Just who do you think you are, anyway?

[Angela]

I am wondering about how you see yourself as a writer.  Serious, hobbyist, casual, devoted, determined, ambitious?  Or something else?

How do you think your fellow writers at 6s see you as a writer?  Funny, insightful, romantic, imaginative, cynical?  Or something else?

 

So, in the interest and spirit of disclosure, I'll jump into the deep end first.

I see myself as an emotional writer, more casual than serious, but devoted to making what I write meaningful in some way to the kind people who read it.  I imagine that people who read my work sometimes find it obsessed with sexual undertones (and overtones), falsely cerebral, and frequently obtuse....and there you have it.

 

I am not fishing for comments on my work.  I just want to know what you think about yourselves and perhaps your peers.  It just seems like it would be an interesting way for us to continue to get to know each other.

[Kristine_ES]

i know you're not fishing for compliments but i couldn't help myself.  ;) 

[Gita]

The Godard low residency MFA in Creative Writing calls to me POWERFULLY  because it would fit perfectly with my life. But then I looked at the price tag, and I actually wept. There's no way I could come up with that. Your writing has gone amazing places in the last few months. It's like someone unlocked the barn door and your inner thundering herd is running free.

[Angela]

Bill, you wrote one of the most powerful war-related pieces I have ever read a few months ago.  I am glad to know that you are engaged in something serious.

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

This is intriguing because I've never once considered how others see me as a writer.  I consider myself a serious writer, but mainly of longer pieces of fiction.  I've had about 15 stories published in print magazines and I work hard at craft.  For 6S, I usually write what hits me at the moment, although some revision goes into it as well.  I never push the "publish" button without several versions behind it.

 

I think people see me as a little out of the mainstream here.  And maybe a little strange too.  That's OK.  I am a passionate scientist during the day and a passionate writer at night. 

 

I think many of the writers on this site have enviable talent and ability to think deeply.  I don't want to single anyone out, but I look forward to reading many of the writers and learning from their skills.

 

Grey, since you began this discussion, I'll just say that I love your use of language and the warmth you spill on the screen.  Keep it up.

[Kristine_ES]

"I am a passionate scientist during the day and a passionate writer at night." At first glance one might think those two would mix like oil and water. But then.. you read the work and you know there's a whole lot more going on.  I hope to have 15 stories in print someday, and you are one of many who inspire me here.  Rock on!

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

Kristine, That was an incredibly generous thing to say.  I also look forward to reading your work.

 

[Cita]

First of all, very interesting discussion.  Thanks, Grey, for bringing it up.  I am a little late to the party because I've been doing more riding than writing this week.

How do I see myself as a writer?  I have a mentor who once told me that a true writer can stand up and say, "I am a writer."  It was amazing how right he was, and still is in many ways.  I stood up in 2005 and said, "I am a writer."  Made all of the difference.  I am a serious writer, one who has just launched what I will Abraham-into-being as a serious career. 

I show up at the page every day because my lifework is writing books. 

The more I say this on the page and aloud, the more I make it possible.  I send out book proposals, query letters, and agent requests daily, but only with a portion of my time.  The rest I devote to ... writing.  I am determined, ambitious, and devoted.  Like Jamie Hogan said, I can't NOT write.  I even write while I am riding. 

A little shift:  My writing (as opposed to myself as a writer) is at times poetic, at times cultural, at times experimental. I strive to take it above and beyond pedantic, cliched, plodding, and forced.  My writing has shifted in the last few years from essays and first-person narrative, creative non-fiction, into fiction, but at times I have to shift back to make money.  There is nothing wrong with being "in demand."

I want to write literary fiction (as opposed to genre fiction... and this I am learning through research).  I want to write a book that I would want to read.  So far I have written one published book of creative non-fiction, another unpublished book of essays that was written during a time of personal crisis (and hence, it reeks).  I have written two full-length novels looking for homes.  The first is short and punchy and experimental.  The second is more traditional in structure and is character-driven, and it makes me catch my breath with how freakin' ambitious it is.  Still not sure I got the job done.

At 6S, I write more about my personal journey as a writer, as a poet, as a human trodding the path... and am less edited here, freer to experiment and play.  I come here for entertainment and relief and community and understanding.  It definitely gives me a place to hone some skills in a non-judgemental environment. 

How do I think I am viewed here?  Ah... all over the road.  I think people view me as a romantic who stumbles into the same metaphors time and again, who can't always keep up with the talent here, and who sometimes preaches the same sermon over and over.  I also think that I will be forgiven here.

 

[Angela]

I think you are perceptive, at least where I am concerned, regarding the way you are viewed - except for the preaching over and over part, and the stumbling into the same metaphors time and again, and the not being able to keep up.  Other than that, you nailed it. ;-)

[Mike Handley]

Interesting topic, milady. I've enjoyed the responses.

I've earned a paycheck from writing since 1980, the first 18 years in the newspaper business, the rest for magazines. I'm better at it now than I was in 1980; better now than I was in 2010. I'm not driven to write the great American novel, although I think I have at least one in me. I write here for the fun of it, to sometimes go beyond my comfort zone. I can't speak to how others here see me, but I can definitely say that my closest friends are here on 6S, where I can let my hair down and get more smiles than arched eyebrows.

[Angela]

Thanks, Sir.  My eyebrows are very relaxed.

[Michael Brown]

Most people I'm acquainted with here know that I'm a teacher of English as a Foreign Language in a Mexican school, and I think I sometimes come off a bit pedantic. I love writing and everything associated with the writing life, and wish I could lead that life to a greater extent than I can at this time because I like to eat and have to work to support my habit.

I'm very needy when it comes to getting recognition, and lurk here for a few minutes several times throughout the day checking for comments and responses to messages. I've been writing forever, but only started getting so intense about it when I first came to 6S in August of 2009. The thing was reading and being astounded, and trying to keep up with the writers who hang around here. This was my third attempt at finding a home in which to practice and hone, and the first place where the people are REAL. Others from elsewhere have impressed me with their talent, and I've seen them go on to make connections, and build followings, but they always appeared to be sending their thoughts out through the transom. Perhaps the HoW things also helped in adding greater dimensions to my experience. Not perhaps--for sure.

I absolutely love the way many of you respond to my requests to play together. You've given me reasons. And those have helped me develop what I used to consider a hobby into more of a craft.

As to you Grey, falsely cerebral and obtuse, I do not see. The sexual under/overtones, well, yeah, kind of. I, too, look forward to seeing that chair. It's a visual guarantee of something thought provoking served up just right, this forum being one of those.

Thanks.

[Angela]

Michael, you are a fine writer, but you are such a careful, attentive, and considerate reader.  I love your posts, absolutely.  I just want to say your comments are well thought out and beautifully crafted.  Reading them adds value to what I have written.  So thanks for that, and all the other things you do.