Why do you write?

[storyteller92]

I want to know what success looks like for you.
From comments scattered around AH regularly, there are at least seven different definitions I have seen
1) lots of views
2) lots of votes
3) lots of comments
4) lots of favorites (hearts)
5) a high rating (or just an H)
6) a new category "conquered"
7) a story that was interesting or well written or used some feature you wanted

I rather like the Morrison quote:

"If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it."

And unlike most, I do not believe in brevity. I am a sucker for longer driven story telling. Since my stories are less about being spank stories, they don't always do well on Lit, but I write them for me. A coherent story that I would enjoy reading later almost always does it for me.
While I like ratings as much as the next guy, what others find popular do not always do it for me. I can be in so many categories based on the subject matter (since my stories are usually in Sci-Fi/Fantasy), so anything from EC to Mature to LW are all on the table.
Most stories are here's someone hot, they would never do x or y, and here's all the reasons they do x or y, which isn't a bad formula, but I know longer form stories including the OP's 120K word stories very much have a place here, and I love seeing them. It is just, for me, they do not always scratch the itch I am after, so I decided eh, what the hell, I will write a few myself.
I guess that makes me a number 7. I enjoy comments, feedback, votes, and views as much as the next guy, but I want to make something different that I am personally proud of before the approval of anyone else. After all, just because I like my coffee/cocoa/tea a certain way does not mean someone else will. I won't pretend a lot of views with a multitude of votes that make the rating high doesn't motivate me to write more.

 

[onehitwanda]

Am I the only one seeing these posts, or are we just all ignoring them and hoping they go away?

 

[StillStunned]

Am I the only one seeing these posts, or are we just all ignoring them and hoping they go away?

I saw a handful across various thread. Then I pressed the magic "Ignore" button and poof! they all went away.

Wouldn't it be more fun if that button was called "Abjuration"?

 

[sirhugs]

does anybody else notice that lately there are a lot of new interesting threads popping up that move so fast that by the time you notice them, they are too far alongto catch up to? And here i thought I wasted tons of time on the forum.

 

[onehitwanda]

I saw a handful across various thread. Then I pressed the magic "Ignore" button and poof! they all went away.

Wouldn't it be more fun if that button was called "Abjuration"?

Dispel Evil would do in a pinch.

 

[sirhugs]

I am not re-asking the question from Chloe's outstanding thread that still resurfaces regularly. I want to know what success looks like for you.

From comments scattered around AH regularly, there are at least seven different definitions I have seen

1) lots of views
2) lots of votes
3) lots of comments
4) lots of favorites (hearts)
5) a high rating (or just an H)
6) a new category "conquered"
7) a story that was interesting or well written or used some feature you wanted

Certainly all six of these are true for many of these at some point, for some stories. But one or two of these are most important at any given time.

For me, I started out here looking for 4). Then I thought I cared more for 3). Then I shifted back to 4). Now it depends on the story. If I am writing just another Romance of LS story, I want the rating. I love comments and favorites, but at the end of the day, I look at the rating.

But about half of my stories are about exploring something new for myself, and I'm less driven by the rating. I knew Cupcake Caper was not going to be well rated, but it was a blast to write. I wrote my first novel a few months ago. It turned out reasonably rated, but I was happy that I was able to write a coherent 120K. One of my recent stories was both a new category and I played with point of view in a new way, that I guessed mostly worked.

For some authors, I think this choice drives category choice. If you really care about views and especially votes, there are only a couple of categories that make sense.

Me? At my heart, I'm a ratings whore and I know it.

I started out and still sometimes write for catharsis, but admit that primarily I am an attention whore. I suffer from depression, as regulary followerrs know, triggered often by loneliness and isolation. The idea that my thoughts are shared with an audience, any audience, helps me keep walking the narrow bridge across the deep pit.

 

[big_cane_sugar]

Usually I write to entertain people. Sometimes I write to bother people. Depends on my mood.

 

[sirhugs]

Why do I write? Because if I don't write, I die of anxiety. Part of the reason why the sickness I caught a few months back worsened was because I was unable to write, so my stress was off the roof because I was unable to write, thus starting a vicious circle of not writing, therefore disease getting worse, thus not being able to write.

Why do I publish? To complete the cycle. I know someone is going to resonate with what I write, especially now that it has evolved from the strokers that, while I'm not ashamed of them, do not represent the point in which I am at this moment, yet at the same time I refuse to delete because I like to have them there anyway.

