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  • #79565
    MyClipboardIsMyViolin
    @myclipboardismyviolin

    Greetings, fellow writers who have persisted through all of the obstacles needed to join yonder forum! You can make a forum using WordPress? This is amazing! *looks around with interest*

    Sorry, wrong forum.

    Hi, I’m that person who always seems to be out of context for anything and everything and constantly has to explain myself using ridiculously long paragraphs. I also have this habit of choosing long names, so you were warned in advance – this one was based on me thinking about Lindsey Stirling and thinking about the role her violin plays in her art, and how she has bravely forged ahead with her eccentric career idea that has made her extremely successful. I identify with that idea, but before I get any more long-winded, let me tell you that some people around here yonderabouts might know me by Sierepica_Fuzzywalker of the Aetherlight forums, which is how I found this place. If the name is too long (which it is), you may call me Sarah.

    Other than that, my writing and my relationship with God has taken me on a remarkable adventure of its own already. I started my writing when I was in 6th grade (shortly after I came to Christ) and I finished my first fantasy novel draft in 8th grade with the strong intention of publishing it (I was looking for emancipation from my parents at the time, and thought that publication would allow me to do that). All I found were scam artists – it was my junior year of high school before I found out how to find a real agent, and by that point my novel was in a shambles from multiple revisions as I strove to make it better.

    Around that time, I also tried other writing posting/forum websites: Booksie, inkpop (which is how I found out how to find an agent) and authonomy (which I quit out of guilt over lying about my age). This led to the writing of several other novels and some shorter works, but none of which got published in any real capacity. I took an advanced track in high school with a lot of work in hopes of having a short college career, and this took up most of my time. Not only that, but I was developing this sinking feeling that my writing didn’t have any meaning anymore.

    In college, I planned to double major in computer science and creative writing, because I seemed to have expertise in both. My first semester in college threw me into depression, which contributed, among other catastrophic events, to me leaving university (I didn’t technically flunk out because of an illness excuse, but my dad wouldn’t pay for it anymore – he blamed me for everything. His unforgiveness still is a thing in my life, though it gets less intense every day.).

    This led to years of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of my father that continues to this day, though it is fading in intensity as I refuse to back down. I went back to community college to take web design classes because I thought that would help me make money off of my writing – I wasn’t wrong about that – but when I set out to combine my writing skill with my technical expertise, I found that my writing was lacking. This led me to cut some terrible, not-God-honoring relationships out of my life and to fight my parents to go back to creative writing school. I have won this battle as well, and I’m now on the staff of my community college’s student literary magazine.

    At the same time, I have used extensive scriptural applications in order to fight against my feelings of worthlessness, depression, abuse, and now my fear of my past cutting me out of the exciting opportunities God has for me. Going into detail on this is too long for a post like this, but I’ve actually written a non-fiction book manuscript on this (I’m a writer…what else do you do?).

    In time, I have come to realize the best things to convey in writing for meaning are the Gospel, Scriptural truth, and genuine consideration for other people and who God made them to be. Speak the truth in love, and all else will follow. My foremost goal is making my writing clear in meaning and gentle in handling the emotional disturbance that truth brings.

    Also, I could probably use some work on brevity. 😛 See everyone around. 🙂

    Sarah, Miss S, Sierepica_Fuzzywalker

    #79603
    J. Dekreel
    @dekreel

    @myclipboardismyviolin  Welcome to Story Embers! I’m sure you recognize me. 😉

    (I would say something, like, heart-warming after reading your whole intro but my brain is porridge right now but I just wanted to let you know that I’m touched. . . annnnd yah. 😛 Sorry)

    ENFP-T. Cartoonist, "half-writer", wolfish.
    Blog

    #79604
    therealameliahoch
    @therealameliahoch

    Heavenly Father, I bind the spirits of depression and suicidal feelings in @myclipboardismyviolin in the name of Jesus and I bind the negative influences of her father in the name of Jesus. Amen.

    I hope you don’t mind this prayer but I felt convicted.

    “she looks kinda embarrassed for a sec, then shrugs it off”

    "I'd wager that I have more illnesses than all of you!" She exclaimed.

    #79645
    MyClipboardIsMyViolin
    @myclipboardismyviolin

    @myclipboardismyviolin Welcome to Story Embers! I’m sure you recognize me. 😉 (I would say something, like, heart-warming after reading your whole intro but my brain is porridge right now but I just wanted to let you know that I’m touched. . . annnnd yah. 😛 Sorry)

    Thank you, Sir Dekreel. (Or should I say Miss Dekreel? I think Dekreel is a he, right?)

    Heavenly Father, I bind the spirits of depression and suicidal feelings in @myclipboardismyviolin in the name of Jesus and I bind the negative influences of her father in the name of Jesus. Amen. I hope you don’t mind this prayer but I felt convicted. “she looks kinda embarrassed for a sec, then shrugs it off”

    If there are any spirits behind this, they are long gone. I’m actually in a good mood these days, thanks to God’s power and love of me and others.

