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Among one of the things I have begun to notice upon waking up each morning to continue writing and editing my stories, is the process in which work can be damaged and destroyed by the actions of other people.
This process is probably known by many and that is zero-bombing or troll voting. It is something that I have been reading up on the blogs of other writers and the challenges that other writers, movie makers, and animators face every day. The idea is that the first people to vote are usually the ones that simply vote down, regardless of the amount work that the person put forth into their project. This can cause other people to become discouraged (in certain degrees) in looking at the works because there is such a low score on the project/works itself.
It is my belief that everyone should be praised for their work. This site alone consists of numerous story writers that devote their hard work and time to writing stories. It is something that does not happen overnight. I alone, at the moment that you are reading this, have spent two years writing. I can go back and see the differences of my own writing from day one to two years later. I still make mistakes, but you get better at spotting them. I can look at others that are just getting started in the process and understand the pain and struggle that they are going through in making a story.
Within a moment's notice, a few people can disrupt that entire process. The art is sickening at best. I can acclaim cases where I just upload a story onto a website. The entire book requires at least ten hours of reading and immediately within the first hour, there is a negative downvote. Did the reader perform a miracle and managed to stop time in reading my story to give it a constructive and thought out vote? No. They simply voted down without even reading it. This idea is simply known as zero bombing and it can cause more damage in the long run than the voting system is supposed to do.
I can also provide other examples. Among three of my stories, I have noticed a consistently negative vote aspect on stories where there is a "Rape" tag on it. I have to bring it into question. "Did the people come in and vote down after reading the story or were these people that read the tag and hit the downvote icon without reading the story?" In reality, the stories that I write are not even designed to bring any thrill to the idea of rape. Rape is horrific and it is never my intention to encourage it. I barely even have it in my stories. Even Gabatrix: The Violet Wave, the concept is an officer is assaulted by another. Before the deed is done, he is knocked out, causing the scene to skip almost completely. He manages to fight back the next time he is attacked and it helps drive the character's ambitions and thinking for the story. In Tales of Heroes, especially with Ryujin, I have to deal with historical concepts. Nero supposedly did horrible things to children. While I imply that he did it, I don't write the scene of events. Ryujin is perhaps the only book that truly has a non-consensual scene (separate from Nero) in it, but this is measured differently by everyone. Regardless, I have to place a tag/disclaimer to let the audience know of this.
I don't know if my readers, actually read the disclaimers that I put out for my stories, but I am getting the impression that some are not. They simply vote before reading. It is an attempt at sabotage.
In my library alone, I have been faced with this similar situation as well and while I have received a well amount of constructive feedback (positive feedback that addresses simple errors that need to be fixed and positive/general feedback in general), there are messages that I also receive that bring a lack of validity in the emailer. Be aware that I record these messages. Errors I go and fix, and those that attack me personally will be reported for harassment to the webmaster or other staff of Storiesonline. Be professional, please.
It is in my best interest to go ahead and disable the voting on a couple of my stories that have the concept of the "Rape" tag. Stories like Ryujin which, at the moment that you are reading this, I am currently remastering to fix the errors, I have disabled voting until the remaster is uploaded. Stories like Gabatrix: The Violet Wave will be disabled at least until the story is completely uploaded and the reader can have a better chance to read all of the story, and Ayida Weddo that also has "Implied Rape" will be disabled. Doing this is my only course of action.
Hello everyone, I figure that I give a short little update. I went and started uploading The Violet Wave. It is the third story of the Gabatrix Series.
My schedule is to remaster Ryujin and the Tales of Heroes next. It should be really more simple, but it will be tedious. I am using Grammarly to do a full sweep. Unlike Ariadne, I don't feel the need to be as overzealous in the act as Ryujin was written more recently as my writing improved. A good sweep of Grammarly should make it much better. After that, I will be working on two stories with hopefully Gabatrix: The Silver Rain being done before Halloween.
Like anything, constructive feedback is always welcome and as always, my Patreon is available if you want to help me out. :)
https://www.patreon.com/TheUniverseofCMed
Hello everyone,
I wanted to let all you guys know that I finished up a major revision/remastered Ariadne and the Tales of Heroes. After a year of writing and now with Grammarly to help me out, I went back and found numerous errors and typos on Ariadne, Ryujin, and Ayida-Weedo. I went and took the first step in getting Ariadne up to speed now. Some sentences were rewritten entirely, reread it to fix it, and cleared out the typos and grammatical errors. It is way better now than it ever was.
I have also uploaded the book cover for Ariadne and the Tales of Heroes. The artwork was done by Oouna that hand-painted the cover.
I will get back to Ryujin and Ayida Weedo but I need to keep focusing on Gabatrix and pushing it forward for now.
Hello everyone, I wanted to let everyone know that Gabatrix: The First Peace is now being put up. I wanted to thank everyone for the amount of positive and constructive feedback that I have been receiving. That feedback goes a long way in making a story even better and it helps encourage me to write more and more. Within less than a month, Gabatrix: Minerva received more views than Ariadne and the Tales of Heroes received in a year. Maybe that is a hint in the direction I should write. :)
That being said, this week has been a surgery week for me. I am in the process of getting out of the military. My schedule will be going back to what I need to focus on hard now. Now that I got Grammarly helping me out, I am going to do a full revision of Ariadne and the Tales of Heroes (Chapter 1- to completion) next. This is to clear out the massive amount of grammatical errors and typos that Ariadne has. My goal is to get Ariadne, Ryujin, Taweret, Gabatrix stories cleared up ultimately. Ariadne will be the first. Ariadne, Ryujin, and Ayida Weedo were written before I ever got Grammarly. I am well aware of the mess that I need to clean up in them.
But I am also trying to ensure that more Gabatrix gets written. After Gabatrix: The First Peace is Gabatrix: The Violet Wave (Violet as in purple not "The Violent Wave"). Once you get further in the reading, you will understand what the title is about. I have an artist that is still working on the Violet Wave and completing the Ryujin book cover.
I really enjoy writing Gabatrix. I am a big fan of science fiction shows. The Expanse, Firefly, Star Trek, Star Wars, BSG.....all of it inspired me to write the series (along with my own experiences in the Navy). I spend many hours watching scientific/space documentaries to call upon and drawing the concept art for Gabatrix. You really get a chance to learn about the universe around you and it is fascinating to learn. Anyways, I have a Patreon. If you wish to help me then you can. The money goes towards getting more concept art and book covers. Enjoy.
https://www.patreon.com/TheUniverseofCMed
Hello everyone, I wanted to let everyone know that I am now putting up Gabatrix: Minerva and working on future stories pertaining to that Universe. Gabatrix is a part of the Tales of Heroes universe that I have written but does not require you to read Tales of Heroes as well. Gabatrix is a science fiction/future/space series set three hundred years from now. Minerva is the first book of this series with Gabatrix: The First Peace coming up next.
I have also got ahold of one of the best programs that a writer can have and that's Grammarly. One of the biggest challenges that I am going through is trying to edit my stories. Hiring an editor is expensive costing as much as 2K to 3K on the price range. If I hired them to proofread my stories, I would be broke by the end of the year. Instead, I got a program that proofreads for you and it's way cheaper than a professional editor. Grammarly really helps me out in the editing process and I plan on doing a revision of Ariadne, Ryujin, and Ayiad-Weddo stories in the future with it.
Until then, stay positive. Even during these times, I can tell you that I have seen us go through worse. Have fun and happy reading. :)
https://www.patreon.com/TheUniverseofCMed
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/theuniverseofcmed/
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