How do you know if people will even care?

[Lord Ben]

When I was a kid I always enjoyed writing stories for school. I enjoy inventing stories for my children when I put them to bed. I've enjoyed telling a "story" through the medium of various roleplaying games like D&D or whatever.

I've always thought it would be fun to write a book or story as well but up until now I've always had a captive audience whether it be a schoolteacher who is forced to grade the paper or a child who wants to stay awake another 5 minutes, or people who want to kill some ogres and level up their characters.

So while I've always thought it would be fun to write, the thing that holds me back the most is the fear that nobody will even care. Going through the effort of writing a story and putting it out there for people to read seems fairly trivial (not saying a good story is trivial, only the effort involved in putting a .pdf on the web is minimal) but do people actively surf around for unheard of writers to read and find their stuff? I wouldn't start writing to get rich, so I have no delusions of an HBO show or anything I just merely want to get these ideas out of my brain!!

Apart from reading a couple things of varying quality (for Free to $3 I don't expect a 100% success rate) I really have no experience in any sort of writing community so I have no clue what to expect. If 10 people take the time to read something I write is that above or below the line of expectations?

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

A few points:
1) Write what you'd like to read. None of us are so unique that there aren't people in existence similar to ourselves. That's a good thing. It means, if you write your story well, there's an audience.

2) Don't look like an amateur. Take the time to learn the craft. Also, after you write something you want to put out there, don't cheapen years of hard work with half-baked cover art, thrown together blurbs, and crappy marketing schemes. These are important details in attracting readers. Lots of good stories languish in obscurity because their covers look amateurish or the editing is sloppy. Don't waste your effort. Invest in your success.

3) Understand that you'll likely need multiple works to gain traction. It's been said that your best publicity as an author is their next book. Several works, all published with good writing & quality, signify a professional. People don't invest time or money into shoddy stories.

4) Finally, only you can determine your success. If ten readers is enough then so be it. If you want to be among the best sellers for fantasy on Amazon, that's a fine goal. Goals are specific to individuals.

But here's the thing, to do any of this well, at any level, you have to write great stories. Start there. Give your best effort to learn how to write well, how to publish, how to market.

If you truly want to be a writer, then write. It's the only way. There are no shortcuts.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

You don't know. And you shouldn't care.

You shouldn't write books to please other people. You should write them for yourself. Then if you feel like doing it, you publish them for other people. Maybe people like them, maybe they don't. In the end the thing that matters is that you liked it. If you do it's a success (maybe not commercially but so what). And if you don't then why the heck did you write it let alone publish it?

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Asterisk]

Write the book that you would love to read most. Write what you are passionate about. What makes you happy. Immerse yourself in a world and write because you can't live without it. Don't write for others. There will always be people to cheer you on, and those that will just throw rotten tomatoes at you. Just give it your best, and you'll know what true success is!

 

[Lord Ben]

A few points:

2) Don't look like an amateur. Take the time to learn the craft.

If you truly want to be a writer, then write. It's the only way. There are no shortcuts.

"Anyone who says he wants to be a writer and isn't writing, doesn't"
- ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Aren't some of those mutually exclusive?

But it's not just personal enjoyment. I've always enjoyed dreaming up fantastical stuff, the purpose in writing would be to share them with others and hope others find them interesting or it spurs their own imagination to write a better version and entertain me.

The last few years I've enjoyed reading small scale stuff off Kindle that I'm sure the author is doing for his own enjoyment and not getting rich. If I bring enjoyment on a small scale that's enough for me.

Most of this was brought on because I had a hankering to read some "cowboys and mages" type story and came across a writer (Gunpowder Fantasy | Home of Author Joshua K. Johnson and the Worlds That He Creates.) who mentioned this site or maybe he mentioned someone who mentioned the site. At any rate it didn't look like a genre over populated with books so maybe I'd toss my hat in the ring for anyone else out there like me who was looking for a specific type of book and couldn't find it.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Aren't some of those mutually exclusive?

Mutually inclusive perhaps....

If I bring enjoyment on a small scale that's enough for me.

It seems you've answered your own question.

 

[Feo Takahari]

If you can write something even marginally decent, and you can market it reasonably well, you can dig up a handful of people who care. The number who care depends more on your genre and subject matter than on your skill, but that doesn't mean skill isn't still a vital part of the equation. Write something good, and see who bites.

Of course, if you want a massive built-in audience, you can always join me at Literotica.com.

 

[Lord Ben]

Perhaps once I'm able to access the Showcase (which this post helps towards) my question will be answered but is it appropriate to write a rough draft and get feedback, etc? You said make sure it's polished and not amateur but is that mostly for publishing it on Amazon and not just for getting feedback on the forum from people?

 

[Steerpike]

You should get it as polished as you can before you ask for feedback. This does you the most good in terms of learning, and also ensures that people providing critique don't waste their time by telling you a bunch of stuff you already know but just haven't gotten around to fixing.

That said, once you've got the piece in the best shape you can, post it. Don't worry about whether it is good or bad. We get a wide range of posts, and the goal is to provide a forum for people of varying skill levels to get help.

Also, smaller excerpts tend to get more feedback, so you're generally better off splitting the work into manageable pieces than providing a very long piece for critique.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Yes, your writing doesn't have to be at professional level to post of the showcase. My comments were directed more towards publication, the final product your intended audience sees. However, Steerpike is right. You'll get more out of the critique process if you present the best you can do for review.

The bit about the word count is a big one too... If you put up 1000 words or less, you'll get more varied attention. Many of our members don't have the time to critique 3000 word story excerpts.

 

[Lord Ben]

I've been alternating the last couple days by writing a tiny bit (mostly outline so far) and reading up on advice columns (one of the first said to just start and see where it goes, don't do an outline. Whoops!).

My plan at the moment is to shamelessly rip off Ken Follet's style in Pillars of the Earth (though I'm sure it's been done before and since) and center it around a few POV characters with differing backgrounds and then tell episodes of a story with leaps of a few years or decades so the story encompasses their life. But it should be fairly easy to break it up into chunks with a style like that I would think.

I'll aim for <1000 words, thanks. Never sure on forum etiquette in a new environment. When I blogged my own standard was a short pithy comment or a long winded rant with not much in between.