OK I know this isn't directly about writing... but I'm really curious how everyone even finds our hatrack community. I see new faces from all over the world and I wonder if it's more than just word of mouth. I found it because card listed the webpage in one of his books, as a tribute. Don't remember which now... come to think of it.
But to try to justify this topic... this information can help us to connect, as writers, to a greater global writer's community, if we can identify how writers are finding each other, with which we can improve our writing, through writing about writing, in the most written way possible....
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
i found this place by shere accident. i was looking for something what i dont reamember but i found Hatrack insted. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II
Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :
I Googled 'sci fi wwriters discussion forum'
I wanted an online forum because I travel on business all the time and can't get to regular physical writers workshops, so I was hunting for a virtual workshop.
I wanted a moderated forum. I chose Hatrack because Kathleen's moderation is excellent, and the first 13 idea is a valuable --new to me -- writing discipline.
Hope this helps, Pat
Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :
I found the forum because I finally decided to look online and see if my favorite author had a website. Lo and behold, there was Hatrack! And wonder of wonders, there was a writer's forum where people actually wrote instead of just talked about writing 'someday'.
I can truthfully say that stumbling across Hatrack is the reason I began my writing career, so OSC has been my main inspiration since the start. It's total gravy that he happens to like what I write too.
Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :
Ages ago, my favorite board systems was shutting down. People were searching for new locations. This forum was pointed out to me, but I was not ready for it. Not to long ago, another forum I regulary visited died, so I decided I wanted to find this again. A bit more experiance allowed me to take advantage of what this place has to offer.
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
I, too, surf sites of authors that catch my fancy. So I was vagually aware of Hatrack from occasional lurks. After I began writing, it was a natural progression.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Well, Kathleen mentioned it to me. I'd been involved (on and off) with the late-and-lamented Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop, print publication and workshop parts, for, oh, over twenty years. The site came up in correspondence, I looked at it...and wondered how I had missed it lo! these many many years.
Posted by debhoag (Member # 5493) on :
I had stumbled across a couple of the Alvin Maker books in a thrift store, and was looking online to see if the other promised books in the series had been published - I've been very cynical since the Gunslinger series.
Posted by Balthasar (Member # 5399) on :
About four or five years ago I had become a big OSC fan. It happened that was about the same time I started writing. I found this workshop while looking around Hatrack, but didn't join right away.
Posted by darklight (Member # 5213) on :
It was reccomeded to me by a member of Hatrack who was also in another writers forum I am a member of.
Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :
I followed a link off the critters.org site, but I've also seen links from the Sff.net. WHile there are a bunch of on-line workshops floating around, only a handful are very good, and hence these come up repeatedly.
Posted by Lynda (Member # 3574) on :
I followed a link off Critters too, and I also did a search for writing groups. After browsing several, I decided I liked it here.
Lynda
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
When I went to EnderCon there was a workshop devoted just the the Hatrack website, which I found puzzling.
Hard to believe that was seven years ago.
Even so, I wasn't really involved until 2003, and then I started posting here (originally as pooka) more in 2005, I think.
Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :
When I decided to start writing, one of the books I came across was OSC's How to write Science Fiction and Fantasy. After that I searched for his website.
For a long time I just went through his writing lessons. It took a while before I decided to join the forum.
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
Like many others, I hunted down the site as an OSC fan. Posted by Snorri Sturluson (Member # 5807) on :
Back in the day, nearly 10 years ago now, I was looking for new books and figured that OSC probably had written more than the Ender Quartet. I did a search on the net (which was still rather new and fangled at that point) and found this site, which utterly confused me as I had no idea what hatrack had to do with Ender's Game (and obviously, I thought, Ender's Game would be the theme for OSC's website). Found the forums (back before they were using UBB), made the switch to the Young Writer's Forum, and after a long hiatus signed up here.
The rest, as they say, is history... and by that I mean long, boring, and not terribly relevant.
Posted by Josh Anthony (Member # 5960) on :
I found this site because of OSC (sound familiar? ), but then I came across the forum. Up til now I've only had friends and family to read my stories (so the critique is rather biased). To find that there was a place where I could submit my work and have it analyzed by fellow SF&F writers...it was amazing for me.
Posted by HuntGod (Member # 2259) on :
OSC wrote at length in the back of one of the Alvin Maker books, I think it was the 4th one, about the Hatrack community and how invaluable some of it's members had been in helping him polish material for the book. He also indicated that several of the forum members had shown up i the novel because the character they portrayed in the forums was so interesting and amusing.
That sounded very interesting to me, so here I came, it was actually over a month before i even realized the writing forums were here.
Posted by JeffBarton (Member # 5693) on :
In a discussion forum far, far away about alternate history long, long ago, there was a fiction posted and discussed. The author was trying to explain depth of penetration into the mind of the POV character. He cited the relevant entry in OSC's writing lessons. I read that lesson, then the others. I lurked around the Workshop for a while. Finally, I tried writing a short story and joined up to share stories and critiques.
