Losing the will

[SemiColon]

Ignored. Definitely. I am too fragile!

 

[sr71plt]

Amen to that. The scores I'm ambivalent about for stories I write under this name. It's the absolutely cruel and venomous things that people write as comments and in e-mail that are disturbing. I realize that making yourself available for comments and communication will give people a free shot at you, but from the incredible anger and rage of some of these people, it really does make you wonder what they are like in real life.

These deliberate attempts to try and inflict pain on people (is schadenfreude the proper term?) you don't even know by word or vote for your own satisfaction is indeed sad. I get a laugh out of most of my snipers, but sometimes they do get to you, and to others as well judging by the comments here.

I guess the question is really one of, would you rather get ignored or trolled and abused?

Actually, that's not a bad question.

Well, there's always the little satisfaction of seeing the system zap the zapper. To my own private zapper (who, I am confidant, reads on the forum), I'll just note that the 5-rated story you keep zapping is at 5 again today. I don't need it to be at 5, but I certainly do enjoy seeing all of your efforts to be nasty being thwarted by the system.

 

[MagicaPractica]

Starrkers,

I've been thinking about something to post on this topic but after reading through the thread I'm not sure it quite applies. I'll post it anyway in case it helps.

I've been reading a book called Making Pearls: living the creative life by Jeanne Carbonetti. (Beautiful artwork, I had one of her paintings as my av for a short time recently.) She breaks down the creative process into seven steps; waiting, opening, closing, holding, releasing, emptying, and sitting.

Sometimes you are in the waiting period, just waiting for something to come along that pulls at you to write it, rather than feeling like you have to push to write the story. She suggests that this is an important part of the process, not to be diminished. It's not really an inactive time because you are looking within and out into the world for something to spark that creative fire. I like to look through magazines quickly for images that get my attention. I read, watch new movies, sort of taking things into the creative well.

As for the votes, Red told me once just not to look at that page at all. I couldn't do it at the time but I'm finding it easier to ignore now.

Write for yourself, what calls to you. Perhaps it won't even be for Lit. I also find sometimes that when I'm not writing stories, poetry comes easier.

 

[rosco rathbone]

So don't write. Writers are a dime a dozen.


It sounds harsh, but it's really not meant that way. If you have to write--you'll write.

 

[Trombonus]

I'm kinda in the same boat right now. I'm just not as interested in writing right now, plus I just don't have the time or energy to do it anymore. I've got at least five stories that I started and will probably never finish.

Oh, and most of my stories only have a handful of votes/comments. No story has more than five comments, and the fact that most of my stories have been chain stories is a big factor in those low vote totals. Oh well.

 

[sr71plt]

Noting that the battle between a troll and the Web site is still going on with one of my posted works that a troll zaps off a 5 rating nearly every day and the Web site strips the zap the next day. This is just an essay on a now-history contest. What, I wonder, would motivate someone to be so persistent and nasty as to religiously vote a zap on a story that weeks of sweeping shows them will be stripped the next day. What sort of miserable life could a person like this be leading? It's just a now-obsolete essay. You don't even get rid of the H with your useless effort.