schloss hartheim

If everyone posted a message every time one of their stories got ignored, this forum would be busy busy busy!

I wrote a story and it was great. Sadly, Hamish Hamilton didn't publish it, so I went on a violent rampage through the streets of Hull.

Ya big baby.

I recently wrote a story about a man with a ten foot magically enhanced willy; after it wasn't cherry-picked I embarked upon a savage campaign of persecution against the moles in my garden..... oh and I had a good sulk. Why oh why can't we all be cherry picked all the time? What a dreadful site!

don't forget your bat

Oh dear, the writer's ego. It will take us everywhere but rarely back to the writing.

Not so long ago I wrote on this site: "I'm no exception to the 'goodbye cruel world' syndrome when it comes to writing- fail to praise me immediately and I'll storm from the keyboard in a hissy fit that can last for days, weeks, yes, even years."

And I do mean years. There's a reason why my ABC mugshot is a side profile.

That's meant to make you smile because you need humour as a writer.

Not to laugh at others but at yourself and the quaint writing ambition we all share.

But you need another H word as well– humility. Accept you and the world aren't always going to agree about your work. Learn to publish and be damned irrespective of other people's opinion- but remember occasionally that they might be right.

So re-post schloss hartheim and I promise to read it though I can't guarantee I'll like it.

Yes, writing's not really an appropriate activity for people who can't handle indifference.

Writers are a funny lot. We can't handle indifference and rejection destroys us. Seems a shame really that a writer's life has more of those two elements than anything else. Make you think we might have strong masochistic tendencies. lol

www.lorrainemace.com

Thanks everyone for your terse and witty advice. Guess I was having a particularly bad day. However, to the "Ya big baby" and "Where's your bat" fuck you.John riley

And another H word as per kim.rooney's affecting poem (The thinnest metal)is 'heroin...' that certainly helps with indifference, boosting stoicism levels and the power to secrete a protective void.

Quite a lot of dross on this site is cherry-picked among outstanding stuff, but that's the trouble with democracy: people make the wrong choices. There's a slight leaning towards the poetic quip, the processed-cheese pun made poetry (you know who you are Byron69 with your website directing us to more embarrassing poetic stand-up at The Spotted Larynx)
rather than the rhythmic use of wooden paddles.

The thing is that none of us who have quipped in this thread would have done so had we not had direct experience of indifference and failure. The cherry picking system only works if there are stories that don't get picked; likewise positive feedback is worthless if it's all one ever gets. The appropriate response is probably to write something else or to re-write the first piece, not to have a strop. It's just like supporting a football team that always wins, what's the point in the highs if you don't know the lows?

How very Nietzschian of you Krop ;)

But I have to agree with everyone else. Unfortunately being a writer these days a is a bit like screaming in a hurricane, being noticed and by the right people is more often luck than anything else. So don't be disheartened, just keep writing, keep submitting. No one can be guaranteed success or praise, but at the end of the day you should be writing for yourself, not for praise or glory.

Good luck.

I'm deeply sorry for my profanity. Sometimes the self-centered child within gets the better of me. It's just that months ago I had quite a bit of success on this site, and I guess I developed a sense of entitlement. I was afraid of even returning to this site after making such a fool of myself. I'm grateful abctales for its kindness in selecting other works of mine in choosing a story of mine for its magazine and cherry picking the others. Please accept my apology. I don't know where I'd find a more supportive community. I'll keep plugging a way. John riley

John,

My 'Ya big baby' comment was meant in a playful vein. Writing is hard-it's meant to be hard. It needs to be hard. Don't take the cherry picking thing personally-I was an editor here once and it is a tough job at times.

Well 6dotcell, you've hit another H word - honesty.

An essential ingredient for writer and writing alike. And it's one of the ingredients which as barely black francis says, makes the process of writing hard.

But by posting here and resubmitting Schloss Hartheim you've just shown it's possible. Thank you.

What I find weird is the way praise on this site seems to follow a law of inverse returns: the longer I spend on a story the less people seem to notice it. I don't know if that's cause the internet is slanted towards the short and snappy, or just that I overwrite stuff if I spend too long on it.

By the way I agree with blackjack-davey's comment about the bias towards processed cheese poetry... since when did sonnets need punchlines?

I take your point on the poetry thing and will try to be less processed cheese inclined! You are always free to email me or flag up something on here that you may feel has been unfairly passed by on the cherry system. I promise that I will go back to it.

Cherries are supposed to be representative of the best writing on the site. I consider it an honour to recieve one... not a rite of passage.

Have noted that story removed again; withdrawn from the gaze of critical eyes.

That's a shame because everything here, on this site, is really a work in progress.

All can be changed- from a typo to the name of your principal character. Anytime.

And then you can use that wonderfully named button and 'refresh' your webpage.

Refresh, like spring rain, not delete like a violent storm.

Wtf? I tried to read the story & I gave up. Now normally of course I would tend to tread lightly (other people's dreams and all that), but all this hokey cokey stuff is really tiresome, not to mention a little childish. In fact I can think of only one thing I've come across recently that was more boring......
Right I'm just off to airbrush out of history all of my stories that didn't get cherried and create some false accounts so I can leave myself glowing comments for all the rest!

"I can think of only one thing I've come across recently that was more boring......"

Come on Krop, spill the beans!

Signed A. Cheesemonger

As three hundred self acclaimed writer's (myself included) morph into little balls of paranoia.

6dotcell has by heart-wringing rearguard action done the unthinkable: got us to discuss an invisible piece of prose. There is nothing to talk about. However, my memory of the piece... I have retained nothing but a piano and some plaster.

google remembers everything

i wonder what 'parishing on mass' is?

Ah maddan, very good. Actually, what is even more intriguing is that the Google cached page shows users I don't remember either.

No, don't go and look again. As Kropotkin38 wonderfully sums up 'this hokey cokey stuff is really tiresome.'

'wonder what 'parishing on mass' is?'

Adopts glesga keelie accent:

"Whit's the parish? Aye, the dole, the benefutt, ye clown. Dinnae sum ae us gang relijussly, pal?"

i like processed cheese, it's tasty and doesn't smell bad. can i have a cherry for this comment? please.

No - because processed cheese is the spawn of the devil.

I have recently procured cherries for my cheese. Soon I hope to have an entire buffet.

I bet if the title wasn't german people might have an inkling what it was about, maybe even want to read it...

who gives a toss bout cherries. I used to be hung up, then I gave up. It's much more satisfying.

good night

There are cheeses with cherries already integrated into them (like squashed blood vessels), think of those Christmas speciality platters that bind up your guts for a week...

Cherries and Cheese it's like needing ying for your yang, banality and tanginess, sweet and savoury, Biggus and Shakespeare...

Lol blackjack, Biggus is the Socrates of our time.