The first chapter problem

tinymikes

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Alright. I'll rephrase:
So, you're saying that if you're doing it for free, you give less respect to your work and your readers?
How will this approach help you to increase your audience?
So you only care about getting a bigger audience? I thought you wrote for fun?

No apology for such a mistake? Just another assumption.

How about you start asking actual questions instead of making assumptions about me. I mean you brought up audiences and there are more people reading my work than both of yours. Does that mean anything? It shouldn't as we both said we are doing this for fun. But if we are talking increasing audience sizes...

Next thing, respect. I will say it is difficult to be respectful to you. Twice you've made bold assumptions about me. The first was outright wrong and the second is very strange. Is it less respectful? I don't think so. It would be disrespectful to start the story and give up because I lost motivation after doing a bunch of work in my limited free time that I hate.

I would never find myself paid full time to write stories. I would struggle with the review process too much and the readers would have to spend money to read my works. That would be disrespectful. But the readers here don't pay anything to read the full story. It is a rough draft level story, yes. I don't pretend it is something else. To make it worth paying for, even asking for donations, I would agree I need to do a lot more editing and go through the painful portions that I hate. Which is why I don't ask for donations or hide parts of my story behind a paywall. They will get a full complete story.

I guess we see respect differently. I would say you haven't thought about being respectful during this conversation.

As I said, I write for fun. If I have to do things I don't like too much, I won't write. I want to write, so I limit how much pain I go through.

So, just to say it again so you understand, I do this for fun. I believe most works on this site are written for a similar purpose. Maybe that is wrong, then this doesn't mean as much but it will still cover a portion of the stories. They are doing it for fun, and the setup of the story may not be the part they are excited about and instead feels like something they need to get through. So, they find a quick and easy way to do it so they can write about the part that gets them excited to write.
 

Fairemont

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I got torn to shreds in a review the other day because it apparently took me too long to get to what that reader considered the plot. Admittedly, my opening and early chapters are a tad slow...

:sweat_smile:
 

Aurimaz

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I got torn to shreds in a review the other day because it apparently took me too long to get to what that reader considered the plot. Admittedly, my opening and early chapters are a tad slow...
Ha ha... Yeah, I know that feeling. A week ago I had the same experience, for a bit different reason. I have a feeling that some readers have the attention span of a goldfish, and they're punishing writers for that.
 

Leti

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I have a feeling that some readers have the attention span of a goldfish, and they're punishing writers for that.
I know someone who write novels and songs. This is her answer when I asked her why her chapters and songs are so short around 1000 words and no more than 3 minutes.
 

Aurimaz

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I know someone who write novels and songs. This is her answer when I asked her why her chapters and songs are so short around 1000 words and no more than 3 minutes.
As an author, I kinda understand the need to change my approach to satisfy a reader. Your friend is aware of that, too. That's a good mindset to have.
On the other hand, such an approach is a punishment to the author, because you need to stomp on your pride quite hard. Sometimes writers need to write in the way they truly want. Not how their readers demand. It's a painful balance game.
 
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