Worst experience as a writer?

[McPhoenixDavid]

As a writer, you must have had at least one bad experience.

Comments too harsh?
Fell for "art commission"?
Story got taken down?
Banned from site?
Maybe something else?

 

[RepresentingPride]

Writer's block that keep staying for months and don't even pay a rent

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

As a writer, you must have had at least one bad experience.

Comments too harsh?

Yes. And unnecessary for the direction I want for my work.

Fell for "art commission"?

I do my own art, so no. But they are annoyingly persistent and idiotic (as in, can't read I do my own art)

Story got taken down?

Not yet. But was accused of stealing my own artworks meant for my story in Penana...just because he saw it in a dream.

Banned from site?

Not yet, and I'm not much of a troublemaker to end up in permaban.

 

[CountVanBadger]

Every time I have to talk to my parents about it and my dad throws a fit because the only reason to do anything is to make money. Lately he's been sending me links to vanity publishers and telling me to submit to them. I've explained more times than I can count that those are scam artists, but for some reason the guy who hates reading and has never written anything thinks he knows more about the publishing industry than I do.

 

[Envylope]

The worst experience is when people post an entire essay about something wrong with the story. Keep in mind, this is not actually a problem of the story, but it's them refusing to read the tags. It's like when you have a tag [Dense Protagonist], and the reader complains that your protagonist is dense. Or imagine if you have [Overpowered Protagonist], [Protagonist Strong From The Start], and [Strong to Stronger]. Then they complain that your protagonist is OP.

These people are more common than you expect. Before you say, "they are just trolls," I do not think that is true for all of them. Some I would even rebuttal, and they would furiously argue this point.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

Worst experience as a writer?

Editing

 

[McPhoenixDavid]

The worst experience is when people post an entire essay about something wrong with the story. Keep in mind, this is not actually a problem of the story, but it's them refusing to read the tags. It's like when you have a tag [Dense Protagonist], and the reader complains that your protagonist is dense. Or imagine if you have [Overpowered Protagonist], [Protagonist Strong From The Start], and [Strong to Stronger]. Then they complain that your protagonist is OP.

These people are more common than you expect. Before you say, "they are just trolls," I do not think that is true for all of them. Some I would even rebuttal, and they would furiously argue this point.

I agree. I

One of my stories— the summary had stated "...treated as a slave...". They liked the story but when the topic of slavery came, they were throwing a fit in the comments. So annoying, didn’t you read the summary?

Writer's block that keep staying for months and don't even pay a rent

There, there.

Worst experience as a writer?

Editing

View attachment 44074

Yeah, a small mistake you didn’t notice is noticed by everybody.

Every time I have to talk to my parents about it and my dad throws a fit because the only reason to do anything is to make money. Lately he's been sending me links to vanity publishers and telling me to submit to them. I've explained more times than I can count that those are scam artists, but for some reason the guy who hates reading and has never written anything thinks he knows more about the publishing industry than I do.

Damn that must be really annoying. All the best.

Yes. And unnecessary for the direction I want for my work.

That's true. Really annoying.

I do my own art, so no. But they are annoyingly persistent and idiotic (as in, can't read I do my own art)

They can't be more obvious.

Not yet. But was accused of stealing my own artworks meant for my story in Penana...just because he saw it in a dream.

Bruh.

Not yet, and I'm not much of a troublemaker to end up in permaban.

"Not yet"...

 

[Fairemont]

Is the whole thing an option?

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Listening to Harlan Ellison trying to give a lecture on writing. At the end of it, most of the audience was in tears, convinced they'd never be successful writers.

 

[CinnaSloth]

I have had, and still have bad experiences not just in writing.
It's just my luck, or life at this point, and because of it, I feel I'm incredible pessimistic, and cynical.

When I first started. Many harsh comments about grammar, and topics, and themes. They unraveled pretty much everything about my characters, and plots. It was beyond annoying, but I don't as much mind, "I think this character, scene, or action was dumb because ____". okay.. understood. But most were just "this part sucked." "I didn't like x character." and I would ask why? and never get a response, but they'd keep coming back nit picking about something else..

