Ayshela

*nod* i did read that as a deliberate shift in direction. i'm glad to know that was correct.

may i second the request?

Tamaranis - i don't think problems are a necessary component to writing. ;> Personally, i'd much rather write for fun, and am delighted to know that you can!! Brute - i truly hope that sobering thought doesn't become a self fulfilling prophecy. i come to know and appreciate people by what they write here - be it writing-related comments, general chatter, or posted writings. i don't believe any one is any better than any other. If we all sat back and simply posted our writings we'd be dying for a dearth of feedback. As far as i've seen, you have a valuable place in the community here and i for one would hate to see you fade away.

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo........ =( *hugs*

why am i here? because my son dragged me in and said "here, read that." why did i stay? because i love it here. i felt like i'd come home, and that's extremely rare for me. why do i write? because i can, when so often i cannot speak. an injudicious word can get you killed. when i write, i can polish and refine and stand back and gaze from as many directions as i can reach to ensure that what i say is not only what i mean, but what i mean to say. writing it is safer than saying it, and yet it's also freer as there are things which i can write but cannot say. it sounds so trite, but runs so deep - i write because i *can*. there are things in me which demand to be said, thoughts and words and ideas which pour onto the paper or into my word processor, which if i try to speak them to someone else they're gone on hummingbird wings and i can't recover them. writing gives me a chance to impose order on an often otherwise tangles mess of thoughts, emotions, raw life experience. imposing order on the words lets me also order my thoughts and to some extent my emotional response to things. some people talk to a friend and work their way through it all. i must write it. so i do, because i can. it always comes back to that.

no way, did i miss seeing that?!?!?! well shame on me, and happy happy birthday to Canid!!

LOL didn't the question have to do with writing well??? TV drivel seems to require a complete inability to write well, actually. Can someone who dislikes writing write well? Perhaps it would be as well to define what you mean by "well". i think anyone can write interesting, engaging, passionate material - provided they have something to say. Equally, i think everyone has *something* to say, the task is to discover it first for themselves and then to share it with others. i guess, in essence, i believe anyone *can* write well, if they're willing to engage themselves in the process. i don't believe that those who dislike it will put in the necessary effort, on a general basis. What made me write? As i was growing up there was so much i was not allowed to say to anyone... the laws of "don't tell" ran so deep and so wide that while i could speak very fluently and very well i was terrified to do so. My lifeline through those years was my best friend, who moved several states away, and the increasingly lengthy letters we would exchange. He got my heart and soul in those letters, all that i was not terrified to speak and everything that things meant to me. Through that process i learned to describe what i saw and what i thought so that it could be readily understood. i also learned to see things with an eye to retelling - to see things as i would describe them to someone else, which made me notice more. The more i saw, the more there was to say and the freer i was to say things, the more there was to notice. i began to write because that was the only way i could speak at all. i continued to write because i grew to love it.

i have to agree with this wholeheartedly. /me joins the group hug

Ayshela wanders through distractedly, nodding to Illiana as she passes. "Don't worry, Wyvern is a very busy almost-dragon but he will get here eventually. Don't buy anything he tries to sell you. You'll be fine."

well hey! Happy Happy Birthday!

(smiles speechlessly and turns the "page", music echoing in memory)

mmm last time i felt like that i was almost 18 and leaving home.

i like this very much. i think my bed stalks me some nights too, which is a real trick for a waterbed! lol

thank you. i wouldn't have dared to ask it here, but since you did - if you find the answers you seek... would you point me in their direction? :-\ please? i've not yet figured out how to be what i so desperately wish to be - something other than what i intrinsically am - and cannot bear the prospect of continuing to make things worse in the attempt to make them better. if you find your way... leave a trail behind you?

mmmmm sounds like my brother.

wow. you make the duality of it vividly clear.

Excellently done, illustrating both the beautiful and the horrifying, found in the same person.

Beautiful. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but i think such a vivid word picture is worth a whole roll of film.

i could referee this if you wish. Simply let me know what length of time you wish between acceptance of the challenge and deadline for submission and posting.

i use pencil when *drawing* but not when writing for one very simple reason: if i'm writing it on paper either it's something i will be typing up and editing later, or it's a letter i'm sending off via snail mail (i can already hear the gasps of shock) and in either case pen simply works better. Pen is much easier to see when the paper is suspended and i'm typing it. For letters - it took me years to convert my best friend to writing his letters in pen, because letters which are going to be kept and re-read later need to be written in something with some staying power. Unfortunately, most of his letters quickly became unreadable simply and only because they were written in pencil. Having lost many of his valued and valuable writings, i developed an aversion to writing *anything* in pencil in case i should wish to refer back to it later.

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Launches a flying hug at HopperWolf) Gods, i missed you!!! Glad to see you back! me? i'm still breathing. They tell me that's a good thing. Gods, i missed you.. (gluing HopperWolf to the floor so he can't go away again) (heh)

i do a *lot* of my writing at the keyboard. It's nice for many reasons, not the least of which is being able to approach keeping up with the train of thought so i don't completely lose it. And yet, i voted for pen, because there are those times when there is no substitute for sitting down with a pad of paper and my purple pen and letting the words flow.

This is, like, hilarious!! And i've, like, talked to people like this!

ohohohohoh! i love it!!! would have been as much as my life was worth to get out of compulsory volunteered stuff, especially that way, but the fun of it might have been worth it! (poor teacher) (snicker, snort)