Because I need to clarify...
Okay, I might be beating a dead horse, here. I am good at that. However, I'm going to attempt to reexplain yesterday's wailing post in a clearer fashion.
The stuff about the "honesty" thread: Yes, I think it's silly to accuse people with higher word counts of cheating, but that wasn't the point of the post. I really believe that if people are going to cheat, it's because they're stupid and don't get it, and thus, it's really not my concern, and I know people who've finished already or are really close to it have been getting a lot of animosity over it. They've gotten e-mails and snide remarks and stuff, and it's stupid. But that's not what my post was about. I can write about that on the forums, and I have done so.
The reason I brought it up was that I ran into three places where I thought I could, on the forums, discuss and wail about how hard it was to get the words out, and how I, at least, find having a job or other obligations actually makes it *easier* to write. This is what the post was about. It was a place where I could do that and where the readers would have to understand that I was not coming in and ruining a thread about something else or continuing a thread that I agree should no longer be continuing. One of those places was on the "honesty" thread because someone said essentially that, "if you have the time to write, of course you'll get more done. We have *lives*, that's why we haven't won yet." I wanted to counter that comment, but decided that that thread was not the place to do it in. Besides, it isn't the first time I'd run against that argument, and I wanted other people to find it as well. It was just the one time that really made me sit up and go, "Okay, damn it, I need to talk about this!". Straw. Camel. Back. So, then I found a thread that said, "I'm putting this here because the people who hate themselves would kill me for this", and I thought, "Oh, I can put it here!" But no - it was a thread for people who had reached 10k and were half-happy but half-sad that they were still behind. Well, me, being at 24,000 at the time, I didn't think I could post it *there* without spoiling *that* thread. But it also made me feel like putting a New topic in the "I hate myself and want to die" forum would be insensitive at best. I don't want to make people feel bad. I don't want to make people think I'm being... spoiled? narcissistic? I'm not sure. But I didn't want to step on toes by complaining about my words when I had so many of them, compared to others, AND when I have all day to write and nothing else to do besides look for jobs, and fill out applications. It looks, well, spoiled. Like, who am I to complain. And I'd have done it if it seemed like other people were also having troubles, but whatever.
But it was frustrating that there wasn't a place that I could address this issue, because it does bug me that any time the issue of "word count envy" comes up, the automatic response is either "They're lying" or "They have no life - I could totally write that if I didn't have a job and other obligations." Of course, a lot of the people who have high word counts *do* have jobs and *do* say so, but that's different from me complaining about having all this time and *not* being where I want to be (especially when I'm farther along than I *need* to be for the 50,000).
So, on the one hand, I wanted to talk about how I felt about getting the words out and how hard it was because of my ennui... on another hand, I wanted to discuss the issue on the whole... and on a third hand (ooh, aren't I special, I have *three hands* *does the three-hand dance*), I wanted to rant about not having a place to discuss the issue and my feelings about getting words out. It's not anyone's fault, and I'm not blaming anyone - it was just a frustrating set of circumstances that I needed to get out of my system. Hence, yesterday's long rant.
Anyway, that's all in the past, I'm just trying to clarify, since it seems what I ended up saying in my last post was that I hated being accused of lying, when that's never actually happened. And though I think it's stupid that people get so spiteful towards people with high word counts, it's not something I'd write a post here about. Encourage the people it happens to in their journals or in a Personal Message or e-mail -- sure. But I wouldn't make a public post about it.
Hope things are clearer now.
The stuff about the "honesty" thread: Yes, I think it's silly to accuse people with higher word counts of cheating, but that wasn't the point of the post. I really believe that if people are going to cheat, it's because they're stupid and don't get it, and thus, it's really not my concern, and I know people who've finished already or are really close to it have been getting a lot of animosity over it. They've gotten e-mails and snide remarks and stuff, and it's stupid. But that's not what my post was about. I can write about that on the forums, and I have done so.
The reason I brought it up was that I ran into three places where I thought I could, on the forums, discuss and wail about how hard it was to get the words out, and how I, at least, find having a job or other obligations actually makes it *easier* to write. This is what the post was about. It was a place where I could do that and where the readers would have to understand that I was not coming in and ruining a thread about something else or continuing a thread that I agree should no longer be continuing. One of those places was on the "honesty" thread because someone said essentially that, "if you have the time to write, of course you'll get more done. We have *lives*, that's why we haven't won yet." I wanted to counter that comment, but decided that that thread was not the place to do it in. Besides, it isn't the first time I'd run against that argument, and I wanted other people to find it as well. It was just the one time that really made me sit up and go, "Okay, damn it, I need to talk about this!". Straw. Camel. Back. So, then I found a thread that said, "I'm putting this here because the people who hate themselves would kill me for this", and I thought, "Oh, I can put it here!" But no - it was a thread for people who had reached 10k and were half-happy but half-sad that they were still behind. Well, me, being at 24,000 at the time, I didn't think I could post it *there* without spoiling *that* thread. But it also made me feel like putting a New topic in the "I hate myself and want to die" forum would be insensitive at best. I don't want to make people feel bad. I don't want to make people think I'm being... spoiled? narcissistic? I'm not sure. But I didn't want to step on toes by complaining about my words when I had so many of them, compared to others, AND when I have all day to write and nothing else to do besides look for jobs, and fill out applications. It looks, well, spoiled. Like, who am I to complain. And I'd have done it if it seemed like other people were also having troubles, but whatever.
But it was frustrating that there wasn't a place that I could address this issue, because it does bug me that any time the issue of "word count envy" comes up, the automatic response is either "They're lying" or "They have no life - I could totally write that if I didn't have a job and other obligations." Of course, a lot of the people who have high word counts *do* have jobs and *do* say so, but that's different from me complaining about having all this time and *not* being where I want to be (especially when I'm farther along than I *need* to be for the 50,000).
So, on the one hand, I wanted to talk about how I felt about getting the words out and how hard it was because of my ennui... on another hand, I wanted to discuss the issue on the whole... and on a third hand (ooh, aren't I special, I have *three hands* *does the three-hand dance*), I wanted to rant about not having a place to discuss the issue and my feelings about getting words out. It's not anyone's fault, and I'm not blaming anyone - it was just a frustrating set of circumstances that I needed to get out of my system. Hence, yesterday's long rant.
Anyway, that's all in the past, I'm just trying to clarify, since it seems what I ended up saying in my last post was that I hated being accused of lying, when that's never actually happened. And though I think it's stupid that people get so spiteful towards people with high word counts, it's not something I'd write a post here about. Encourage the people it happens to in their journals or in a Personal Message or e-mail -- sure. But I wouldn't make a public post about it.
Hope things are clearer now.