Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 17:06:16 +1000 From: The Dark Warrior Subject: FILLER: G'day G'Day Everyone, Just thought I might take a few moments to introduce myself before I start flooding the list with my stories. Seeing as I have already noticed someone else doing this, I figure I might as well too. I've been lurking for several days, just getting a feel for the list and who is here, what goes on etc before dipping my own literary toe into the water. So, what can I tell you? (Without having to kill you afterwards?? ) Guess by now (just from the subject header) you have figured out I am an Aussie. Don't know how many others there might be here but I haven't found a lot of my fellow Aussie writers on any of the overseas lists I am on. Must have something to do with the way we get treated down here. (Badly! Being a struggling writer in Australia is thought of in the same way as someone getting welfare!! ) Okay, I stumbled into fiction writing quite by accident. I was reading a lot of fiction off the net. I usually came away from my computer shaking my head in wonder. Most of it was really woeful. It was more than just the simple mistakes in grammar and spelling. (Irritating as those were! Most good word processors come with spell checker built in!!) It was the overall standard in general that was getting to me. The more I read the stronger that feeling got. I ended up thinking "Hey!! I can do better than this." Woke up one morning and just knew that I could. I wrote my first story then and have continued ever since. (To the point of quitting my job and following my Muse full time.) For the past 18 months I have been writing in another genre, learning how to tell a really gripping tale and how to follow the simple mechanics of putting thousands of words onto the screen. (And I STILL haven't come to grips with chapter by chapter writing. Guess folks will have to continue to suffer with my scene by scene style for the time being. ) Changing genres has meant leaving the safe nest I was in and seeking a wider (and more critical) audience for my work. I am always looking to improve, to learn, to write a better story than the one before. I've been looking for a place where I can present my work before sending it out into the sometimes cold, cruel world of the internet. (And one day, hardcopy fiction.) Seems I have found it here. You lot actually give good feedback!! Something I have only ever gotten from my own beta readers before. I didn't know there was a list where crits would be done! This list is wonderful!! Okay, the bio stuff.....None of my stories have ever been printed in hardcopy. They do not appear in mags or papers anywhere. I have been a strictly internet only writer. (Though I have managed to pop three awards for my tales. Somehow, they aren't the same as something I can hang on the wall and show the friends; who all think I am wasting my time anyway. sigh>) I am heading for hardcopy publication but I want to master my craft a lot more before I take that step. I'm in my mid-30's and have a somewhat interesting life behind me already. (A lot of which I use to draw on when writing something. First rule of writing: Write about what you know! ) I am so passionate about my stories and this amazing GIFT I suddenly find within myself. I take it seriously and do try to be as professional about it as I possibly can. (Though, I rarely take myself seriously. I like to laugh too much.) I am my own worst critic, never quite believing I have done a good job until the beta readers come back to me with something along the lines of "Wow!", only then do I feel I might have reached the goal posts I have in front of me. I've been writing fairly solidly for the past 18 months with only a few weeks off here and there to suffer through the horrors of writer's block. (Anyone got a cure for this affliction?? It drives me nuts!!) I am supported by a team of three beta readers (one of whom is my own US based girlfriend) as well as a decent editor. Actually, this is my second team. I kinda wore out the first one with the sheer volume I can write at times. Guess you can tell by now I am a touch wordy sometimes! Anyway, I think I might have bored you all enough to start with. I'll let my stories do my talking from here on. I have one I am working on. (My first in this new genre I am trying to master.) It's long and only half finished. (Fear is holding me in place! Argh!!) I'll break it down into shorter sections so as not to overburden anyone's mail system over there. I'll also only send a couple of sections a day (there are nine in all at the moment) so I don't overload anyone with it either. I haven't seen anyone sending any really long stories to the list yet but I still consider this a short story until I hit the 100 page mark. I'd be grateful to know what ppl think of the story as a whole. (I have the best beta readers going to take care of grammar etc, so don't need quite as much help in that area as I do others.) Many thanks to whoever put this list together. Nice to have a place where I can be a writer and not have to justify my obsession all the time! The Dark Warrior Search For The Hero Inside Yourself. jboughen@powerup.com.au Storyteller To The Gods