Why have I stopped publishing? Rebellion... sort of. Currently there are two voices fighting in my head; one of them keeps yapping at me to post so that my name is on new stories all the time, or to go viral, or whatever, while the other tells me to not chase metrics and if I'm going to post, I should post with an explosion instead of rapid fire. Neither are good. I understand the latter's point, but the former's point is just something that I dislike. Metrics are stressful, algorithms suck, virality doesn't guarantee an audience, and this platform in itself feels both like the right place and the wrong place simultaneously, yet I don't leave because I know there's people here. I've interacted with readers in the past, and I liked to do that. Sometimes I feel that my best works go unnoticed, while my worst works get the most attention. Besides, if I publish a story that has zero likes, zero hearts, zero comments, zero everything, I'll leave it there, as a form of defiance for what the Internet stands for. Even here things are always too fast, with the same ethos of consume and dispose, stories treated more like potato chips (or bloody crisps if you are pedantic), and while that's fine for some, the two voices in my head haven't found an agreement to that. The only consensus is the one a third voice put to shut the discord off in my head: to be slow because being slow saves more energy than pumping out stories too fast.

If only we could post two reaction emojis. I love this post mostly. not 100% surewhat the other reaction emoji would be but I understand the two voices, just mine are not about rebellion. They are about loneliness and emptiness.

 

[DEFCOM5]

I saw a handful across various thread. Then I pressed the magic "Ignore" button and poof! they all went away.

I love the ignore button

 

[StillStunned]

I love the ignore button

It makes the forum experience much better for everyone. I suspect I'm on quite a few ignore lists myself.

 

[MillieDynamite]

To quote my father, "I have all these damn stories pestering my brain, screaming to let loose in the world. Therefore, I write, because it's the only way to maintain my sanity."

 

[crookedletter]

1) lots of views
2) lots of votes
3) lots of comments
4) lots of favorites (hearts)
5) a high rating (or just an H)
6) a new category "conquered"
7) a story that was interesting or well written or used some feature you wanted

It's an interesting question. I like to think I write for #7, and my level of satisfaction in the end result largely depends on that.

But I have lots of stories that are "finished" that very few people -- if any -- have ever read, because I've never found a home for them. There's a certain lack of closure there, a feeling that even if I haven't revisited them in years they're not really done, because they're not set in stone published. And they're just kind of floating in limbo. So I have to conclude that that sense of satisfaction doesn't exist in a vacuum, that it at least in part depends on my work being read and appreciated.

I only have a few stories here -- with hopefully one or two more to come soon -- and their ratings are all pretty close to one another. But their engagement numbers are wildly different. In part because of category, I think, in part because of contest bumps. My highest-viewed story has 71.4K views. My lowest has... 2.6K. That latter actually has a slightly higher rating (on a tiny fraction of the vote count). It has one comment. Three "favorites." Decent rating or no, that level of engagement makes it feel a little like a fart in the wind.

All that to say, I think, that I consider those engagement numbers pretty telling for a story's success. I want the people who do read and engage with my work to like it, so rating matters to me. But it's far more satisfying if that decent rating is coming from a decent-sized audience.

I've been fortunate so far that I haven't had throngs of people telling me what a turd of a writer I am. I suspect that if that ever happens I'd probably look a little more kindly on those ~25 largely positive votes for my fart in the wind.

 

[THBGato]

1) lots of views
2) lots of votes
3) lots of comments
4) lots of favorites (hearts)
5) a high rating (or just an H)
6) a new category "conquered"
7) a story that was interesting or well written or used some feature you wanted

While 3 & 7 have definitely helped sustain my interest in writing, for me a big reason for writing was:

8) to draw attention to other writers' work that I admire.

That's quite obviously the rationale behind the essays and reviews I've written, but it's there in the stories too, usually with hyperlinks. Not just lit writers, but musicians too, hence my playlists.

(I used to be a music journalist, and one that was always interested in championing new bands.)

 

[cw5523729]

Up yer middle edges... cunt

I think I'm abandoning my hobby of trolling the door dash reddit. The train wreck that is every post you make is way more fun. I read every one thinking you can't outdo yourself but then

 

[xXxplorher]

I rather like the Morrison quote:

And unlike most, I do not believe in brevity. I am a sucker for longer driven story telling. Since my stories are less about being spank stories, they don't always do well on Lit, but I write them for me. A coherent story that I would enjoy reading later almost always does it for me.
While I like ratings as much as the next guy, what others find popular do not always do it for me. I can be in so many categories based on the subject matter (since my stories are usually in Sci-Fi/Fantasy), so anything from EC to Mature to LW are all on the table.
Most stories are here's someone hot, they would never do x or y, and here's all the reasons they do x or y, which isn't a bad formula, but I know longer form stories including the OP's 120K word stories very much have a place here, and I love seeing them. It is just, for me, they do not always scratch the itch I am after, so I decided eh, what the hell, I will write a few myself.
I guess that makes me a number 7. I enjoy comments, feedback, votes, and views as much as the next guy, but I want to make something different that I am personally proud of before the approval of anyone else. After all, just because I like my coffee/cocoa/tea a certain way does not mean someone else will. I won't pretend a lot of views with a multitude of votes that make the rating high doesn't motivate me to write more.

