The art of it . . .

[MrM]

Sometimes, you have to continue due to the Art of writing… even if you loose readers.

Thoughts?

[Jeff Burton]

I wrote a darker story that I knew wouldn’t get reads due to its content but I still wrote it anyway.

Sometimes a story has to be told even if it won’t get read.

[Krista]

2 minutes ago, Jeff Burton said:

I wrote a darker story that I knew wouldn’t get reads due to its content but I still wrote it anyway.

Sometimes a story has to be told even if it won’t get read.

And even if they were with you at the beginning of the journey, they may not always finish it with you. It happens. Write the story you intend to write, because that's what you set out to do. 

I have a project that I have allowed to sit because I know it will not be read. I want to tell the story though, because it is a dynamic that interests me. It will not interest a lot of people. 

We want our stories read, reviewed, and commented on. What we shouldn't be doing though is changing our overall goals and intentions with the story to try and guarantee them. Since it is Thanksgiving here in America it would be like taking orders for the Dinner from everyone, and then expecting them to show up to eat. The only audience you are guaranteed to have is you. So, if you're in this writing thing for fun, make sure you're writing for yourself too. 

[Jeff Burton]

13 minutes ago, Krista said:

So, if you're in this writing thing for fun, make sure you're writing for yourself too. 

^ This right here.

[SilentandBroken]

2 hours ago, Jeff Burton said:

I wrote a darker story that I knew wouldn’t get reads due to its content but I still wrote it anyway.

Sometimes a story has to be told even if it won’t get read.

Which story? I’ll read it

[SilentandBroken]

3 hours ago, MrM said:

Sometimes, you have to continue due to the Art of writing… even if you loose readers.

Thoughts?

Agreed. Speaking from a non-author’s point of view, sometimes the stories take turns that no longer appeal OR they just don’t go anywhere and it simply loses interest to me 

[Jeff Burton]

29 minutes ago, SilentandBroken said:

Which story? I’ll read it

You read it 😂 Black Sun.

[SilentandBroken]

1 hour ago, Jeff Burton said:

You read it 😂 Black Sun.

Lol I was thinking that was it 

[W_L]

I do agree, not all stories will get a lot of readers, some are just passion projects.

Of Pride and Power, was just my passion project to setup a world that would eventually allow an ABO setting to occur. 

[ReaderPaul]

20 hours ago, W_L said:

I do agree, not all stories will get a lot of readers, some are just passion projects.

Of Pride and Power, was just my passion project to setup a world that would eventually allow an ABO setting to occur. 

Which  ABO  acronym are you meaning?  

[William King]

On 11/27/2025 at 10:19 PM, Krista said:

We want our stories read, reviewed, and commented on. What we shouldn't be doing though is changing our overall goals and intentions with the story to try and guarantee them.

I don't come here often, but was prompted to check out the first chapter of a story published here and, as far as I know, nowhere else. A story that never got published in its entirety. Which brings me to the essence of the comment I've quoted, you (the author) shouldn't change your story to guarantee readership, comments and reviews, but not changing it can also mean not getting it published.

I had this conversation with E K Stokes, the story was Thirteen, the first chapter got posted here, the rest was impossible to post. A second chapter got posted, but not the full story. Why? He told me he could not find anywhere to publish it.

I haven't read the first chapter, I was reading another of his stories, not on this site, but I came here and read the comments and reviews and I can see the polemic it caused. My point is that some stories just don't get published because they provoke negative reactions by some readers to the extent that they get banned.

I feel very strongly that readers have the right to choose the books they read, but not the right to ban books they don't agree with. For publishers it's a different problem, a polemic creates waves and they would rather not drown so they sit out the storm and don't allow the ship to dock.

[Krista]

8 hours ago, William King said:

I don't come here often, but was prompted to check out the first chapter of a story published here and, as far as I know, nowhere else. A story that never got published in its entirety. Which brings me to the essence of the comment I've quoted, you (the author) shouldn't change your story to guarantee readership, comments and reviews, but not changing it can also mean not getting it published.

