How much time to spend writing? · 5:18am May 19th, 2013
Here is something adorable. Now read further! The Gweat and Powaful Twixie commands you!
Twixie has been thinking very deeply as of late. Not to say that she doesn't always think with the utmost of powaful logic, but here is a question of time.
There are stories that Twixie work very, very hard on, The Sparkling Reflection being one of them. She has spent countless hours editing, revising, and developing the story line. There are also stories she has spend maybe only five hours on that. Considering the varying popularity of the two, it would be the case that time spent will not equal popularity.
Should this bother Twixie?
It used to bother her a lot more than it does now. Society teaches us that time equals payoff. She feels really good about her story and the newest piece is coming out, but, she knows it will not be popular. Like before, she writes just for the sake of writing, and not to appease the crowd.
120 hours logged into such a tale and it's coming out how Twixie wants it. (finally!) But is that too long, even for a serious tale?
you can never put too much time and effort into your work. work as hard as you need to; to put a lot of work into something means you are striving to make it as perfect as you realistically can, and this is exactly what you should do.
Considering you are providing, what is essensially free entertainment product, you are under no obligation to work as much you deem fit on whatever project you chose. I would like to see for Getting Weird in the Hot Tub and more the Trixie on the Rock Farm, and more of Rocks and Showmares, but those are the stories I am following.
When you care a lot about whatever it is that you do, whether it's writing, drawing, dressing, gaming, sexing, programming, flying, or even sleeping, you should always put 100% of your effort into it. You seem to care deeply about the stories you write, so you should do whatever you can to make them as perfect as possible. God rewards hard work and effort, and if you really have put as much work into these last few stories as you say, then I think it's paying off. You are doing awesome Twixie! Now, what do you think about neckties?
Put your health first, and don't overextend yourself. You will go crazy or burn out. If the amount of time you spend writing is detrimental to your mental health it should be reduced.
But mostly I'd say it depends mostly on whether you enjoy it. If you enjoy spending large amounts of time working on these projects (or at least don't mind) then it shouldn't be a problem. You seem to be something of a perfectionist, and if you are actually able to satisfy your perfectionist tendencies by spending more time on it, then that seems good to me( a lot of people would never be happy with what they wrote). If it starts slowing down your output then that's fine too, to the extent you aren't getting terribly frustrated with it.
If it takes 120 hours to get it where you want it to be, and you enjoy doing it, then I don't see how it could be a bad thing. Everyone is different, and I wouldn't compare you to someone else and say "You're too slow!". I'd rather you upload once every 3 months than see you reduce the quality to reach an imaginary time limit, though of course it's all up to you (some people get impatient with very long term projects).
As for the popularity thing, I'm glad you're able to look past it. I really don't understand why The Sparkling Reflection seems invisible on this site, but I think that the time and thought you put into it transcends an arbitrary number of "views". There's no counter for how much it means to people, and it means a lot to me.
Also, the 120 hours is probably an exception because of the revision (I don't know that though). Then again, I would assume the length of your (serious) stories will continue to rise.
I just love coming to see how Twixie talks.
-STEALS TWIXIE-
Considering that I've spent almost an hour trying to think of a way to put in words how much I appreciate your work, I don't think that your time has been wasted.
Remember Twix, the variances also come down to taste a lot of the time. Sometimes I just want a quick literary snack and go after some of the 4 - 10k word stories, ignoring the 100k+ behemoth staring me in the face. Some times i want an epic and settle in for a monster read, ignoring the little stuff laying around. And some out there stick to one or the other.
Best I can say is put in what you feel you should, and that while time may not equate to popularity sometimes, it certainly lends to quality.
And for what its worth, I freaking love The Sparkling Reflection. It is the multicolored pyrotechnic display of a buffet table to my literary hunger. Annnnd now I have strained that particular metaphor so hard that I have pulled something, good day.
Also, do you have an editor? Finding another set of eyes might free up some time, even if its just limited grinding through a block of text looking for typos and formatting junk. Let someone else do the grunt work and focus on working your magic.
If you already do, or dont want to then please ignore this