    While demons can be an influence in our lives and the things that happen to us, I maintain that they can’t live in us. We have the Holy Spirit in us as believers and that is more powerful than any demon. In my case, my depression appears to have been caused by my own sin nature under the influence of the sin natures of others, which means that I was able to apply Scripture to my life to remove it. However, I also maintain that this can be a slow process of fighting one spiritual battle after another, so I don’t blame other people for their depression either – in fact I had people doing that when I took steps to end the abuse and go back to writing school.

    The alternative is living in fear of demons and angelic beings, and God has not given us a spirit of fear. Also, depression (if not medically caused) is often because of feelings of worthlessness and that your life is meaningless and doomed to failure. Your sin nature is actually meaningless, worthless, and doomed to failure, but you are not your sin nature anymore- you have been saved by grace through faith. You have potential to accomplish things for God’s glory and honor, and you have intrinsic value as a human being, even if you never do anything else for your entire life. See Psalm 139. Also: look to the cross – God died for you. There is something worth saving.

    I read your intro post about the illnesses and the depression, so this isn’t intended as a heavy-handed criticism. I want to encourage you to keep going, because while physical concerns might preclude you from some things, they might also open doors. My suffering with my father helped some transgender people to relate to me which allowed me to present the Gospel to them, for example. Again, getting out of depression can be a long process, so I don’t expect this to happen overnight, but I would really discourage blaming demons for your trials. That’s actually probably going to contribute to more feelings of helplessness and if your depression is caused by the sin nature like mine, you’ll be stuck in it longer.

    I appreciate the thought, however, and I will be praying for you.

    Sarah, Miss S, Sierepica_Fuzzywalker

    #79647
    J. Dekreel
    @dekreel

    @myclipboardismyviolin  *literally leans back in chair at large emojis*

    O.o Dekreel is a she.

    ENFP-T. Cartoonist, "half-writer", wolfish.
    Blog

    #79648
    MyClipboardIsMyViolin
    @myclipboardismyviolin

    @myclipboardismyviolin *literally leans back in chair at large emojis*

    I had nothing to do with that. It is a forum error.

    My apologies, Miss Dekreel. I was merely verifying that your pen persona had the same gender as yourself.

    Sarah, Miss S, Sierepica_Fuzzywalker

    #79649
    therealameliahoch
    @therealameliahoch

    @myclipboardismyviolin Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I used the wrong phraseology! I mean to bind any spirits ATTACKING you!

    Thank you so much for praying for me, I can use all I can get.

    You sound like a very industrious, Godly person. I appreciated all of the scripture references.

    "I'd wager that I have more illnesses than all of you!" She exclaimed.

    #79703
    J. Dekreel
    @dekreel

    @myclipboardismyviolin  Ohhh, wow. X’D

    We’re all the same gender, yeah. That’s fine. Actually, the first time I ever used the name “Dekreel” (which, by the way, I made up and is completely gibberish) was with a male OC in an abandoned WIP. I can justify your confusion, I guess, haha.

    ENFP-T. Cartoonist, "half-writer", wolfish.
    Blog

    #79747
    Selah CJW
    @selah-chelyah

    @myclipboardismyviolin

    Welcome to Story Embers! Thank you for your intro post…it was very encouraging. I agree that speaking the truth in love is THE purpose and goal of writing (and everything else in life). Nothing else will last in eternity.

    What do you mean exactly by “gently handling the emotional disturbances truth brings”? I agree with what I think you are saying! 🙂

    I did not notice any long-winded sentences, BTW. You write like a good writer. 😀

    Are you interested in beta reading at this point? I write mostly his-fic.

     

    Assistant Guildmaster of the Phantom Awesome Meraki
    ~ Created to create ~

    #79750
    MyClipboardIsMyViolin
    @myclipboardismyviolin

    It’s good to see you @selah!

    What do you mean exactly by “gently handling the emotional disturbances truth brings”? I agree with what I think you are saying! <span style=”-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);”>:)</span>

    […]

    Are you interested in beta reading at this point? I write mostly his-fic.

    The short version of that is “don’t be a jerk to people when talking about their emotions” and “be sensitive to what other people are feeling”. Don’t just focus on what people are thinking, focus on what they are feeling too.

    The long version is more of an observation that biblical truth tends to cause negative emotional reactions in unbelievers. In short, what I’ve noticed is kind of a rule: for unbelievers, the more truth they believe, the worse they feel, because their “life success” in the sin nature is based on how many lies they can believe, how many other people they can get to believe the same lies they do, and how well they can act against God in order to make their lies into a functioning reality for them. Now in all of these things the unbelievers will fail disastrously, but they delude themselves even more to make it seem to themselves that they have succeeded. Thus, believing the truth comes at an emotional cost.

    In contrast, Christians (people who have accepted Christ as their Lord and personal Savior) live the opposite emotional reality – every lie that that they believe and act upon costs them emotionally – for every lie they believe, the worse they feel. However, for Christians because of the Holy Spirit the lies they believe can be replaced with the truth using Scripture – thus their “life success” is how much truth they believe and act upon. The problem is Christians who aren’t aware of the unbelieving emotional reality going on a cheesy emotional gush about how awesome God is without realizing that turning reverses the flow.

