People come to Big Closet for various reasons. Simply put -- some are readers and others are writers. . .some are both.
But beyond that distinction are the needs people seek to fulfill.
Entertainment – BC is a great place to be entertained. Readers can be amused by a dozen different TG genres. Writers can find readers and be entertained by their feedback. The BC library is vast. The quality of the writing is surprisingly good.
Adulation – Although it is a valid pursuit to want recognition for your writing skills, if adulation is your goal, you might be better off adopting a dog. The current kudos, comments, and hits system is the third or fourth iteration Erin has tried. It has been monitored and improved but there is still no correlation between the number of hits/comments/kudos and the quality of writing.
Friends – BC is a great place to meet nice people. “Unfortunately, I have more “friends” listed In Memoriam than I have living “friends” on BC. BC is like real life in that having more than a handful of true “friends” is an illusion.
Education – Want to become a better writer? This is the place to be. The user-friendly technology allows an author to write and re-write freely.
Want to become a better writer overnight? You might as well look for a wizard in a mall. Becoming a skilled writer takes time, effort, and a thick skin.
A better, more attainable goal would be to learn more about yourself. BC can help with self-discovery.
Financial Gain – About thirty million people worldwide are trying to make a living as a writer of fiction. About five thousand of them will succeed.
On the other hand. . .I wrote a series of editorials in my local paper about youth sports. I emphasized that parents who were pushing their kids to become professional athletes were chasing rainbows. I clearly stated that no child attending our local high school would ever become a professional sports star. No less than five years later one of our graduates signed a fourteen-million-dollar contract to play for the Detroit Pistons.
***
BC holds itself out to be a friendly place to read, write, and discuss TG fiction. But how “friendly” is it? Can you be totally assured you will never get your feelings hurt reading or writing here? Of course not. Life doesn’t work that way.
Nearly everyone I’ve met here has suffered abuse or trauma due to their natural state. The good news is that some of the writers have been able to use those horrible experiences to create good prose. The bad news is that many of us are extremely sensitive. We often overreact to perceived slights. That’s compounded -- at times -- by the writing process, which includes exposing our souls.
Many of the people on BC are writers. Writers tend to be outspoken. We all need to remember that this is a community. Everyone needs to be vigilant and self-policing to maintain a friendly place for reading, writing, and discussing TG fiction.
***
For over two decades, BC has returned tenfold to me every effort I’ve made to be a part of the community. I’ve stumbled -- and will stumble again -- because passion is a driving force in my life. Between stumbles, I work very hard to be friendly. That’s all I ask of myself. . .and you.
Jill
Comments
Well said, Jill.
It might be nice to add, most of we authors receive no reward for our labours, we, therefore, ask for readers to do their bit and give kudos and or comments. I've noticed that recently we have less of both. If people stop writing there will be no BC and very few are paying anything to the sites' expenses, so please do comment.
Angharad
Because you asked ...
I would have said entertainment to start with, because I first started reading TG fiction to find simpatico with those in my position more than to titillate or a amuse, but the truth is that I was already writing when I started to access this site regularly.
So BCTS is an outlet for my stories and I don't read as much here as I should, or anywhere else really.
I do want to become a better writer, but I suppose the reason for that is to be better appreciated. I guess than means I am here for the adulation, although that word may be a stretch. I think the kudos system is great, but nothing beats comments, and very few stories I have posted get none at all.
I am not here for the financial gain and I am not sure how that works. I am not in this for money, but I do post books on Amazon using Doppler Press (I have posted on my own) in order to give back to BCTS.
I am here for the friendship, and insofar as internet friends are virtual that does not make them less than friends. They say a friend helps you move house, but a true friend will help you move a dead body, but BC friends can't help me move anything except my emotions.
Thanks to you all.
Maryanne
Out in the Meatspace . . .
Out in the meatspace, a bitter wind is blowing, and hearts are growing cold and hard. People clutch their fears like gemstones and ostracize the “other.” But here, the ones who have been “othered” can come together, and share their stories, and know that they are not, after all, alone. Here, I can simply be Emma, and not be thought a freak, or a threat.
That’s why I’m here.
— Emma
What she said
That was eloquent and beautiful, Emma; and just about sums it up for me.
Also, posting my scribblings here is better than just stuffing them
into my filing cabinet so that the silverfish can eat them
which was the fate of my stories prior to the internet...
