Author or Reader

[mig]

Why do you write?.Is it because you have something inside you that has to come out and the composition isn't that important or is it for your reader?.For me,as a reader,there are a lot of stories that,although containing good ideas,are ruined because of poor grammar and lack of punctuation.While others are written as if they were reports.Don't get me wrong,I wouldn't presume,as a non author,to criticise authors,but I need to put a reader's viewpoint.

 

[KillerMuffin]

I write because I have to. I would be one of those people locked up in a little rubber room if I couldn't write. I have to carry paper and pencil everywhere with me, so that I can write something, anything, when I need to do it.

It doesn't matter to me if I write well, write poorly, have it read, or sold, or hated. I still have to write.

It felt incredible the first time I saw my story posted on Literotica. It was a heady rush like you wouldn't believe, until the first email came in, "Gee, I really liked it, you're a great writer!" I almost killed myself bouncing around in joy. Someone else validated my writing with nothing to gain from it. The more I posted, the more feedback I received and the more I thought about what I was writing. I think I've improved. Particularly with Whisper, the wonderful editor that she is, telling me where I could use a little help.

Whether or not anyone ever validates me again doesn't matter, I still have to write. What I write doesn't matter much either, I am doing several different projects, as it were, simply because it's been requested, I got myself into a contest here, I'm on the writing staff and it's a job, and I have always wanted to write a book.

Why I write, oddly enough, never affected what I write. It's enough that my fingers put words down.

 

[cymbidia]

For Lit, i write as THE way i process experiences, fantasies, and other hot, wet musings. I've got no illusions of being a "real" author, no need to rise to the top of the List (good thing, hmmm?), and nothing to prove to anyone. I write because these kinds of thoughts come falling out of my fingertips.

Sometimes i read what i've posted and cringe, wondering how i could have the gall to offer such unmitigated drivel side-by-side with stories from real, and really good, writers. Other days i look at my few, small stories and smile to myself, remembering why i wrote them and and from whence they came. Often i look at my stories on Lit and see glaring grammatical errors; horrified, i want to immediately snatch my poor deformed babies out of the public eye. I've asked Laurel to repost a corrected story, too, when the mistakes were too bad to be borne, but one can't do that too often. She's busy enough.

In essence, i write because i like to write, because it gives me a buzz of satisfaction, and because i can write on topics that are a little less well-represented by the stories here. While the composition and grammar are important to me, i'm *not* a professional writer by any stretch of anyone's imagination, and will never be such a professional. The most i can do is the best i can do.

[Edited by cymbidia on 04-04-2001 at 01:07 AM]

 

[mig]

KM love your writing always.Cymbidia for me your style of writing is fine.I don't like BDSM stories but that doesn't affect my liking for the way you write.I have a story I need to tell.When I know how I'll tell it.

 

[Ulyssa]

"When I know how, I'll tell it."

That's perfectionism talking and perfectionism is the number one killer of ALL stories good and bad. "Don't think! Just write!" Go see *Finding Forrester.*

 

[Whispersecret]

Hey, KM, you're very welcome. Don't give me more credit than I deserve though. I could talk at you all day long about what needs improvement, but YOU are the person who absorbs my "decrees" and somehow transforms them into damn good stories.

Now, as to why I write. I'd have to agree with Muff on all her points. I write because I love it. At the risk of sounding egotistical, I think I'm pretty good, and it's human nature to spend time doing the stuff you're good at. It fulfills us to accomplish things we do well.

I also have found I like affecting people with what I write. Getting feedback is incredible. Those heady days when "Hostile Takeover" was first posted, and I was getting several pieces of mail a day--WOW. It's a rush like no other to know that you wrote something and someone else liked it enough to go to the trouble of writing you about it.

As far as grammar/spelling is concerned, it's inherent in me to strive for perfection. Silly mistakes make you look, at the most, careless, and at the worst, stupid. I ABHOR looking stupid. Besides that, it can make your story hard to read. Clarity in writing helps the reader experience your story fully. I don't appreciate it when I'm swept up in a story and then get jerked out of the magic by a poorly constructed sentence or a mis-used word.

Now, that type of perfectionism is different from the kind that prevents you from writing at all. I think you should largely ignore what you think the masses want to read. (Unless you're being print published--then you simply MUST think about what will sell.) That's the beauty of this arena. You can forget about what other people want and write what you want to write.

However, I don't negate reader expectation completely either. I try to balance what I want to write with what I think they want to read. I mean, what's the point of posting stuff here on a public forum if you're not aiming for people to enjoy what you write? If you're really just writing for yourself, then you might as well keep it to yourself.

 

[Ulyssa]

Whisper--If you didn't think you were pretty good, you wouldn't belong as a writer anywhere!

Don't worry, the rest of us think you're pretty good too.
But don't confuse professional polish and caring about your story with perfectionism. No perfectionism is good! It's a trap which keeps those of us with character flaws or alcoholic tendencies immobilized and unable to get anything done.

