A new day has dawned, but my mind is always a whirl of jumbled thoughts. Today I drift into the future into my early days on Writing.Com. I was but a wee calf of a writer back then.
Once upon a time, way before Game of Thrones, I went to join Stories.Com, which later became Writing.Com.
The year was 2000.
When I first joined this site, I came with a group. The site was about 9 days old and the only writing we could do was in Interactive Stories like this one. My group came from a website that wrote fan fiction about a movie. When we came to write in the Interactive we did not have to go through an editor because we could post our work instantly.
I had no idea who ran the site when I first joined. I just jumped in, created a portfolio so I could write in the Interactive Story called Sam and Josie, I believe and wrote and wrote and wrote. I wrote literally 100's of pages. I had so much fun and so did my friends. We eventually quit going to the other site because we would have to wait months after we submitted our work for the person in charge to post it. In looking back, I think she was quite mean to some of us, especially the younger writers.
At some point I saw that the Interactive Story briefcase was "Cool". This is the equivalent of what is now being promoted to preferred. I seem to remember some sort of dark glasses on the briefcase. I wanted to have that and when we could add items to our portfolio (not to long after joining - maybe a couple of months) it was not long before I was cool,
I had no idea who Moderators were or what they did because I never interacted with anyone outside my group until I decided to make a forum for myself. That was a mistake because soon after I made that forum someone came into it and told me my writing wasn't good and it was all the same thing over and over.
A Moderator called The Milkman  came in and defended me and so did SMs and SM. They were very nice to me. So, I got over it and branched out and started to read other things besides my groups story.
I made up my mind then that I would write more than just Fan Fiction about the movie, Never Been Kissed, but I continued to write stories and my popularity grew until I was pretty far up the most viewed list. I started reading and reviewing more outside of my group and I had a great time doing that. I tried this thing called The Writing Assignment that was run by NL*  and I was a co-winner of the first gift point giving contest on the site.
My handle back then was CAROLINELOVESTHEBUS. I wrote some really racy stuff back in my youth - we called it red ball then, but today it is known as XGC or something like that. I blush thinking of some of the stuff I wrote in my stories, but it got readers to come to me.
Things went along alright and I didn't pay much attention to site politics until one day in June 2001 when I was promoted to Moderator. I had no clue, so I wanted to see what was what with that. Let's just say my feelings were hurt by people who said I couldn't write. A lot of people, like SMs, NL* and others defended me, but a lot (who later admitted they hadn't read my stuff because they hated fan fiction) thought my writing was cow pies.
I overreacted, lets just say that. I overreacted and was a bit of an ass my own self in my overreacting youthful (compared to now) rage.
I declined the promotion and wrote some angry rants. I never named people, but I went off on their behavior in a way that I shouldn't have done. Sometimes, even a bull like me allows my temper to rule the day.
I also found out that some of my friends in my group were not really my friends. Oh, they pretended they were, but I saw enough things around then to know that my friends were now allied with the people who wrote terrible things about my writing and about me as a person.
Jealousy is a revealing thing. When I moved up that list of "Most Viewed" the long knives came out for me and some came out in writers who were here because I told them about this site. Some of them no longer wanted to know me when I was hurt and at my lowest point. But, the feeling there was mutual. Later when they tried to butter me up, I had none of it.
Some figured out that I was back as 4provinces, but I kept my identity to myself for a while. I wanted to prove that I could write and so that is what I did. I wrote and I wrote and I read everything I could find to read. A forum called, "You Should Be Reading This," was hosted by Yemassee, the number #1 Most Viewed author for a time. It was a great place to recommend fine reading and to find great reading. Yem would feature those of us who frequented our forums and personally recommend us. A recommendation from him meant a lot.
Yem was one of the first people here who encouraged me. He had no idea who I was, but he read my writing and endorsed me. That means so much to me, even today. I am in his debt forever for that. He had quite a sense of humor and sent me pictures of cuts of meats once I became the hooves personal as a secondary account. But, I get ahead of myself in my story.
Yem was a good friend.
I know fair weather friends and allies when I see them. I know the duplicitious evil that envy engenders.
So, that was a hot summer, that summer of 2001. In August I folded my tent and said adios, until I returned to write again in September as 4Ps.
That was the beginning of the modern era for me.........
I must find something to graze on as I continue to think of the past - recent and not so recent. The evil duplicity I have seen this weekend reminds me of some of the evil I saw so long ago. I wonder if the dark days are upon us again. Winter is Coming and I need a sweater.
Word Count = 1,121  | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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