Where did the love go?

[Deleted member 68927]

Every time, a new author asks for advice on here, there are some older members who parrot something along these lines:

The popular genres are Gl, GB...

Why? Why must you tell a writer, who is still fresh to the craft, to not write what he or she loves and gives him or her a dopamine spike, but the popular genres? Why ruin the magic for them? Since when have views and trending became more important than having fun?

Because, let us face it, if we wanted something to suck our souls out, we'd do overtime. For free!

So, the next time someone asks for advice on their story, why don't you take the time to read their questions, even if they are a wall of text, instead of telling them they have to turn their hobby into a job? For every train, there are passengers. Even for stories which are not from the popular genres.

Just let them have fun, give them a couple of constructive advice based on reading their story, if you really want to be helpful, and enjoy the fact that they will bring their own style to this wonderful site.

Instead of telling them to churn another GL/GB/Isekai/and so on story, which, if they don't like any of these genres, might swear them off writing.

Rant over.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

What?

 

[Ellieporter]

 

[Representing_Tromba]

I agree.

 

[Kalliel]

In my defense, they usually ask how to get more views, so...

 

[Deleted member 68927]

In my defense, they usually ask how to get more views, so...

And this is part of the problem. A two-way curse, so to speak. Using writing as a way to gain external validation is something one can do without. I certainly feel better after I stopped behaving like that.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

I think people just want to be helpful. My best (and one of my only) stories is made entirely of unpopular tags, and as such is still under 50 views. In my opinion things like that are more demotivating than any forum post can be. Some people enjoy views and readers more than they enjoy writing their favorite genre.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

Every time, a new author asks for advice on here, there are some older members who parrot something along these lines:

The popular genres are Gl, GB...

Why? Why must you tell a writer, who is still fresh to the craft, to not write what he or she loves and gives him or her a dopamine spike, but the popular genres? Why ruin the magic for them? Since when have views and trending became more important than having fun?

Because, let us face it, if we wanted something to suck our souls out, we'd do overtime. For free!

So, the next time someone asks for advice on their story, why don't you take the time to read their questions, even if they are a wall of text, instead of telling them they have to turn their hobby into a job? For every train, there are passengers. Even for stories which are not from the popular genres.

Just let them have fun, give them a couple of constructive advice based on reading their story, if you really want to be helpful, and enjoy the fact that they will bring their own style to this wonderful site.

Instead of telling them to churn another GL/GB/Isekai/and so on story, which, if they don't like any of these genres, might swear them off writing.

Rant over.

Based and I agree.

 

[Deleted member 68927]

I think people just want to be helpful. My best (and one of my only) stories is made entirely of unpopular tags, and as such is still under 50 views. In my opinion things like that are more demotivating than any forum post can be. Some people enjoy views and readers more than they enjoy writing their favorite genre.

I get around 4–5 views per update on my German stories, but I am still more excited about them than my English stories. Writing into the void is bad, but putting the Writing Exercise on my stories gave me the freedom to write what I want. Gave me back the flow. It doesn't matter that you have just 50 views. What matters is that you love your story!

 

[CarburetorThompson]

I get around 4–5 views per update on my German stories, but I am still more excited about them than my English stories. Writing into the void is bad, but putting the Writing Exercise on my stories gave me the freedom to write what I want. Gave me back the flow. It doesn't matter that you have just 50 views. What matters is that you love your story!

Not everyone thinks like that. Especially new writers. If someone wants to make a career out of creative writing, it’s a good lesson to learn that what you want to make and what the market wants, are often very different.

 

[Deleted member 68927]

Not everyone thinks like that. Especially new writers. If someone wants to make a career out of creative writing, it’s a good lesson to learn that what you want to make and what the market wants, are often very different.

Let us face it: If they wanted to make a career out of it, they'd contact a publisher or post on Amazon. No, they post here because they want the ego boost of having their story read. Money is just a bonus.

I share my stories because it makes me feel appreciated. You might do it to feel better too, I don't know.