Emotionally perfectionism is ALWAYS to be avoided

[Edited by Ulyssa on 04-04-2001 at 01:18 PM]

 

[mig]

I'm not and never have been a perfectionist."If it ain't broke" has always been my philosophy.The story I want to tell has been on paper several times but each time I read it it doesn't say what it should.When reading a story I tend to submerge myself in it.Therefore anything which disrupts the flow,be it spelling mistakes or whatever,really puts me right off.

 

[p_p_man]

mig...

...I don't see the problem.

I can't see anything wrong with the way you write. I often pop into a post if I see your name just to see what you're saying.

That's what you call writing.

If I found your posts boring, ungrammatical, unreadable believe me I wouldn't take the time out.

So all you've go to do is transfer your post writing to a story. You've already got the readability skill.

 

[mig]

Thank you sir for those few kind words.I have written a story.The mechanical part is fine but when I read it over it just doesn't feel right.Does anyone else have this problem?.Maybe I should get a second opinion.

 

[Sateema Lunasi]

I am horribly critical of myself. When I write something, if I read it over again after I write it, I press the delete button and Whoooosh, it is gone. It never seems right to me. So, I post stories and some are good, some suck. I don't read them. Most of my stories I have no clue as to what I was writing. I just write them on auto pilot. Sometimes I read them on Lit and think, "What the hell? I wrote that? Doesn't sound like me..."

But it is.

You should write a story, Mig. Post it up. I'd love to read it.


S

 

[nitengale]

I write because I enjoy it. Or try to. I sometimes struggle when I have written 3000 words on a story and then when reading it over it sounds like shit so I toss it. Now who knows if there might have been a reader who would have loved it, but if I don't, I don't submit it. As I write more and more, I found myself more critical of what I have written, which has become a drawback. I sometimes feel like I am reading things a half dozen times looking for mistakes or a better way to write something, and before you know it, nothing comes out of my head. I have become my own worse enemy. And this sucks.

 

[masterhypnotist]

Why do I write?

Relaxation, recognition, as a way to express thoughts that I don't discuss. It's my secret life that I can enjoy without justification. The bottom line? I enjoy it and I especially enjoy the feedback.

 

[mrwizard67]

Why not write

I had been reading stories here for some time, and had a story rattling around in that, mostly empty space between my ears that I laughingly call a brain. So I wrote it up on my cumputer, and submitted it.

Obviously being in desperate need of stories at the time, they posted it. Low and behold, someone out there actually liked it.

Feedback, whether by votes, or email, is an incredible high. I'm hooked, I will write as long as I have something to say.

 

[Debbie]

I write because...

I have been writing since I was about 12. Writing to me is like reading a damn good book. I start to write and the words flow. I sometimes find it hard to stop till the story, poem, essay, idea is finished. I feel driven to write. Something I enjoy doing. I feel inspired to write and share with others. When things are sometimes hard to communicate the written word is a great way to get around this challenge. It is also, for me, a way to escape from reality. When life gets tough a little sitting down to write can give me clarity.
I visualise, imagine my characters, their surroundings, their personalities forming. The plot unravelling. Sometimes I find the words pouring from my soul. Spilling onto the paper or into my hard drive.
I am very passionate about my writing...
I really have enjoyed the thrill of seeing my writing here and the feedback inspires me more... to share of myself

 

[Guest]

Erotica as escapism

I write erotica primarily for escapism. I am a good and decent person and hold a position of trust in my community. I am a faithful and adoring husband and father. I am by nature a rather gentle person. Still, I have carnal passions as strong as anyone, and dreams darker than most.

Those dark and "sinful" traits are not always compatible with the position I hold in society. Hence, the alter-ego of "darkness" or "darkness_descending" emerges and walks the earth for a bit, sharing with like-minded souls the fantasies and passions too often hidden in my daily life. My stories are often about the darker sides of our sexual selves, because it is a side I will never really explore. I can't rape or harm anyone. I can't callously walk away from a spent lover. But the characters in the stories can.

I also write erotica as a counter-point to the carefully crafted "legitimate" writing I do. (Working on a novel, have had plays produced locally, but nothing with a major publishing house.) I write erotica quickly and joyfully. I check it for spelling and readability, but I only rarely genuinely revise it. This is fun time for me. The fact that others like it is just gravy.

---darkness_d---

 

[4Saken]

who needed a reason?

I'm new to erotic writing, but as someone who's been writing about everything else for as long as I could hold a pen, I had to respond. It's not that I write for any actual "reason" at all. I don't feel I need one! If you're a writer, you just WRITE. Doesn't matter if you're good or bad or anything in between. When I write, it just flows out of me onto the paper, becoming like tangible emotion. And when I finish something I've been writing, it's the most unbelievable indescribable feeling in the world.

-4

 

[The_old_man]

Why do I wright?

Having read the postings on this subject I conclude that most are frustrated authers who "Just have to write", a few admit to " purging emotions" or similar motives.

The stories that I would like to have critequed for publication were writen purely as aids to mastrubation. I have greatly higher sexual desires than my wife, she is content to fully cooperate only a third as often as I need to relieve pressures. I therefor wrote stories to help release those pressures. over years they took on personalities of their own and now seem to want release.