When Did You Know?

[NOIRTRASH]

That you aint got a snowflake's chance in life to cut it as a writer?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Long before I started posting here on Lit. But that's ok, I'm not getting paid to write this stuff, and it ain't ever going to pay any bills.

 

[Apisto42]

Yeah, pretty much always. As in I have a job that pays the bills and when I want to write something that turns at least one person on, I post it here.

When did you realize it?

 

[FelicityJohns]

Yep, before I ever started

 

[sr71plt]

You must have thought about this a lot, James. When did you know?

 

[Kantarii]

When I realized I wrote my own death warrant ... Haha

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Yeah, pretty much always. As in I have a job that pays the bills and when I want to write something that turns at least one person on, I post it here.

When did you realize it?

When it dawned on me PILOT and TEX are the only constant readers I have. I wanted to die. The despair was too much.

 

[sr71plt]

Then it's worse than you thought, because I don't read you and, as far as I know, TxRad doesn't read you either. When you lead with a nasty, sour chin with a "hey, give me attention" thread, you deserve to be burned with your own brand.

Maybe you should spend less time obsessing with TxRad and me and calling us out to play and more time trying to get all of those "how to" books to tell you how to write erotica. Channel Raymond Chandler more for how to write erotica.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

Can't remember who but occasionally I'll come across something so flat out superior I laugh my ass off at my delusions. Ha ha ha ha ha...yeah.

 

[Nathan_Brazil]

As soon as I saw your writing, sir. It was clear that if your enlightened words could not be sold... My humble scribblings were doomed.

 

[TxRad]

What's to know? With 9 Mainstream books out, 3 under construction, an authorized autobiography under way, over 200 stories here at Lit, 70% of which have red H's, I haven't figured it out yet.

Talk about silly questions.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

What the heck is an authorized autobiography? You mean biography?

What's to know? With 9 Mainstream books out, 3 under construction, an authorized autobiography under way, over 200 stories here at Lit, 70% of which have red H's, I haven't figured it out yet.

Talk about silly questions.

 

[R. Richard]

I know that I have my faults as a writer, but my publishers just keep publishing my stuff. Do your publishers publish your stuff?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

As soon as I saw your writing, sir. It was clear that if your enlightened words could not be sold... My humble scribblings were doomed.

Memo: Send PILOT PRIZE trophy to this brave soul.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I know that I have my faults as a writer, but my publishers just keep publishing my stuff. Do your publishers publish your stuff?

I go the other way. I buy mediocre books from no talent writers. My money is always good and better than what it gets.

 

[sr71plt]

My money is always good and better than what it gets.

You do realize that the English translation for this is that you're wasting your money, don't you?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I know that I have my faults as a writer, but my publishers just keep publishing my stuff. Do your publishers publish your stuff?

Who's better? Writer, reader, or publisher?

 

[sr71plt]

Apparently, according to RR's publisher, he's a good enough writer to publish. When did you realize you weren't a good enough writer to attract a publisher, James (just to continue with your own OP question, so you opened this can of worms)?

 

[lovecraft68]

Its never occurred to me because I'm too busy writing to worry about whether I'm a writer or not.

 

[sr71plt]

But JBJ seems to be riddled with self-doubt on this. Even after reading all of those self-help books, he still agonizes over why he can't write erotica like Raymond Chandler did. (The irony is that he probably does write erotica like Raymond Chandler did--not very well.) He's been reduced to trying to tear all other writers at Literotica down to his perceived level of his own writing abilities by his constant harping away at them here. Such a pity. Let's all feel sorry for James and give him the "Ata Boy 'Well you Tried' Writing Trophy" he obviously wants so desperately.

Or we could all just go out to lunch and have a good time and come back and do some pleasurable writing without caring a fig about JBJ's standards or opinions or taking on his self-loathing.

 

[lovecraft68]

JBJ is one of those people that have to quantify and identify and 'know' about things and have some sort of strategy or plan and then know what others are doing.

From day one with writing and anything else I'm into my motto and attitude is just do it.

It is that easy for most things. Do it, do it your way and don't wonder what the others are doing. Also just as important is to not worry about what others think about what you're doing.

 

[rjordan]

I was a successful writer for decades. When you say you're a writer, people ask, "Really? What have you written? Would I have heard of you?"

"Uh, well, I write for auto and motorcycle publishers--books, magazine articles--you know."

"Oh," they say with a chuckle, "you're not a real writer."

I can't remember how many times I heard that before I realized I had to qualify the term writer. Fiction writers can just say, "I'm a writer." Even writers who write nothing but stroke stories here can just say they are a writer. I always had to say, "I write for Cycle Magazine" or whatever.

So, at one point I figured, I've been writing for 20-30 years, how tough could it be to write and sell, say, a story a week and buy that Laverda SFC I've been looking at. Some time during the two months I worked on the first story, I realized it wasn't going to happen. I managed to put together an interesting collection of rejection slips from a number of lesser magazines, but nobody was buying me an SFC.

I still call myself an automotive and motorcycle writer. I have no illusions about writing fiction as more than a pastime. I feel no compulsion at all to write, and I don't think I ever did, except as it meant getting paid.

 

[TxRad]

What the heck is an authorized autobiography? You mean biography?

Yes, I meant biography. He and the family loaned me a stack of scrapbooks, notebooks, and boxes of photos that make a small mountain. Sorting it all into a timeline is fun, fun, fun,

 

[oggbashan]

A decade or so ago (before I came to Literotica) I joined a creative writing class.

At the first session the tutor asked whether any of us had had any writing published. I was the only one who admitted it, but I said "It was non-fiction. Reviews, reports, instruction manuals, that sort of thing. I want to write fiction."

She insisted that I should tell the class details of what work I had seen in print. I told her a partial list. I had the full list on my very basic laptop but I had left that in its bag. Some of the students couldn't use a typewriter!

She was irritated. Even the few things I had admitted were far more than her two vanity published short story collections.

For the rest of that one-term course she kept saying: "Do this, try this - unless [og's real name] knows better."

I didn't learn much. Next term I enrolled on another course with a different teacher and learned some useful techniques.

I rubbed salt in the first teacher's wound. I entered a local short story writing contest. I came third. Her story was unplaced. Ouch!

But I don't consider myself a competent fiction writer, just someone who writes as a pastime.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

JBJ is one of those people that have to quantify and identify and 'know' about things and have some sort of strategy or plan and then know what others are doing.

From day one with writing and anything else I'm into my motto and attitude is just do it.

It is that easy for most things. Do it, do it your way and don't wonder what the others are doing. Also just as important is to not worry about what others think about what you're doing.

Good observation, Asshopper! Its how I get better. Lately I dissect Dickens to observe how he designed scenes and affect and mood. When I crack open Writers Digest I know less at the end than when I started. We call it the EMPRINT METHOD. With it you get the nuts and bolts without the writers madness. I can make a half ass Dickens scene, no problem, it wont sparkle, but he'd recognize it: IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT AT THE GRAVEYARD OUTSIDE SAINT PIA ZADORA PARISH CHURCH. LIGHTNING ILLUMINATED THE BOILING RAIN CLOUDS AND TOMBSTONES, THUNDER RATTLED THE CHURCH'S STAINED GLASS PANES, AND THE WIND PUSHED THE STONEWALL GATE OPENA AND SHUT. I IMAGINED THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN CHASING ICABOD CRANE ALONG THE ROAD. AND THEN A HAND CAME OUT OF THE GROUND AND GRABBED MY ANKLE.