Wealth of writers in the Internet Age

Like many people who read a lot, I have been bitten by the urge to write.  There has always been a special romance to it.  However, even when I was a university student, I was aware of the census data that showed writers living for the most part in poverty.  Still the dream lived on, and here I am writing my first blog.

In the 80s, it was an epic undertaking to write a novel.  Writing out 100,000 words by hand, typing it up and then editing it took a tremendous discipline.  I of course started a few times but never completed anything of significance.

Then the word processor happened.  Suddenly, those ideas came to life, I even wrote a short novel of about 70 thousand words.  I got a lot of positive feedback from a friend.  I felt good about doing it and enjoyed reading my own novel.  I sent it off to a publisher, and there was complete silence.

Thinking that I did something wrong, I signed up for a writing course.  After a few classes of being in a room with 10 people, I realized that most of the people in the room had done the same thing.  Even the teacher was being ignored when he sent his manuscripts off.  At that point my mathematical training kicked in and I realized that if there are 10 people in a small classroom in a small city, then the publishers must be receiving 1000s of novels each year.

After quitting a class that I knew was not going to get me anywhere, I put my economically worthless novel on the shelf and forgot about it, although I did enjoy reading it a few times.  Years went by and I enjoyed reading many great novels.  Then I stumbled upon a muse in Fetlife.  I was befriended by someone who could never meet in real time but wanted an online relationship as he was committed.  He said that he liked stories.  Well the stories came.

My three short stories are now on Amazon Kindle.  Publishing there is easy, and there is no rejection from publishers to worry about.  The first story Three Steps to Sluthood was a fantasy directly projected at my muse.  Her Fetlife avatar even had the same name as the protagonist.  However, the protagonist got to live out the fantasy of a forced gangbang that the real life Ashley could only dream about.  Two more stories came soon after with the inspiration of my new muse.

Then we met.  Yes, the sex was great, for a while.  Now without a muse, I am stopped at three short stories.  I wrote them without making effort.  If I tried now, it would be another story.

Who knows what life will bring.

Lance Hermes

I am not always behind a keyboard.