Lost my Enthusiasm

[DG Hear]

I remember when I first started posting. I entered every contest, not expecting to win and I was right: I didn't. I was told to get a good editor and I did. I had some of the best editors on the site which greatly improved my stories. Techsan, Lady Cibelle, Mistress Lynn, Penn Lady, all were named best editor (and deserved it). Recently Estragon has been my editor and has done a great job putting up with me. He told me he was giving up editing for now. I will miss his editing dearly.

I check to see if any of my stories make the monthly contest list but now I've lost most of my interest. I know the site is a busy one but they haven't named the monthly winners for June of 2011 yet. Hard to get excited anymore. Then there are the highest rated stories of 2011; also never posted and the year is more than half over.

I honestly don't think we need the monthly or annual contests anymore, even though I have won a few of them. There is no excitement there anymore because of the long delays.

Estragon has told me to keep on writing but I don't feel the love as I once did and I'm not that good a writer. I make a lot of mistakes but I write because I actually have fun and love the contest and comments. I can probably upset an editor pretty easy always making recuring mistakes.

Well, as of now I have no editor but two stories in my head. Have to decide whether to write them and put them in a file or just forget about it. My latest story "Moral Climate' (which Estragon edited for me) is doing great. Wondering if it will be my last.

How do you feel about the monthly and annual contests or is it just me?
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest.
With respect
DG Hear

 

[estragon]

DG Hear, MFG, don't you dare quit! Keep writing! There are plenty of editors. Good writers are hard to find.

 

[DG Hear]

DG Hear, MFG, don't you dare quit! Keep writing! There are plenty of editors. Good writers are hard to find.

Thanks ESragon, good editors are hard to find also.
DG

 

[PennLady]

DG, if you enjoy the writing, keep doing it. If not, take a break. No harm in that. Presumably the reactions to stuff will ebb and flow, like comments and such. I don't think too much about the contests. It's nothing I can control, so no sense getting worked up about it. If it comes up and I win something, it's a nice plus. Otherwise, with the themed contests, it's fun to see what people come up with and a good chance to maybe get some new eyes on the stories.

Not everything is fun all the time, and you're entitled to take a break until you get the fun back.

 

[DG Hear]

DG, if you enjoy the writing, keep doing it. If not, take a break. No harm in that. Presumably the reactions to stuff will ebb and flow, like comments and such. I don't think too much about the contests. It's nothing I can control, so no sense getting worked up about it. If it comes up and I win something, it's a nice plus. Otherwise, with the themed contests, it's fun to see what people come up with and a good chance to maybe get some new eyes on the stories.

Not everything is fun all the time, and you're entitled to take a break until you get the fun back.

Hi PennLady, The themed contest are enjoyable and the results are given within a day or so of the results. Not so with the monthly and annual contest. I do agree with most everything you said. I feel the same as you when it comes to the contest, just fun to be part of it and I know it has put my name out there.
Thanks for commenting, you know I respect you and your opinions.
DG

 

[TxRad]

DG, don't you dare quit. If you did that would make me the oldest writer here.

Take a break and relax. I've had to do that a couple of times. I still wrote, I just didn't worry about the edits or posting.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

C'mon! You can whine better than this!

 

[TE999]

You gotta go with the flow, DG. Just chill, keep notes on story ideas and wait until your mojo returns (and it always does). Granted, the contests are fun and challenging, they're just not the be all and end all of posting on this site. Everything becomes stale on occasion, but once writing's in your blood it's there to stay and ready to spring to life once again when you're ready for it.

 

[mynameisben]

I agree with what TE said. Writing is just like riding a bicycle. Sometimes you fall out of your desk chair and skin a knee, puncture a lung or shatter a femur. But don't let that discourage you long. As soon as you heal, you have to climb right back up into that chair and pedal again. Once you've learned to put a sentence together, you never forget how. Writing IS in your blood and you know it is fun.

The streets in my neighborhood are littered with sorry, pussy-assed wannabe writers who lost their enthusiasm, who fell out of their desk chairs and never pulled themselves up out of the gutters. Children kick them on their way to school in the morning and the street sweepers roll over them at night. Don't become one of them, DG. They take up valuable curbside parking spaces. You may be on sabbatical now, but you are an author, dammit! You have that now. It's a precious gift. Don't throw it away for good. You must come back. It's write or die. Your readers are counting on you.

 

[Handley_Page]

DG.
Do not pack it in.
You will have learned several things from your editor/s as you have written over the last period of time.

 

[DG Hear]

DG.
Do not pack it in.
You will have learned several things from your editor/s as you have written over the last period of time.

I'm not leaving or packing it in. I even have story ideas in my head. I may go ahead and write stories and keep them in a file till I can find an editor who is willing to put up with me.

