On writing...
When I was about 7 years old, I wrote a story for school. It was complete nonsense (as 7 year old's stories tend to be) about a bus magically appearing to take my best friend to a party. I won a prize for it - a pen. I don't remember having ever won a prize for anything before. I was rather good at maths, but they didn't give prizes for that.
This small event made a big impression on my 7 year old self. For the first time ever, I believed that I was quite good at something. Before then, writing stories was just one of those things we did in class and I hadn't given it a second thought. After that, it became a passion, something that I ploughed into with great enthusiasm. Something I did for fun. I soon realised that when released from the confines of 'write about what your family did at the weekend', I could be very creative.
I've been writing for 26 years now. During that time, I've won more prizes, I've been to classes and I've refined my style. I've had material published in various places and even started a short-lived meme on WoW as a result of a website article I wrote when I worked for them. Over all those years and projects, I've improved and improved. It's now at the stage where even I (Miss Uber-Low Self Confidence) can step back and go 'I'm damn good at this'.
Other people seem to agree. My Warhammer 40K interactive on RPGnet is now getting comments along the lines of 'why haven't you submitted something to Black Library yet?'. (I'm like 'I did already. They never got back to me. Next year though....'). It's nice to see the comments though. :)
I don't think they are allowed to give prizes in schools any more. I think this is sad. That one little thing really did change my life.
This small event made a big impression on my 7 year old self. For the first time ever, I believed that I was quite good at something. Before then, writing stories was just one of those things we did in class and I hadn't given it a second thought. After that, it became a passion, something that I ploughed into with great enthusiasm. Something I did for fun. I soon realised that when released from the confines of 'write about what your family did at the weekend', I could be very creative.
I've been writing for 26 years now. During that time, I've won more prizes, I've been to classes and I've refined my style. I've had material published in various places and even started a short-lived meme on WoW as a result of a website article I wrote when I worked for them. Over all those years and projects, I've improved and improved. It's now at the stage where even I (Miss Uber-Low Self Confidence) can step back and go 'I'm damn good at this'.
Other people seem to agree. My Warhammer 40K interactive on RPGnet is now getting comments along the lines of 'why haven't you submitted something to Black Library yet?'. (I'm like 'I did already. They never got back to me. Next year though....'). It's nice to see the comments though. :)
I don't think they are allowed to give prizes in schools any more. I think this is sad. That one little thing really did change my life.