We working stiffs have been having email discussions about ways in which to modify our posts. Suggestions include contests, flash fiction competitions, theme-of-the-month. I'm not going to ask what anybody thinks about those ideas, though. Somebody already tried that. Today I'm just going to free-form post like I always do, so fasten your seatbelts - here we go.
For the first few years of my participation in Working Stiffs, I wrote about the many jobs I've held. I don't think I've ever properly introduced myself, though. For the record, my name is Regina Marie Germaine Sestak. This is what I look like:
I was born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, in a hospital that no longer exists. My family lived in Detroit for awhile when I was a baby, then we moved back to Pittsburgh where I've stayed ever since. I expect to turn 60 in a few weeks, so it won't come as any surprise that the grade school and high school I attended are out of existence, too. I think that's one of the most confusing things about getting older. The major institutions of your life just up and disappear.
Working stiffs is a writers blog; you've probably noticed that a lot of contributors focus on writing-related topics. I tend to write free-form here on the theory that there's more to writing than grammar and story structure. Life experience informs the imagination. So I write about experiences that I feel have shaped my writing. Of course, as you regular readers know, I am a highly unsuccessful fiction writer, poet and screenwriter. No success to speak of, or should that be 'of which to speak'?
So where is this going? I haven't a clue.
7 comments:
LOL :) I enjoy your freeform posts! Everything we do/read shapes our writing & reading here is no exception!
I agree about life experience -- As I like to say: "it's ALL novel material...."
For example, at a social event last week, someone told me about a doctor who won't take books out of the library because he's concerned they carry germs.. now isn't that a fabulous character trait to give to someone?
I used to work in a large public library, in a large city. That doctor is no fool.
Gina, if you mean you are unsuccessful in that you're not yet published, that may be one take. But your writing here does reach people; you share your thoughts and readers react. That's the purpose of art, in my book.
Not that you should turn down a paycheck, when it comes, of course.
Gina, your last statement sums up my entire resume - I'm astonishingly successful at being unsuccessful...
Maybe for the month of February we should all write free-form posts introducing ourselves...
(Yes, I'm trying to get out of the flash fiction smackdown Freddy has challenged me to. He knows I can't do short, damn him!)
When I first sat down to write, my uncle told me, "Write what you know." It was after thinking about what I know that I realized my background is boring. Which is exactly why I don't bother with Twitter.
Jennie, look at it as learning to write that back-jacket copy for one of your exciting novels. 200 words, that's 16 words a day before I blog next.
Pssst, Jennie...we're ready to rig it so you win. Don't tell Will.
Gina, I like your post and I agree we should all introduce ourselves.
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