Thank you for posting your comments and your perspective. While I agree in numerous points you make, I however, reserve the right to disagree with you on others. I have been reading your work, and find it well written, yet simplistic in nature. While the characters are developed, I find that they are very two-dimensional, and the situations very artificial. I have read your articles, and continue to follow your work, and have seen much of the same type of writing. I encourage you to continue, and I like to see the amount of effort that you put in your work.
I will concur, novel writing or fictional writing is a very difficult “nut to crack,” yet, if you continue, I am sure that your writing will improve, and perhaps you will attain your goal.

That’s a really interesting post. By-and-large I think you’re right. I have a few–fairly random–thoughts…

‘I am more interested in my work than I am in yours.’ This is both true and untrue. Writing is, generally speaking, a very egotistical and egocentric passtime. I’m deeply invested in everything I write–and only a fraction of that ever sees the light of day on my blog!

On the other hand, as a writer, I’m always reading. And everything I read is, to a greater or lesser extent, a learning experience. Some (well, okay, many) writers are better than me, and those writers I study closely to see what I can do to improve my own fiction. In this way, I learn just about as much from reading Stephen King as I do Tolstoy. Obviously, I learn completely different things from both.

Your blog, Gloria, is a prime example of a piece of online fiction that has taught me a lot. For instance, I was quite worried about having slower sections in my blog which examined the characters motivations and emotions until I saw that you’d achieved exactly this while remaining compelling reading.

Of course, there’s a lot of chaff out there. As with any blogging community, we need to wade through 100 rubbish blogs to find the 3 or 4 good ones. That seems to be a problem common to the whole blogosphere (there’s another unlovely word for you).

So I do think there’s a lot to be gained by developing a community–a space where we can all exist. Selfishly, one would be of great benefit to me: my writing will improve and it may well help my visibility to publishers.

And to turn to your final point, you are absolutely right: the impetus to do this has to come from us. No one else is going to do this for us because, frankly, we’re very low profile and at the moment very few people see the benefits of reading fiction online.

Richard