Storytelling; of Did I Ever Tell You About the Time?
There are times when I say, "oh I wasn't really writing until '94 or so when I first had access to a computer." And yes, if you discount writing for classes, it's true. I hate writing long hand; if I had a scanner, I'd do that handwriting meme and you'd all see how much my writing sucks.
But something Grace said about paper dolls made me remember this thing I used to do in the '70s, before we left the US for Iran.
I might have had a few "real" paper dolls, but if I did, I can't remember them. I did have some Barbies and I'd feel worse about the things I did to them if I hadn't gotten them second hand to begin with because they were the Old School Mean-Eyed Barbies I'd gotten from an older cousin.
But the paper doll thing was different. I used to get a copy of The Evolution of Fashion from the library and, using tracing paper, I'd trace the people in it. Then I'd back them with construction paper and color the clothes.
Mom sewed some back in those days and sometimes when we'd go to the fabric store, they'd have old pattern books for sale. They were really cheap and I remember her buying them for me more than once. I'd cut out the people in them and turn them into paper dolls too.
And then, I'd tell myself stories about them. I remember being in my room by myself at age 12 & 13 and telling stories about the dolls, particularly historical stories--this doll was Eleanor of Aquitaine and this one was Queen Elizabeth I and this one was Katherine Swynford and this was Queen Victoria when she was young and danced a lot. Where Henry FitzEmpress and Robert Dudley and John of Gaunt and poor old Albert where...well they didn't matter. Sometimes the modern day women from the pattern books got married (because I sure as hell remember those groovy 70s wedding dresses), but they were also astronauts or scuba divers or...I don't know what else, but they had lives outside the home, which is kind of ironic really. :)
I might have told debra_tabor stories with them too, but I can't remember. I suspect she'd know because even though she's younger, her memory is sooo much better than mine.
I know we played with dolls and stuffed animals a lot as well as her Fisher Price people and it was a lot of storytelling kind of play. I also remember using various dolls and stuffed animals to help entertain her (and myself, although I never really saw it that way at the time) when we were traveling later on. And they were interactive stories; trust me, Debra was no more a passive consumer then than she is now.
We were read to a lot as children and also, my dad was a storyteller. Not just with us kids, but when he talked about places we'd been or told stupid long complicated jokes, he did it well. He'd do things that I find myself doing--exaggerating a little for the sake of the story or tucking in little parenthetical bits and pieces here and there. And yes, there's a reason that I'm dead certain he's the one who taught me was a tangent was.
My mom was/is a more private writer; although I knew from fairly early on that she very seriously considered a career as a journalist, it was much that I learned much later that she wrote poetry as well. She also loves books; like Debra and me and yeah Nancy too, she's always got a stack by the bed and there are books all over the house. And she told stories as well, about family and things she did as a kid; she and I once turned one of Debra's favorite Mom-as-a-little girls stories into a little illustrated book for one of Debra's birthdays.
In a way, like I said in the cut tag, the emphasis on words and the fact that how you told the story was a big part of it, the books that I grew up with, all those things and more led to where I am now.
So yeah, in one way it's honest to say that I didn't start writing until Debra got her first computer, and that this month marks thirteen years of sharing my work with actual audiences.
But in another way, I've been doing this all my life, literally longer than I can remember with any real clarity.
So whether it's 13 years since February of '95 when I posted my very first fic on alt.sex.fetish.startrek or (roughly) 40 years since I started telling myself stories as I drifted off to sleep....
Happy Anniversary to me and Thank Yous to AA, MM and debra_tabor.
But something Grace said about paper dolls made me remember this thing I used to do in the '70s, before we left the US for Iran.
I might have had a few "real" paper dolls, but if I did, I can't remember them. I did have some Barbies and I'd feel worse about the things I did to them if I hadn't gotten them second hand to begin with because they were the Old School Mean-Eyed Barbies I'd gotten from an older cousin.
But the paper doll thing was different. I used to get a copy of The Evolution of Fashion from the library and, using tracing paper, I'd trace the people in it. Then I'd back them with construction paper and color the clothes.
Mom sewed some back in those days and sometimes when we'd go to the fabric store, they'd have old pattern books for sale. They were really cheap and I remember her buying them for me more than once. I'd cut out the people in them and turn them into paper dolls too.
And then, I'd tell myself stories about them. I remember being in my room by myself at age 12 & 13 and telling stories about the dolls, particularly historical stories--this doll was Eleanor of Aquitaine and this one was Queen Elizabeth I and this one was Katherine Swynford and this was Queen Victoria when she was young and danced a lot. Where Henry FitzEmpress and Robert Dudley and John of Gaunt and poor old Albert where...well they didn't matter. Sometimes the modern day women from the pattern books got married (because I sure as hell remember those groovy 70s wedding dresses), but they were also astronauts or scuba divers or...I don't know what else, but they had lives outside the home, which is kind of ironic really. :)
I might have told debra_tabor stories with them too, but I can't remember. I suspect she'd know because even though she's younger, her memory is sooo much better than mine.
I know we played with dolls and stuffed animals a lot as well as her Fisher Price people and it was a lot of storytelling kind of play. I also remember using various dolls and stuffed animals to help entertain her (and myself, although I never really saw it that way at the time) when we were traveling later on. And they were interactive stories; trust me, Debra was no more a passive consumer then than she is now.
We were read to a lot as children and also, my dad was a storyteller. Not just with us kids, but when he talked about places we'd been or told stupid long complicated jokes, he did it well. He'd do things that I find myself doing--exaggerating a little for the sake of the story or tucking in little parenthetical bits and pieces here and there. And yes, there's a reason that I'm dead certain he's the one who taught me was a tangent was.
My mom was/is a more private writer; although I knew from fairly early on that she very seriously considered a career as a journalist, it was much that I learned much later that she wrote poetry as well. She also loves books; like Debra and me and yeah Nancy too, she's always got a stack by the bed and there are books all over the house. And she told stories as well, about family and things she did as a kid; she and I once turned one of Debra's favorite Mom-as-a-little girls stories into a little illustrated book for one of Debra's birthdays.
In a way, like I said in the cut tag, the emphasis on words and the fact that how you told the story was a big part of it, the books that I grew up with, all those things and more led to where I am now.
So yeah, in one way it's honest to say that I didn't start writing until Debra got her first computer, and that this month marks thirteen years of sharing my work with actual audiences.
But in another way, I've been doing this all my life, literally longer than I can remember with any real clarity.
So whether it's 13 years since February of '95 when I posted my very first fic on alt.sex.fetish.startrek or (roughly) 40 years since I started telling myself stories as I drifted off to sleep....
Happy Anniversary to me and Thank Yous to AA, MM and debra_tabor.