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Guest
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On fire! |
Registered: March 2012
Messages: 2344
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Hi. I have been reading gay stories online for about a year now. My sources include about half a dozen individual websites like this one, and some archive sites like Nifty.
I have noticed that a lot of the stories gradually get into very lengthy delays between new chapters (intervals of two or more months) and a high number of stories just die with no ending chapter, nor even a courtesy update to let readers know the story is discontinued.
I tend to be a pretty serious reader, in the sense that I am loyal and I don't skim, I really read the stories. In the retail field, authors strive to establish and maintain a loyal following.
It seems to me that many authors of these gay oriented serial stories don't share that outlook. I understand that many of the authors are starting out, are pretty young, or busy with real lives and obligations, and all. I have no desire to criticise anyone with the courage and making the effort to create a good story. I just hate to get wrapped up in a good story and then get left hanging.
I have developed a habit of having about 15 or 20 stories stored in my "Favorites" list, and I check them for updates about twice a week. If I don't see an update in 4 to 6 months, I drop that story from my list (but I do it regretfully). I would keep good stories on my list a lot longer if I could just know whether a story is just delayed, or has been abandoned.
My reason for writing this is not to complain, but to learn more about what others have experienced, and what insight they can share with me about their approach to this question.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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The most usual thing is that the author has moved in in some manner with his or her life. The thing to do is to write and ask. One who cares will tell you, one who does not..... Well that is for you to judge.
Of course, the muse can desert, whether one has moved on or not.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Oh my I know what you mean....
But it is hard to take hours and hours of precious time and dedicate them to writing when so much effort needs to go into making a decent living.
I wish I had more time to writs but try as I might, every time I sit down and begin working on a piece the phone rings and there goes any free time......
If anyone out there can figure out how I can cram an extra two days into each week I might have enough time to get caught up....
Hells bells.... Just my occasional postings here are but breif interludes between one task and another......
CRAP!!!!!! I JUST REALIZED!!!!!! I agreed to help out a friend of Kevy's with one of her hotels this summer..... now I am an auditor....... CRAP!!!
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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But I am trying to get it all done....
I am..... realy:-D
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Anywho....... It isnt realy the writing that takes all the time.....
it is the editing, rewrites, editing again, second rewrites and finalization that seems to take forever.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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Jedediah
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Likes it here |
Location: Made in NZ
Registered: March 2006
Messages: 170
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Hi Mark. I SO know what you mean. Regardless of the reasons - and they are many, varied and real - i really hate it when stories just stop without an ending. These days i tend to only start reading a story after it has been concluded. The Best of Nifty list is a good source. Cheers
E Te Atua tukuna mai ki au te Mauri tauki te tango i nga mea
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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The basic motivation of 'conventional' and 'internet' authors is different. Authors writing fiction for the bookstore market are, in the main, hoping to profit from their labours. Usually, the profit they seek will be tangible, but it may simply be the hope of that their work will be respected and admired. In either case, the establishment and maintenance of a loyal following will be a logical objective.
By definition, the internet writer isn't out to make money - or in any event it isn't his primary objective. I think that a high proportion of gay internet fiction is written for what are basically therapeutic reasons; that was why Timmy, the site owner here, started to write, and many other writers have acknowledged that they began writing stories for similar reasons.
Taking the Nifty Archive as an example, I'd suggest that three broad groups of writers can be identified without too much trouble.
First - inevitably - there are those who write jack-off material. I find their output tedious to read, so by and large I don't read it, but my impression from their writing style (or in many cases lack of style!) and their use of language suggests that many such writers are not particularly young adults. In some sense they seem to derive satisfaction from what they do; many have a prolific output and few abandon stories in mid-stream, though stories in this genre are often relatively short.
The second - and, I suspect, the largest group - comprises those who write for what I described above as therapeutic reasons. Such authors may be of any age; some are older guys reflecting on youthful desires which were suppressed, whilst others are teenagers writing to help themselves to come to terms with their place in the world. Older guys tend to have a significant output, though - as Timmy has pointed out - inspiration may ultimately fade in mid-story. If that happens, it is rare for them to begin further stories. Younger guys may only write a single story - the High School section of Nifty is choc-a-bloc with such material. Again, the age of the author can be inferred from the style of writing and the vocabulary used, but the biggest give-away is the sameness of the stories, with a disproportionate incidence of parental violence, gay-bashing and hospitalisation for a whole raft of unlikely reasons. This category seems to me to be the most likely to abandon stories. I would't wish to suggest that the quality of writing is necessarily bad (though it often is!); some writers of real talent fall into this group, but for one reason or another they decide not to continue. As an illustration - though there are other examples - a young writer calling himself Jason Trower set up his own site, 'Lizard Tales', in the late 1990s - but closed it down again two or three years later and disappeared from the scene. Taking account of his apparent age, he had the makings of a very talented writer - some of his stories can still be accessed on Nifty, using the 'Prolific Authors' list, so you can have a look and make up your own mind.
