When someone paint, is to see how it will look and the materials work on each other, how the execution comes from your mind. But when I write I already know the story, I know what will happen, and even how it will look if someone would put it on a screen or picture. So why do I write? I write so people can read it, to help someone to pass a couple of minutes with something fun or entertaining. But I noticed that nobody reads what I write, well a few people actually take the time and read what I post, like 3 or 4 for them I’m thankful. But more than half of them never leave a comment or tell me something of what I wrote, they just read it and then if we meet in real life they comment about that post, but they didn’t even left a reaction.
Neil Gaiman said very well what 4 words every storyteller wants to hear.
“And then what happened?”
When someone ask me for more of my story, is the best feeling I ever had in my life. Sadly I have been asked that by very few people, usually everyone think they are experts and critics so they give me notes and things they would like to see. I just nod and keep moving, if I want feedback I expressly say it when I hand you the pages, when I just give you the pages is because I want to see if it is engaging, if you like the story.
And I can see the difference between someone paying attention to what I’m saying and someone just looking at me being polite and waiting for his/her time to talk and change the subject.
One time I gave a 2 sided story to a friend with express instructions to read one side first and the other later, but he only read the second one, he liked it, didn’t get the full idea of the story because he just got the extra one. Just like trying to understand a movie only watching the trailer.
But as I mention, from all the people I have handed any written material almost never I got any impression or ideas from it, they never even read it so I think they just forgot.
Another reason I stop writing was because nobody has actually asked me “And then what happened?” so this means that if people read it this means nobody has liked it enough to wait for a continuation of the story.
I look into self-publishing, I think that will be my last try to be a writer, because if there still nobody like on a world platform like Amazon this means it is just not my calling, I’m just some dumb guy who didn’t know when to quit.
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