Tex, I'm 67, I know there are a few older than me. LOL I'm old but write to help pass the time. I have been asked a couple of times to write professionally, but that's just not me.

I was giving opinion on the status of monthly contests. They are near useless anymore. Besides Handley, you and I have a humore thread to oversee.

 

[DG Hear]

C'mon! You can whine better than this!

James, when you first came to the A/H I found you to be an interesting person. I figured everyone was entitled to their opinion and often read yours. You put up a challange one time about matching stories. I took it and at the time you told me I was a very busy writer. I took it as a complement but that's as far as it went.

Since then you've became a disgruntled old fuck who isn't worth giving the time of day. You complain and do nothing but make smart ass remarks. The sad part is I feel sorry for you. One disgruntled old fuck that nobody cares to read about or write too.

Since you don't post stories here you would have no idea about the monthly contest or annual contests. Crawl back in your hole and make the A/H a better place.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

James, when you first came to the A/H I found you to be an interesting person. I figured everyone was entitled to their opinion and often read yours. You put up a challange one time about matching stories. I took it and at the time you told me I was a very busy writer. I took it as a complement but that's as far as it went.

Since then you've became a disgruntled old fuck who isn't worth giving the time of day. You complain and do nothing but make smart ass remarks. The sad part is I feel sorry for you. One disgruntled old fuck that nobody cares to read about or write too.

Since you don't post stories here you would have no idea about the monthly contest or annual contests. Crawl back in your hole and make the A/H a better place.

Youre just jealous.

 

[lovecraft68]

I was giving opinion on the status of monthly contests. They are near useless anymore.

They are also the source of continuous arguing and bitterness. Every month chapter stories with unfair advantages are the winners.

Many here have contacted the owners to change this, there have been threads about it and countless posts.

They don't care and their indifference is having an ill effect on the contests. The monthlies everyone technically is entered, but no one cares.

If you;re not writing a long running NH or Sci fi story you're pretty much out of the running.

And the results if the last theme contest set a lot of people off, and not just the resident nutbags (we know who I mean) but a lot of respectable authors and posters were pretty disgusted

again this is all met with indifference and I can see how that can start to affect people's enthusiasm.

But if the ideas are there you HAVE TO write them. Whether you publish here or not is another story, but write them or it will eat you alive!

 

[TxRad]

Youre just jealous.

Another one with your number, JB.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Another one with your number, JB.

Like you, DG seems to keep up with my posts. You protest too much.

 

[TxRad]

Like you, DG seems to keep up with my posts. You protest too much.

No JB, we're just some of the few who don't have you on ignore.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

No JB, we're just some of the few who don't have you on ignore.

But you take the bait every time, unless I've caught you lying, then you vanish for a while.

 

[TxRad]

But you take the bait every time, unless I've caught you lying, then you vanish for a while.

You must have me confused with someone else. The only time I'm gone is if I'm go to or coming home from a job or i have something better to do on my days off. So catching me lying is a lie on your part, me thinks.

Anyway, your so called "Bait" is usually half baked and more of a jab at another windmill in your mind. You're a voracious reader but no writer if any of your postings on the Writing Goal thread is any indication. Crap, crap, and more crap.

 

[litfan10]

Youre just jealous.

you know, it's hard to take you seriously on a writer's thread when you post a three word reply, and you fuck up the punctuation with a mistake a fifth grader should know better than to make.

 

[litfan10]

I agree that there are some very unfortunate rough patches to Literotica. You, my friend, however are a great asset to this site with your humour and so very pleasant manner. It would not be the same without you.
Best of luck with your new stories; I hope you find that spark again.
namaste'

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

you know, it's hard to take you seriously on a writer's thread when you post a three word reply, and you fuck up the punctuation with a mistake a fifth grader should know better than to make.

Isnt it nice to have IGGY for folks like me! Its OK with me if you wanna be OCD about punctuation.

 

[RodenAddison]

DG. Please. You know as well as I do that you can't quit. This is an addiction, not a pastime.

Take some time out if you must. I recently read, Zen and the Art of Writing by Bradbury and am almost done with On Writing, by Stephen King. They're inspirational.

He's been editing me as well and I've grown so much.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You must have me confused with someone else. The only time I'm gone is if I'm go to or coming home from a job or i have something better to do on my days off. So catching me lying is a lie on your part, me thinks.

Anyway, your so called "Bait" is usually half baked and more of a jab at another windmill in your mind. You're a voracious reader but no writer if any of your postings on the Writing Goal thread is any indication. Crap, crap, and more crap.

Youre LITs Joe Biden.

 

[TxRad]

Youre LITs Joe Biden.

LOL Only if you're Hilary Clinton.