I have finally got time to write again and have a chapter of Dessert Princess ready. It seems to have been my most popular story, so I thought that it would be the most likely to please others.
When I look at the number of votes and comments in comparison to what our popular authors are getting, I wonder why I would bother? I am clearly not the writer that I want to be. What am I thinking with my romantic attachment to writing?
I notice that DP2 did not do well at all, yet it was a continuation of the original. Perhaps I got political, or religious when I should have left it out. I did feel like what is in the story is such an integral part of it.
There is this huge lump of anxiety regarding just posting it, knowing that it will not look right and I will have to fix it.
I don't know what to do.
Gwen
Damn the torpedoes post away!
Sometimes a delay between postings can have a big effect or simply what is there to compete with it at the time.
I intend to read it. You might wish to post it as an all-in-one posting or ask Erin to repost the previous parts a few days before as a refesher.
John in Wauwatosa, well, just outside of Marquette, MI tonight.
P.S. I did go through Paradise and Christmass, wiil send photos soon.
John in Wauwatosa
It's a Big Closet!
Gwen, please post it.
You never know what may be popular from one day to the next. Just becasue something is not well recieved from comments and votes and hits does not have any real bearing on how good the writing is, only how popular it is. I know we all want to be popular. However, we are not all the same and there are very few of us who can be real, while seeming to go by the script and formula that makes things popular. Even if one were handed the script and formula of writing something that is popular would it be right to sacrifice our soul to write what is popular rather than what comes from your heart. The beauty of it is that it is a big closet with emphasis on big. Even though a story may not pile in the numbers, it is still being read by a great many people. A lot more than if you were to pass it around to a writing group in your home town even if you felt comfortable doing that. We aren't the best at writing comments after we write. I dont know of any writer here that won't one on one read something of yours in exchange for you reading something of theirs and each giving feedback on the other's work. With all the writers here, that one on one process can net you lots of feedback. It is easier if there are so many people that by sheer numbers you get comments but the alternative is doable too. Please write without regard for the reception and you being true to yourself will reap the benefits. You can only gain by practicing your craft in public. Later on if you realize out of experiance that good writing would dictate certain changes, at least its only revisions instead of having to produce it from thin air.
Please Write,
Sasha
All my hopes
Ariel Montine Strickland
Gwen Brown, Please
Post your story. I enjoy reading your stories.They are different from others which makes them a refreshing change.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
A single smile
Gwen I write for me, but like everyone else I love getting those comments. Yeah I know you have to take the hits and the comments with a bit of salt, but it still feels good. Sasha has it right. You can only improve by writing and then writing some more. My most popular work is still way, way down the list, but I look at it like this. If I can help a single person smile or maybe even tease a laugh from them, it's worth it. So many of the stories here has helped ME when I've logged-on feeling all beat up and blue. Those smiles, giggles and laughs they've given me has been worth their weight in gold, but each one was freely given.
So post away Gwen. Who knows what may happen!
hugs!
grover
Should You?
Gwen,
I am going to look for the previous two. I am not sure I read them. Portia
Portia
Post post post!
The simple truth is it is impossible to know what will be popular from one week to the next- but the best way to find out? Post your story and don't worry about it. Besides, hit count isn't necessarily read count. I know a lot of people on here who save or print stories to read later, and might read a story twenty times but only make one hit. On the other hand, you've got those like me who inflate their hit count by rereading comments over and over.
Write because you want to. It ain't about popularity.
It is not about the popularity.
Lately, I often just feel so embarassed and inadequate after I read someone else's story. What am I thinking, how can I face people with my poor work. Angela tried to get me to work on improvement and I brashly refused.
I am not going back to revisit anything, but I am certainly going to take another look at Desert Princess 3, and make it the best work I can posibly turn out. That will be the last chapter. The story is told and have others that I want to move on to.
I'll work it out; don't mean to sound hysterical even if I am. :)
Gwen
I Recommend You Post It
Worrying about what readers will like is one of the things that has led me into my current writing predicament, which is actually being able to finish a story. Since the beginning of May I have worked on 10+ stories and have only finished one (posted in June). Will people like it, will there be parts that drag, is my dialog good enough, can I fine tune that paragraph, am I giving enough information, am I giving too much information, is this believable, will they like that story better, will this drive people away from reading other things I write? All of these, and more, are questions that I (and likely a lot of other writers) constantly ask myself.
Yet I realize that by sinking into this quagmire, I am allowing myself to stagnate as a writer. I am not allowing myself to make mistakes from which I can learn. I am planting my seeds, only to dig them up to see if they have started growing. Basically, like the many years before I posted my first story (just over 2 years ago), during the last three or four months I have not grown as a writer.
However, when I was finishing stories, posting stories, I was becoming a better writer (at least I think so). Of course, that is also part of my predicament, as I am now able to ask myself more barrier creating questions. But I desparately want to finish a story and post it.
So if you will let me dip into metaphor, treat your creative process like a field. Right now that field has a crop, though one which may not yield as many bushels as you would like. Ask yourself if anything you do, to improve that crop, will significantly increase the yield, particularly for the energy and time you will need to invest? Or would it be better to harvest, thus creating fallow ground in which to grow something new?
So much more to tell, please add more chapters
Hello Gwen,
After seeing this message I read both of your previously posted chapters (I don't know how I missed them when they were first posted) and enjoyed them immensely. I believe there is much more to be told in Khadija's tale and I would like to be invited along for the ride.
Kindest regards,
talonx