Your work is still raw, but I can tell that you care deeply about it. Each revision is better than the last, you strive to improve and you clearly love writing. Where is the waste? If what you really mean is, "Is my writing so awful that no one will every buy it?" That's a diferent answer, and it's the same answer. You want honesty, you deserve honesty. I don't think your writing is ready to be published but, you aren't wasteing your time.

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Your work is still raw, but I can tell that you care deeply about it. Each revision is better than the last, you strive to improve and you clearly love writing. Where is the waste? If what you really mean is, "Is my writing so awful that no one will every buy it?" That's a diferent answer, and it's the same answer. You want honesty, you deserve honesty. I don't think your writing is ready to be published but, you aren't wasteing your time.

Nobody is perfect the first time out. Every story you write, every line you labor over, every rule that you struggle to master brings you closer to where you want to be. Your ideas are good. Your heart is there. I've seen you pick up a new writing concept or technique. The people who don't improve are the ones who refuse to learn. And you care about writing. That's what can't be taught; that's the thing worth nurturing. Please, please keep harboring that flame. Write.

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There is nothing more that needs to be added.

You can do it.

Monolith. I know exactly how you feel. It's that feeling you get after trying your hardest, working for hours, and then...you look at your work...and it seems horrible!

Right then is the worst moment possible in any artistic attempt. For then it is the easiest to give up.

But don't. What looks horrible contains the seeds of beauty. Rip away the chaff, work at it, and let the power shine through.

Monolith, at the moment I respect you a lot. You seem like a tough, rugged, smart guy. And you seem like the kind of person who won't give up.

It's your call whether you're wasting your time or not, to decide whether you can write or not, to dig in or give up. Writing has a learning curve, no doubt about it, but if it's no fun, if it's a monkey on your back, see what life is like without it. As I've posted before, I'm not a John Lennon fan, but I loved what he said about music, I believe: "As breathing is my life, to stop I dare not dare." (Or maybe he was just talking about breathing. )

I haven't read your story, but I'll give you the same answer as I give myself:

Probably...

In terms of getting it published or making money, yes, I am probably wasting my time and I'd say most of us here are unlikely to be published, or make any real money.

However...

Has everyone convinced you to keep writing?

After all, this is a support group: its purpose to help all of us get better at writing. Therefore the above support, I believe, is quite genuine. I honestly believe that everyone here on these forums can and will be published if they work at it hard enough -- this is not an impossible dream; there are much harder things in life. I also hope that it happens for each and every one of you.

Just keep plugging away at it. Keep getting feedback from everyone -- as much as your ego will allow. I mean, heck, this is free education right here! People go to school to learn how to write and spend lots of money to do it. Here, it's entirely free!

Someone on this board told me this, roughly: While the writing may not be the strongest here on hatrack, the critiques are the best anywhere around. That person is correct. Every crit I've got from people here was a good one and utterly helpful.

So, thanks!

Monolith, send me your story if you need another pair of eyes to read. I'd be happy to help you get through anything that's troubling you.

I mean, otherwise, it won't be written, and any story that is not written is a story lost. Writing is tough, no question. It demands hard work, it demands an obsessive perseverence. In the end, you don't write for an audience. You write for you.

There are those gifted few, and then there are the rest of us--myself included--who have to plug away until we get it right. But the thing that separates us pluggers from the gifted few is the gift of persistence. Don't give up. Don't stop writing. If it's something you love, it's worth doing and worth studying and worth developing.

But when should this decision be made?

I don't know. Each person is different. But I know this. Col. Sanders, the dude who started KFC, started out with a simple chicken recipe that he tried selling to various restaurants. And--now get this--he was rejected 1007 times before it was finally accepted.

What's my point? Start thinking about giving up only after you get your 1007th consecutive rejection letter.

~L.L.

The ONLY thing else distracting me is work, I have worked about 84 hours since the 16th of this month and haven't had the time to get anything done. My fiancee is in college and she uses the computer more than I do, but that is a different story.

But in general, what I'm trying to say, is that I like coming to this forum and seeing the closeness that has been built over the course of a few months.

So, in closing, I'm keeping this thread going for a little bit longer, but IF anyone has objections to this going for a while longer, please Kathleen, close this topic.

I thank everyone who's had to plow through my writing and has taken the time to do so.

I'm just rambling now, sorry you guys.

Let me know.

However, I think you've gotten the message here. I can readily concur with many who have said your writing has gotten markedly better with each draft. One thing is certain -- you take advise well and (just as important) you seem to be warry of what "advise" truly pertains to the story and what may not.

Learning to write is like any other trade: You can read all the textbooks in the world, amass all the knowledge there is available, and be entirely enthusiastic--but it's all meaningless without time and experience. I cannot begin to simply "tell" someohow how to play trumpet and expect them to become great. It takes time for them to get the "feel" of the instrument down, to make it natural. When we reach the point where we're not thinking about what we're writing--about every word and phrase and form--then we'll be ready to publish.

And there's only one way to get there...press on.

And don't let time constraints frustrate you too much. That's life. Last fall I was cranking out 10 pages a day, now I barely get that much out in a month. Some times you'll go to town and write like crazy, other times you'll feel empty at the keyboard. You just press on.

As for writing two things at once, I'm guessing the popular wisdom would be to complete one work first. Of course, I say that even though I read two, sometimes three, books at the same time.

Now looks who's rambling on....

First, if the person who started the topic asks me to, and I agree that it has outlived its usefulness, I will close a topic. That doesn't happen very often.

Second, if a topic gets off on a tangent that involves more heat than light, and it doesn't appear to be able to go back to being useful, I will close it. I am grateful that that doesn't happen very often either.

If a topic stops being useful to the point where no one posts in it, it will eventually fade into the ether, though it can still be found (so far as I know) by asking the website software to show you all topics.

First, like any notebook, they're mobile, so I can write anywhere I want. I've found that I'm a lot like Hemingway in the sense that so long as there's quiet and I can be alone, I can write. Which means I can write anywhere.

The second is that they're sturdy. You don't have to worry about the front or the back falling off, or them getting bent. And because they're bound with a string instead of glue or a piece of spiral metal, the binding is sturdy and the pages can't get torn out. (They can, but not so easily.)

Once again, THANK YOU ALL