The woes of a whiny author · 7:09am Jul 5th, 2013
Can I like
take all the reads and likes from My Little Human
and then just like
switch them with In Search of Mother
Because, let's face it. My Little Human might be funny, but it's hardly GOOD. In like, an artistic/literary sense. It's got jokez. It's got hoomor. I get it.
But really.
I have put 10x more effort, 10x more heart, and 10x more thought into In Search of Mother than I have in the entirety of My Little Human, and I'm not even halfway finished with it yet.
There is nothing original about My Little Human. It's just Lyra jokes and pokes at the fandom. And I get it, it's funny, I wouldn't have written it if it wasn't. But it's canned humor.
I didn't have to think for a single moment when I was writing that story. Every single word of that story just poured through my like it was natural, and that's because it was: it's easy to joke about things that already exist. It's easy to poke fun at the fandom, and the jokes make people laugh just as easy. Because it's relateable, because it's relevant. That's really the ONLY kind of humor I'm good at, is situational humor.
I was never really PROUD of that story. I mean, I enjoyed writing it, and it made me really happy when other people enjoyed it as well. It still does. I'm not telling you all to start hating My Little Human, because for what it is, it's not bad. If you want stupid cheap laughs at something we're all familiar with that took no thought and no effort and no heart, BAM. My Little Human fits the bill perfect. It exists solely to fill that niche.
But when I work really hard on something, like In Search of Mother, when I pour my heart, my effort, and my thought into a truly original project that I really want to succeed... nothing. Nothing compared to My Little Human, anyways.
The 200 reads and 20-something likes HARDLY even BEGINS to measure up to the monumental abomination of a story that is My Little Human, with 5k reads and 500 likes.
I spent hours, alone, simply THINKING about In Search of Mother. Plotting it, scanning over every last detail, to make sure that each chapter was planned out the best that it could be. Then I spent hours MORE simply writing the damn thing, making sure every single detail is how I want it, every character is acting the way they act in my head. Entire days of time go into the production of these chapters, enough effort to actual get something IMPORTANT done instead of writing about technicolor horses, and enough heart to... well I don't know how you measure heart but I put a lot into it. Hell, I even PROOFREAD it once. I NEVER PROOFREAD. THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING.
And then it ends up as my second lowest rated story, with barely any more likes than Foal Wishes (which is utter shit, and not even past its prologue. Seriously I should just take that story down already.) Doesn't even make the featured list once, much less the popular list.
Meanwhile, My Little Human gets a free ticket to the featured list for THREE DAYS. And stays in the popular list FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK. Something that I spent about 30 minutes a day on, shitting out the first thing that came to mind before forgetting about it for a week and coming back to it later. Something that took as much effort, as, say, walking on stage and reading a bunch of shitty canned comedy that I practically stole from someone else.
Can you imagine if someone just walked on stage and delivered shitty canned jokes and then got showered in money and fans an- oh wait Dane Cook exists that's a bad example. But you get what I mean. My Little Human doesn't deserve the attention that it has, or even if it does, I wish stories that I actually put time and effort into like In Search of Mother would get the same if not more.
But, I can't control the tides of popularity. I can't control what people like and dislike. This blog post isn't going to change anything. Most of you are probably going to read the first few sentences, get bored, and then stop reading, which I fully understand. This is literally just me deciding to vent something that's been on my mind for the past few days. That's what blogs are for, aren't they? Complaining to strangers on the internet?
But yeah. This is hardly a unique problem. I know for a fact there are tons of other authors out there that go through this exact same shit. I FEEL YOU. I GET IT. WE SHOULD HUG SOMETIME. If anyone is still reading this, I'm sorry you decided it would be a good idea to read through the entirety of one of my rants. There's nothing up there but pointless whining. But I do feel slightly better now that I've got the whole thing written down somewhere.
Right, I'll go back to my poorly-lit writing corner where I can mumble angry things to myself. See you all later.
Meh. The rant was at least a little interesting, so I didn't entirely waste 2,5 minutes on reading it.
'In search of mother' was in my 'read later' list almost since it appeared, but since the list is currently 285 stories long... Like/dislike/favourite will come significantly later.
I didn't read it for the simple fact that, going on the description, it frankly sounded boring. Since you're wondering.
I'm reading and enjoying 'In Search of Mother', for what its' worth.