I had this conversation with E K Stokes, the story was Thirteen, the first chapter got posted here, the rest was impossible to post. A second chapter got posted, but not the full story. Why? He told me he could not find anywhere to publish it.

I haven't read the first chapter, I was reading another of his stories, not on this site, but I came here and read the comments and reviews and I can see the polemic it caused. My point is that some stories just don't get published because they provoke negative reactions by some readers to the extent that they get banned.

I feel very strongly that readers have the right to choose the books they read, but not the right to ban books they don't agree with. For publishers it's a different problem, a polemic creates waves and they would rather not drown so they sit out the storm and don't allow the ship to dock.

Yes, but we're talking about writing the story you wish to tell, specifically. If you're wanting your works published, then you have to adhere to the content rules (here), or wherever else you wish your writing to be published. If you're wanting them published with a publisher, then they will most definitely give you a list of edits/suggestions, and etc they wish to see in order to take the risk.

But, if you're set on writing a story/character study/theme, or whatever, then you 'shouldn't' go into the project thinking 'it has to be like this or no one will read it...' @LJCC gave an author some advice a some time ago and when I read it, I've lived by it since.

Stop worrying about an audience for a story that you don't have. If you go into writing with that hovering over your shoulder, then you've become dictated by outside pressures before you've gotten started. Don't allow that door to open partway through and start writing to please people in the comments just because those suggestions/theories seem popular if it goes truly against your goals with the story/theme, etc. 

You shouldn't feel like you're fighting your own story based on opinions that aren't your opinions. If you do, then a few thousands words in you're probably going to realize that you're no longer writing the story you wished to write... and you've wasted your time, focus, and energy doing so. 

---

It is okay for stories to be... "let me get this out of my system..." stories that your eyes will be the only one that sees as well.

--

As far as book banning goes, that's borderline political and I don't want to get into it here. But as far as getting yourself or your story banned (here), then yeah I wouldn't post anything that goes against the content and/or community rules and guidelines. They're rather straight forward on what is and isn't allowed. Authors should know them before they decide to post. They are there for a reason. 

[W_L]

On 12/14/2025 at 3:24 PM, ReaderPaul said:

Which  ABO  acronym are you meaning?  

Alpha, Beta, Omega, also known as the Omegaverse, of course  

Essentially, the literary concept uses third-gender characters. There's shifter stories that use these terms, too, but they may or may not have the same ideas.

Primarily female written with male-male relationships with female aspects, it was interesting to attempt it as a gay man.

[ReaderPaul]

2 hours ago, W_L said:

     Alpha, Beta, Omega, also known as the Omegaverse, of course  
     Essentially, the literary concept uses third-gender characters. There's shifter stories that use these terms, too, but they may or may not have the same ideas.
     Primarily female written with male-male relationships with female aspects, it was interesting to attempt it as a gay man.

Thank you for explaining.  Makes sense now, @W_L.

[William King]

14 hours ago, Krista said:

Stop worrying about an audience for a story

I can't say I agree with not considering your readers. Isn't writing a story that nobody reads a bit of a waste of time, don't all the authors here and elsewhere want a large readership, to be popular? Don't we have to talk numbers? The vast majority of stories here get between what, two or three hundred readers, looking at your own stories I count around 1200 readers, for myself, half that number.

I suppose there maybe authors who just want to write a story and see it published and commented on in a nice way, maybe they are happy with that, but I think most authors here stop their writing sooner or later simply because there are not the readers for their stories, for any of the stories.

This sounds very negative, but just look at the numbers, the numbers of readers (per chapter), look at how many authors from fifteen, twenty years ago are still here writing. How many writers come and stay? How many authors publish on as many sites as they can find, in the hope of reaching more readers?

If you don't worry about the audience with these tiny numbers of readers, you might get nobody reading. I do think you need to know who you are writing for and what they want to read, it's why some genres are more popular than others, why happy endings and struggling but final true love romances sell.

Perhaps we should discuss what's popular and what readers want to read, unless you really only care about getting a few comments. And even then you might have to be content with one liners, "great start, like the characters, can't wait to find out what happens."

