WRITERS WASTING THEIR TIME ON SOME FORUMS
Oh, I've had an eventful couple of months! I've had a novel accepted, a sequel novel requested, and several short stories that are due to appear soon, so I should be happy -- right?
Well, not completely! Recently, I had a rather prolonged negative experience with regard to a forum, and it brought up an important point for me as a writer, and I think it's something that all authors should be aware of; that is:
WRITERS CAN WASTE VALUABLE, IRREPLACEABLE TIME EVEN, POSTING ON SOME FORUMS WHEN THEY COULD BE WRITING INSTEAD!
Yes, as writers, our publishers encourage us to join forums, have blogs, websites, etc., and that's a good thing. We need the publicity, the connections, the encouragement, and the links to useful sites, etc. But what I didn't realize is that one needs to be careful how a writer/author should go about this. As with all things, some thought, some very serious thought, should be given before joining or choosing any particular group or organization.
My own example is a case in point. I joined EPIC. Its blurb is something to the effect that it is the "voice of e-publishing," so it sounded like a good idea to join it at the time. The membership fee was minimal. Well, after some months, as a member, I made a suggestion. The details are unimportant. In general, it was just an idea to help authors, a sort of rating system or something, because of all the e-press closings we've had of late. There have been a lot. Heck, there were three reported to the group while this forum thingy was going on.
Well, the proverbial "spit" hit the fan. A major battle ensued, posting-wise. It became so heated that name calling occurred, people became furious, me included, and some (I don't know how many) left the group, and things generally went down hill. Hundreds of e-posts flew about. At one point, I was even nominated and seconded several times by my faction to become president. I accepted. But as the battle raged on, I became disenchanted with the whole thing, the group as a whole, included. The personal attacks were unbelievable, numerous, and they were of every kind.
So, I found that I responded in kind. The number of posts grew and grew even more, until I was resorting to one-liners to respond to them. Posts, as it turns out, when sent by email, tend to arrive in chunks. I had as many as 79 in one swoop when I logged on to the Internet one day. And they came in all day long in such clusters!
Disgusted, exhausted, and frankly bored with it all, I withdrew my nomination and resigned from the group. This, from what several friends still in the group told me, provoked even more posts for several more days before things quieted down. Needless to say, I was so very relieved to get out of it all. And by the way, I'm not saying my behavior was exemplary in all this either. I became truly angry at some of the personal attacks and so struck back. But the point is that it was all so pointless, so useless! It wasn't necessary. Most of the posts didn't help, weren't on the subject anymore, and just plain nasty. This was bad enough, but even more damaging was the time it consumed!
And, where I had found friends, I then found enemies. Of course, I did make new friends as well, like-minded people who felt as I did. But people on all sides made outrageous statements and called each other names. Some said I was attacking publishers, that I had a vendetta against them. I don't. How stupid would such a thing be as a writer???? What I did have was a sincere and strong belief that authors, especially new authors, needed more help than they are getting in navigating their way safely through the e-publishing world. I, myself, had two stories tied up when two different e-presses failed. But things, posting-wise, went off course. I found I was defending myself against such attacks, rather than promoting my suggestion. That sort of thing is always useless. Perhaps, it is what was intended by the opposing faction, I just don't know, nor can I ever know, but I knew one thing; I HAD WASTED HOURS UPON HOURS IN DAILY POSTINGS AND COUNTERING POSTS OVER AN ISSUE THAT DEVIATED SO FAR FROM THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE THAT IT WAS POINTLESS TO CONTINUE WITH IT, BUT STILL I DID! AS DID MOST THE OTHERS.
I could have been writing. I bet I could have finished my sequel if I'd just stayed on track and hadn't anxiously awaited the new round of posts, friendly and non-friendly to me. I don't think many of us can imagine the sheer number of such posts I'm talking about. Over a hundred could come in one single day! Just trying to read them all, in order to see if I needed to respond to them became a major time-consuming event, one that occurred daily.
So, a friendly warning to all fellow authors out there, especially new ones. By all means, join forums. Many magazines have their own, and they are excellent. One gets to "know" fellow writers and to learn lots of tricks and tips of the trade through such forums. This is a good thing. Those are good forums.
BUT BEWARE! There are other forums that are pointless, or nearly so. Some are self-serving, apparently, seemingly designed only to pat the members on each other's backs. Others are like pack animals, they can turn on you "en masse" and be truly vicious if they feel thwarted or in any way threatened. Just like real society can, sometimes, I guess. So, choose the forum you join with care. Am I saying you should avoid EPIC? No. It's probably no better nor worse than many others. Each to his own, and who knows what suits each person's needs. All I am saying is that extreme care should be exercised before you join any forum. And when you do join, if it isn't a particular magazine's forum, then sit back a bit. Watch how the posting goes before you get involved in it. Such behavior could save you a lot of trouble.
STILL BEWARE! If you select the wrong forum, or get too involved as I did with hundreds of postings flying every which way, at the very least you will consume large amounts of your time, your writing time! Before you commit to that, think carefully on this advice. It was hard earned and hard won by me! Believe me. As the line from Gone with the Wind said (a sign posted leading to the Wilkes' Plantation), "Time is the stuff of life. Do not squander it." Picking the wrong forum, or simply spending all your energy in them to the detriment of your writing is, perhaps, squandering your time. So if your time seems to run out prematurely, don't blame me! I warned you!
But if this advice acts to put a flea in your ear as a writer, even a little one, then maybe, just maybe, I've saved you wasting some of your valuable time. I truly hope so. Now, enough of this blogging! It's time I went back to my writing! Have a good spring, folks!