What I do know is, that few, if any, will give money for something they can read for free. There are authors on here who can make a killing, yes, but they have been writing for a long time. Their craft is polished. And yes, they do write the popular genres. I can't argue with that.

But for the most of us, writing is just a hobby. Let it remain that. A gentle passion, which keeps our worlds from the gray reality of everyday life.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Let us face it: If they wanted to make a career out of it, they'd contact a publisher or post on Amazon. No, they post here because they want the ego boost of having their story read. Money is just a bonus.

I share my stories because it makes me feel appreciated. You might do it to feel better too, I don't know.

What I do know is, that few, if any, will give money for something they can read for free. There are authors on here who can make a killing, yes, but they have been writing for a long time. Their craft is polished. And yes, they do write the popular genres. I can't argue with that.

But for the most of us, writing is just a hobby. Let it remain that. A gentle passion, which keeps our worlds from the gray reality of everyday life.

Preach brother!

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Every time, a new author asks for advice on here, there are some older members who parrot something along these lines:

The popular genres are Gl, GB...

Why? Why must you tell a writer, who is still fresh to the craft, to not write what he or she loves and gives him or her a dopamine spike, but the popular genres? Why ruin the magic for them? Since when have views and trending became more important than having fun?

Because, let us face it, if we wanted something to suck our souls out, we'd do overtime. For free!

So, the next time someone asks for advice on their story, why don't you take the time to read their questions, even if they are a wall of text, instead of telling them they have to turn their hobby into a job? For every train, there are passengers. Even for stories which are not from the popular genres.

Just let them have fun, give them a couple of constructive advice based on reading their story, if you really want to be helpful, and enjoy the fact that they will bring their own style to this wonderful site.

Instead of telling them to churn another GL/GB/Isekai/and so on story, which, if they don't like any of these genres, might swear them off writing.

Rant over.

If you seek dreams, then you should see a doctor.

 

[Zirrboy]

I think there's another side to that advice: Expectation management.

I haven't been keeping up with the forums much lately, but what I remember from when I did was quite a few newbie writers washing up here after being told it's a place of little judgement they could put their ideas on.

For every train there's passengers, but this isn't as big a town as others, nor is it necessarily any more neutral in its tastes, so you might find yours to be more empty than you'd hoped, or not filled with the kind of audience you wanted to reach.

Preparing people for the fact that ScribbleHub offers no guarantee about being any more welcoming of what you're looking to create than the place you came from isn't something I consider uncalled for, since from my impression most people do care about reception beyond their own enjoyment of what they write. You could just skip the hassle of posting altogether otherwise, after all.

Conversely, if the opinion of forum comments is enough to deter you from doing what you love, I don't think posting would have been much of a pleasant experience to you to begin with.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I certainly feel better after I stopped behaving like that.

And this is part of the problem.

 

[NotOriginal]

I mean... most of the time when a new author starts a post it's really something along the lines of "How to get more views" or "What's popular to write here?", that tells me this person just wants money or some fame. There has been times when a new author makes a post on needing help on on their story structure and the like and the people here do genuinely try and help the person out.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

I mean... most of the time when a new author starts a post it's really something along the lines of "How to get more views" or "What's popular to write here?", that tells me this person just wants money or some fame. There has been times when a new author makes a post on needing help on on their story structure and the like and the people here do genuinely try and help the person out.

That does happen a lot.

 

[Verdante]

I think it depends on the person. As much as I’d like to say I don’t care about the views, I really do. Getting readers who read my story regularly motivates me to finish it. I like the pressure of having someone expect chapters every week.

I do have a plan to publish someday, but have a problem of finishing a novel. I’ll take whatever I can get to finish writing a series

 

[Deleted member 84247]

This is all good stuff, but genre doesn't matter at all. Knowing your audience matters for only a platform, and even that isn't full-proof. I could sit here and point out a few examples of people who made popular novels here without any of the genres people mentioned (except maybe fantasy), and people could call them outliers. But the fact is that there are outliers, so you can be an outlier.

 

[georgelee5786]

I concur