Been harassed by online mob mentality.
Had normal sfw, rule abiding stories flagged for seemingly no reason.
had accounts (multiple) banned.
accused of stealing when I didn't (just opening to the first pages of both stories would have proved to anybody with eyes that I didn't)
have had friends attacked online for no reason other than being associated with me
have had stories stolen and I was the one who got in trouble for PROVING I was right... wtf with that one

but to answer your thread question:
WORST experience as a writer?
Trusting an Ex to read, or learn anything about my writing hobbies. You think, okay, this person is really special in my life, and wants to know more about me. We've been dating a few months, and we've always gotten along.
SHE cheated, NOT JUST ONCE mind you. HER friend tried to make a move on me saying I deserved better, TRUE, BUT we were still arguing, and hadn't officially broken up, so, I refused, nothing ever happened not even a kiss (I get it, stupid me, I guess), anyway SHE broke it off saying I cheated?? So in her little twisted mind game. She remembered, and took note of online name, and started spamming my stories with negative reviews, bad comments, even attacking other commenters. I didn't know who this person was until they called me 'a cheater'. Which no. and second. it was her. but BECAUSE of her. other people also started accusing me of things. even other writers. which lead down the rabbit hole of most everything listed above. Wattpad sucks.
At this point I don't even care anymore about what happened, the only thing I do wish though: I wish I had saved my stories offline, instead of writing them directly on Wattpad. There were a few good stories I wish I could have shared here. I was dumb, and new to writing at that time. I don't normally call any of my ex's names, but she in particular, was a b***h, and a psycho. F*** you Chrissy.

Don't trust anyone with your personal hobbies... Those are for you.
AND save EVERYTHING offline, and keep backups. Losing work sucks.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Worst PROBABLY (will either find out tomorrow or second week of next year) was finally resolved last week - trying to find a way to get paid by Pocket FM... Took three months - or four if I missed the deadline again.

 

[SirContro]

Whenever I use my experience as an author to give a legitimate breakdown of another author's work, hoping to give some constructive criticism, writing an essay-length review, and their egos get in the way of taking the advice, just lazily dismissing the criticism by saying, "It's in the tags."

Like I can't critique your dense protagonist because you said the story had a dense protagonist in the tags, but that's not the issue. A story can have a dense protagonist and still have that protagonist develop into something more through their experiences in the story, but no if a character goes through no development, somehow I just don't know how to read.

This development issue is even worse when they try to write an overpowered protagonist, because a lot of them don't realise that character's still need to have development in some way even if they're an overpowered, strong from the start, strong to stronger, etc, protagonist, but often people who write over powered character's just turn their stories into lazy powerfantasies instead of making the protagonist struggle in some other way or pitting them against equally overpowered foes. If I claim the story is boring because it's just about the protagonist being overpowered, they say, "It was in the tags," ignoring the core of the issue. It's not the fact that your protagonist is overpowered alone that makes your story boring; it's the fact that you didn't do anything with your story but make the main character ram their way through every "challenge" they face, which makes the entire story feel the same. What is there to read after a couple of chapters? The beats of the story will just repeat anyway.

 

[Eldoria]

I don't know... whether this was a bad experience or rather a 'needed' experience. I opened the darkest pages in human history, such as the holocaust, the atrocities of war, and the oppression of tyranny, then I narrated the dark story as if I saw or felt it myself (as a character). I was deeply depressed after writing these chapters... and stopped writing for a few days to a week.

I may be exaggerating, but I am the type of writer who writes with "conscience" rather than just rationality. Often I also suffered, cried and depressed with the characters I wrote. I didn't like it, but I had to write it.

 

[melchi]

A couple years ago, I got to a point where my story was going to have a scene with a depiction of torture. But I couldn't actually bring myself to start it.

 

[AnEmberOfSundown]

The experience of the deafening, gaping, cavernous silence after talking into the void and hearing nothing back.

But then again I haven't been mobbed either so I guess it could be worse?

 

[EMatthews18]

As a writer, you must have had at least one bad experience.

Comments too harsh?
Fell for "art commission"?
Story got taken down?
Banned from site?
Maybe something else?

Writer’s Block and uncertainty on what the hell I wanna do story wise. So for my one story I used to have on her, I merged the plot with another story I was gonna do.

 

[HotConsensualSalt]

As a writer, you must have had at least one bad experience.

Comments too harsh?
Fell for "art commission"?
Story got taken down?
Banned from site?
Maybe something else?

• Writing 50k, 100k, 200k words before recognizing core holes in The plot, character motivation, or cohesiveness of the novel, and then having to decide how much, if any, to keep as part of the rewrite
• The sneaky suspicion that my book might suck
• Community members who don't understand why you don't want to Roleplay "since you already write"

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

Building up a thick skin for constructive criticism and learning how to apply said criticism are two of the hardest things I've had to go through on my writing journey, b/c you won't believe how much of a weaboo whiny attention-whore I was back when I started writing and posting online. It was painful getting over my own foibles and ego. How I didn't get banned along my writing journey, I don't know.

 

[Macha]

How I didn't get banned along my writing journey, I don't know.

Here's how: skill issues.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

Here's how: skill issues.

Hehehehehe, yep. The nooooobness was nooooobing harrrrrrrrrd back then!