Wine and Old Lace - Coming Soon

Due dot an embarrassing piece of premature ejection, my story stained the old lace before getting to the goodies. So make sure you cut and paste the correct wording before posting? Keeping the wine going until the urge returns....

As a submitter of around 100 stories or chapters on Lit, I see this medium as the most responsive of the avenues available to me as an amateur writer. My stories are not as popular nor as worthy of comment as many others, but about half mine get H (now, there's an invitation all you "Nuthermothers"!) and I've garnered a couple of Ws along the way. I average a score of 4.4 and get maybe 350 votes per story and about 15 comments and 13 favs per story, with feedback that varies from encouraging all the way down to the odd death threat, so I am selective about what responses I pay attention to and hopefully learn from. I enjoy experimenting with writing, pushing those boundaries, such as supplying a whole story made up of about 48 monologues, have tried dramatic twists and also written along the lines of the blindin' obvious. So I am going to continue to write my "own thang" regardless of any negative commentary. But these opportunities to write alongside other writers (and thank you, this is my first invitational) is great to participate in (I'm an avid reader too), so please, bring on more challenges and the more comments and volumes of voters (whatever their scores) is all contributing to the enjoyment of those taking part.

I receive a 5.0 score on my romance story after 200 votes. The ball (read tits) is in your court, Dear Reader. Can you spell Quid Pro Quo? If this offer threatens national security, it will be declared void. If I receive nasty used condoms comments, I will void myself.

I would say that for new writers, scores matter. Once you have a collection of those red H's, maybe a blue W or two, scores are meaningless. At this point, I am going to write what I want to write, whether the story gets a 2.00 or a 5.00. I no longer care about the score. The red H is nice, but not necessary for my satisfaction.

Threatening to give me a low score or making a caustic comment isn't going to affect me, at all. I am going to do what I want to do, regardless of what anyone says, or what score I get. Downvoting someone who doesn't care is an exercise in futility, as is leaving a nasty comment. I have received hundreds of nasty comments, and hundreds, if not thousands, of low scores. I average about 56 comments per story, and just over 1600 votes. Some of those comments and votes are always going to be negative. That's fine with me. Hammer away. After posting close to 100 stories, it should be obvious that negative comments and low scores aren't going to deter me in the slightest. I think most veteran writers feel the same.

One Annie has threatened to one-bomb all the stories and make many nasty comments. Knock yourself out. At the end of the day, we still wrote and posted our stories, and we still had our event. We'll write more, post more and have more events, and there is not a single thing that will change because some deranged person doesn't like it. Sun gonna rise in the morning.

I have a few observations to make. Commenters mean a lot to writers. Reasoned thoughts concerning a story, its content, plot, writing skills, dialogue and emotional investment help writers more than you may realize.

There are still many writers who react to commenters who state they are giving low a score for whatever reason. I do believe that most experienced writers like to have feedback but really don't give a shit about low score threats. Commenters seem to believe they can make or break a writer's self esteem with a caustic comment. coupled with a low score. In some cases it may be true, but many times it is not. The scoring often means more to the commenter than the writer.

Most of us write because we enjoy it. Some people paint, some play golf, some write, and some do it all. Do you quit golfing when you have 10 on a par three? Do I stop when my commenting friend tells me to eat his used condom? Hardly. I do chuckle and leave the comment up. It's funny, even f he means it as an insult.

Writers have an obligation to try to present a readable, reasonable story. Commenters have a responsibility as well. Help make writers better. Help writers understand why you liked or did not like their story. One of the things which bothers many writers, myself included, is getting positive comments from commenter Badassmotherfucker, or some other penname, and then seeing the same guy compliment a story with a million errors, no discernable plot, mistaken assumptions and maybe some politics tossed in. Suddenly, the commenter's opinion means less, much less, to the writer. Commenters need to be aware that they are scored by writers, much the way they score us. You may not give a shit if writer's like your comments. That feeling may help you understand why many writers do not give a shit what you say. Respect is a two way street. Make your comment interesting, informative, humorous, helpful.. something to make it worth reading. That is your assignment for this weekend.