~hugs, Ronni
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
What I want is what I've found.
A place to belong.
A lot of people know this, but for those who don't... I'm 36, and I've been either lurking or a member of BCTS since my late teens. I've been with the site through something like three iterations of interface and software, I've chatted with the old timers and done my best to grow as a contributor and community member.
In a very big, very real way, BCTS is as much my home as the house I grew up in. It's more my home than the state I spent most of my life in.
BCTS is where I belong, and where I want to find myself, for as long as I can.
Things aren't always perfect here. You said it yourself: tempers can run hot, and a lot of us can be very touchy about exposing a part of ourselves that, for many of us, only ever sees the light of day on the pages of this site. But at the end of the day, BC is home to a fantastic community, full of passionate, loving people, and I have made an incredible number of friends here.
Including you, Jill.
*hugs*
BC is exactly what it says on the tin: a friendly place to read, write, and discuss transgender fiction. Sometimes friends squabble a bit. Sometimes they struggle to understand one another. But, when push comes to shove, friends are there for each other, like this site, and its community, have always been there for me.
Melanie E.
For me, BCTS is a place to share.
When I first discovered people were writing stories about transgender people, I was thrilled! But, when I started reading the stories, it seemed a lot of the stories had some, or sometimes a lot of sex in them. While I don't think there's anything wrong with stories like that, it wasn't what I was really looking for.
While I did discover a few stories I liked, I didn't find a lot of them, so I started writing the sorts of stories I wanted to read. I had posted stories in a couple of places, but it wasn't until I discovered BCTS that I felt I found a surprising number of people who seemed to like the sorta stories I like. That's why I decided to start sharing my stories here.
As far as comments go ... well, accolades are really nice, and I do enjoy them, but when something I post doesn't get any comments, I usually take that as a hint that there's something in my story that needs to change. I may take weeks, months, and even occasionally years to mull things over, until I get a new I idea I think might works.
Of course, that's not the only reason why I might stop adding chapters to a story. To be honest, there's plenty of times when I start off with a really exciting story idea. But, after a while, my muse seems to wander off to a new story idea. Even though I really enjoy writing multi-chapter stories, I think my attention span is best suited for shorter stories than longer ones.
That's an easy one!
Community. You mentioned a few things that make up a community.
Entertainment, we all want to be distracted sometime, whether it is from bad things in life, or bad situations, or just see things from another perspective, we all want it in some form or another and here it is mostly in the form of reading, but there are those that share such distaractions that are available in other medium...
Friendship, the thing that brings a community together and is the glue that keeps it together. It helps us share our experiences and to learn from them. To lose a voice is remove that experience, but not that history as long as there is someone to learn from it. Leading us next to...
Education. Friendship is the basis that makes us want to teach each other, and to better understand each other. And to be here for each other, whether to teach or learn, we all here for this.
And there is the last one - Financial gain. Are any of us really here for that? What good is financial gain? Yes, it buys us comfort, food, shelter, etc,, but does it give us financial independence? Financial gain is all well and good, but financial independence is better. Would I give more to keep BC going if I could? Yes. Hell yes! Because BC has given me friends. and worlds upon worlds to escape to, anytime I want. Sure, I could find some of that in a library, but not written by others; of my peers, my friends from my community. And that is something worth more than any money I might spend beyond the necessities because sometimes community is a necessity, if for nothing else than to preserve one's sanity.
Thank you Jill for this reminder /Hugs
Diana
ps Soon I am going to figure out this reading comprehension thing and how to tie it into retention. In the mind, not the other end that I keep getting accused of, Sheesh, wake up in the gutter one time and you never live it down! :D
I'm A Newbie
I've only been here a couple of months after a month of lurking. I am a reader. In the fourth grade I read the collected works of Zane Grey. It took four books a week for a year, but I loved it. Since then I periodically go on jags when life doesn't get in the way. A couple years ago I waded through "Outlander" in proper order when the pace of the television show was too slow. I found a few good writers on DeviantArt until it lead me here.
Yes I have stories to tell. I have never written dialog. Gasp!!! I write guest editorials in the local weekly. I wrote html to make an extensive site on boatbuilding. I've written statistical analysis for making automobiles, but no stories like all of you write so well.
I'm enjoying myself. I read, drop kudos, and comment when moved. I will contribute when I can.
Ron
I found many things here……..
