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I made a subdued return to a writing forum yesterday that I abandoned about this time last year. Little has changed it would seem.

It dissapoints me that the majority of users seek advice not on making their writing as good as possible, but on making it is marketable as possible. Maybe it's because I've always written stuff for my own benefit, but I struggle to comprehend the weight of wannabe authors who have chosen to write not because they have something to say, but because they believe they can make money from saying it.

The argument that people just want to be read and have their work appreciated falls on its face, because it can be done for effectively no cost, and made available to a limitless audience, without the need for an agent, a publisher, and a contract for royalties.

Regardless, I'll hang around for a week, only because certain members will dislike the fact that I'm there, and to raise the ugly head of my view on their mercenary attitude to writing. Any more than a week, and I'd have to pay subscription fees, which I'm keen to avoid following the somewhat acrimonious exit I endured last time around.

You didn't hear about that? Heh. I had the audacity to utter something to the tune of 'Harry Potter and his gay magic wand'. I should really have known better, given the ferocity some of these imperialistic zealots defend anything to do with JK Rowling and her boundless fortune. But still, I objected to the reasoning that the use of the word 'gay' implied I was a homophobic, facist nazi. I rejected further to the site admin's defence of such claims, saying ultimately that the members had a right to their ill-conceived assault on me, while I had no right to a riposte.

So I cancelled my subscription, and disappeared from under their noses, where I was clearly causing a smell they didn't like to have hanging around them.

While I would say that I am now less easy to anger on an internet forum, I do still quietly hold a grudge against the idiocy I have faced there in the past, and I still disagree with the single-mindedness with which the majority of the membership pursue their dreams of riches, rather than the goal of literary perfection, or at least decency.

Since my return though, I am mildly amused to see that the majority of my presence is going either unnoticed, or ignored. Apparently, I am not the only one to hold a grudge. I'm deliberately trying not to wind anyone up, I've nothing to gain from that, so we'll see what happens over the next few days, shall we?



1 message(s) of denial

Fuzzems - 2006-10-12 07:52:26

Yes we shall...and if what you are writing is not marketable in todays society, its doned trash or trailing thoughts of an idiot, especially in the US. I applaud.

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Copyright Insane Bartender 2006-10-12 10:44 a.m.

e-mail me: Insane Bartender