Like. And NOT Like.

If you are "writing for you", then you're not even here to say so, mate.

 

[TheJizzWizard]

cuz my brain got full up and I need to let it out.

 

[xXxplorher]

cuz my brain got full up and I need to let it out.

Gotta bleed that shit. Bleed out the brain. It's amongst the things most... necessary. (This is where shit gets weird.)

 

[xXxplorher]

I think I'm abandoning my hobby of trolling the door dash reddit. The train wreck that is every post you make is way more fun. I read every one thinking you can't outdo yourself but then

View attachment 2575498

Duh. Follow me painlessly.
Back in the early times of EARNED... uhm... interstellar (I'm trying to rebuild my own self respect here...) like, yeah... sure, brother... come on board!!

 

[M_K_Babalon]

To get better, see what works, noteriety, because I want to sell.

 

[ColtonWrites]

I write for me - it gets the thoughts out of my head and lets me stop ruminating. Plus it's what I do for fun these days.

I publish for the views/ratings/positive comments. It makes me happy to know other people are reading and enjoying my work.

 

[xXxplorher]

Honest:

I NEED to.

I've got all these weird variables within myself that don't like feeling less than the potential for something more than they are and so... I write weird words that feel fun for me to spewl out in a weirder way than someone else has already and... in the end I cum.

For real, though? It's because I HAVE to.

Why else would anyone continue to do dumb shit that certifiably ruins them?

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

I started writing, and I am freakishly afraid to say this, but out of necessity for therapeutic reasons. I was suicidal and have been for many many years.

There I said it. I battle daily but am really safe now.

I wanted to live again and eight years ago, I got sick, really sick, esophageal cancer. I never smoked but ai battled cancer and beat it five years ago. I needed a reason to write.

So I wrote initially for me. Then three years ago when I posted the first stories, mind you without an editor nor a beta reader, I was pummeled with pros, cons, and several “drop dead’s”. Knowing I am better than that I continued and wrote through my recovery. Then I wrote for fun.

MB was diagnosed with TNBC, (Triple Negative Breast Cancer), I wrote for her and for us to get our minds off of the hell she was going through. I would write during the hours and hours we sat through her treatments and days later when she was sick from the chemo, I would read to her.

Now one year into MB’s remission, I write still from necessity but a necessity to have these emotional and physical thoughts in the recesses of my slutty brain come to life and be shared.

 

[iwatchus]

I started writing, and I am freakishly afraid to say this, but out of necessity for therapeutic reasons. I was suicidal and have been for many many years.

There I said it. I battle daily but am really safe now.

I wanted to live again and eight years ago, I got sick, really sick, esophageal cancer. I never smoked but ai battled cancer and beat it five years ago. I needed a reason to write.

So I wrote initially for me. Then three years ago when I posted the first stories, mind you without an editor nor a beta reader, I was pummeled with pros, cons, and several “drop dead’s”. Knowing I am better than that I continued and wrote through my recovery. Then I wrote for fun.

MB was diagnosed with TNBC, (Triple Negative Breast Cancer), I wrote for her and for us to get our minds off of the hell she was going through. I would write during the hours and hours we sat through her treatments and days later when she was sick from the chemo, I would read to her.

Now one year into MB’s remission, I write still from necessity but a necessity to have these emotional and physical thoughts in the recesses of my slutty brain come to life and be shared.

Many of battle deep mental health issues on a daily basis. You are not alone. Writing can be very cathartic.

 

[NaughteeDragon]

I write for reason 7- because I want to tell stories.
Heinlein once wrote something to the effect of “writers don’t write because they want to, they write because they have to.” That was revelation for me, because I had been channeling that creative energy into TTRPG games for years and had started writing fanfiction about a year before I stumbled into that quote. I started writing a bunch after that until I got derailed a couple of years later. When I came back to writing it literally exploded out of me. I sat down to write a scene after finishing a story I thought needed one more scene. I wrote 30k words in a week and mapped out an entire novel.

My validation is votes, rating, and followers.

 

[NaughteeDragon]

Many of battle deep mental health issues on a daily basis. You are not alone. Writing can be very cathartic.

I think that’s true across the spectrum of writers. John Ringo has said publicly that he battles severe depression and that when he goes on meds for it he can’t write. When he goes off his meds he’s a writing fiend.
Part of my return to writing was getting on meds for my ADHD. When my meds are on point I can turn out 30-40k words a week.