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!

If you want to see what I’m doing over there visit Word Grrls. It’s about web writing with a lot of writing prompts and writing exercises. I’ve been writing on the web since 1998.

This blog, through Lockergnome, is one I began awhile ago and then lost to the mothballs for awhile. I’ve been thinking that I should get back to writing for an online network again. I used to write for BackWash but that is gone now. I wrote for Suite101 but the rules seem to change so often there and I’m just not that organized to keep track. Long before that I wrote for HerPlanet.com and BellaOnline and WZard.com too. (If you know HerPlanet and Dottie or any of the other women who were in that network leave me a note – I’d really like to hear from you!).

Anyway, here I am back at Lockergnome. I will stick to a weekly or bi-weekly update. Not sure which at this moment. I update Word Grrls daily and it can be a gruelling schedule to stick to. So this will be a bit lighter while I decide where I’m going with it. Not that I have no plan at all. I wouldn’t have started typing this if I didn’t have some ideas and some goals.

Stay tuned for more!

I have the web writing blog on it's own domain now: WordGrrls.com.

I wrote a comment in a thread on the CMF Ads forum in reply to Erin who is feeling she is not cut out to be a blogger. First of all, I don't think it should be seen as some exclusive club. If you post to a blog, you are a blogger. If you stick with it, you're a better blogger. Anyway, for your consideration on the topic of not being cut out for blogging...

*You need to make your blog more your own creation again. I think one problem for new bloggers is that they try to play to the reader so much that the blog stops being their own. If you direct too much to the reader you are giving away power and then it does feel flat.

Do something new with it. What are you interested in? What hobby do you love? What topic are you really interested in or what have you really wanted to spend some time finding out more about? Maybe you have always wanted to learn to draw or take better photos? Maybe you collect teacups? Maybe you just need to write for yourself again, free writing.

Take a week off to break away from the old plan and then start again with the new version. Give your blog a total revamp, start from scratch, change your colours or just a new header. Whatever it takes.

I don't think you are not cut out for blogging, just that your blog has stopped being a good fit for you.*

I'm Laura. ASCII artist, stick figure cartoonist, urban and rural explorer of abandoned places - these are a few of the things I am doing when I'm not writing. I began as a web writer in 1998 but I started online in 1996, an IRC diva. I think I am a great fit for Lifehacker because I have experience, stamina (I was an editor at Dmoz over ten years), creativity, originality and inspiration. I've also been a copy editor and forum moderator so I can write and self edit my work quite well. I love finding new things online: new gadgets, new sites, new ways to use what we already have. I'm not the most organized person so I look for anything to help me with that. Some things work and some don't but I try them. Once a year I reformat my hard drive to make sure I'm not left with any nasty critters from my experimentation. I'm teaching my Mother to use the computer. It takes patience, a lot of simple words, straight forward answers and I'm usually repeating the same things over a few times before she actually listens but we are making progress. I'm Sagittarius, I just feel the need to teach the world.

WordGrrls (http://wordgrrls.com) is my site for web writers. Originally I used it to stash content I had written for BackWash, WZard.com, HerPlanet, LockerGnome, BellaOnline and Suite101. On WordGrrls I post (daily) creative writing prompts, writing inspiration, web publishing ideas and generally my point of view about anything to do with keeping a space for yourself on the web. There is a flood of information for SEO and marketing your blog but the writing itself is being put on the backburner. I bring the writing back into the lime light. I love writing and even making lists of topics to write about. A bit crazy. Currently I am working through a mild addiction to WordPress plugins. I have found several I like for odds and ends but I've yet to find just what I want for displaying a featured past post.

I'm located in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. Not the US but I was once married to an American and spent a few years living in Illinois, does that count?

Right now I am not employed, trying the work from home plan but still mostly just unemployed. I have a lot of availability. Usually I am online in the evening when it is quiet and dark and I can pretend I'm far more mysterious than I really am.