I am in my part of the week when I write stories that don't fit Wattpad's Verticals even in the slightest (if you want to check them out they are expertly hidden in Wattpad's Help Center, link in inline comment). Let's call them Horizontal books. The kicker is that only the night before I was working on an off-line draft of a story that is so Vertical, it can give a few pointers to the Y-axis.
So, as I struggle to capture Ivan the Terrible on the page of my obscure historical mystery, I am thinking about that one truth about writing.
Namely, a writer can never know in advance how the book will be received. We can't choose which books other people read. What they like. Heck, we can't even predict that something that has all signs of being mainstream is going to find its audience. This includes literary agents, online audiences, book critics and everyone who reads, the Homo Lectio.
That's frustrating when you deal with the abyss of rejection.
On another hand, it's also hopeful, because expressing yourself has a chance of acceptance no matter what you choose to write. This is why, I think, it is important to move on and write, write and write some more, instead of fixating on one story (or ten).
You can obviously get some potential answers to why people don't read what you have written, and they are useful. But on the other hand, writing is a choice, reading is a choice. Having these both choices is essential, and that we can't control one another is what makes the game exciting.
Keep your eyes on the ball to stay in the game, but also... play. Write Vertical. Write Horizontal. Win at life.
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