I stopped by to check out the discussions at some online writer's forums (I don't / won't recall the specific site names) and found the experience quite off-putting. The funny thing is, I can't quite put my finger on why.
Maybe it was the jargon - so many people talking about their YA chapter books and slushpiles and other writerly lingo. I know all those terms and short hands. I just don't use them, and it felt alien to see so much of it in one place.
Maybe it was the heavy scent of insecurity, desperation and flop sweat, as people try to figure out ways to break out of the pack and achieve even a modest success as a writer. I don't want to get that on me.
Maybe it was the often-expressed conviction that participation in these forums was the key to finding the secrets of getting published. I tend to dislike that sort of clubby, we've-got-the-all-the-answers point of view.
Maybe it's that most of the posters were female, and I felt strangely outnumbered, or maybe it's that most of them were writing romance novels and my stuff felt out of place.
Maybe I just didn't find the right forum.
Or maybe it was something else entirely. I really don't know. But for what ever reason, I didn't like it.
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It's mainly because people who rock just can't go with the flow.
Independence. Marching to the beat of a different drummer. Uniqueness. When you find this out, its hard to conform to any standard I think.
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