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Say Goodnight, WendyD3520Jul 02 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line For all of you who have been my friend here at Epinions, please know that you have been a wonderful influence on my life.
I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember – I’m 44 now, and some people might say I’ve waited too long to do anything about it. I’ve always thought of myself as a poet, and I really love writing and reading poetry. I’ve been working at publishing my work in that unbelievably peculiar world of magazines and literary journals for years. I’ve had a little success – not enough to make a living, but I don’t think many poets can say they support themselves writing anyway. And not to make excuses, but my style of writing is just not very “hot” right now. So many of the women that get published today are writing with a sort of “spill your guts – feminist “ style that I’m not comfortable with. The last journal I read had several poems about a woman’s parents’ sex life and another poem devoted to the writer’s own breasts. OK, I’m never going to write like that. I write about things like my Grandmother’s photographs and the old cemetery in my hometown. I recently read somewhere that Grandma poetry just isn’t selling these days. Oh, well. There is no Plan B. I’ll just plug along, writing with my own sentimental approach until Grandma poetry is back in style. What does this have to do with writing Epinions? All right. I’ll tell you. Not until I discovered Epinions did I really start thinking I might want to become an honest to goodness writer – one that might get something other than a poem about my sister published in a small college in North Dakota’s literary journal that might be seen by 100 people. I started writing opinions as a goof – to amuse myself and maybe make a few bucks that I could spend frivolously. I really didn’t care how my work was rated or even what people thought about it, and I certainly didn’t care if I was being helpful or not. Anyway, I was a poet, not a travel writer. Epinions was not something I took seriously. As time passed my attitudes began to change. As I discovered some of the amazing writers on this site, I not only enjoyed reading their work, but I wanted to be like them. People like Bryan Carey, Caines, and Sparkospunky, in the early days, were an inspiration; I hope they read this and know the kind of life changing effect they had on me. Then I got to know writers like Vania, Abazur (that kid is going to be something someday – you mark my word), Tlimjoco, NFP, and Grouch, and I knew that I had to try to do something. As I read these writers’ work and started caring about my own more, I started to feel like I could – do something, I mean. I really do hope that readers took some of my advice. I hope that, because of me, somebody read Ambassador of the Dead, or bought Emma Shapplin’s CD. But the person who gained the most from me writing opinions was me. Now, I want to write every day. If I am not writing, I am thinking about writing. My husband is shopping around for a laptop for me so that I can write whereever I am. And I have never been this happy about the direction my personal life has taken. I won’t even pretend that this opinion will be considered helpful or very helpful to anyone besides me – but I hope those of you who have been my friend here at the site will read it and know that I’ve appreciated you. You are some the kindest, most interesting people I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know. My final Epinions opinion is this: Those of you who love writing – nothing says you need to stop writing Epinions like I am about to, but try some other things, as well. I don’t think there’s a person on my Web of Trust who couldn’t write professionally if that is something they wanted to do. You guys amaze me - you and dozens of other writers at this site. If you have a secret urge to branch out and try to write for other publications – you can and should do it! Time is precious. Don’t wait until you are 44 like I did. SO LONG! I’ll be here, sitting at the computer with “writer’s block”, (Ha! I’m calling myself a writer, already!) so I’ll continue reading and rating your stuff. But I need to stop writing Epinions now so I can make a real, honest, concentrated effort before it’s too late. Before I’m at the point where my cataracts won’t let me see what my withered, arthritic hands are trying to interpret what my hardened arteries are making it difficult for me to say! Kisses! And thanks for reading everything I rambled and blathered on about over the months! WendyD3520 -- the artist formally known as Cheri  |
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