Sam Wyer

Well yes, there's always a place for fantasy.

Yes, this is my instinctive response too, I prefer 'real' to 'perfect' every time. I guess the feedback I got just made me question this, and that's not a bad thing. And hello I keep seeing you around, not literally of course.

Honestly - it's not that outstanding when the whole thing is written and it just takes my effort to post it on the site. But thanks anyway, I like the positive feelings

So it seems that people mostly think it's story/character driven - which I can understand, and am minded to agree with. But... There's a reader who is (presumably) genuinely feeling affronted. Yes, there's positive feedback too, and apparently much more than the negative (although there's presumably an inherent bias in that, as people are less likely to make the effort to leave negative feedback, they just stop reading and move on). I'm not suggestion that we should aim to please every reader every time, that's obviously crazy talk. But isn't there any sense of balance between responsibility towards the story/characters and to the reader? Ideologically, I think the answer I prefer is 'no'. But is that good enough?

Hello This stems from a comment on my current (and first) story being posted here on GA. In the story, the two protagonists have unprotected (and arguably unsafe) sex. Some were, quite literally "appalled" that this would happen. Others have since been defensive of my choices. And I'm left not being sure what I feel, so I though it might be a worthwhile discussion here. As a writer, what responsibility do I have? Do I have a 'moral' responsibility to model pro-social behaviours? Do I have a responsibility to point readers towards sources of support around significant themes or issues that might come up? Am I only responsible to the characters and doing them justice in telling their story as well as I can? Is it my place to take a view on this at all? I have a lot of questions without many firm answers. When I wrote the story in question here it was my first ever attempt at fiction, and was most definitely not thinking about these questions, I was 'just' telling a story. And now, a couple of years on, I have mixed feelings about what my responsibilites are. EDIT: spelling, as always

I hope your (actually surprising amount of) perseverance pays off and you continue to enjoy the story.

Good to know my invisible writing skills are coming along well. As these comments continue I'm finding it increasingly difficult to settle on a view. Maybe this (more generally, not specific to this story) would be better moved to a forum discussion?

Thanks very much! Great to hear that you're enjoying it. Edit: spelling

I can't give you a medical opinion on that... do you hallucinate a lot? And maybe. This story was originally posted on another site (way before I discovered GA or decided that I might write more than this one little story) some time ago (a year or two), so you could have read it then?

Well... that's kind of annoying to just leave us all hanging here.

So apparently we should all move to Honolulu? This is great, keep it up

I'm loving this start to your story, there's a wonderful sense of tension, but in a good way, I think.

6.30am and the alarm is waking me up. Davey is already up, as he usually is. I don’t know how he does it. And today, for the first time, I have something positive to get up for too. Not that I’m starting anywhere near as early as Davey is, but it’s my first day at work, and I’m totally fucking paranoid about being late. I decide that I need to sort out what I’m going to wear before I have breakfast, you know, one less thing to worry about or leave to the last minute. I’m slowly getting a p

Thanks Ron - It's always great to hear that people are enjoying the story. And I appreciate your comments re: unprotected sex. I think my position in closer to yours than the views expressed above, fiction and reality don't have to mirror each other. But having said that, I do try and make my stories (or at least the characters in them) feel relatively relatable, which sometimes means taking a realistic stance. Since the original comment I've realise that I actually take a fairly consistent approach to unprotected sex (not that I have other stories on GA yet, but they're on their way as soon as I get around to putting them up!). I think the choices characters make are generally aligned with their overall personality and approach t the world. I didn't get into it above, but Davey, despite all of the more obvious 'smart' qualities, clearly has an impulsive, perhaps slightly reckless streak to him too. How else would this story ever have taken place? I suspect that most 'smart' people would just have called an ambulance and not got involved. Anyway, sorry for the possibly slight ranty tone there, thanks again, and I hope you continue to enjoy

Yep - I'm in! I also have a lot of questions, but a lot of those are bound to get answered some time.

What kind of monster would do such a thing!?

Ignoring your questionable 'corner folding' actions this is a GA specific factor that I hadn't considered.

Thanks for your comments guys, it makes such a difference So you're all agreed? Mark is a jerk and Kati needs to chill out a little.

I guess that's what I was hoping to hear.

Yes, OK, insert your own joke here and lets get it over with I'm currently posting an old story of mine (Cal) which I wrote a year or two ago, and each chapter is usually ~4000 words. I've noticed that many stories posted here have shorter chapters than this, which is interesting only because stories I am working on more recently (and yes, they will be posted on GA I promise) are tending to have even longer chapters. So my question is essentially; as a reader, do you care how long a chapter is? Sam

We left the bar and Simon headed off after giving me a big hug. Davey and I walked home, pretty much in silence. The whole thing had kinda brought down a nice night. And as much as Davey had said it was OK at the time, I got the feeling that he was actually pretty pissed off that I’d hit Mark. Even though he was being a total fucking knob. When we got in I started getting ready for bed as usual and Davey was sorting out some food for Scarlett. He seemed distracted, and I wasn’t really sure

I'm really liking this story, even though (or perhaps because) it makes me feel so frustrated with Troy and Jayden and their whole situation. It's great that your writing can make me feel that Keep up the excellent work, and of course, more please. EDIT: my grasp of grammar is sometimes shameful

Well this is annoying... the bits I've managed to make it through, I think I like. But the formatting is terrible. Apparently it's a Mac issue, although I haven't seen it before.

Hi - I just found this story's and having just binged the whole story so far, I'm really enjoying it. It was a little hard going to begin with, but the editing improves a lot as you get going. Thanks for your work, and I really hope there will be more to come.

I really like this, but I was also left wanting to shout at the screen...