[Jeff Burton]

2 hours ago, William King said:

I can't say I agree with not considering your readers. Isn't writing a story that nobody reads a bit of a waste of time, don't all the authors here and elsewhere want a large readership, to be popular? Don't we have to talk numbers? The vast majority of stories here get between what, two or three hundred readers, looking at your own stories I count around 1200 readers, for myself, half that number.

I suppose there maybe authors who just want to write a story and see it published and commented on in a nice way, maybe they are happy with that, but I think most authors here stop their writing sooner or later simply because there are not the readers for their stories, for any of the stories.

This sounds very negative, but just look at the numbers, the numbers of readers (per chapter), look at how many authors from fifteen, twenty years ago are still here writing. How many writers come and stay? How many authors publish on as many sites as they can find, in the hope of reaching more readers?

If you don't worry about the audience with these tiny numbers of readers, you might get nobody reading. I do think you need to know who you are writing for and what they want to read, it's why some genres are more popular than others, why happy endings and struggling but final true love romances sell.

Perhaps we should discuss what's popular and what readers want to read, unless you really only care about getting a few comments. And even then you might have to be content with one liners, "great start, like the characters, can't wait to find out what happens."

I'm sure all of that matters to authors who write in order to "sell" something.  Some of us though write stuff because we have too.  Sometimes it's a pull deep inside that's straining to come out.  Sometimes it's an emotional piece to just vent something that's been hidden for way too long.  

If you're writing to sell then by all means play the numbers, look at the statistics and join in on the genre fray that's popular this quarter.  I wrote a story here that dealt with some very unhappy subject matters, and I knew it wasn't going to get read by the majority of people who actually do read what I write here. And compared to the stats on my other work, one could look at the numbers and call it a waste of time, but that's not why I wrote it.  I wrote it for me, and the hopes maybe in the future it'll help somebody else out.

Some of us write, to just write without worrying about the statistics.  

And this part right here:

 

This sounds very negative, but just look at the numbers, the numbers of readers (per chapter), look at how many authors from fifteen, twenty years ago are still here writing. How many writers come and stay? How many authors publish on as many sites as they can find, in the hope of reaching more readers?

 

Does it matter?  I'm sure to the admin staff it does, when looking at traffic flow and ad revenue management but to a lot of us that have stuck around,  honestly don't care. lol  If it dies out it dies out. It's the circle of life, nothing lasts forever.  Sites come and go, and with time authors and readers come and go, and in the end we all go, usually in a box.

If an author wants to chase the numbers then by all means do so.  It doesn't mean we have to make drastic changes here just to chase the likes.  I am by no means in the top when it comes to author popularity, but I'm grateful for what I do have.

[LJCC]

6 hours ago, William King said:

I can't say I agree with not considering your readers. Isn't writing a story that nobody reads a bit of a waste of time, don't all the authors here and elsewhere want a large readership, to be popular? Don't we have to talk numbers? The vast majority of stories here get between what, two or three hundred readers, looking at your own stories I count around 1200 readers, for myself, half that number.

I suppose there maybe authors who just want to write a story and see it published and commented on in a nice way, maybe they are happy with that, but I think most authors here stop their writing sooner or later simply because there are not the readers for their stories, for any of the stories.

This sounds very negative, but just look at the numbers, the numbers of readers (per chapter), look at how many authors from fifteen, twenty years ago are still here writing. How many writers come and stay? How many authors publish on as many sites as they can find, in the hope of reaching more readers?

If you don't worry about the audience with these tiny numbers of readers, you might get nobody reading. I do think you need to know who you are writing for and what they want to read, it's why some genres are more popular than others, why happy endings and struggling but final true love romances sell.

Perhaps we should discuss what's popular and what readers want to read, unless you really only care about getting a few comments. And even then you might have to be content with one liners, "great start, like the characters, can't wait to find out what happens."

The thing about genuinely writing for yourself is that it cuts both ways.