    For evangelism purposes, I have met a number of unbelievers who are depressed, and all of them have seemed to have believed more truth than unbelievers who seemed to be happy. That’s because: the more truth they understand, the more inadequate they feel. And you as a Christian are walking into the scene with…yet more truth! Now that doesn’t mean we should compromise on the truth – far from it! But you should never attack these people for being sad or angry when you tell them more. Emphasize God’s love for them and how much you care about them instead, and try to empathize with what they are going through. Part of my goal, as ridiculously ambitious as it is, is to put that in a writing piece. I actively struggle with this as we speak, and I have found a catastrophic lack of resources on how to accomplish this: to empathize with an unbeliever and guide them through the emotional obstacles they may have to believing the truth, and to emphasize God’s love for them. But I intend to work with the problem until I solve it or it is shown to be impossible, even if it is just one unbeliever at a time.

    As for beta reading, I will read anything, but I do warn you that I have no experience writing historical fiction whatsoever. My areas of expertise are poetry, poetic stories of sorts, and comedic tales and memoir. I grew up writing fantasy and science fiction – a good zeitgeist for my area is things like Bionicle (sci-fi with comedic epic one-liners), Across the Wall by Garth Nix (I love Garth Nix, but Across the Wall is his best book), and Autagtrophe Alpaca Untitled (which I wrote for the Aetherlight). I also love well-done realistic fiction pieces and memoirs, heh. And Empryon 1 and 2. 😛 And the Land of Elyon. I could go on all day. So basically I like reading and writing sci-fi, fantasy, and realistic fiction with a good sense of humor as a huge plus, and I love poetry analysis. And I’m rambling.

    I read a lot of historical fiction as little girl, so I might be able to take a look, but I’m not the best expert. Probably better to have someone with a better background in writing that take a look at it.

    I will take beta reading requests, but I warn you that I’m in college currently so it might take me several weeks to read a lengthy work, and it will take me even longer right now because I am currently sans functioning computer. But do send them along, and I will set up a queue.

    Sarah, Miss S, Sierepica_Fuzzywalker

    #79752
    Selah CJW
    @selah-chelyah

    @myclipboardismyviolin

    Yes, I agree with you! I think I try to do that a lot in my writing, as well. As long as you are not compromising the truth that God hates sin and will punish the sinner unless they repent, I agree that grace and gentleness should be used. And I think the verses in Romans sum up what you are saying, “the Law kills, the Spirit gives life”, because apart from Christ the letter of the Law cannot be fulfilled. Agreed! 🙂

    As for beta reading, I am not looking for anything fancy, I just wondered if you were interested. Currently I am about to pause writing for a few months in order to finish school (so that I can focus on writing more afterwards!), and only have the first 5 chapters of my current WIP up for beta-ing. If you want to read it and give me input, I love any and all comments and thoughts, etc… Getting perspectives from lots of viewpoints is amazing!

    Assistant Guildmaster of the Phantom Awesome Meraki
    ~ Created to create ~

    #79755
    MyClipboardIsMyViolin
    @myclipboardismyviolin

    As long as you are not compromising the truth that God hates sin and will punish the sinner unless they repent,

    Good reminder. I haven’t done that – the last person I talked to was more aware of this fact than the other side – but yeah, good point that I forgot about. I will keep it in mind. 🙂

    Okay, I will look up that thread and see what I can do. It will probably take a few days to a week to do it proper justice- school comes first, heh.

    *tries to look up thread to bookmark * hmm, I seem to have trouble finding your story. Would a link be too much trouble?

    Sarah, Miss S, Sierepica_Fuzzywalker

    #79816
    Selah CJW
    @selah-chelyah

    @myclipboardismyviolin

    Oh, yeah, sorry…it is on a Google Doc, so I will have to send you access. If  you have an email I can send it to you, or you can just email me and I will email you the Doc: needleworksbyselah@gmail.com

    If you want to be a part of a beta-readers chat group that I have as well, tha’d be awesome…either way. Don’t feel abligated, lol! I will send you the Doc in a few days when I am finished with editing. It is okay if it takes you a while…I so understand! Thanks for wanting to read it. 😀

    Assistant Guildmaster of the Phantom Awesome Meraki
    ~ Created to create ~

    #79818
    Selah CJW
    @selah-chelyah

    @myclipboardismyviolin

    Oh, and if you type out my tag when you reply, then it will tag me in notifications. 😛

    Assistant Guildmaster of the Phantom Awesome Meraki
    ~ Created to create ~

    #79821
    MyClipboardIsMyViolin
    @myclipboardismyviolin

    @selah-chelyah

    I would just send you an email, but in case anyone else is reading and wants a beta read (and also so you know it’s me and not some creepy person): srf808@gmail.com

    Go ahead and storm da floodgates – just be nice about it.

    (What kind of needlework? I’m curious.)

    Sarah, Miss S, Sierepica_Fuzzywalker

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