Want to Stretch Your Fiction and Poetry Muscles? Join Fanstory!

I have no idea how I stumbled across Fanstory back in June of 2006, but I’m glad I discovered such a wonderful community of writers. I never even knew I had a passion for writing until I entered a site-sponsored contest and got my first five star review. What a rush! My first few stories and poems on here were badly written, I have to admit, but the more I wrote, the more I loved the craft. Thus began my three year journey on Fanstory.com.

Before I discovered my writing passion, I was a waitress for over ten years. I was miserable and burned out because being a waitress is not always rewarding. It can be a downright abusive job when you have to try to please so many people simultaneously. Then there’s the new manager who always comes in and wants to change everything to “make it better,” yet ends up making things worse.

I married my husband in April of 2001. By 2005, the location where I worked as a waitress closed down because that particular company was in the process of going bankrupt. My husband wanted me to stay home and raise our daughter. At first I protested, then I tried my fate of being a stay-at-home Mom. I discovered that I didn’t miss waitressing at all. I was looking for a pastime and stumbled onto Fanstory.

When I wrote, I found I had a lot of anger inside me. Something that needed to be let loose. The more I wrote, the better I felt. So I discovered that writing was very therapeutic for me.

I developed many friendships along the way. Many writers come and go here. One writer who is still a member, went so far as to send me and my family some wonderful gifts. I will never forget her kindness. She knows who she is…. I also tried to sell my Mary Kay cosmetic products to a couple of members. Recently, I tried to tell certain members how to make money with their writing, but received a warning from Tom, so I let that go.

In May of last year, I had submitted a Seal of Quality request, the second one I requested, that got rejected. I was extremely disappointed and frustrated that I was not doing well with my writing. I also entered numerous site-sponsored contests and never won. So I left Fanstory for a bit, and journeyed into the “real world” of being a technical writer. I soon discovered that freelancers who are first starting out, really don’t make much money. This is from my own experience, of course. I landed a job as a medical writer for a plastic surgery website, but when I asked for a raise, I was ignored; my boss didn’t even bother to respond. So I quit that job. I now only work as an independent contractor with my writing. But the best part of that job is that it affords me the opportunity of staying home with my children — which offers me the balance I need.

While away from Fanstory, I began to miss my creative writing side. So I decided to rejoin and upgrade my membership. When Fanstory started adding classrooms for further education, I figured I could use the extra education, so I signed up immediately. I am taking the Flash Fiction course with Les (suneagle), who is a wonderful instructor. I am improving, and would like to still be able to win one of those site-sponsored contests one day.

Thanks Tom, for a wonderful site!

Kristen

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