I have seen this so many times, and, looking at what great things have been conjured in the world of fanfiction, it breaks my heart.

Far too many times have I seen someone who cranks out an abominably horrible story just to get featured. There are many ways they can do this, too. Methods can include:

Overused Ideas: Methods that have become so overused that you can write a story like it in a breeze. Similar concepts over, and over again.

Plagiarism: Simply copying and pasting entire stories, hoping it achieves the same kind of fame.

And others. Writing should be for the love of the subject or for the love of literature in itself. When you write, expecting to get a shitload of features, it can usually mar the story and take something that could be actually quite fantastic and make it horrible.

When I wrote my original stories, the My Little Warzone stories, I had the intent of getting them featured and all this good stuff. But, only a good few months after I abandoned them, had I realized that I was just going to make an ass out of myself (I don't even know what I was on, then, if you have read either of the two stories)

This is not really an intellectual lesson and slightly more of a wisdom one. But writing because you want to share your abilities and entertain others, and not conforming to some system that'd make your stories popular, is what you should do.

Very, very rarely to any of the great artists, musicians, or film and theater directors try simply to get popular for their works.

Keep that in mind when you write your next story.

thanks and i will keep this in mind as i write my story (the featured box is over rated lol)

927132

Writing should be for the love of the subject or for the love of literature in itself.

You make an excellent point: just writing to get 'Featured' is a crime against writing itself. The only way to succeed in writing, is to love to write, regardless of promotion for talent.

However, that's not to say aspiring for the 'Featured' box is a bad idea. I'm currently writing a LOTR/MLP crossover (if you go look, don't read the first. I was a semi-literate writer then compared to now), and while I may love the idea, that doesn't mean I don't wish my story could get 'Featured'. In fact, I hope above all else that it will get 'Featured', so that (beyond comments) I can verify that my story is excellent.

Plus, this post remind me of the Aesop fable: "The Fox and the Grapes".

People who say with a straight face that they don't care at all about achieving popularity or garnering fame through their stories are just good liars. Even if one isn't motivated by the desire to get famous/featured/whatever-sauce'd, there is still the underlying hope of gaining recognition because--shockingly--recognition makes us feel good. I can think of one writer who didn't write for fame--that being Emily Dickinson, who literally shut herself in her room for the last years of her life and did nothing but write, never publishing her works. It wasn't until she died and her sister came searching through her room did she find the thousands of poems stacked floor to ceiling that Emily had made and simply left there. I wouldn't recommend being like Emily Dickinson--her existence didn't seem to be very much a pleasant one.

tl;dr--Recognition and fame aren't bad things. Thinking that they are bad things, however, is.

927312

I dunno if you're addressing that to me or just in general.

If the former, I acknowledge that, but sometimes people try too hard just to get recognized. Fame and glorification are good things to have. But it sometimes is just the content of your writing that makes the cake.

927328 I wasn't going for a personal spite there. It's just a bit of a pet issue for me.

927355

Ah, okay.

The one that personally rustles my bouncy bits is when people write lackluster "edgy" stories just to get featured.

"Hmm, my serious story that I spent actual time on didn't get much attention. Maybe if I slap together a story about Twilight and Shinning Armor having sex, I can make the featured box! It's been done countless times already, but why in the world would I care about that?"
And then readers still eat it up because "OHEMGEE, the arther wrote about a tabuu! They r so brave and cool!"

Sometimes I have to uncheck the "View Mature" box for a day or so just because it pains me to see half-assed stories get featured just because they're "edgy"

927591
So it appears I'm not the only one who feels this way.

One of the unfortunate truths is that the general public eagerly laps up all the formulaic folderol.

In one way it's not really a thing to hold against them -- the public, that is -- as they're often times looking for some sort of escape that doesn't require a lot of thought work on their part. On the other (appendage of your choice), the unwillingness the masses can have for looking deeper into a piece of media is sad.

It's because of that aspect of the teeming populace that we get treated to far more explosions and fan service than anything meaningful. For too many creatives the allure of this easy route to recognition is too good to pass up and they industriously heap more upon the ever growing buffet of mental fluff. It's why the shelves (e- or otherwise) overflow with the likes of 50 Shades while you have to seriously dig to find something like House of Leaves (color added for authenticity and for an excuse to play with the colored text button).

Arguably this is a fairly cynical look at the situation but it seems true more often than not.

I believe it is hard for many to summon the willpower to make art for arts sake. It's reward is almost a spiritual one if you think about it, and is hard to grasp. The want of a more material reward, that of recognition or of praise, is only human. The betterment of ourselves is also admirable, but it can't be considered a goal can it? I can't judge.

In the end, I would say that we should grasp at the reward which provides us with the most will to succeed. Writing is a hard, and anything with the ability to push us to continue is a proper reward.

