What is the Highest Reward in Writing?

[powerplantanimations]

I asked myself this. What is the highest reward in writing?

For me... and this is going to sound dark... I generally think being assassinated... by the government.

I'm not memeing or joking here. You touch on the truths to the point that higher-ups want you dead, but your work is still out there for people to read and potentially change the world. They can also raise an eyebrow about certain circumstances regarding your death, pushing people to read your material.

The second is getting threatened by large corporations like Aaron McGruder from Boondocks or being fired like Norm MacDonald.

I generally wanna know what you guys think about this? I thought about getting your book banned but some of those books from what I've seen weren't good to begin with.... they just happen to have controversial subjects.

Getting assassinated on the other hand....

[BoomerZ]

Having a book that 100 (or 1000) years from now is still read and relevant. Specially if it enters the lexicon like 1984, Moby Dick, etc.

[tktidbit]

Also if it’s been over 100 years, and people are still finding new a fun ways to adapt your work into different mediums, like A Christmas Carol.

[powerplantanimations]

YEEEES. Like I still can't believe we had three Pinocchio movies in the same year.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Being a Trope Maker or Trope Codifier; having lots of future works expand on/subvert/deconstruct the themes of your story

[HGohwell]

I just find a lot of satisfaction in being told I broke someone's heart or made them cry.

[Iris-Grimoire]

This is not a personal story, but from other creators' interviews, finding out someone else was inspired by my work to start creating themselves sounds like the best objective I could ask for. That's why I do what I do.

[CarltonIsaac]

Here and now, in this lifetime.!

[TheLemmaLlama]

Actually you're probably right; when readers are willing to give of themselves (money or time, 'cos time is money at the end of the day :P) to make my story something bigger than myself, that's truly the highest reward

I guess for me, I mostly imagine it as a fan project people got together and do for free, spontaneously, of their volition (fan dubs, fan translations etc); which is basically them giving me the money their labour would otherwise be worth I see fans getting together actual teams like the Geofront to spread their beloved work to others, and I can only dream something I make would inspire that much passion and dedication someday :'D (Preferably within my lifetime, but the hope of it still being able to happen afterwards keeps me going if I don't see the former happening :P)

[Crusoe]

Having my work referenced or used as the basis of something else whether that be a retelling, a movie, etc. I don't even care if it's in the 'i hated this book so I'm going to rewrite it/write my own on the basis of it' or the 'i love this book so much I'm going to write a fanfic about it'. I think that'd be pretty rad.

Alternatively, the idea of someone staying up all night to read my book in one sitting is also really good. As much as I crave professional validation, it's still validation from regular readers that I may hold in the highest regard.

[AmandaJ-art]

Wow you have a really sophisticated answer.

I was just gonna say people talking to the characters. So treating your characters as beings they can relate to.

[Tom_Van_Hammer]

"To teach and delight", well that is actually a quote from the famous Greek poet Horace. But I think it's a good mantra, so you can be able to inspire readers which I think might be the highest reward for writers. But maybe I am just not really into getting assassinated

[powerplantanimations]

I always feel like being okay with getting killed is probably the one trait a great writer needs ... although this could be a double edged sword because this could lead to people saying "edgy" and "controversial" stuff for the sake of being "edgy" and "controversial" (I remember there were a bunch of edgy writers got mad at South Park for having structure and a point to their episodes... I feel like it took a while for people to realize that Seth MacFarlane was more of a bully while Trey Parker and Matt Stone called it as it is).

And then you get weirdos like this one movie that was like Cuties who got rightfully arrested by the government when they did a full on investigation on them. They try to pass it off like "OH THE TRUTH IS BEING SUPPRESSED!". No.... y'all were just being weird :v

[GamerPrincessXI]

Yayyyyyy, getting killed for no reason, lol....

Super dark. Completely understandable.

I wish I could like my own comments.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Hmmm idk, I'd be worried if I were killed to suppress my writings, because they might actually succeed in suppressing my work. Like, it's flattering that it warrants suppressing, but I will be sad if it'll be lost to history as a result :'D

I'd rather spread my work wide enough into enough places such that there's nothing they could do anymore to prevent it from spreading, so there'd be no reason to assassinate me in the first place (That, or stay anonymous so they don't know who the correct assassination target is in the first place XD)

[Lensing]

I really find money very regarding

[Remy_nuel]

Apart from making money from writing, I feel that the highest reward would be getting recognition from your work. Although being recognized so much that it could get you killed doesn't sound like a bad idea either lol

[powerplantanimations]

I remember reading about this concept where in order to create the illusion of free speech, the higher-ups will allow people to vent their frustrations with buzzwords you find on social media like "Eat the Rich" or even "Woke". People could be using them as rallying cries sure, but I think it annoys intelligent people from participating in certain discussions. I think it's called "hyper"... something. I'm not sure.

1984 did have a concept eerily similar to this and I remember people bring up how Orwell died shortly after the book at a REALLY young age (it was turbuclousus, but people were so shooken up they think it was something else... especially the timing of when his book was released).

Reason I bring this up because there's a lot of writers nowadays who amp themselves so much thinking THEY'RE the first for saying obvious things and I just picture government members just patting these writers on their head being like "You sure showed us hah hah".

I guess legitimately frustrating the media and government showed that you won in some sense (and I'm talking, straight up scaring them). You get to live another day and you scared some very frightening people.

This conversation gettin' dark.

[Remy_nuel]

I kind of understand your point . A lot of writers do want to feel like they're special for coming up with the truths that they find and also want to be known for it.
Also, there's this exhilarating feeling you get from actually frightening people with your words (almost like you can control them)
I feel that's why most people (not only writers) want to do things out of the ordinary just so people can see them and give them that attention and recognition

[system]

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.