My daughter the writer

You're welcome, Jim, and yes, Lulu is quite reputable... several people in Mylot will vouch for that... (seeds for another discussion?) :) Helium is ok, and they do help you with your writing. They've invited me to become a steward as part of a team on there, which are geared to help the writers with any difficulties they have. We have forums to discuss any queries the writers might have. I haven't confirmed yet, but I must do it over the weekend. However, Helium isn't quite as oppressive as it looks, it's building to be a very useful site, and you can write articles for the market place, where if the publishers like your work, they might make you an offer for it, to place it in their publications... magazines, etc. So there might be an opportunity there. I don't blame you there, because when I first joined, it took me a fair while to find my way around. lol. Brightest Blessings.

Thanks for the suggestions Darkwing. I note you've had a visit on some of my other discussions too. My girl is looking in on this thread with me now and i think she is well impressed with the discussion so far. I had heard of lulu but didn't know if it was reputable or not. Helium looks a bit intimidating to me but needs more checking out before making up our minds. There have been a lot of good suggestions so far, we'll take a while to check them all out.

Those sound like good suggestions to me, thanks. Will check them out

Yes, i think that she will have some good avantages in life. She should carry on her writing carrear and sort out a publisher soon. And i like your idea on the open screen thing, very masure. Lol ^^ x x x x Cazziecaz5 x x x x

Thanks, I've heard of deviant art but I've not been on that site in a long while. Part of the reson for starting this discussion was showing her what I've been doing on various writing sites. I hoped I would get some good responses and I've not been disappointed. I think she'll likely just watch whats going on here for a while and check out some of the suggestions that have been made

Thanks. She'll be 13 in a couple of months time but I thought she might get to know the writing pages first. I'll send that message

There certainly does seem to be two definite opinions about this. So far she's just watched over my shoulder but she says to me that she thinks Mylot is "cool", so I think thats a positive response from her.

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm finding theres quite a broad range of opinion on this question. I also noted some other conversations going on about things like "would you let your children watch the Simpsons?" so I think theres probably quite a range of different attitudes on here. I've also found that any pages here with "adult" content have flagged up and been blocked so far so either theres a default filter or I've somehow activated one. The jury is still out on this one but I've been very pleased with the wide range of really helpful positive suggestions that I've recieved.

In terms of creativity she is a better writer than I am. I think you've got a good point and its something I have covered in another discussion I responded to entitled "How well do you get on with your daughter". At home we have an open screen policy - that is, the internet is only on in the main living room and when two are in the room. I think that a lot of children run rings around their parents as far as IT goes. Net nannies are easily overcome! But I'm fortunate in that not only am I very computer literate but my daughter knows it as well. I've shown her that I can and do recover files she has deleted and that I can see all her computer activities (this part of our family policy on computer use and applies to me too! Apart from banking, any family member can check up on me). This is only a partial safeguard as she can and does access the internet from friends and the Library, but there are limits to what any parent can do. You just do the best you can and hope they learn a little bit from funny old dad. At least we are so close with no "no go" areas in conversation; I think that helps. I might start another discussion where I ask for opinions about some of the things I've done to keep my children safe online. I think a few people might find them a bit outrageous but I think you need to be wise in this crazy old world - its a bit different from when I was growing up.