927132 That right here... is so freaking true. But the sad thing is, when we write what we love, it usually ends up turning out bad. Not because you wrote it poorly, but because of the readers. Usually, unique stories get so little views, because it's too unique or I don't know what others say when they dislike it because it's not a ''usual' story.
In my experience, romance stories (Both Mature and Non-mature stories.) are nearly the same. And not because of the pairings, but because of the happenings. Most of the time, it's nearly the same. (Don't take the next part offensive, it's just an example!) Like an Octavia X Vinyl story. Mostly, I saw the happenings going like this: Meet at a night club, because Octavia lost her job and decided to drink. Vinyl walks up to her and starts bugging her. Some argument about being annoying and finally peace. Some other events here, then how they started to like each other. And later, after another BIG argument and meeting at the same bar, they confess their love. THE END!
At least, that is what I saw most of the time...
And that leads me to another point... the OCs. Many people hate OCs, because they're not the usual characters... or they are made badly/became too cliche and looks the same as many other OC... but that's just my opinion, so don't take it seriously. After all, I haven't been able to read new stories, due to my busy life. So correct me if I'm wrong and I hope there are more new stories, which are unique...

But going back to what this whole thread was about, yes, I totally agree with you and that is what I keep saying to myself, to never make that mistake and never rush my work!

Have a nice day!
~Adam

928702

You bring up a valid point. Perhaps it is laudable for a creator to simply find whatever motivation it is that sets their shoulder to the plow. And, as you put it, art for art's sake is a rather abstract goal for one to wrap their mind around and so one is more likely to turn to simpler rewards for their work.

In a way, I believe that art, writing, or any other creative outlet is at its heart a social undertaking. We get these concepts and images in our minds and desire in some way to output them to the world. A 'hey, look at this cool thing I thought up!' if you will. However, often times their initial attempts are little more than fumbling to coalesce dreamstuff into something tangible. This is just an issue of an unpracticed skill being brought to bear.

To be fair, I doubt that anyone honestly desires to effuse forth mindless dreck but improvement is difficult to attain while just shoehorning in cliches is easy. Though I guess even in that, so long as it actually keeps them creating more work, they'll improve little by little. To quote a little ditty from the 90s, "there's no such thing as a failure who keeps trying; coasting to the bottom is the only disgrace." (+harmonica)

927591 Err, I don't think people read those types of stories because of their edginess...

934688 From what I've seen, yes they do. Many times. If it's something "different and edgy" it automatically draws their attention just because of that.

927312 Actually... I really don't care about the fame.
Yes... it's probably great to be popular like Chuggaaconroy. In fact: I plan
on doing LP's too! But I'm a bit asocial and a little lazy.
However, I wouldn't mind if my story got featured for a week or so.

One thing I do want however is for the people who've read my story to comment.
(I want to know the flaws)

927312

I think this confuses two extremely different impulses, to detriment. There's a world of difference between wanting to be appreciated and wanting to be famous.

Wanting to be appreciated can be as simple as watching one other person sample your work and enjoy it. The good feelings that result are the pleasure of having done something nice for somebody else. It's simply the psychology of friendly interaction, because the impulse to give someone an enjoyable gift entails attention to detail and quality, and it treats the recipient as someone worthy of respect and attention. You come away having felt that the work and effort you've put in have been validated, and that writing stories is a worthwhile and laudable goal.

Wanting to be famous is - at heart - about raking in numbers as proof of how good you are, however transitory that phase is and however much it's mixed in with a desire for appreciation. It's not intrinsically bad in theory, but in practice it lends itself too much to cutting corners, producing boilerplate, and compromising quality and identity in an attempt to please more people, as "you've got their attention" is what's required by that standard. It's the psychology of status, where you try to get social validation by rising in the league tables and the ranks, such that a fall in popularity and a trend of obscurity is a bad sign. It's also susceptible to distancing between writer and audience, as the writer is trying to impress rather than engage, and that can lead to treating the audience with contempt.

It's not that they necessarily clash or can't coexist, but they are independent motives, and blending the two leads to unhelpful - and potentially damaging - confusion.

927132 This mindset was already with me when I first wrote my first story. Initially I did want to be featured but around halfway through my first story, I realized that the dream there may never come to be... I do wish so it could happen from time to time but that's only wishful thinking on my part. All of the stories I've written were for the sake of fun and because new ideas kept surging in my head. After finishing my first story did I get the feeling of having fun to write! I've already made and published eight stories all for the sake of fun, but I do would love a good like every now and then to at least see that some people within this website read my stories and liked them

4913392 I agree with the comment above.

4913445

4913454 Why yay?

4913456 Because why not?

4912084 How did you find this thread?

4913773 I am a knew writer and my story is great, but written terribly.

4913876 I know how that feels. I started off with a novel. I'm still fixing it after 2 years.