But first and foremost, I found life. Were it not for my friends here, I would have given up and put an end to the pain and anguish I was suffering from for years. To be honest, I was very close to taking the easy, cowardly way out. There were two things that kept me from eating a .45 caliber round - not wanting to put the ones I loved through the pain that my suicide would cause, and more to the point the efforts of a select few people here on BCTS to keep me sane.
Beyond simply giving me life, my friends here helped me to finally acknowledge and face up to who I am - to the woman I have always been and truly am now. We’re it not for my friends here, I would never have become who I am now.
I found friendship here like that which I had only known in the service beforehand. My sisters and other friends here gave me something which I thought I had lost - a sense of belonging and worth. I had forsaken ever feeling worthwhile and a part of something once again. It was one horrible night in the Charlotte International Airport after finding out that one of my nephews had outed me to everyone I knew, my children, my family, my neighbors - literally the entire town - when Bailey Summers kept me from simply walking out of the airport and disappearing into the night. That was when I knew that I had found something to be a part of, and I knew that I still had much to give, and still had many promises to keep. I can never say thank you enough to Bailey.
And lastly, I come here for the intellectual stimulation. Yes, I am entertained here - but every once in a while, I find that author who makes me think. I find a story which I can’t put down, a tale which gives me such stimulation that I know that I will be back over and over again to read it.
And maybe, just maybe, I will be able to help someone like I was helped by others here. And pay it forward.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
To save a life
I'm no more Transgender than Mars is a Maraschino Cherry. I thought I was and was told I was but that was BS.
I write because I want to tell the stories that I dream. And, some of the stories that I have read here have distracted me enough to prevent a suicide. There are some very good authors here and I have enjoyed reading their work. Now I know that suicide was not my goal, I was just hurting so much from life.
Thanks for all your kindness.
Gwen
My life drama
I've been lucky in life. My father once said the biggest problem he had was that he was too sane. He wasn't passionate about anything. I think the word is sanguine; some would say laid back. My father knew about my cross-dressing in my youth (as a tween) and chose not to make a big deal out of it.
As a result, my life drama as be gentler and kinder that most here. I was nearly 30 years old before I felt the need to begin to deal with my alter ego. Part of that dealing was writing. It was just as the internet was being made available to the public that I began searching for something. I don't really know just what. I spent a good amount of time at our local library using their computer trying to get a handle on just what I was. I stumbled on the crossdress newsgroups, later I found my way to Nifty and discovered transgender fiction. I was hooked.
Finally I got AOL at home and began to surf the web in earnest. I found I had to write about who I was and what I experienced growing up. Not knowing how to post on any story sites, the few that I found, I managed a to put together a Tripod web site to showcase those stories. Looking back, my early work is embarrassing.
I've since posted on Fictionmania, Storysite and even put up a few on the original Big Closet. But it wasn't until that I discovered Big Closet Top Shelf that I began to thrive as both a writer and a person. All the other sites I've been a part of were just story repositories. I got no sense of belonging or community.
Here there are real people behind the stories. I can interact with not only the other posting authors but with the administration and count them as friends. BCTS is a virtual community as diverse as any real life community and more real in the emotional support.
The members here are a great resource for maintaining sanity as well as help with real world problem. I can't count the number of time I've reached out with computer issues and had someone provide me with the answer and hold my virtual hand as I walked through solving them. Likewise I've reached out to discuss the nitty gritty of dealing with being trans in a cis world and just what is really appropriate when venturing out into the real world. These are thing I have no one in real life to talk to about.
I came looking for a place to post stories and to read trans fiction and found instead a family and a place to learn and grow without prejudice .
As far as financial gain...? I have about fifteen books publish in two genres on Smashwords and I've always said that from that I make about enough to buy a double chocolate mocha at my favorite coffee bar once a month. This last month, I made over 12 dollars... I'm rolling in riches now. Two mochas..
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Financial Gain
Though I don't have a trace of the ability to write a successful piece of fiction, through my attendance at science fiction conventions, etc., I know a number of commercial authors. One of the authors I knew was the late SF writer Eric Flint. He was instrumental in the creation of the "Baen Free Library" where you can get a number of free ebooks, and Eric wrote two editorials (Lies and There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch) which any BCTS author might find helpful. You may agree or disagree with his opinions, but Eric's perspective may be of interest
Oh. God. I’m in tears.