In theory, you could have a single reader in your entire lifetime—one person who stumbles across your work, reads it closely, and carries it with them long enough to be inspired to make the next summer blockbuster. Snakes on a Plane, perhaps. (Joking, mostly.)

More often, writing is framed as a transaction. If you are writing for profit, the center of gravity inevitably shifts toward the reader. Storylines are calibrated. Narrative choices are optimized. On amateur platforms especially, where money is off the table, the only measurable currency becomes likes, praise, and adulation. The result is a kind of build-your-own fiction: tailored, responsive, and carefully engineered to please the audience already waiting.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that. But it is only one side of the coin.

The other side is writing for yourself, which is riskier and far less predictable. It can result in a sprawling, disordered manuscript that no one else quite understands. Or it can become something enduring—the kind of work we later call The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Grapes of Wrath, or, more recently, Gone Girl. The difference is not intention but execution. Passion alone is not enough; skill still matters.

Yet there is a stubborn truth worth holding onto: something written with genuine passion and craft will always find a reader. Always. Quality writing has never been invisible to humanity’s collective eye for beauty. When language is precise, when emotion is earned, and when insight feels true, it crosses boundaries of taste, trend, and time. Beautiful writing does not beg for attention; it resonates.

This is why the constant churn of publicly appeasing a reader base can feel so draining. Writing by committee, or by algorithm, slowly transfers ownership. The story stops belonging to the writer. It becomes the audience’s story instead.

And when that happens, something essential is lost—not just for the writer, but for the reader too.

[Mike Carss]

4 hours ago, Jeff Burton said:

Some of us though write stuff because we have too.  Sometimes it's a pull deep inside that's straining to come out.  Sometimes it's an emotional piece to just vent something that's been hidden for way too long.

When it comes to any form of art, there's no wrong reason to create. But what Jeff has said aligns exactly how I feel. It may sound self-centered or egotistical, but for me, when it comes to creating something (in my case, music and fiction), the audience is always secondary to my need for expression. This is especially true with my music. I've produced albums knowing full well that the majority of my listeners will bounce off it. But there's always the select few who seem to understand that need, and even if they don't enjoy it, they still support me. Talk about humbling. 🥲

So yeah, I've believe being true to yourself -- writing from the heart -- will result in your best work.

Edit: @LJCC and I responded at nearly the same time, essentially saying the same thing, although his response is much more eloquent. 😅

Edited December 16, 2025 by mcarss

[ReaderPaul]

I have to agree with @Krista, @Jeff Burton, @LJCC, and @mcarss said.  Something they did not as directly address:  If you are writing for a traditional publisher (by that, I mean getting paid for it) -- That is different than a site where you are NOT getting paid.  If you have signed a contract to deliver 170 to 172 pages of content with a general plot of (fill in the blanks) by Month/Year for X amount of dollars or Euros or whatever, then you are constrained to do it the way of the publisher or the contracting, paying, party.  Sometimes, you might get lucky like Frank Herbert, who, after many attempts to sell Dune to traditional publishers, sent the manuscript to Chilton, best known for publishing automotive repair manuals, and they made the great decision of publishing it.  Or Christopher Paolini and his series which started with Eragon, published by his family's small printing company, and discovered by a traditional publishing editor who bought a copy and said something like -- "This has a lot of potential."

But if you are writing because you have an idea you wish to express, that is different.  You may be driven to write, or you may be writing for an audience.  If you and the audience desire similar things, it can be somewhat easy to write for them.  But other stories sometimes must have the right audience discover them.  That is why there are many websites with varying guidelines.  Persons either write within those guidelines or potentially leave or get dropped.  Jeff Burton, Krista, LJCC, and Mike Carss have clearly and with eloquence expressed their concepts and ideas on writing.  Very well done, people.  Sometimes the size of an audience is not as immediately important as writing and publishing a story, tale, book, saga, or tome. 

[Krista]

12 hours ago, William King said:

I can't say I agree with not considering your readers. Isn't writing a story that nobody reads a bit of a waste of time, don't all the authors here and elsewhere want a large readership, to be popular? Don't we have to talk numbers? The vast majority of stories here get between what, two or three hundred readers, looking at your own stories I count around 1200 readers, for myself, half that number.

