I started writing as Super Noob on Lindsay's blog, Web Design for Idiots. Tonight I wrote the following as an introduction to who I am and why I'm someone who might have a reason to be writing there.

I'm posting this from my very messy desk with the TV on to my left and my nearly cold coffee at my right hand, in danger of wrecking my faithful little scanner. I'm a real woman. I'm a real, live, 40+, divorced Canadian woman, a writing legend in my own mind.

In June of 1996 I began on the Internet. I was an IRC diva for quite a long time. It was a lot of fun and most of it I really should not write about here. That's what personal blogs are all about. I wrote for a zine first, a small print publication called The Crying Clown. From there it was all online. At one point I was producing my own newsletter for writers, InkSplatters, sent out through what is now Yahoo Groups. I was a web writer for HerPlanet, BackWash, BellaOnline, Suite 101, WZ-ard.com and other sites, forums and newsletters some still living and some not. I still write for Creative Fat Grrl on LockerGnome, a babbly blog more than anything seriously functional. Writing for a network is a different educational experience than writing for yourself. Which is one reason I keep doing it.

I've had sites and then blogs of my own. I didn't begin online in the great time of blogging, I was here before that. So my first sites were put together with just HTML code as I learned and goofed it up. I've used software and I've cut and pasted code and I've hand coded my own pages. I'm not an expert, time alone isn't enough to make you an expert at web design or development. I have learned however and as I learn I see how much more there is to be explored and discovered. But, don't look to me expecting I'm a know-it-all. If I ever say that you can be sure I'm just laughing at myself.

I love creative things. I've done so many interesting forms of art, just to try them out. I made ASCII art for a few years. I continue to take digital photos of abandoned places here in Ontario, starting in 2006 when I bought my first digi camera. I'm also teaching myself to draw cartoons, some people even like them! This week I re-learned the art of cutting out paper doll chains so I could make them into a graphic for a blog. I really think it's important to keep the creativity and free writing in blogging. It would be a real shame if the personal journal and creative element of blogging were lost in the rush for SEO and money making.

Anyway, I'm here to help the less experienced blogger with my experiences. I've got a stack of great books about web design on my bookshelf and I will be using them (finally) for more than a place to hide my dust bunnies. I seem to collect books with great good intentions and then not get very far. You can also find me writing about web writing and posting writing ideas and prompts on my blog, Word Grrls.

Completely off topic... did you know that a nail file works really well if you have an itchy spot on your back that you just can't reach? I've been rubbing my back on my chair tonight wishing for something to work. Then I had the great idea for the nail file (not one of those treacherous metal ones, just some cardboard type) and that worked great!

I’ve been wracking my brain cells for an image that will give the feeling of Creative Fat Grrl to use in a link exchange. After much searching of soul and Google Images I have come up with a plan to use paper chain dolls. Do you remember those? Have you ever made one? I’m still in the drawing stages for mine but I did find interesting links and ideas for making more of your own. Maybe you will try it, again, or for the first time. It’s a simple way to create something nice.

Fancy Nancy Paper Chain Dolls has a pattern with a ruffled skirt.

Kiddley is making paper doll chains and decorating them.

Mumsgather has ballerina and boy paper chain dolls.

Stampington & Company has a chain doll pattern with braids.

Sketch & Jones has a really nice design that would be hard to cut out.

The Origami Resource Center has patterns for making a variety of paper dolls including one in a circle.

Sue has very fancy chain paper dolls photographed on Flickr.

Kraken Crafts made a paper gnome chain.

Mad Gardener has a curly haired paper doll chain.

Creative Muse has a chain with winged dolls.

In making my own this afternoon I found it crucial to have the hands a bit larger than you would choose so that the connection between each doll is strong enough to survive the unfolding. If you make any yourself please post pictures and add the link in comments here. My own pattern turned out kind of nice. :)

In my other life I’m a freelance writer.

It’s not an easy thing to claim to be a writer. Brady, in his blog Hunting the Muse, did a great job of writing about this feeling. The ever inadequate feeling of being someone who writes versus a writer.

When I was still a kid, a young teenaged human versus a young goat (just in case the thought occurred to you), my Uncle told me no one under the age of 40 could be a real writer. Anyone under 40 hasn’t experienced enough life to write about it. This really discouraged me for years. I think it still does even though I will be 45 this December. I understand his feelings yet he really was so very wrong. Life happens from the time you are in the womb until the time you leave the planet. No point in the path should be glossed over as not important or worth writing about.

Anyway, I still find it hard to believe in myself as a writer. I love to write. I love the words. I love hearing the sound of myself writing. At times I even talk out loud when I read my words back to myself. I like the audience of one however. I can laugh at my own words, find the humour in them cause I know it will be there right where I left it. Someone else might laugh at the wrong parts.

Writing was easier when I was doing more of it. That much I have learned from my experience. If you learn anything today, learn that from me. When you are in the world of writing (even if it’s not for greater publications) you are involved, you are active and your brain is in gear. You feel the words in your mind and they flow much faster and simpler. There is more confidence in your ability when you are using it.

Anyway, if I could arrange my life the way I would like it (like playing a simulation game on the computer) I would be writing a weekly column for newspapers, syndicated all over the places. I like writing short pieces. I can find a beginning, a middle and an end for them. Longer work has too much middle. I get lost in there and don’t know if I really can write my way to the end of it all. I’m going to try though. I’ve come up with a plan and they say that is how it starts.

Do you feel you are a writer? Do you feel sure about yourself if you tell someone else you are a writer? If not, what would it take for you to feel you are a writer? What kind of success do you need? How can you get there? Maybe you can try something today, take some steps to walk into that bigger picture.