• Member Since 6th Nov, 2011
  • offline last seen January 26th

Thorax


More Blog Posts1474

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Jul
10th
2014

Real Talk "Being a Skilled Author" · 1:41am Jul 10th, 2014

So for the last week or so I've been reading fics and watching shit storms over the site. I feel the need to address something that a lot of people seem to not get.

Follower count doesn't make you a skilled writer.
I've seen a lot of authors that argue "I have 500 followers therefore I am a good writer" No, that's not how it works. You write a good story that's well done and doesn't stink of shitty cliches and stuff then you're a good author.

Having 500 authors just means there's a group of people who like that story whether it was bad or good.

I have 700+ Followers
I am not a good writer, I know this for a fact.

I continuously rape and pillage the English Language on a constant basis. People constantly give me advice on how to improve (Which I appreciate never follow.) My stories have no ending and they don't even update on a regular basis (Don't worry I'm working something out) To top it all off, I like writing the stories but when I go back a reread what I've written I hate almost all of it.

I know I'm a bad writer, I just do it for fun.
I also know I'm not a good writer simply because I have followers.

I gained 700+ Followers of the course of 3 years by writing things that appealed to them no matter how poorly written they were. I wrote a fluffly happy comedy where almost nothing goes wrong because that's what I wanted to write and it still is the kind of thing I want to write. I just got lucky and it seems people were willing to look past all the flaws and still enjoy it.

Is it a fun story? Yes
Is it a well written story? No, it is filled with grammatical errors, plot holes and cliches so big you park a car inside it.

I wrote a clopfic that was to fill one of my fetishes
Was it good? No
Did it fill other peoples fetishes? Yes

Followers. Mean. Nothing

You could have 700 Followers and have never written something that was really worth someone's time
You could have 0 followers and have written a masterpiece that was swept under the rug.

When you judge success by how many followers you have, then you fucked up and that's a lesson it took me far longer to learn that it should have.
Hopefully some of you who actually read this will get that, just because you have a lot of followers doesn't mean you're a good writer. Having few or no followers doesn't make you a bad writer either.

Report Thorax · 274 views ·
Comments ( 18 )
XiF

Amen, brotha. :moustache:

I wish I could like this post.

PREACH, PREACHAH MAN!

You know, I disagreed with you on something earlier and your writing isn't necessarily my cup of tea, but you make several good points throughout this post. So, credit where credit is due - this is all very well said and really does put things in perspective.

I would like to think I am a good author...
I PALE in comparison to writers such as Bad_Seed_72, Anonymous Pegasus, CvBrony, and numerous others.

Still, i do enjoy a good fic, and when others enjoy what I write, I feel good.

I love this and want do do a blog of my own opinion. Follower count doesn't matter. It does have a small account when it is compared to story count

2270646
I also want to do this.


I also wish there was an emoticon that was somepony applauding because it would be appropriate.
Since such a thing doesnt exist, Tic you get this seal of approval :eeyup:

The truth hurts.

Preach it like peaches (that sounded... only a little less stupid in my head)! Follower numbers mean nothing to me anymore--writing for myself as well as suckers who follow me are. That's all that should matter, not numbers.

You're right, it doesn't mean anything. But I try to become a great writer. But like you have said, just because you write a story that fulfills a lot of people's fetishes doesn't mean you're a good writer necessarily.

You could also write an excellent story that like you said gets swept under the rug because many reasons, for example maybe it doesn't appeal to the readers as readily as would unfortunately a clop fic would if you were writing an adventure fic.

Again, many reasons.

Now, followers in that understanding doesn't mean anything. Followers however can have an advantage at times in giving you the necessary views needed to get you that amazing heat to be featured. (I know I could have said this a lot shorter and better, but my mind is being lame right now.)

Followers simply give you the better advantage in the sense of views whether if it was good or bad. Of course that wouldn't matter if the user didn't have users at all. If it's a good story, then eyes will see it and read it.

Which also brings us to the point of why people ask what do I do for a follow?

Yeah, I guess for new users that is understandable, but followers is only having a pair of eyes on your works. They only want to see what you put out, but doesn't make anyone a great author if they have 3000 plus followers and authors shouldn't be judged away by that.

I think they should be judged if ever on the stories then everything else.

Heck, I'm to a degree an example of quite a bit of followers yet my writings are not really that good at all.

So, keeping to the point now, you're absolutely right. Followers don't matter, Followers don't increase the skills of your writing. The skills of ones writing increase with their determination to be better every time they write a story.

For me now, I give everyone the benefit of the doubt even the most terrible ones or the ones that most people would say write terrible stories. I like to think there is something written in every story whether good or bad that you can pull something out from.

And in turn taking time to read their works actually make me a better writer, maybe I would learn not to write something a certain or maybe how I could've said something better that the author perhaps failed to do in his or her writing. I could also help them improve and improve myself twice as much then staying in some belief that more followers makes my writing better.

Now I'll be honest on my part with followers. I like having a lot of followers. But I want eyes on my userpage because I actually put work into make it look the way it does. I love the site and the unique users on here a lot so I try to make my story revolving about my journeys on this site, but that just my little reason for having lots of followers, my stories come last in any case. <:3

....I guess I went to far so I'll just stop here before I go onto another topic. Hopefully you get what I was saying. :twilightsheepish:

Now this is the thing I like.

2270927 coming from a guy with over 2k followers :trollestia:

2270965
Pfft, like I ever admitted to being a good writer. :raritywink:

I hab leik 10 followers. Come at me bro
:pinkiesmile:

2270971 truuuuee


Just so you know, I'm still doing that fic I talked about :rainbowlaugh:

Cheers bud, I sometimes get down that stories that don't seem that good to me get ratings through the roof where as stories with any depth seem to get ignored. There are some stories that appeal to certain 'fetishes' as you put it that are still awesome and some massive in depth tails that are down right boring, this is just my opinion of course; it just feels like there is a tendency for the spammed clop-fics to get all the screen time.

Thanks for showing me I not the one out there who feels this way. :fluttercry: Give me hope for the little guys out there who are trying their best.

Here's the counterpoint:
A really skillfully crafted story doesn't make you a good writer, if nobody wants to read it.



There is no "good" story outside of the context of it beeing read, and what we perceive as quality (coherent writing, good grammar, etc.) at the end of the day is just as unimportant as the number of people who have read it.
When a story has garnered a good amount of readers, there is something about it which has enticed those readers. Maybe it was posted during a good time, maybe it happened to fullfill a lot of peoples fantasies, maybe its pages are filled with subliminal mind controll messages, the end result remains the same, people have read it.

I do believe that one can strive to be a more "effective" writer. I also do believe that you can write with other goals in mind, rather than just success (I dare you to count how many authors talk about "creating something that stays with the reader, after he puts down the book".), and I would give an arm and an leg for people to look for more in a story (or TV-show... or artpiece... or lifestyle), than just visceral gratification. Saying that success isn't a form of validation for a story, however, betrays a close minded (though probably not malicous) elitism, that is founded in nothing but your own prejudice towards what a "good" story should look like.

I suppose the quality, and not the quantity, of an author's followers makes the difference.

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