I suppose there maybe authors who just want to write a story and see it published and commented on in a nice way, maybe they are happy with that, but I think most authors here stop their writing sooner or later simply because there are not the readers for their stories, for any of the stories.

This sounds very negative, but just look at the numbers, the numbers of readers (per chapter), look at how many authors from fifteen, twenty years ago are still here writing. How many writers come and stay? How many authors publish on as many sites as they can find, in the hope of reaching more readers?

If you don't worry about the audience with these tiny numbers of readers, you might get nobody reading. I do think you need to know who you are writing for and what they want to read, it's why some genres are more popular than others, why happy endings and struggling but final true love romances sell.

Perhaps we should discuss what's popular and what readers want to read, unless you really only care about getting a few comments. And even then you might have to be content with one liners, "great start, like the characters, can't wait to find out what happens."

You're missing the point of this discussion. The point of discussion is: There are some stories that authors feel pulled to write, knowing it will not be read.

You may not see the importance of that, but it is there. Some creative minds want to think outside their usual, do a character study that interests them in the moment. It may not be within the confines of what's deemed popular. And they're doing it knowing it will find a very limited audience. That it may not be critically received well, and it may be too different from what the author's established audience will enjoy.

Some creative minds will choose to write those stories anyway. They may not publish them. If your goal is that you 'need' to publish every story, either here or with a publisher, then yeah, you will have to be more flexible to make that happen.

I believe the value of any story is the value you have for it, the time you put into it, and how you feel about the overall project and goals. I don't place the value of my stories in the hands of other people. I make those decisions. I have early stories posted here that I don't like. They were written by a thirteen year old girl that didn't know anything about writing. That's all the value to me they have, a memory of a different place and time and that's okay. I may not like them, but they're posted because I still stand by them. If you're allowing readership numbers, views, comments numbers, and such to dictate your story's value, then you're no longer writing that story for the enjoyment of it.

With that said, this is a writing community. Yes most people want comments/reviews/engagement for our published stories, like others have said that's the currency we live with here. But, if you allow yourself to be dictated by numbers, fickle as they are, then I feel that's where you're setting yourself up for failure and loss.

---

Do you know what's popular here? Coming of age Romances. They're everywhere. They're read. If they're good, they reach high readership views for the times, and they are discussed prominently. Shifter/Werewolf stories are also popular. General Dramas with Romantic elements are popular. Apparently, Demons or Romances involving Demons are the most searched and sought out Genre on GA at the moment. So, hop on that bandwagon if you're hoping for views, maybe. 

If you do not write within those genres, by the numbers alone, they will not reach the readership or engagement by comparison, but that shouldn't devalue the writing. 

If your purpose is to create for other people, go ahead, no one is stopping you. But that's not what we're discussing, that's a topic for another day. I feel most of us generally agree on. If you're in this writing thing for marketable value, then you have to make the story marketable.

--- 

Personally, I will never put weight on numbers. I will not put a lot of weight on themes that are deemed popular here, or on publishing platforms if they do not currently align with my creative goals. 

If you start pivoting from your creative goal, then you've accomplished nothing, because the audience isn't guaranteed for that story. You've changed your story for no good reason other than to farm numerical values that may or may not ever show up. I hope no one places a lot of value and worth to the writing based on them, regardless of intention. That is something, that you will find yourself always falling short. If a story reaches 1M views, you expect them all to. The ones that don't become less important. You have placed weighted value against your own story based on numerical comparisons, and have devalued yourself and your writing in the process. That's what numbers do. And they make liars out of stories all the time.

---

All of that differs if you're writing for profit, views, and engagement centered goals. 

As someone said, there is no wrong way to create, but that's not what the heart of this discussion is about, like I said...