Finally, there are those who appear to write for the sheer joy of writing.
Again, there is a wide spectrum of age and ability. One very talented writer, using the pseudonym 'Driver' (originally 'Driver Nine') was apparently attacked in some way and stopped writing. He started writing again, with his stories (or some of them) appearing at http://www.storiesbydriver.net This site had a message board and a caucus of enthusiastic fans, but without any explanation the message board was pulled several months ago and although the site remains nothing new has been added to it since. My favourite 'Driver' story was 'Everyday Love' (a sequel to his award-winning 'Sudden Storm'), but that disappeared in mid-stream at the time of his first withdrawal and despite numerous requests no coherent reason was ever given. Another writer whose gifts I admire (though I'm not always happy with his material) is 'Freethinker'; again, his work can be accessed through the Prolific Authors page on Nifty. I particularly liked his first story 'The Moon in your Eyes', which he wrote under the pseudonym 'Coningsby'. But he, too, has a small group of abandoned stories. There are many other examples, and I should perhaps make clear that when I express admiration for a writer's style, I am expressing admiration for the way he writes for his likely readership. Tolstoy - or for that matter Truman Capote - would not necessarily have found acclaim on a gay internet website!
So, in summary, some stories will be abandoned because the writer loses interest, and some will be abandoned because the writer is not happy with what he has produced. The problem lies in the nature of the beast; if convention dictates (as it does) that chapters should be posted as they are written, the writer - unlike a scuptor or an artist - cannot simply begin again with a new stone or a new canvas, because what he has already written is already in the public domain. There is a case for deleting stories if they are not updated after, say, twelve months - but that would add to the burdens placed upon a hard-pressed team of volunteers, so it probably won't happen.
There is a wise convention at this site that the forum should not be used for criticism of hosted material - which is why I haven't waxed eloquent about Grasshopper, or indeed Feangol - one of the earlist hosted authors from whon I hoped to see more - but I see no reason why we shouldn't discuss - in our usual civilised manner! - the work of writers who are NOT hosted. So what do YOU like, and where can it be found?
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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Cossie has given a detailed and to my mind correct summing up of the motivation and later lack of it in some writers.
I find myself falling into categories 2 and 3. My intention has never been to write jerk-off stories. If my stories have that effect, so be it. I don't mind; perhaps I should be flattered.
I write because I have inside me years and years of pent up feelings, call it frustration, pent up for family and professional reasons. Before I retired I knew I wanted to write what in those days I called porn stories. However, I hope they are not porn, but either amusing or interesting experiences from my earlier life (and believe it or not, there is very little invention in them) or the incidents are so way out from when I on ocasions allow my imagination to go wild.
By the bye, Kenneth Tynan wrote in the sixties in a Sunday newspaper that the sole purpose of pornography was to make the consumer masturbate. I can't find the quote. Maybe he stated the obvious, but in those days it needed stating.
I have written three longer works. The first was complete before it was published. The second was intended to be a short story, but just grew. The third I am writing at the moment and à la J K Rowling the intention was a planned length of self-contained stories forming a whole. I intend to finish it, but I am going through a period of writer's block. Ironically I get the best ideas when I am at my busiest. I'm not particularly busy at the moment.
As for Nifty, I think it does a rather special job for writers and readers. I started on Nifty because I was new to the internet and knew nothing else. Eventually as I gained experience I came to iomfats and thanks to Timmy I have made it my 'home'.
Before finishing I should like to say I have received great encouragement fom the private e-mails sent to me. I have only ever had one 'flame' which dismissed my work 'because teenage boys do not fall in love'. As it was nasty, it got dumped straightaway.
Hugs
Nigel
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Nigel wrote:
> Before finishing I should like to say I have received great encouragement fom the private e-mails sent to me. I have only ever had one 'flame' which dismissed my work 'because teenage boys do not fall in love'. As it was nasty, it got dumped straightaway.
>
You had him too? Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I expect he fell in love himself but his parents told him it was a crush. How I hate that word.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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>By the bye, Kenneth Tynan wrote in the sixties in a Sunday newspaper that the sole purpose of pornography was to make the consumer masturbate. I can't find the quote. Maybe he stated the obvious, but in those days it needed stating.
It's not at all obvious! It took a very, very long time for that to occur to me. For children, pornography is one of those things that is exciting simply because you're not supposed to look at it. No-one ever told me why we weren't supposed to look at it. Once I'd seen it a few times, I simply couldn't understand what all the fuss was about, and left it at that.
To tell the truth, I'm still rather of that opinion. Reading about romance is so much more fulfilling (to me) than reading about the slightly sordid mechanics of meaningless sex.
David
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Not all sex is meaningless.....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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>Not all sex is meaningless.....
Yes, but that's not what I said. I did not mention sex in general at all; I was talking about meaningless sex as being a sordid and mechanical act when presented without justification in pornography or pornographic writing. I stand by that, though you're welcome to disagree with me.
I have the utmost respect for meaningful sex, even if the meaning is simply recreational.
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