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Re: How old are you?

Posted: May 20th, 2010, 7:48 pm
by aspiring_x
crumejack wrote:I am 30 years old and i never celebrate my birth day because i lost one year of my life..
now that sounds like the opening sentence of a very interesting story. :)

Re: How old are you?

Posted: May 25th, 2010, 3:23 am
by Heather B
I'm 21 and happy to be. Then again, I was happy to be 20 and happy to be 19... I have a feeling it'll always be that way. I look at every year I age as a year I get to learn more things.

I have been writing for soo long. My mum still has all the little books I used to write when I was younger and she brings them out whenever she wants to embarrass me (although she doesn't realise it's actually something I do seriously now). I stopped writing while I was in high school (because it just wasn't 'cool' unfortunately) but lately I seem to have been making up for lost time. I have three full series planned out, a few finished 'practice' manuscripts and one MS polished and nearly ready to start being queried.

I am my own worst critic and refuse to let anything be seen until I am satisfied there are absolutely no problems what-so-ever; they embarrass me quite frankly. It is this, I fear, that will prevent me from ever being published...

P.S. No green cards. I love the age diversity - it makes me happy to think of all the things we have to offer.

Re: How old are you?

Posted: May 28th, 2010, 3:57 pm
by Nick
Heather B wrote:(because it just wasn't 'cool' unfortunately)
Pffft. Writing is the cooliest.

Re: How old are you?

Posted: May 29th, 2010, 3:19 am
by deepsesh
I'm 23... started writing songs when i was 8. Took a break from writing (unintentionally) from when i was 19 to 23. Now i'm back to it - from the past 2 months or so - and gone on to write a complete novel... not just songs and poetry anymore! :) Feels good!

Re: How old are you?

Posted: June 1st, 2010, 12:00 am
by Heather B
Nick wrote:
Heather B wrote:(because it just wasn't 'cool' unfortunately)
Pffft. Writing is the cooliest.
I know that now. :D

Re: How old are you?

Posted: June 10th, 2010, 12:43 pm
by Chuck H.
I'm 63 5/6 (64 in August). I wrote my first short story when I was 6 and was thrilled when Miss Jeffers read it to my first grade class. I perfected my typing on a 1924 Underwood which now resides in my basement dungeon/writers cubby. It has a cast iron frame and weighs 75 pounds. I may not be the oldest one here *bows to Petronella* but I'm almost certainly the most geezerish.

Re: How old are you?

Posted: June 10th, 2010, 2:42 pm
by Claudie
I'm 21... well, nearly. Give me another two weeks, and I'll be 21!

I started writing at 18, whenever my classes got too boring. By then I had been roleplaying for two years, which went a long way into developping storytelling skills. Before that, though, I wouldn't write or imagine stories except for classes. I did excell at it, but it'd never have crossed my mind to think of 'writer' as a profession. It was unconceivable that I could ever, under any circumstances, write something worthy of publishing.

By now I've written 4 first drafts, one of which was edited into a second draft. I have zero writing credits, I'm not published, but I am learning the ropes. Give or take 5-6 years, and I hope I'll be ready to jump into the publishing business.

Re: How old are you?

Posted: June 10th, 2010, 3:08 pm
by dios4vida
Chuck H. wrote:I perfected my typing on a 1924 Underwood which now resides in my basement dungeon/writers cubby.
I learned to type on a typewriter, too! Though it was one of the electric ones from when my Mom was in college. And I was only about 3 when I started playing with it. Does that still count?

Re: How old are you?

Posted: June 11th, 2010, 1:17 am
by moosebabble
I'm 31, and I have one finished book taking up hard drive space and another in the works.

My writing highpoint came in the first grade when I wrote and illustrated a book called IF I WERE A DOG. My killer illustrations were done in crayon and, though the dog may have looked a little more like a Pinto with a tongue, the prose was crisp with catchy lines like, "I would never have to eat meatloaf." We all had to create our own picture book in class one day and then they disappeared, only to show up a month later with bound spines and shiny laminated pages. A few, like my little masterpiece, also had gold seals on their covers. I still don't know if that was a sign of favorable review, or the stickers were just slapped on at random.

I tend to leave that paragraph out of my query letters..... And first date small talk.

Re: How old are you?

Posted: June 11th, 2010, 3:59 pm
by SM Schmidt
21 and still starry eyed about it.

Finished my first novel just last year after many miss starts. There are the two "self published" books I wrote in grade school hiding the depths of a bookshelf somewhere in my room. Fabric covered cardboard hard bounds that I'm still proud of for the crayon illustrations. The stereotypical two failed novels in high school and junior high because I had no idea how to write out of a corner. I think I finally became serious when I looked at the story in my English Theory class for college and said, I can do so much better. Promptly changed my major and began pining for stories again, so I began to write my own again. Now to finish a second novel and then I think I'll be more comfortable calling myself a writer to my friends.

Re: How old are you?

Posted: June 11th, 2010, 7:57 pm
by Gina Frost
I am 40-ugh, just turned yesterday. I started writing maybe somewhere around the age of ten, I filled up paper with my writing attempts, kept it in a folder and in an angry attempt to clean my room, my stepmother ripped it all up and threw it away. When I entered high school, I did a better job keeping my stuff hidden from her and still have those unfinished stories and poems I wrote when I was a teenager. Back then, the stories were told only to my sister as bedtime stories for her-even as a teenager she wanted to hear them. She was the one who helped me create the stories, asking me every night to continue. She is the one who still encourages me to finish one and get it published.

Re: How old are you?

Posted: June 12th, 2010, 4:45 am
by Anobile1
I'm 18, have been writing since... I dunno actually. Since I was born? I have a book of little writing attempts from when I was around 7 or 8...

They're horrid.

Re: How old are you?

Posted: June 12th, 2010, 3:08 pm
by Margo
Gina Frost wrote:I am 40-ugh, just turned yesterday.
Oh, good, you don't sound any the worse for wear. I'm about 2 months behind you. Was getting concerned the little crystal in my hand was going to turn red.

Re: How old are you?

Posted: June 13th, 2010, 4:03 am
by BlancheKing
I don't know Margo... I'm suspicious of 40. The last lady I knew who turned 40 turned purple on her birthday and grew a tail and three extra ears (in pairs too...)

;)

Re: How old are you?

Posted: June 13th, 2010, 10:59 pm
by GeeGee55
I'm 56, one of the geezers. I firmly believe you don't qualify for geezerhood unless you're over 50. I started writing in my late 40s. I was always a 'dreamer' but decided to start writing down my daydreams and they turned into a novel. I had no formal education in literature, I started by attending a community college class just for fun. I've been lucky enough to belong to a writer's group mentored by a well-know Canadian author who was very generous with her knowledge. And, also, took a correspondence course with Richard Bausch, the great American short story writer. It's been a challenge in an intellectual, emotional and spiritual way.

To all you young writers: you have the time to master your craft.

To my fellow geezers: we are old and we still rock!