Seriously Confused

[MeLeesa Swann]

Okay. So many of us are writers and I don't even know how many of us post our stuff on other websites to get critiqued. I've found a website with forums that pertain to what I write. However, I can't decide whether or not I should. My husband says NO. It's too easy for someone to take your stuff, and it will make it harder to be published. He says I should just write a short story, something I don't care about (as if that's possible) and post that. I don't know if I'm good, and I want to be my best. I'm working on a story that I'm really passionate about, and I think it actually has amazing potential (who doesn't think that about their work?). I know that I dream big, and probably have a future of great disappointment ahead of me, but call me a masochist. Dreams are...everything. Sorry I couldn't make that more profound, had to go with honesty. Please let me know what you think. This is bugging the mess out of me.

[Maddie]

Your hubbys right, on the internet anyone can steal your stuff. Im not a writer but was cowriting some stuff with someone and found out they were having it copyrighted. To test water, there are, I dont know if you have a myspace account, but there are lots of aspriting writers over there who are submitting, mostly short stories, to these groups for submission into anthologies. I had recommended one of these to a friend of mine...who wasnt actually a writer yet but wanted to be, just starting out, so I told her about a page called 'WordWeavers' cause another close friend of mine who did this was having her first novel published and was much affiliated with this page, so she submitted short stories to them and is now on her second or third novel being published as a result, within less than a 2 year period, you can find her at Amazon right now, Charlotte Emma Gledson. and soooo thats just what I would do if I were you.

[Black Suit]

I agree. I once posted some lyrics I wrote on a site and found it, years later, on some other site with some other guy claiming he wrote it. I was furious and enraged and I called him out on it and he just dissappeared but at the end of the day it was my fault.. I learned my lesson after that.

The worst thing for any writer is having some other a-hole taking credit for your work.. It's just wrong, on all levels, yet people still do it.

So be careful.