At 04:18 PM 16/10/97 -0500, someone wrote:

I thought you are supposed to write for your enjoyment not to acquire 
praise from others.

Oh, let's be real. Everyone has their ego. If we truly, truly wrote for our
own enjoyment, would we really all be here? 

I do not write for myself. Not really, anyway. Certainly, I write to 
continuously improve(which is why I wish more of the C&C I got was 
constructive, although I certainly enjoy 'read it, liked it' messages too), 
to feel proud that I can do something well(I think I'm starting to get there, 
finally), to feel that I have accomplished something, but the main reason I 
write stories is so that other people can read and enjoy them. If I wrote for 
myself, I would never have released a fanfic. If I want to write for myself,
I'll get a diary.

As to what you're *supposed* to do, that really is rubbish. Life is a
myriad of reasons, no-one should be doing anything for the same, single, 
ogrish reason that everyone else is doing it. Write because you love it,
write because you hate it(I know a couple of people like that), write
because you want to. Write for whatever reason _you_ want.


************  
Mark Doherty  -  mdoherty@mailbox.uq.edu.au
The Weekly FFML Synopses Lists are at:
http://www.uq.edu.au/~zzhdoher/list.html
My fics are back - 
http://www.tass.org/~mdoherty/index.html

"Time grows short, but I remain tall."