Today, I uploaded the first chapter of my best writing yet to a popular writing website. After ten minutes, I was thrilled to already see one review and five comments. Each comment was telling me to immediately delete the story because of how horrible it was. The rating was half a star. FML
Collection
Fall
Dead leaves, the first cold of the season and an umbrella flipped inside out: fall, the season of grace.
Today, after spending weeks working on a song that meant a lot to me, I reluctantly posted it online. The "friend" who'd convinced me to post it, commented, "This is the worst shit I've ever heard." He got 30 likes, along with a barrage of agreeing, equally terrible comments. FML
Today, I had my teacher look over my essay before turning it in. He said it was extremely well-written, so I handed it in. When I got it back, the feedback he left said it was one of the worst essays he'd ever read. FML
Today, I uploaded my latest picture onto a photography website. It only got one comment, and even that was from someone advising me to never use the same hideous model ever again. It was a self-portrait. FML
Today, my teenage son gave me the completed manuscript of the novel he's been working on for 4 years. Surprised and excited that he showed so much dedication to something, I volunteered to read it. I'm only on page 16 and it's absolute drivel, with grammar that makes my eyes bleed. Only 281 pages to go. FML
Today, I realized that not only am I still an unpublished author, but I can't even get an FML posted after submitting several in the last year. FML
Today, I tried really hard for once on an assignment. I was told it was my worst work yet and that I may as well have turned nothing in at all. FML
Today, I accidentally posted an extensive, negative review of the gynecologist I visited earlier this week. I messed up and posted it from my work's customer service email, so now it looks like the large, well-known company I work for had a poor gynecological experience. FML
Today, my teacher read my story about a haunted house for a class assignment. She liked it very much and turned it in to the office to be sent into a state writing competition. An hour later, I was called to the office where the guidance counselor called my work "disturbing" and said I "need help". FML
Today, after turning in a paper that I worked really hard on, I got it back with a grade of 0. In the feedback section, my professor wrote: “In all my 37 years of teaching, this is by far the worst essay I have ever read.” FML
Today, I tried to write a bad review for the fast-food place at which I work part-time. My username made me anonymous, but I forgot to change my profile picture. Now my manager and coworkers won't even speak to me. FML
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Top comments
hunny797 5
Delete this FML
Pleonasm 36
Did you do a fanfic of 50 Shades of Grey? Who am I kidding that would become a bestseller.
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Comments (154)
elizabeth713 8
Keep working at it, my cousin used to write crappy stuff now she's a big writer for our state paper, and she writes great stuff. Met her writer husband there too.
NoNumber 4
Still a better story than twilight.
Sionnach 10
Don't give up. There are things I wrote ten years ago which I thought were pretty good at the time. Upon recent rereads I realised they were actually crap. Stuff I write these days seems pretty decent to my eyes. When I go rereading those down the line, I imagine they'll look pretty dismal too. Just repeat the pattern until you actually get to the point where OTHER people point to your writing and say, "Hey, that's not bad." Personally, I hope to be pretty mediocre by the time I'm 90.
LeCielNousAide 7
It takes time to get good at writing. A lot of people also don't realize that they aren't so good until an unbiased party tells them so. That's why I don't rely on my friends anymore to critique my stories -- they're too biased and just say "I love it it's great!". OP, I would gladly read your chapter and tell you exactly what's wrong with it so you can improve, since just saying "this is terrible" isn't much help. Also, grammar is the easiest part to improve. If it's issues with the plot or characters, that is difficult and comes with practice. I find basing characters off people I know helps make them more realistic.
Kitten_Calderon 14
I feel you OP. I frequent deviantart (where all my work goes) and a lot of the pieces that I do that are good to me get over looked.. But the crap, 5 second pieces of crap people love? I will never understand that. Keep on writing, I'm sure if you thought it was good it has some merit and potential. The trick to writing I'd showing, not telling. :)
RKD 23
I know, you should see some of the CRAP that gets put up and gets put up on fanfic and so on-and everybody gets weepy and praises it to the skies-just keep it up, Op! You might want to get your writing critiqued by someone that is actually qualified to assess writing, like an English or lit professor you are friendly with-a lot of times people like this are delighted to look at writing for free/or a small gratuity. Just don't give up and realize that EVERYBODY writes Mary Sues, EVERYBODY writes crappy fiction-the key is to keep working at it and improve-I know, just go to the bookstore and look at some of the garbage on the shelves! You can do it!
RKD 23
Oh, yes, and don't forget to check for basic things like spelling/punctuation-I was referring to such things as content in my previous post, but little BIG things like the aforementioned can REALLY turn readers off! If I am reading a fanfic and it has blatant misspellings/punctuation probs, then I will stop reading!
Namenlos_fml 20
Don't delete it. If they answered that quickly, they're probably just trolling you, or worse, trying to steal your work for themselves the second you delete it.
Ray_of_midnight 23
Next time consider getting a couple of trusted people to beta-read your work before uploading it.
MuseFan1991 14
this is why i havent summoned up the courage to upload my writing to any writing websites yet :/ however, it was only the first chapter, maybe the book just hadnt got started properly yet? keep writing OP, theres bound to be someone out there who'll like your work :)