I am curious if anyone has ever tried to write something they felt as superb only to find nothing much other than mass rejection and strong dislike. Then after this experience you’ve gone onto write something you personally consider to be utter trash only to find that people heap praise upon it. Has this happened to anyone here to some degree or another? How did you deal with it?
Yeah, that's happened to me. Both things. At first, I took the former as a personal slight, and the latter with befuddlement. But as I got older, I realized that when you write, you do the best you can, and give the reader what might be something to consider or enjoy. That's where your responsibility ends; the rest is up to the reader. You've launched the ship into parts unknown and she has her own life now, to sail or sink.
The one story I had published is generally disliked by almost everyone that read it, but the couple people who got it really liked it, so whatever. I like it.
Sure. Here are two of mine as an example: A story I think is pretty good... A story that's nothing but smut from word-one to word-done, and not even very imaginative smut, I must admit, though I wrote it myself...
Might not be a "Bad" story, but i've gotten a lot of hate over how i wrote The Minotaur Paladin. Random drive-by 0.5 star ratings by the dozen, Troll reviews calling the story trash for things a simple as my taste in music, reviews that accuse me of pushing an agenda, reviews where the reviewer claimed to have read the entire book, but in reality didn't get past chapter 2. The list goes on and on. Here are the current stats for TMP. TOTAL VIEWS : 278,032 AVERAGE VIEWS : ( Determined by number of chapters divided by total views ) 7,129 FOLLOWERS : 1,141 FAVORITES : 236 RATINGS : 265 PAGES : 277 But i'm going t write to the finish anyway. I had considered quitting at one point, with the amount of hate random people were giving me because of things they didn't like, but thanks to some die-hard and supportive fans, i've managed to keep going.
Yeah, that's the benefit of having many betas. If some or even one of them 'gets' it, and likes it, you know you're on to something. You're communicating with them and giving them something of yourself that they understand and like. That doesn't mean you can't improve, especially if the 'not liking' is down to SPAG errors or common, easily corrected mistakes in structure or tone. But if somebody likes it, they are your target audience. Try to improve it for THEM. You might not have a best-seller on your hands, though. But hey. I don't happen to think that trying to please all comers by telling the story they all want to hear is necessarily a good goal for a writer. Instead, I think a writer should aim to tell a unique story only they CAN tell, unless they plan to make their living as a writer. Which few end up doing anyway.
Good or bad I think most writers are going to face mass rejection for most things they write. It's super hard to sell something on the first try. It's super hard to sell something on the twentieth try. And it's also super hard to judge our own work. I can think something I've written is brilliant one day and shit the next day. Writing with efforts to publish can be quite the similar, but I can't say I've ever sent out any work that I didn't at least believe at the time was my best work. I was a little shocked when one place bought a story from me. I think I would felt the same way no matter what story they bought from me. I was all of a sudden being taken seriously and so was my work. The whole process was very interesting and there was quite a bit of back and forth with the editor prior to publication. In the end, I felt my story was better as a result of the whole editing process with this editor. I actually felt like this editor could make everything I write so much better. I still wonder why that was the story. I have since sent him stuff I thought was better via his direct email. It's all been rejected with encouragement to keep trying him. So I guess it's hard for me to really understand how one of my stories can sell for $1k and others I think are just as good if not better I can't even give away, though, no fault of my constant efforts.
