# Hey now



## Shemp (May 14, 2017)

How's everyone doin'?   Glad to be here.   I'm looking forward to doing some reading and writing, critiquing and getting critiqued.

I recently shared a couple of old blog posts with a few people, got some nice positive feedback on my writing style.   So, I figured I'd work on it, share some stuff, and get informed opinions.   I will do my best to help others, too.   I have at least average critical thinking abilities, that a 60 year old man should possess.    Not sure if that extends into the area of writing.   We'll see, I guess.

Finally.....happy Mother's Day to the moms out there.   Hope it's a good one for you!


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## JustRob (May 15, 2017)

Hi Shemp. Everyone who reads forms opinions of what they read. They must simply to decide whether to keep on reading if nothing else. Expressing those opinions constructively is about knowing one's own mind as much as knowing anything about writing. I'm the mentor for beta readers here rather than writers, having little experience in the latter myself. If you can provide a valuable critique of other people's work then, employing a good deal of impartiality, you should be able to do the same with your own work and hence improve on it. However, there is one fundamental concept that came to my mind when I tried writing a novel a few years ago and it's this.

You start out with a fictional writer within your own mind but that personality can only become a real writer within the minds of others. So, here we encourage those fictional writers that we've dreamt up to become real ones, if they can, by sharing our work. Good luck with that. Start out by writing comments on some of the things already posted here and when you have your first ten posts clocked up you can start posting your own efforts as a full member.


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## aj47 (May 15, 2017)

Hello and welcome.  

I once blogged for fictitious baseball players -- I have a couple dozen or so of these floating around Wordpress.  It was good practice for developing characters.  

They're not the sort of thing that I think people would choose to read, but ... you never know.


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## Firemajic (May 15, 2017)

Shemp said:


> How's everyone doin'?   Glad to be here.   I'm looking forward to doing some reading and writing, critiquing and getting critiqued.
> 
> I recently shared a couple of old blog posts with a few people, got some nice positive feedback on my writing style.   So, I figured I'd work on it, share some stuff, and get informed opinions.   I will do my best to help others, too.   I have at least average critical thinking abilities, that a 60 year old man should possess.    Not sure if that extends into the area of writing.   We'll see, I guess.
> 
> Finally.....happy Mother's Day to the moms out there.   Hope it's a good one for you!





Hello, Shemp. so nice to meet you... I like your enthusiasm 
Readers are why writers write.... hahaa, so your respectful feedback is appreciated and valued. So, roll up your sleeves and get started, explore and check out your new writing community.. We have a lot of things to inspire you and to help you get moooovin and grooovin. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask a Mentor, you will know the mentors ... we are the purple people, and it says "Mentors under our name...
Thank you for the Mothers Day greeting.. 
Jump in and join the chaos... I mean, join the fun... see you around...


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## Deleted member 56686 (May 15, 2017)

Hey, Shemp, how do you put up with Moe and Larry (smart aleck had to make a Three Stooges joke, didn't he? :icon_cheesygrin: )


Anyway, welcome to the forums. We do have a pretty large blog area where you can pretty much talk about anything you want. Once you have ten valid posts anywhere except for the word games and procrastination central, you'll be able to post your own works for critique. In the meantime, take a look at the forums where you can comment on and if you have a writing question, there's always the Writing Discussion forum.

So, welcome and watch out for those two fingers. :lol:


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## Shemp (May 15, 2017)

Thanks to all for the warm welcome.

JustRob I had never heard the term beta reader before.   I sort of understood the inference, but still looked it up, to be sure.   If you are a mentor of that group, I guess that makes you a "bettah beta"?   HEEYYY--OOOOO!  haha

Yeah, I reckon that as I sharpen my critical thinking skills by evaluating others' work, I will be more able to evaluate and improve my own writing.

Hi astroannie.   Any chance that I could see some of what you wrote about ballplayers?    I don't follow baseball as closely as I used to, but I just read "Alibi Ike" by Ring Lardner, and enjoyed it very much.

Hi Firemajic.   I'm a fan of sensational spelling, too.   I think we'll get along just fiiiiine.......

Hey mrmustard615 I love Curly as much as probably you, and other Stooges fans do, too.  Nyuk nyuk nyuk.   But lately I've come to better appreciate Shemp.   He was quite talented, and "a different kind of cat", both as a comic actor, and in his personal life.  Different is good....as long as it stops short of "crazy", right?

Thanks for the info, and the welcome.


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## aj47 (May 15, 2017)

Shemp said:


> Hi astroannie.   Any chance that I could see some of what you wrote about ballplayers?    I don't follow baseball as closely as I used to, but I just read "Alibi Ike" by Ring Lardner, and enjoyed it very much.



