Four drams series.

 

I've often thought of developing my writing, as I've been told that I should write some of the rubbish that comes out of my mouth down (probably on the basis that I won't say it) and have had some entertaining writing sessions with friends, although these often descend into bouts of heavy red wine consumption and as a 'release' from the rather hum drum writing I tend to do as part of my job.

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Don't know what to say really as no doubt you will have seen my posts on other areas of the forum

 

I enjoy writing short stories, nothing fancy, mainly aimed at kids, I'm doing a series about lorries that can talk and their adventures at the moment!

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My nom-de-plume refers to the greatest,most prolific and underrated painter this country has ever produced - John Bratby - check him out please.

Consequently, you may gather that I'm interested in painting and the other Fine Arts, which is true.

I was trained as a multi-disciplinary artist and attended Psalter Lane and Bradford School of Art for my BA.

However, I have always had a penchant for film and theatre production ( I wanted to be a film director from a very early age and still do - sadly this will never happen, but I get vicarious pleasure when I see films made by my favourite directors:

Welles, Huston,Wilder, Mackendrick,Kurosawa,Jancso,Eisenstein to name a few.

Also, I was fortunate enough to be taken regularly to the theatre by my parents from a very early age,which again,imprinted itself and formed very favourable impressions on my putative imagination.

So I was ready: when the opportunity arose to obtain a scholarship to join the MA ‘Theatre and Film’ course at Sheffield University.

I gained so much from that course : practically and theoretically: that I became a peripatetic Scenic Artist, travelling the country from theatre to theatre. I don’t do that now because I have a family to worry about – but I still make a living painting the odd picture when I have time and helping the local ‘am dram’ people.

I’ve always written – keeping a notebook about me at all times. This helps my (very poor) short term memory to function and also helps me visualise the abstract into two dimensional images. Sometimes incorporating them into my pictures.

 

I’m not a bad writer for a visual artist. I hate all the jargon and gobbledegook one reads in art magazines and, unfortunately by artists themselves. Sometimes their prose is so high falutin’ and hyperbolic that it’s embarrassing – they try to justify the mediocre by using an overblown and incomprehensible style to raise it from the mundane. I’m well versed in artspeak but find it boring to write ( thesaurus in hand looking for big words to describe little things) and tedious to read.

 

I think I’ve outgrown all that pretentious cack and now attempt to simplify and focus the literate to the visual (oops, I’ve unwittingly sidestepped into artspeak ).

 

Thing of comic book prose – that’s what I want or Hemingway’s dialogue style or Pinter’s pauses.

Nice.

 

I’ve said enough – so unlike Vladimir and Estragon – I wont be waiting too long I hope

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We're on page 4 of this Thread already, and I have read every introduction posted on it.

 

I am fascinated by your depth of interest in writing and also your enthusiasm for works published by various authors which are already in the public domain.

 

It makes it so pleasing to be involved in this Group. Thank you to all of you. :)

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I always loved reading as a child and making up my own stories that my Mum would write for me. English was always my favourite lesson at School and I enjoyed all the novels we would study, I particularly fell in love with Wuthering Heights so I read Jane Eyre ( :love: ) and absolutely adored it.

 

A regular at Greenhill Library, I found I had read all the teenage books and was becoming quite bored with the predictable storylines and characters. My Mum owns a frankly weird amount of books so I picked up one of hers - Puffball by Fay Weldon. I was about 14 and it's still a favourite book of mine. I admire her work, mostly due to the extremely dark humour.

 

I started writing stories myself, though have never managed to complete a "big novel" which annoys me immensely - no self-discipline! I am, therefore, hoping that I may actually complete a *short* story. :rolleyes:

 

I tend to write more poetry these days and have had a fair degree of success with this, though mostly in magazines and competitions and Bereavement Newsletters etc.

 

I know I have at least 2 "big novels" in me, I just find it hard to be disciplined and not give up because I think my writing is, essentially, bloody terrible! :blush:

 

Another difficult factor is the fact that I am no longer "the writer" of the house as my (errrrm ... what shall we call him ...... ) other half? :huh: is a published writer with many articles and 3 biographies to his name. Rather than inspiring me, I think I just felt overwhelmed by his talent and gave it up.

 

I have also written a story for young children, though this has been turned down 3 times to date. :|

 

But here I am, daring to give this a go! :thumbsup:

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Don't know what to say really as no doubt you will have seen my posts on other areas of the forum

 

I enjoy writing short stories, nothing fancy, mainly aimed at kids, I'm doing a series about lorries that can talk and their adventures at the moment!

 

Just to add some more, both my parents are librarians and I have been brought up with books since I was knee high to the preverbial grasshopper. I've always enjoyed reading and writing dispite getting an awful GSCE english grade :(

 

I prefer factual book and autoboographys to fiction but I'm just starting to get into Harry Potter.

 

My most embarrarsing moment book related was when my dog, not our current one, chewed her way through 3 library books and I had to explain that to my mum :o

 

Looking forward to being an active member of this group, thanks again to shoeshine and JoeP for setting it up

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I've got writer's block already and I only wanted to post to say hi. It doesn't bode well! ...Deep breath, close eyes to that horridly blank little box in the middle of the screen and here goes.

 

It's been interesting to see from these intros that quite a few others have got into writing by way of lots of reading! My big brother and sister used to play schools with me when I was little so I could read by the time I was 3 and I haven't stopped since. The headmaster of my junior school asked me to dedicate my first book to him and I intend to - if ever I write it - though sadly he died a couple of years ago.

 

I don't seem to find time for writing any more but in the past I've written sketches, poems, children's short stories, and a layman's guide to conveyancing! Only this last was ever "published" and that was just internally to the law firm I worked for and its clients.

 

I'm still hunting for my "genre" and hope to get some tips from this forum. Looking forward to working with you!!

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