Writing for you · 3:37am Dec 30th, 2015
A lot of people like to say stuff like "I write for myself". That's fair, almost everybody writes because they want to, not because others want them to. But some people choose to use that as an excuse for their stories not being edited, having bad characterization, being too fast-paced, or not being well thought out in general. The saddest thing is that a lot of the bigger, more popular writers like to use this excuse when a story of theirs is called out by someone for not being as well-written as their other work.
Here's how I feel about it.
Writing for yourself is one of the greatest pleasures in life for a writer. It means you get to write what you want, not what others want. That's what writing for yourself is. Writing for yourself is NOT writing something poorly, publishing it, and then passing it off as being "written for myself". That's lazy writing, and it promotes the idea that as long as what you're writing is for yourself, then you can ignore criticism of said writing.
That's, to put it lightly, a load of crap.
Fluttershy is not amused with your nonsense.
I've seen newcomers to the site use this excuse, and I've even seen some long-time veterans use it as an excuse to deflect criticism on their more controversial stories. While it's true that you may be writing for yourself, you're using an online medium to publish your works and show them to the world. If they were purely "for you", you wouldn't be doing that. Publishing it means you want people to see it. You want acceptance. You want people to like your story.
So to get criticism and then say "I just wrote this for myself, I don't care what people think" is a load of nonsense. You're just deflecting criticism with your crappy excuse instead of facing up to the fact that your story has problems. Don't do that. When you publish a story, you must remember that you're publishing it for people to read. People you may know, people whose opinion of you as a writer may change upon reading something that you didn't do your best to make good.
So next time you upload a story "for yourself", do yourself a favor and take the criticism it receives to heart, because if you're truly writing for yourself then that criticism will serve to help your writing become better. And the the better your writing is, the more pleased you'll be with yourself.
- Seven
Oh, man, it's so true. What do you expect when you publish a fanfiction into the internet? Unconditional praise and love? No, because that's not how it works. People need to pull the sticks from their asses and learn to accept reality and criticism. Yeah, it's not always easy to grasp and accept that your story has problems, but it's the best way to learn.
COME ON PEOPLE THIS IS SIMPLE
I write for the inevitable pussy that comes with being horse famous.
It's just a fact that no one is willing to handle a single drop of critque. Which is why this site has so many comment wars. No one is here to appeal to the masses. They live to make inside jokes for their close friends. Sadly no one, not even the EQD acclaimed, will want to take their criticism. I try but I prefer it in a polite manner. Rather than brash tactless. It's best to try to make them feel good about their work without dousing them in praise. Major plot holes or broken storylines aren't just how writing works. Explanation ir not these will be called out. If you "Wrote it for yourself" don't post it online. You'll be doing your lying self a favour.
Bruh, critique makes writers better. Have writers forgotten this fact?
As for the big names using the "I write for myself mantra," they're filled up the brim with themselves being big names in the fandom. I know only one or two vets that actually man the fuck up and listen.
3651155
God damn it Famous, you read my mind.