Jon, there are Mozarts and Weird Als in this world...it wouldn't be the same without both...and one art form is no better than the other. Find your niche, exploit it and have fun with it! Damn the man!

Jon - I know exactly what you mean. I love to write; people tell me I'm good at it, but I know I'm nowhere near publication level. So I have finally become accustomed to billing myself as: Amateur Writer. Amateur, as we all know, means (Basically): FOR THE LOVE OF IT. So just do it for the love of it. Anything else is a bonus.

Here here!

Echoes all the rapturous applause.

Jon - do keep writing, you definitely have a talent. I write a lot for fun, and occasionally send my stories off to magazines. If I ever hear anything back from them, then it is a lovely surprise! (found a very nice small print, no-profit (ie not paid) mag that took a couple of my stories, but none of the big ones have yet replied to my submissions)



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

Good grief, I wholeheartedly agree with everyone who's praising Jon's talent. No need to feel inferior in any way, shape or form! If you can't write like me, Jon, remember this: I can't write like you either. And that is what makes writing so much fun, and why people want to read it. Everyone is different.



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Agrees with Sarah.

It's quite dangerous having Sarah approve of you - N1-3 are largely her fault. I know I can't write Avon or Squirdle, so I let her do it. She knows she can't do the witches, so I do it. Jon can do the UU wizards and I can't.

I suggest Jon has a temporal accident that causes him to spend six months with Sarah encouraging him.

Writing N1-3 was intended as an exercise to find out what would happen if I tried to write something of novel length. The things I thought would be hard just weren't; unexpected things turned out difficult, but could be overcome. Meanwhile I read Chris Tokiens' four volume account of JRRT writing LOTR (three volumes!).

It was startling to see JRRT going through just the processes I was. The thing that amazed me was the amount of tripe he threw away; in the end the quality of the plot in LOTR is down to recognising failure and being prepared to drop it rather than reinforce it.

Of course there are things I can't do that JRRT can! I could never do the language stuff. But if you read 'The Notion Club Papers', buried in one of Chris Tolkien's retrospectives, you'll be hard put to believe that the author could ever write a decent book, it's so self-indulgent.

Write what you feel to make you happy, then you've done all you can. You aren't going to please others without pleasing yourself. If you enjoy writing something, that's worth all the effort on its own. And if other people like it, that's great, but it's not the starting point for doing something.

Original and best? I feel hurt.

Though I suppose you are right...



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.