Whew! Making sure I hadn't gone into the Ladies' Room by mistake! Hello, my name is Ray and I'm a...well, I enjoy writing. I'm old, or at least I past midway of my novel. I began writing sometime in the early chapters but I suppose my first real experience at writing wasn't actually writing at all but rather story-telling. Since writing is, basically, textual story-telling, I'll begin there. My speech team story-telling coach has become a fairly well-known actor and writer since being cast in several movies and cable series (I'm not a name-dropper though so we'll leave that). It was not until my mid-30's that I learned there was some writing ability hidden away, or at least I had them fooled into thinking as such. I wrote a couple short technical articles for a national car club's monthly newsletter and. shortly afterward, was offered a chance to write some articles for an international "hot rod-related" magazine. I enjoyed that very much and learned a great deal, most importantly that ass-kissing of people in authority was a requirement. That being my first taste of creative writing , or at least what would refer to as professional writing in my case. I lost interest in dealing with suit-n-tie desk-jockeys. I began writing down the key points and characters in dreams that would wake me up, then in the morning read my notes and see what could become of it. It worked well, building the story around the characters and events and using my imagination to expand the story line. I wrote 4 or 5 short stories in rapid succession that received good feedback from both writers and readers that I knew and presented them to. I never actually made any attempt, however, to get them in front of a publisher. Along the way, I began two mystery/horror novels that I progressed a good way into, but sadly were never finished. Some time passed, a divorce came and went, then my laptop was stolen by an addict and thrown in a dumpster after the pawn shop refused to buy it. I had backups of my work, but they were on SD cards that also vanished during that same time. From a couple years' work, I had one short story left that had (fortunately) been uploaded to my Facebook "Notes." Several months ago, I found the need to write again, this time to put together an instructional handbook for class I travel and teach. The "Foreward," which was intended to share the history of what began as a hobby and became my profession, grew to several pages. The Foreward section of the handbook continues to be the most popular with my students and constantly tell me it "brought tears to their eyes." At some point after, a student (these are all adult, mostly middle-aged individuals) asked if I was a writer. I jokingly replied that I knew a few but I don't necessarily refer to myself as one. A couple other people joined in the conversation, one thing led to another, and the long-forgotten short story was shared with a few here and there. The encouraging comments began and, needless to say, I sat down and began trying to re-write my lost short stories from memory. Those who know me can attest that I do not write in the same manner that I speak. While my profession consists of 2 and 3-day classes where I spend all day long either speaking or assisting participants at their workstations, I still rather enjoy speaking as a good-ol' Southern boy. Words such as "ain't" will always be a part of my speaking vocabulary by choice and a reminder of my roots. I'm amused at the reaction received when I speak of something leaning near a wall as "agin the wall" (with a hard G). I speak the way I do by choice. Anyway, I look forward to this forum and interaction with others who love to write!! Thanks for the add Ray
This guy storytells. It appears you're way beyond level 101. Looking forward to seeing yer posts around
Yay! Impressive introductions! Nice to meet you, and surely look forward to read your stories. Storytelling is the mother of all writing. So, we the world need more storytellers like you. Be very well.
