Since nobody except my family and a few close friends are allowed to read it.
You know, I think it's kind of amazing that you're saying this - not because I'm not scared to let strangers read my stuff, because I am (you should see me when I get back a beta'ed story *g*) - but because my feeling is exactly the opposite: I find it much harder to let people I know read it! A stranger can say some harsh words, perhaps, but in the end they can't really touch you. Family and real-life friends, though - they know me, and letting them read a story would feel so intimate, in a way, that I don't know if I could bear the thought. I never let my parents read anything from me, not even when I was younger; and it took weeks before I let my husband (geez, that makes me sound old! Haven't been married long, though. *g*) lay eyes on those Londo & G'Kar stories I wrote. (He did like them, btw, though not quite in the same way I do. *g*) I mean - I find it incredible that you can do it, share these things with people close to you - but I find it very, very hard. That's also one of the reasons why I have no real-life friends on my LJ flist (okay, that and the fact almost none of them knows the fandom anyway :) ).
But seriously, the step from there to posting on the web is not such a big one, I think. In any case, people only tend to comment when they like your stuff, so the chance you get negative feedback is pretty small anyway. (Hell, I haven't gotten any yet, even though I've asked people for it *g*)
As a writer though, I find it hard -I have to stop every few words to think about the best way to say what I want to say.
Oh, that's certainly no different with me! And you're right, it is frustrating sometimes to see that some people around here are capable of churning out a fic daily, so to speak, while it takes me ten times as long only to finish a rough draft. But I'm starting to find I actually like the thinking and pondering and polishing, no matter how slow it is. And it does get easier, after a while.
Also - now I'm positively jealous of your plotting skills! Maybe we should strike up a kind of fanfic collaboration: you suggest the plot, I take care of execution, we split up the profit? :)
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Date: 2009-08-30 07:49 pm (UTC)You know, I think it's kind of amazing that you're saying this - not because I'm not scared to let strangers read my stuff, because I am (you should see me when I get back a beta'ed story *g*) - but because my feeling is exactly the opposite: I find it much harder to let people I know read it! A stranger can say some harsh words, perhaps, but in the end they can't really touch you. Family and real-life friends, though - they know me, and letting them read a story would feel so intimate, in a way, that I don't know if I could bear the thought. I never let my parents read anything from me, not even when I was younger; and it took weeks before I let my husband (geez, that makes me sound old! Haven't been married long, though. *g*) lay eyes on those Londo & G'Kar stories I wrote. (He did like them, btw, though not quite in the same way I do. *g*) I mean - I find it incredible that you can do it, share these things with people close to you - but I find it very, very hard. That's also one of the reasons why I have no real-life friends on my LJ flist (okay, that and the fact almost none of them knows the fandom anyway :) ).
But seriously, the step from there to posting on the web is not such a big one, I think. In any case, people only tend to comment when they like your stuff, so the chance you get negative feedback is pretty small anyway. (Hell, I haven't gotten any yet, even though I've asked people for it *g*)
As a writer though, I find it hard -I have to stop every few words to think about the best way to say what I want to say.
Oh, that's certainly no different with me! And you're right, it is frustrating sometimes to see that some people around here are capable of churning out a fic daily, so to speak, while it takes me ten times as long only to finish a rough draft. But I'm starting to find I actually like the thinking and pondering and polishing, no matter how slow it is. And it does get easier, after a while.
Also - now I'm positively jealous of your plotting skills! Maybe we should strike up a kind of fanfic collaboration: you suggest the plot, I take care of execution, we split up the profit? :)