User blog comment:Urkelbot666/The Harsh World of the Internet ;)/@comment-7706473-20140731063407

I *truly* wanted to comment on this, even more then my re-read of Metroid: Mother?, but I knew I'd be ineloquent last night, so hopefully this will be of more value to you. It's also going to be quite ranty, so there you go.

First of all, as I've said before and I will say unti my death - you should write only for yourself. I cannot make you, or anyone else do so, nor would I if I could; but to write for others, for approval, or anything; it leads to disappointment, doubt, and eventually lack of reason to write.

The idea of these contests - CPotM and CPotY - are great! They throw a bunch of new stories at perspective readers and say, 'take a look at these! you might enjoy them!' There are plenty of times where people don't explain why that may be, or perhaps simply do not know what to say, or even the storis themselves fail to meet the subjective approval of a reader or several; but that is all fine. Stories exist, are shared, and get read.

And yet - I feel on some level, they can encourage a fear. A kind of pointless fear, rooted in competition and desire. Is my story good, the author asks themself; if I did not achieve a clear win, or get enough votes, am I good writer? Perhaps I one, but it was out of pity, or kindness, or lack of understanding? Perhaps I didn't win, and this is all an audio-visual hallucination designed to drive me slowly insane? And so on and so forth. ; )

You've mentioned in a comment below how frustrating it is trying to make a name for oneself, in any discipline. This is so.

However - I would like to relate some advice from my grandmother, if I may. You will not become famous or known for your works distributed freely; no matter their quality or care. You may run across those like you, who read for the sheer pleasure of it or who simply click with your work, but if you go into sharing works for free, also hoping to break into success - popularity, monetary victory, fame, ANYTHING - you will inevitably be disappointed.

Why? Take the example of an early CPotM winner, Funnymouth. It is a VERY popular story, popularly read on SOG. And yet - of all the readers who have enjoyed it, how many can name the writer of the story, or nominate another story they have written? Slimebeast, the author of the story, asked to have their story redacted from this wikia largely for those reasons, and with good purpose. As someone trying to turn from 'internet writing' into the 'get-paid' kind of writing, it makes little sense to have your work appear on many other places, even credited.

For as people see it dispalyed freely and well, they began to think - ah, I have a sense of community and ownership; with this story and this writer. Not only is the writer expected to continue produce good works, they are expected to do so for free. This is not bad, and would work just fine with some societal tweaks and a society of philosopher-kings, but while I'm dreaming, blood sacrifice wasn't such a bad thing - wait, where were we?

So, if you're truly interested in making your mark, I would recommend two things. One, if you haven't already; make your own website. Make it professional, not simply a blog. Do not post works you've posted elsewhere on that site, and perhaps use only 'serious' business contact information, perhaps an LLC if you have registered one.

Two - This is the age of self-publishing. Publish. It's not quite that simple, but it's pretty close; a lot of the big publishers accept digital publishers, and I wouldn't have been able to get into publishing without a certain big one that starts with A and ends with N. In fact, self-publishing often will get you landed with agents that would return manuscripts and submissions unread before hand, not that I'm bitter or anything. ; ) And the worst part, to my mind? Often, such writing will get looked at on levels that make the stuff we share for free - even if that stuff is a project of passion or skill! - look like so much dust.

Without saying too much, I've published a fair amount at this point. It is QUITE different in content from what I publish here, and it's not nearly enough to live off of. But in five years, maybe ten? Who can say - and it's always possible, though HIGHLY unlikely for any of us, that success may come more quickly or magnanimously then expected.

That is not to say you shouldn't post stuff here - quite the opposite! I use the internet as a kind of 'vent writing' space for stories I don't think would sell well, ideas I want to work on, or most frequently - things I want to share, for no cost and the sheer joy of it. Perhaps that would work well the same for you..?

But most of all I advocate that instead of worrying about the CPotM it is merely another thing. How can one even compare other stories? Certainly, they all share elements of 'horror', but Metroid: Mother? is a strange story about a twisted tale of a familiar game breeding unfamiliar results (I am such a cad, that play on words is...); the meat and flux is different from any other contender.

You may disagree or this advice may be things you have considered prior, but all the same, I hope it's added some food for thought. My last piece of advice would be rarely to write something mentioning self-pathos, even if you feel that way. ; ) Confidence, even manufactured, can become stronger if we repeat it to ourselves enough. Alas, like building credits and identity, it's a long journey - some might say life-long.

Well, my pontification is over for now - but again, hope it helped. And good luck, of course!