---

As far as readership here goes: There has been a dip in all of these niche communities, but speaking about GA in general, it was at one time one of the few fish in the puddle of gay online fiction. Hell when it first launched there wasn't a lot of gay fiction on many market platforms either. You had a handful. Now you have sub-reddits by the hundreds, self-publishing by the millions, other gay fiction communities. AI-generated nonsense. This is no longer a niche place carving out its own space and creating a massive crater. That's reality. The puddle has become an ocean.

What we do have here is readers and authors willing to engage with one another, discuss general writing, poke fun, and relax. 

We do not know why authors leave unless they specifically say why they've chosen do to so. If numbers are an issue, then I doubt anyone writing with the intention of farming numbers will be satisfied. I personally am fine with whatever I get, but I have chosen to be more engaged with people who take the time to read my story. I want to ramble, joke, discuss, and generally talk outside the confines of what my story is, or even offers them. I am here for community. That is why I've personally stayed. 

I would also like to point out: Being this is a community, authors need to come to terms with engagement. If you are not engaging with your readers, within the community, and/or forming a presence and connection here then your writing will simply not reach that many people. If you don't respond to comments, you may lose the reader. If you don't promote yourself, you may never get them. If you don't take the time and energy to build yourself a platform and a place here, you will struggle to get it. You can do that though, without sacrificing your own personal creativity. 

Good writing helps. It is the main foundation, but it isn't the only thing. So yeah, at least for here it takes effort and it may take a few years. Some authors simply don't understand that. I took it for granted, but I've always been aware that I need to be present alongside my writing. 

[Jason Rimbaud]

I had long reply typed out and then I saw everyone elses response and wisely deleted mine. Other's said it better. 

On 12/15/2025 at 12:13 AM, William King said:

I had this conversation with E K Stokes, the story was Thirteen, the first chapter got posted here, the rest was impossible to post. A second chapter got posted, but not the full story. Why? He told me he could not find anywhere to publish it.

I haven't read the first chapter, I was reading another of his stories, not on this site, but I came here and read the comments and reviews and I can see the polemic it caused. My point is that some stories just don't get published because they provoke negative reactions by some readers to the extent that they get banned.

I feel very strongly that readers have the right to choose the books they read, but not the right to ban books they don't agree with. For publishers it's a different problem, a polemic creates waves and they would rather not drown so they sit out the storm and don't allow the ship to dock.

If the point you tried to make in both of your comments, that one should consider the readers before writing a story that will likely not get read or be able to find a home, like the above mentioned example. I wonder if the author of that story felt like it was a waste of time. 

I think Jeff said he has to write, no matter the readers. Krista, and LJCC said the same thing.

If I wanted bigger readers I'd write rom-coms and happily ever after stories. I don't, because they don't interest me. And if I'm going to invest that much energy into creating something, it must interest me. I write for an audience of one, my husband. Everything else is bonus. I love interacting with readers, and being silly in the comments and all that, but at the end of the day, if no one reads it, I did not waste my time. I created something. It's in the world and online, which means it will live forever. I don't think that's a waste of time. 

I just wrote a first person experimental piece that twelve people read. I had a blast going out of my comfort zone and trying to tell a story through  journal entries. I knew when I wrote it, that no one was really going to be interested in it. But I challenged myself. And either the twelve people that read it lied, thirteen of us enjoyed it. My husband did not, but who cares about him. 

I think, much like in life, everyone has different motivations in doing anything. So all the writers here have different motivations as well. For Jeff, he has to write. So if he has to, why not share it. For Krista, well, she's forced to write by several people who shall remain nameless, and we have convinced her she enjoys it. For me, I've written stories for thirty years. A few i've posted here, many of them I haven't and never will. Mostly because they don't fit into GA's guidelines. Lot's of my earlier work dealt with my abuse growing up and I didn't hold back as I worked through that trauma. Getting into a better place mentally, I wouldn't consider that a waste of time either. 

I think intellectually I understand your premise and might agree with you. But I've never done what's popular or trendy. I've always forged my own way most of the time to my detriment. It's an interesting topic to discuss and my short answer grew long. 

