LJ Idol Presents:

Yeah, one of my other comments noted that it could be a side effect of the shorter season/less people. It's easier to find more people who write what you want to read when there are more people to choose from.

I'd never try to shoehorn myself into writing things that don't fit me just because it seems to be what the crowd wants. When I have adapted, for example, when I got into writing more speculative fiction, it was more because that was a genre I enjoyed reading rather than because it was popular. I'm told horror seemed to be the "in" genre last season, but... I'm not all that keen on horror, so I couldn't force myself to write it. There are some things in the broad definition in that genre that I like, but it's really hard to get my interest and for me to like it without thinking it was predictable. So that makes me not want to write it. That's just one example.

I have made some new stylistic choices over the course of the time I've played, but they've always been because that's what I was feeling, never because it seemed to be what people wanted.

I guess it's just my personal struggle between wanting to be different vs. feeling too different that people don't like it.

The other thing might be that I'm more aware of how not as many people stick with your writing as you would have expected to, judging by comments, once you sit a season out. It's like, "do these people actually like what I'm writing or are they only reading because it's part of the competition?" For example, I have a short story that's being published this coming weekend -- by someone who didn't know me before I submitted, even. But how many people can I count on who'll go and read it when it's not part of the poll? And I guess that's one of the reasons I even bothered to submit something elsewhere. I thought it might be a better way of building my audience of people who don't know me. The genre there is a lot more specific so I know anyone who comes across it is more likely to enjoy it.

Thank you for saying my entry has stuck with you, though. I guess I find it interesting that my fiction can have that effect, when that was more the goal I had for the non-fiction I wrote the last couple of weeks. Two weeks ago I think I was fine, but last week didn't seem to go over as well, and I was feeling at a loss as to why. I thought maybe people just didn't like white people talking about racial issues - or at least not the way I did.

Thanks. <3