i'd like to urge you all to quit

Yer hired!
I have a 5 page list of topics that still need to be addressed right away.
If your writing brings in the dough, you might even get paid.
As for me, I'm taking a much needed vacation.

Gehanna

B...but how will I buy food?

Okay. Silly question. If I starve to death that'll be even less competition.

Fair enough.

You got it! How much do you know about the effects of mitochondria on asthenozoospermia?

See ya later... I'm going to Hawaii to make shell creatures.

Just what I learned in A Wind in The Door.

It's a deal. Every bookstore in America has built fifteen feet of new shelving. Get to work. I'm going to the beach.

Trust me. I'm not a big threat!

At the pace I'm going, I won't be a threat to any other writer.

(Yes, I'm feeling sorry for myself today.)

Birol said:

Just what I learned in A Wind in The Door.

Click to expand...

good book

There's a problem with your theory. Perhaps you should tell all the ones better than you to quit. The ones who are worse can only make you look better.

William Haskins said:

there are none worse. therein lies the crux of my problem.

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I think you need a bit of ego boosting.

::attempts to channel cheerleader::

GO WILLIAM!!!!!!

::hangs head, noting that she failed abysmally::

seriously though, I've read some of the stuff you've posted, and I can guaruntee you there's worse...

my poem I wrote three years ago on "How to Eat Spaghetti" is one. I can't remember all of it. I lost the file. I am forever grateful. The first line was, "When eating spaghetti, one must not forget to slurp..."

Don't ask. It was a very odd year.

alanna said:

The first line was, "When eating spaghetti, one must not forget to slurp..."

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It must have been a spaghetti phase. Mine went, "Spaghetti and dreams, dreams and spaghetti."

And many more lines filled with suck. That's what I got for being 16, wheww, thank jeebus that was a long time ago!

William Haskins said:

there are none worse. therein lies the crux of my problem.

Click to expand...

Even given the fact that all I have read from you is your posts on this board, I can guarantee there are worse than you.

William Haskins said:

obviously, developing skills as a writer is an important consideration. however, i find that my career would be best served by not having any competition.

in the spirit of realizing my dream, i respectfully ask that you all quit writing. ...

oh yeah, and a note to editors: call me. you have no choice now.

Click to expand...

I'm charmed. That's a nice little piece of writing.

Unfortunately, what you're up against isn't your fellow writers; it's the reading public's short attention span and their boundless desire for immediate gratification. If you can scratch that itch, you can get published, whether or not your fellow writers keep trying. If you can't, readers aren't going to buy your books anyway.

Besides, if the Good Fairy granted your wish, and all the other writers gave up, the publishing industry would simply shift over to reprinting good works that have fallen out of print. There's no shortage of them.

lol

OMG, Haskins, you are so frickin' funny! Thanks for making Pepsi shoot out of my nose yet again...

Melina

Melina, quit drinking Pepsi while at the cooler. Ya know someone's gonna say somthing that'll cause ya to spray.


And um, btw, weren't you giving up Pepsi? How's come you were drinking the vile stuff anyway?

Nita

Oops! Busted, dammit! See, now, what you've done, Haskins? You got me in trouble with my "get healthy" buddies!

Uh, oh--Hi, Nita Uh, yeah--I am supposed to be giving up that "vile" stuff. I gotta monkey on my back! It just won't leave me alone! Don't tell, huh? I can't stand to go through an intervention. I'll be good from now on, okay? You believe me, doncha?



Melina

You know it's a successful piece of writing when it makes your readers involuntarily expel fluids.

Oh, I thought it was so their keyboards fried and they couldn't write--at least till they got a new one.

Shawn

My Two Cents (Pretty Cheap, Eh?)

Well here is my humble opinion about comparing yourself to other writers. Typically, I find comparing yourself to another writer can either vastly improve your writing or pull you into a hole. The hole being the "I'll never be as good as that guy" hole. We should all avoid this hole.

My thought is that all stories are kinda like music. Though people may have thier opinions on "what's better" or "what's horrible", it is only that, just an opinion. I believe that nothing I write is better nor worse than anything else that has been written. Just different. If you don't like my writing, than there is probably someone out there that does. I have tried to submit my book for publishing and have been told a range of things (all ended in rejection, some closer to success than others) from "Your writing style is too simple" to "Your writing style is simple, which is your strong point but I don't think there is a market for this particular genre."

Neither one of them wanted to publish my book (The bastards!), but at the same time I was told that my weak point is also my strong point by two different publishers. So what am I trying to say here? Just be yourself and keep trying. There may be 1000 publishers that say no, but if you get even 1 that can relate to your style, your in and have a gold oppurtunity to prove those who have rejected you in the past wrong.

Good luck to everyone still trying to get thier work published, don't give up!

Chris