I also think new guidelines for accessing mature content is also hurting readerships. Some people don't want to join, they don't want to be on that list of members at a gay site. I believe lots of "religious" people are lurkers on sites such as these.  

[William King]

From what's been said I think we could draw the conclusion the site exists with two quite distinct parts. Let's leave aside paid for writing because mostly all the writing here is free.

 

The two distinct parts are the writing as therapy, self-help, the group who write for themselves, to express their feelings, emotions, within a supportive community who correspond with each other.

 

The other part consists of the writers, would be authors, who are amateurs, but wanting to learn the art, gain a readership and get reviews. 

 

Both groups are equally valid although they don't easily fit together and could, perhaps do, cause misunderstandings and confusion.

 

For myself, I fell into the second group, a would be author looking for a readership and reviews. For me discussions about audiences, numbers, and popular genres, are what count. I was not publishing my writing as a therapy, I was publishing it for literary criticism and to develop as an author. I no longer publish or write, anything I might add here is from stuff written years ago and is put on the site so it has a home and is not lost.

 

Having said that, I can appreciate the writing as therapy part of the site and I think that is very good, especially with a supportive community. However, I don't think the two different parts fit together to make a whole. 

[lawfulneutralmage]

23 hours ago, William King said:

[...] I no longer publish or write, [...]

Might I ask why?

 

 

Quote

[...]

Both groups are equally valid although they don't easily fit together and could, perhaps do, cause misunderstandings and confusion.

[...]

Having said that, I can appreciate the writing as therapy part of the site and I think that is very good, especially with a supportive community. However, I don't think the two different parts fit together to make a whole. 

I will now sound confrontational. I am sorry it is not my intention to be, but I get the impression the only one having an issue is you. Would you mind elaborating?

[W_L]

Some genres may be things you like and enjoy, but you personally cannot write as an author.

For me, I learned last summer, I can't do anti-villain driven crime genre justice. Sure I can write generic stuff about drug dealers, corrupt cops, and so on, and characters turning dark, but it's not the same kind of story caliber I am aiming for.

To be fair, a lot of authors can't write Breaking Bad-type stories. Many people love the series, but it's uncommon to write anti-villains that readers will genuinely love. Creating an LGBTq+ character like Walter White would be a great monument to whoever can achieve it first.

[Krista]

On 12/19/2025 at 6:15 AM, William King said:

From what's been said I think we could draw the conclusion the site exists with two quite distinct parts. Let's leave aside paid for writing because mostly all the writing here is free.

 

The two distinct parts are the writing as therapy, self-help, the group who write for themselves, to express their feelings, emotions, within a supportive community who correspond with each other.

 

The other part consists of the writers, would be authors, who are amateurs, but wanting to learn the art, gain a readership and get reviews. 

 

Both groups are equally valid although they don't easily fit together and could, perhaps do, cause misunderstandings and confusion.

 

For myself, I fell into the second group, a would be author looking for a readership and reviews. For me discussions about audiences, numbers, and popular genres, are what count. I was not publishing my writing as a therapy, I was publishing it for literary criticism and to develop as an author. I no longer publish or write, anything I might add here is from stuff written years ago and is put on the site so it has a home and is not lost.

 

Having said that, I can appreciate the writing as therapy part of the site and I think that is very good, especially with a supportive community. However, I don't think the two different parts fit together to make a whole. 

I don't think there's much distinction in anyone who writes here. Reasons are numerous, so I wouldn't wish to put a ton of weight, or a blanket over reasons why people write. I write when I'm bored, when I want to, I write when a character draws my attention. I write when I've fallen into a mental/emotional funk and I want a distraction. Hell I write in the winter, hoping for spring/summer, because I am a spring and summer person.

So no, I wouldn't say there are two distinct kinds of writers here. Therapy seekers, or Learners. I think most people are a mixture of many reasons. I wish to learn more as I discuss writing, but I also want to connect with the people and stories that I write. I may write themes that I might have lived in, like sadness or loss, or whatever. 

But yeah, most people here are probably here for various individual reasons. The goals can be similar, they likely are.