Eric Flint died. And I didn’t even know. Oh, God. He was a wonderful writer and an even more wonderful human being. He’ll never finish the Rivers of War . . . Or see Gustav and Mike and Rebecca through the Ottoman onslaught. I’m truly heartbroken.
— Emma
Friends
I originally joined because others assured me it is a friendly place, and they were right. Several of those who enjoined me into coming here have gone, either because they have developed other interests, or, in a couple of cases, died. Still, I have my best two electronic friends here and others have appeared to take the place of those who have left. Some I still have contact with even though they are no longer a part of this community.
It was quite a long time before I had the courage to write anything, but my offerings have been received with moderate results. I am not prolific or particularly gifted like some of the contributors here and there are several who deserve the applause and accolades that they receive because they are great writers. I won't name them because I might leave out somebody worthy of mention. I think that the ones who I esteem know who they are anyway.
Do I like recognition? Of course I do. Kudos, comments and reads are a writer's oxygen. This site provides the author with more of that than any other that I have come across, bar none. Even my least popular efforts have resulted in mostly positive responses and hopefully will make me improve.
Mostly, though, the site demonstrates that we are not alone. Even if you seldom contribute to the blogs and comments you know that there are people out there who share, in varying degrees, your transsexuality, and with whom you can communicate without fear.
Lastly, thanks to Erin and her crew of administrators for giving us this space to call home and let's make sure we enable them to continue to keep it open for us.
What BC has meant to me
If I had to choose a single word (no small challenge!) to sum up what BC has meant to me, it'd be this: Encouragement.
After many years of those around me urging that I should write, and after a couple false starts on a book, I sat down to start again just for fun - setting things in a universe that a couple of close friends used to write in. And suddenly much to my surprise I had not just one book, but had almost completed its sequel. Having been a long-time lurker on BC (without creating an account, I'm ashamed to admit), I finally braved posting them here.
It was one of the best decisions of my life.
The positive encouragement to those works and what has followed have been a huge part of what's kept me writing. It's a scary thing to first expose your soul and inner thoughts to a wider audience, especially when you've poured out parts of your heart that you could never reveal in your day-to-day life. Simply put, the sharing of many words typed through tears. And yet doing so has (I believe) helped keep my sanity.
There is something greatly heartwarming in the kudos/comments which I've been blessed with here - especially the comments from those whose own hearts have resonated with what I've tried to put on the page. So yes, during the work week when plowing through mundane tasks and wearing the 'I'm-at-work' facade, watching even a single kudos increase on any part of what's been posted is a moment of joy - from knowing that someone out there just shared and enjoyed the experience of the story whose various elements have been stuck in my head for over a decade plus.
So for all of you who've taken the journey through the tale so far, and have laughed, cried, or even shouted at the pages, thank you from this (as Jill put it) 'extremely sensitive' and crazy writer - one who still gets nervous with every new posted part of the story even after five years of doing so.
And for those (you know who you are!) who have gone above-and-beyond in offering not only encouraging messages but proofreading feedback, thank you even more!
- Erisian <3
I'd give you multiple "loves" on this if I could!
I couldn't possibly agree more with everything you've written here. Which makes me want to go hunt down your stories. Big hugs!
— Emma
Hugs back
Hugs back to you too! :)
If you do get the chance to read them, hope you enjoy!
Epic tale
Don't expect to get much else done for a while! Epic in every way - enjoy!
Alison
I think you’re telling me . . .
. . . that I’d better land the plane I’m flying first? LOL!
— Emma
BC
Keeping BC vibrant is what allows the fruits of it to flow back to its users. The famous JFK quote seems quite apropos imho. By giving it the support it needs can it then be there when the users need it the most. Being the best community it can be will help draw more users and so it goes. The burdens of supporting BC would then get lighter and the community can get stronger.
There are enough barbarians at our walls right now that we cannot afford to in-fight amongst ourselves.
Community is what is BC for.
Generosity
I met some very selfless people that helped me clean up and publish a thing. It might not sound like a lot but the sheer amount of time these people put in with no expectation of reward and not nearly enough public recognition is pretty staggering.
That's pretty great and fairly humbling. So, I got more out than I put in.
To be fair, you put in a lot.
Being Christina Chase is, to this day, one of the best pieces of literature on the site. So, don't put down your own contributions!
Melanie E.