I have an ebook of baseball poetry -- there's a link to it in the Emporium.  http://www.writingforums.com/threads/170842-Infield-Singles-Baseball-Poems


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## JustRob (May 15, 2017)

Shemp said:


> JustRob I had never heard the term beta reader before.   I sort of understood the inference, but still looked it up, to be sure.   If you are a mentor of that group, I guess that makes you a "bettah beta"?   HEEYYY--OOOOO!  haha.



No, as mentor I'm just menta help make the beta reading betta, assisted by my lovely assistant and angel wife BlondeAverageReader, who is blonde and an average reader as well as being lovely and an angel, of course. There are far better beta readers than me around here, I assure you, but they lurk in the shadows.


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## Shemp (May 17, 2017)

Well played, JustRob.

Astroannie are you an Astros fan?   I saw a game in the Astrodome when I was a kid.   Early 70s, I think.   It was great fun.   I was hoping to read the ballplayer blogs, if they are available.   I'm somewhat autistic, which means I have trouble with poetry and symbolism and stuff and junk.   I also have trouble with details like the little icons I just noticed like the likes & smiles & thanks and the other things.  So distressing!   Also can you help me get to the "full site" version?   I was able to do it once before, but can't figure out how to do it now.   Oh yeah, is there a way to turn off autocorrect?   I wanna spell words the way I like to spell 'em.

I promise not to be High Maintenance, after this thread.

OK just figured out how to change the style, just need to defeat that spell checker now


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## Ptolemy (May 17, 2017)

Shemp said:


> Well played, JustRob.
> 
> Astroannie are you an Astros fan?   I saw a game in the Astrodome when I was a kid.   Early 70s, I think.   It was great fun.   I was hoping to read the ballplayer blogs, if they are available.   I'm somewhat autistic, which means I have trouble with poetry and symbolism and stuff and junk.   I also have trouble with details like the little icons I just noticed like the likes & smiles & thanks and the other things.  So distressing!   Also can you help me get to the "full site" version?   I was able to do it once before, but can't figure out how to do it now.   Oh yeah, is there a way to turn off autocorrect?   I wanna spell words the way I like to spell 'em.
> 
> ...



I have two blog posts on college baseball. I haven't added any in over month due to me straining my meniscus and just getting back. 

Hate to shamelessly plug myself, but it pertains to your question on "baseball blogs."


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## aj47 (May 17, 2017)

Shemp said:


> Astroannie are you an Astros fan?   I saw a game in the Astrodome when I was a kid.   Early 70s, I think.   It was great fun.



I used to be.  Then they changed to the [strike]Evil[/strike] American League and I quit.  I wrote a poem about it--it's in the book.  The DH is for practice leagues, not professional ballplayers.  IMNSHO.



> I was hoping to read the ballplayer blogs, if they are available.



I'll send you a PM with some links and you can decide if you want more.



> I'm somewhat autistic, which means I have trouble with poetry and symbolism and stuff and junk.



You may like my poetry then, as some of it is downright geeky.



> I also have trouble with details like the little icons I just noticed like the likes & smiles & thanks and the other things.  So distressing!   Also can you help me get to the "full site" version?   I was able to do it once before, but can't figure out how to do it now.   Oh yeah, is there a way to turn off autocorrect?   I wanna spell words the way I like to spell 'em.



Sure.  if you have the blue mobile version -- full site is at the bottom of every screen.  It works with cookies so if you use the same device to access the forum all the time, and choose "remember me" when you log in, it should remember you and keep your choice.

As for the spell checker, that's probably your browser.  What browser do you use?  I may be able to help.  I'm a former tech support deity.


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## Shemp (May 21, 2017)

Now would be a good time to get back on the Astros bandwagon.   They currently have the best record in beisbol.   Maybe they'll even win the World Series!   Hey, if the Cubs can win it, anyone can......except for maybe the Seattle Mariners haha.

Ptolemy & astroannie thanks for sharing your writing.   All of the entries were entertaining.   I don't follow the game very closely these days, but I used to be a big fan, as a kid.   I was 13 when Ball Four by Jim Bouton came out.   It was amazing.....a funny, behind the scenes look at the ballplayers, some of whom I idolized.   In some small way, it shaped my writing style, whatever that style is.   It taught me the value of humor, and the importance of a strong ending:


“A ballplayer spends a good piece of his life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.”.


Good stuff.

I have many fine qualities, but an ability to appreciate poetry is not one of them.  No offense, astroannie, or to other poetry lovers.   This excerpt from The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy does ring true to me, however:


"Literature in English excels in every kind of writing.  Its particular glory is its poetry.  For historical reasons, the English language acquired a vocabulary that is unusually rich and nuanced,......   This variety in our vocabulary has allowed our poets a tremendous range of sounds and meanings and made poetry in English one of humanity's great achievements." 


Sorry that I'm missing out on the fun.....

Thanks astroannie for the offer of help with spell check.   I'll take a rain check on that.   Leaving it "on" will help me cut back on my sensational spelling habit.    Its only sorta funny, when used on rare occasion.   Or so, I've been told......


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