Posted by Mauvemuse (Member # 5488) on :
I was also looking for OSC related stuff and after clicking all of the buttons on the site, found this.
Posted by I am destiny on :
Hatrack was listed in my friends Writers Digest. So we looked it up and here I am...
~D
Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :
Well, I am very much not a fan of Mr. Card's writing, but I was checking out some sites that crit differently than the ones I usually use. I can't say I agree with the idea of critting based on the first 13 lines but I do drop in every day or so to see what people are talking about or to get opinions on writer related issues.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I should say that I am not one of Mr. Card's biggest fans or even regular readers. There was a time, in the early eighties, where I "had the bug" and combed through all my magazine back issues and anthologies on hand looking for his short stories---I learned a lot from rereading them in a bunch, I think---but it didn't stay with me.
Since coming here, I have picked up the Alvin Maker series and enjoyed that immensely---seemed kind of the thing right up my alley, actually. But I'm still not inclined to pick up the Ender series just yet---"Ender's Game" was one of his things, way back, that I didn't like. (Passing time has improved a lot of things I didn't like at first, though. Anything is up for another look, if I can ever find the time.)
Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :
I read Ender's game last Thanksgiving and fell in love with the book. Re-read it right away. Found Harry Potter next (I took a fiction break while having kids...) and read 6 books in 15 days... LOL, the kids watched a lot of TV that vacation. Went back to OSC and started reading the rest of the enderverse. It was in the back of one of those books that Hatrack was mentioned. Didn't think much of it, got busy with the holiday hullabaloo. Then made a quasi-new year's resolution to WRITE. Remembered reading about the Hatrack website from OSC's books, dug them back out, found the reference (I haven't read the Alvin Maker series so the name is still lost on me...LOL) and came here.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Well, a little poking around should reveal some details of the Alvin Maker series. And you might speculate why this site is called "Hatrack River Writer's Workshop"...
Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :
As far as Mr. Card is concerned, I think that when an artist, whether writer, actor, or whatever, chooses to make himself politically controversial, as he has done, it is likely to "slop over" into people's judgments on their artistic work. Unfortunately, I simply can no longer enjoy his work although there was a time when I did. I generally prefer not to discuss that, since I don't particularly feel that my politics and my writing should mix.
Posted by The G-Bus Man (Member # 6019) on :
Well, I found it because I was familiar with OSC from the start and was looking around to see if he had an online forum after reading the 1991 edition of "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy."
And what do you know, I was right
Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :
I honestly don't remember, but it is the first writing forum/workshop site I began frequenting.
I'm not a huge OSC fan, just an average/regular fan, having read a half dozen or so of his books. Ender's game is still the one I have the most attachment to.
Posted by sakubun (Member # 5719) on :
In Japan, people usually stay at work for long hours and come in on weekends and holidays. It's not how well you do, but how much you are physically at work.
This goes for foreign English teachers as well even though we find this truly silly. I can work 100 hours overtime and then ask for 1 hour off to leave early on a day with no classes and have a vacation time sheet shoved in my face.
This causes us to surf the web for things we have no interest in or just follow links to see where they go or in my case searching for anything I think of. Average lifespan of a praying mantis....I'll google it.
That all being said, I recently googled all the writers I enjoy reading and then clicked on any link I found relating to them. I searched for OSC and found this site and then noticed the forum. I read it for a while and decided to take the plunge.
As you can see, I am at school now and bored and typing all this nonsense. It's summer "vacation" though I have to come in everyday.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
I think I read an invitation to come to the Hatrack in Xenocide, and so I popped in, actually I popped into the wrong forum first, I think it was some sort of Alvin Maker RPG. After they yelled me out I found here. It's not my first writer's forum (or my last) but I'm still here.
Posted by mortifaguillo (Member # 5967) on :
As a matter of fact, I got here on a lucky guess. I was doing some research about the videogame 'Monkey Island' (where 'research' should be 'play again' lol) for an amateur screenplay. It's a game I have played itseveral times but I never noticed in the credits that OSC had written the insults for the insult swordfighting section, which are quite funny.
So I googled a bit about OSC, found his webpage... and you know what happended next.
Posted by WouldBe (Member # 5682) on :
I was searching to see if Uncle Orson was doing any book-signings in my area. I found no information about that and don't know if he does book tours.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
WouldBe, the Calendar link at the top of the page will take you to the list of OSC signings and appearances. Or you can get there from here.
Posted by Howjos (Member # 2441) on :
I found this site as years ago I was into online free form rpg's and wanted to try and track one down based on Ender's Game. I found the Battle School forum first then made my way here fairly quickly as I explored the site.
Went back to OSC and started reading the rest of the enderverse. It was in the back of one of those books that Hatrack was mentioned. Didn't think much of it, got busy with the holiday hullabaloo. Then made a quasi-new year's resolution to WRITE. Remembered reading about the Hatrack website from OSC's books, dug them back out, found the reference (I haven't read the Alvin Maker series so the name is still lost on me...LOL) and came here.