Hello. It seems strange to assume an identity, but for the purposes of this forum I have chosen to operate under the name No Heart (like the villain from the Care Bears). It also seems strange to be introducing myself and writing in the first person. However, these feelings are likely just a product of my recent frame of mind. You see, I have decided to participate in this community as a means of communicating with others who are interested in writing, as well as a source of motivation to practice writing more often. This past six months or so have been very difficult for me. I have moved out on my own for the first time in my life, to an entirely new city for school, and as a result, I have found myself spending most of my days in my bleak, bachelor apartment alone, not speaking a single word out loud. You see, I have a tendency to shut myself out from the rest of the world. I've become a recluse, to a degree. I still see people and have conversations when I am fulfilling my daily obligations and when I visit my family back home, however the time I spend alone is significantly greater in proportion to the time I spend with others. So, I find myself with all of these thoughts floating around in my head. I have been writing occasionally for the past couple years, but I want to get into doing it more often. I used to write a lot of poetry when I was in elementary school. I've also written a lot of lyrics, having been the vocalist of a powerviolence band during my University career. Lately, I've been focusing on short stories. My writing tends to be inspired by the authors that I am reading at the time. In the past few years, I have read a lot of Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Samuel Beckett, which, for better or worse, has come through in my writing quite a bit. My absolute favourite author, at least at this time, is Hunter S. Thompson. I enjoy his writing so much that I got a tattoo (much to the dismay of my family and partner) of a coyote skull illustrated by Ralph Steadman above my right knee cap. I am excited to engage with this community and share my writing. I feel like my thoughts are not necessarily my property - they are not inherently something that I have a claim to. I feel as though ideas of ownership and property are human constructions that are attached to things in the external world (and, perhaps in the internal mind as well). I feel as though everything in the universe is interconnected; that everything composes some sort of unified whole. With this in mind, I feel as though my thoughts, ideas, and understandings are a part of this "universal collectivity", and I feel like writing is a wonderful way to preserve and share these parts of collective universe. At this time, I like to think of my writing as free in a sense (however this might be subject to change if my worldview changes). I guess you could call me a hippy (which is strange, as a year or two ago I identified as a punk, but that's just a manner of semantics and whatnot; in my opinion, identity categories, like many other things, are simply social constructs that are made and applied by human beings, with no "real" inherent meaning or significance). However, I would like to assert here that these views apply only to my own writing, and I understand the will and views of others and will always respect copyright and all of the rules of the forum and beyond. Further, you might have noticed that I typically use the British spelling of words. I hope that is not an issue; it is simply a feature of my geographic location and the conventions used here. Sorry for the long post. I think I have mentioned everything I should mention here. I feel very self-indulgent writing this post, but it has been a fun exercise. So, hello again! I look forward to discussing writing with you, sharing my writing, and reading the work of others.
Hello and welcome! We have a number of short story writers here, and I'm sure you'll feel right at home. I think you're enjoying posting that pic.
