What do you aspire to?

[WCSGarland]

Do you aspire to be a literary genius even though you publish on this free site? Or is your attitude more like - It's only Literotica, so fuck it, who cares?

 

[Kelliezgirl]

You should put your best foot forward, regardless of where you are publishing.
I'm just trying to write stories that will bring people a little joy.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I don't perceive a ceiling. Every story I write is better than the last one because I try to learn something from each one. I don't even know that I'll recognize the top of the staircase when I get there except in hindsight.

 

[Katie_Mae]

Mostly the latter.

However, I do note the two are not mutuality exclusive. You can aspire to be a literary genius in your writing elsewhere while using Lit as an outlet for your silly little fantasies.

 

[TheRedChamber]

My philosophy is based on that of Sir Terry Pratchett who, when he was knighted for 'services to literature' opined (well, joked) that those services 'consisted of refraining from trying to write any'.

I had a rather controversial thread recently predicated on the idea that 'It's only Literatica, so fuck it, who cares?'

All that said, like Terry, I do at least try to write good non-literature.

 

[WCSGarland]

Mostly the latter.

However, I do note the two are not mutuality exclusive. You can aspire to be a literary genius in your writing elsewhere while using Lit as an outlet for your silly little fantasies.

Can you expound on that? Why would you want to only aspire to be a literary genius elsewhere? Why not everywhere you publish? Is it like a pearls before swine type of thing?

 

[PapaRomantic]

I care deeply about what I write but I'm never going to publish for money. I aspire to write so my readers will enjoy reading my words.

Simple as that.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Just because I'm publishing here doesn't mean I don't have higher aspirations. To me this is more the training ground from which I'm trying to exercise consistency (which I'm always failing at), but also to thicken my skin. However, aspiring for literary genius? Nope, not at all. Actually, I'm avoiding that like the plague. That's the whole reason why I'm looking after the Spicy Adventures, the Avon Fantasies, the Black Masks, the Gang Magazines, and all of that cheap stories we've had on print a hundred years ago; the Netflix of the time. Sure, I have the authors that I admire and learn from (Miller being the most important when it comes with erotica), especially after I noticed I like to add bits of philosophy, insurrectionism, and counterculture in my porn, but unlike de Sade, I seek to make you think while you're stroking.

Literary geniuses belong to the lab, and the lab is boring. My pulp mentality hates boring. Give me less talk talk, and more ah-ah! and bang bang!

 

[WCSGarland]

Just because I'm publishing here doesn't mean I don't have higher aspirations. To me this is more the training ground from which I'm trying to exercise consistency (which I'm always failing at), but also to thicken my skin. However, aspiring for literary genius? Nope, not at all. Actually, I'm avoiding that like the plague. That's the whole reason why I'm looking after the Spicy Adventures, the Avon Fantasies, the Black Masks, the Gang Magazines, and all of that cheap stories we've had on print a hundred years ago; the Netflix of the time. Sure, I have the authors that I admire and learn from (Miller being the most important when it comes with erotica), especially after I noticed I like to add bits of philosophy, insurrectionism, and counterculture in my porn, but unlike de Sade, I seek to make you think while you're stroking.

Literary geniuses belong to the lab, and the lab is boring. My pulp mentality hates boring. Give me less talk talk, and more ah-ah! and bang bang!

And here I was thinking that literary genius was a reward in and of itself whether or not anybody could recognize it.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

And here I was thinking that literary genius was a reward in and of itself whether or not anybody could recognize it.

That's a disastrous way of thinking. Very little in writing (or really any art) is as dangerous as falling in love with your own work.
There's always room for improvement.

 

[Erozetta]

Both.

And neither.

I write the story I need to write when I need to write it. If it's profound, great. If it's a masturbatory fantasy around making your friend into a semi-threatening half-spider, also great.

 

[Britva415]

is your attitude more like - It's only Literotica, so fuck it, who cares?

This.

But I could do more "even though" I publish here.

But I don't connect them at all. It isn't about having aspirations "even though" I publish here. If I have them, I have them. Lit's got nothing to do with it.

 

[WCSGarland]

That's a disastrous way of thinking. Very little in writing (or really any art) is as dangerous as falling in love with your own work.
There's always room for improvement.

Really? If I don't love my own work, why would I even bother to show it to anybody else? How else am I to derive any satisfaction other than telling a story well? If I do not love the story I tell, why publish it at all?

 

[Bamagan]

I'm a cynic, so I guess I believe that anyone whose goal is to be regarded as a genius has stumbled out of the gate.

 

[big_cane_sugar]

I originally came here because I aspire to write fiction professionally but I knew that one of my weaknesses is writing about romance, sex, and so on. So I figured I'd practice a bit.... Now I sometimes write something here just for fun but I am still trying to improve my overall writing.

 

[WCSGarland]

I'm a cynic, so I guess I believe that anyone whose goal is to be regarded as a genius has stumbled out of the gate.

So... to try is to fail?

 

[KittyOfSteele]

And here I was thinking that literary genius was a reward in and of itself whether or not anybody could recognize it.

Hemingway hated Spillane's guts because he sold a lot. Spillane didn't care about who the hell Hemingway was.

To each their own. In my case, I don't need anybody to validate me as a writer, let alone as a literary genius. Quoting Henry Miller, "A year ago, six months ago, I thought that I was an artist. I no longer think about it, I am."

 

[Bamagan]

So... to try is to fail?

To try convincing people one is a genius by doing the things one associates with geniuses is probably to fail at being a genius, yes. Might still happen, I suppose, but more in despite.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Be better today than I was yesterday.

 

[AwkwardMD]

It might be more fruitful to reframe the conversation around effort. Genius feels like the kind of term that can only be self-applied in extreme arrogance, and I don't think anyone anywhere gets into writing for the explicit purpose of having other people retrospectively view their work as genius.

 

[WCSGarland]

It might be more fruitful to reframe the conversation around effort. Genius feels like the kind of term that can only be self-applied in extreme arrogance, and I don't think anyone anywhere gets into writing for the explicit purpose of having other people retrospectively view their work as genius.

Do people consider Dostoevsky a literary genius? I don't think he ever applied it to himself. But does that mean he never strived to be a literary genius?

 

[Bamagan]

It might be more fruitful to reframe the conversation around effort. Genius feels like the kind of term that can only be self-applied in extreme arrogance, and I don't think anyone anywhere gets into writing for the explicit purpose of having other people retrospectively view their work as genius.

I assume we're excluding narcissistic egomaniacs from the discussion, due to their typical reliance on ghostwriters?

 

[AwkwardMD]

Do people consider Dostoevsky a literary genius? I don't think he ever applied it to himself. But does that mean he never strived to be a literary genius?

To me, and this is just my opinion, genius is a term you'd find at the intersection of aiming high and hitting the mark. The only thing the author themselves can really judge is their own ambition. "I have this idea. It's pretty complicated, but I think I can pull it off"

Other people: "You pulled it off"

 

[MK_Whimsy]

My main aspiration here is to just have fun. That said, I do try to learn from mistakes from previous stories when writing new ones.

 

[WCSGarland]

To me, and this is just my opinion, genius is a term you'd find at the intersection of aiming high and hitting the mark. The only thing the author themselves can really judge is their own ambition. "I have this idea. It's pretty complicated, but I think I can pull it off"

Other people: "You pulled it off"

Does that mean you think he never strived to be a literary genius, whether he thought of it in that fashion or whether he thought of it in another fashion of is he able to pull off his ambition?