Hi all! My name is Charlotte, originally from Belgium but recently moved to the US. I've been writing for fun all of my life, but in the last couple of years I've been doubling down on literary theory, technique, critique and workshops. I used to be a flaky creativity-above-all pantser, but these days I love the technical and theoretical side of writing almost as much as the creative one. Learning about the technicalities of writing is a hobby all on its own these days. Writing is a lonely and isolating pastime, even if you haven't just moved to another continent with another language. It sucks being passionate about something and never ever getting to engage with other people about it. So hopefully I can meet some passionate people and learn something new here. Hope to see you all around on the forums proper!
Charlotte, welcome! I can feel this sentiment personally. I moved to Puerto Rico about 10 years ago from the U.S. I'm originally from here, but I lived my whole life in the U.S. Moving here was a linguistic and cultural change for me as well. And Latino culture is not one that embraces Science Fiction and Fantasy the way anglophone cultures do. The forum here is pretty much my main contact with other writers interested in writing the genres I like. You'll have gotten a PM from me upon joining. Answers to most of the more frequently asked questions concerning our location can be found there. Enjoy the forum! Wrey
Welcome to the forum, Charlotte! (One of my characters is named Charlotte) Writing is certainly a lonely experience, yup, get that feel a lot. I'm very guilty of spending more time with my created characters than any real world ones, which, combined with years of depression, has made my social life rather...barren. Still, Welcome! Enjoy your time on the forum.
Welcome Home, to this forum and the US. I found delving into this side gave me much more confidence and really opened up storytelling.
You can be Clementine Danger if you want. You would be related to "Nick Danger, Third Eye," the hard-boiled detective in the classic Firesign Theater film noir parodies. Welcome to the loony bin. It appears that you'll have no problem with the language, since your English is as fluent as they come.
Thanks everyone, I'm feeling positive about this place already. Glad there's other people here who get that weird feeling of wanting to be social about a solitary hobby. It's a weird line to walk. I moved to the US for unrelated reasons, but I am relieved to be in a language zone that loves "genre" fiction the way I do. I've heard it said that magical realism is really big in Latino culture, is that right? It certainly was in the Dutch literary world. It's a genre I absolutely love to read but could never write. I lack the finesse. Plus there's never enough robots.
