In regards to novice and professional writers (and for the sake of argument, let’s agree that a professional writer in this case is someone who makes a living off their writing and has no other source of income), I think the most guilty party of being lazy is the in-between writer. The novice writer is going to keep writing and writing and writing, and if it’s too hard for them, they stop, and if they don’t, they keep plugging away no matter what. The professional writer lives and breathes by their writing contracts, so of course they can’t be lazy, or how else will they put food on the table? The lazy writer — again, this is all assumption — is the writer who has managed to make a couple of sales, seen their name in print, and they try to work toward “professional status” but realize that it’s much too hard, almost impossible, and so they stay in a sort of limbo. They become content publishing stories to certain markets because they know those markets will most likely accept their work, and they don’t like being rejected, so they never try to sell their stories anyplace else. I don’t know what you would call those writers, but I think they tend to slide toward the lazy (if not also insecure) part of the scale.

I understand that your opening statement was a lead in to Word Hustler, and thought the demotivational image was hilarious, but the point of hint fiction is to read between the lines right?

Look, if you had actually read the post, you would see my mention of the web stats was more a note of fascination that anything else. Yes, not everyone who came to the site also looked at the winners and honorable mentions. I wouldn’t expect everyone to. But out of the 2,500-plus stories submitted, it’s clear the majority did not really take the time to learn the form or even glance at some examples. Are you telling me that those writers take their work very seriously?

Also, how am I not judging each individual story on its own merit? Either the stories are good or they’re not. Keep in mind this isn’t my first rodeo; I’ve worked as an editor before for many years, so this has been nothing new. In the end this is a business, and I’m not looking to pat writers on the back but instead to put together a great anthology (that’s not to say I won’t try to be encouraging in my rejection letters). Does that mean I will outright reject a story for something minor? Absolutely not. I’m willing to work with writers who want to put forward the effort, and while I know there are writers like that out there, in today’s digital world they seem to be in the minority.

And besides, I wasn’t the one who said most writers want to be spoon-fed. I was just repeating what someone else had said — that most of the writers SHE came in contact with seem to want to be spoon-fed. I just used that as a starting off point for my rant about Word Hustler, a site which shouldn’t exist but does exist and why do you think that is? Obviously not a handful of writers are using their “services” but instead A LOT of writers. How are those writers not being lazy?

Am I making sweeping generalizations about all writers? No, again I’m specifically talking about those writers using Word Hustler. The truth is, everyone for the most part is lazy. We’d all love the take the easy way out in just about everything. Of course that can’t be the case, which brings up what you had said about learning by failing. It’s a good point. That’s what writing is, after all, trial and error. But if I understand you correctly, are you saying these writers who take themselves very seriously would rather learn by failing than take a couple moments and learn more about a specific market before they submit to it? You’re right — writers like that shouldn’t be called lazy. They should be called clueless.

And then there are those who learn by failing, which as painful as it can be, is still a valid way of learning. And some people are going to approach hint fiction as a quick diversion to their longer fiction, which is also fine. Stories should be judged on their merit, and I don’t see the point of speculating how much work writers put into their stories and the submissions process, or making sweeping statements about the laziness of writers in general. Honestly, it’s sort of off-putting.

There is a website that will pen haiku for you. It’s pretty good stuff, too. Perhaps they should hook up with WordHustler.

I can’t afford the Hustler rates. I’ll plug away on my own, thank you. Great rant. I’m especially mojo-ing on this writing is not easy stuff because I’m in the thick of TOTALLY revamping my novel-in-progress. Suckola, but you do what needs to be done. Peace, Linda