How Do You Know?

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

How do you know when youve hatched a winner?

After reading many of the posted comments on this board it seems to me that plenty of folks are at sea when it comes to knowing whether their stuff is top shelf or what. Is there such a thing as definite criteria to contrast and compare writing with? And can you internalize it so that snap judgments are valid and reliable?

 

[Firebrain]

You can never know what will be successful. You can know if your writing is of a decent standard, but you just can't be sure of the appeal of something.

I was discussing this with a friend earlier. We were bouncing around ideas for the ultimate Lit story. I think we got as far as vamp/werewolf lesbian twins whose brother is having sex with their mother, with a gay cowboy subplot. We just need a loving wives subplot and we're good to go.

 

[oggbashan]

If you like what you've written, then you've won.

Most of us are our own fiercest critics. We write, edit, polish and finally post the 'finished' product and then think "I could have done it better".

Og

 

[amicus]

How do you know when youve hatched a winner?

After reading many of the posted comments on this board it seems to me that plenty of folks are at sea when it comes to knowing whether their stuff is top shelf or what. Is there such a thing as definite criteria to contrast and compare writing with? And can you internalize it so that snap judgments are valid and reliable?[/QUOTE]

~~~

James...you are fishing....you know the answers...and you know enough about classic literature and human values to define, contrast and compare 'stroke' to meaningful storytelling.

And yes, experience engenders internalizing, usually within a paragraph or two; snap judgments, like first impressions, are usually spot on.



ami

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

AMICUS

How do you explain all the crappy books and stories?

 

[amicus]

]AMICUS

How do you explain all the crappy books and stories?[/[/I]QUOTE]

~~~

Easy, James, although I curse the poor films when my stories are so much better. It is the major audience of films and stories; women, who are tactile and mindless, respond to stroke and gore, who determine what sells and what does not.

My ebook sales are ninety percent women buyers and I write mainly soft core romance; go figure...

Literature is a funny game, men seldom read and they watch only 'action' films, women, females, are the ones who read and dream, because they never actually live their lives, they just imagine what life could be...

So...aside from my serious themes, I give them happy love stories, the lives they never have....they eat 'em up....bread and circuses...as you said...it never changes...

ami

 

[past_perfect]

My ebook sales are ninety percent women buyers and I write mainly soft core romance; go figure...

Literature is a funny game, men seldom read and they watch only 'action' films, women, females, are the ones who read and dream, because they never actually live their lives, they just imagine what life could be...

So...aside from my serious themes, I give them happy love stories, the lives they never have....they eat 'em up....bread and circuses...as you said...it never changes...

ami

How do you know your readers are 90 % women?

Else you are of course not wrong (the figures I found are 64 % women to 36 % men though for book sales in general - see US book consumer demographics).

It'd be interesting to know what the ratio here on lit is - I get the feeling that there are a lot more male than female readers here, but that might be due to the fact that they comment more.

As to the original question, I'd go with ogg's definition - the stories I was really satified with in the end usually had most acclaim or sales.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

It likely depends of their cycle. The come around when they ovulate.

 

[sr71plt]

It'd be interesting to know what the ratio here on lit is - I get the feeling that there are a lot more male than female readers here

The female readers are reading stories; the male readers are reading forum posts about politics and rail guns.

 

[estragon]

I never "hatched a winner", so I wouldn't know. All I know when I publish a story is that I've tried to say what I really felt. It never comes out just right, so then I have to try again....