Cheaters never win.

For the most part they don't, but they can try.

A friend of mine held a poll of a group of ten original characters created by ten people to find out which one would be drawn with her original character from the Transformers fandom. This one girl, who I will call Sue, decided that she would stack the deck against everyone else and win the honor of having her character drawn by my friend. Sue did a journal post on her account telling everyone to go vote for her character to win this polling contest. Now, that is not cheating, but none of the other entries did that, except for Sue. To really stack the deck to where she would win, she created up to seven fake accounts all to vote for her character to win, which she did but because the seven accounts were found to be fakes and that Sue had intentionally told every one of her friends and watchers to vote for her instead of telling them to vote for the one who deserves it more and that she doesn't care if it isn't her who wins, for there might be other contests from her. My friend figured it all out and called her out on it and revealed her for being a cheat.

To which Sue, basically said that's how the politicians do it. True, some do cheat and win, but for the most part, they do give people a good reason to vote for them, but the moment she created seven fake accounts and within minutes of joining the site, vote in my friend's poll voting for Sue's character to win, which they did, that was when she became a cheater. My friend disqualified her for cheating and put the second place person as the winner. She posted a journal about it and Sue whined about really wanting to have her character drawn with my friend's character. But the thing is, Sue did it the wrong way, instead of creating those seven fake accounts and made a journal encouraging her friends to vote for her. She should have just asked my friend if she could promote the contest on her page in a journal to get everyone to vote for who should get it and did it fair and square, but she would rather cheat than do it legit.

Cheaters think that they can win, but in the end, they will lose as someone would see what they are doing and spill the beans on them. So don't cheat at what you are doing, it will always end up being bad for you.

Where oh where are the beta readers gone?

Over the past decade, I have had a lot of beta readers. Almost all of them have dumped me after doing about three to four chapters of my stories. I had really good ones that I liked, just up and vanish on me without a word to those who I also liked would lie to my face stating that real life is being hard for them at the moment and that they need to pull back and focus on that for a while (which I found for the most part to be nothing but lies).

I accept that and then later, on the same writing message group on Yahoo, I get a message from my now departed beta reader asking for new work, when he or she had real life issues pop up and suddenly, they're asking for new work. I go in and state that so and so beta reader will drop you three chapters into the work, with the claim of real life problems popped up and they can't finish editing my work. They end up getting questions posted on the group why did they drop an editing job when it was not finished. The person never answered the questions and quickly removed themselves from the group itself.

I never took on another beta reader after that, which was back in 2006. I never took a beta reader to work on my stories because they tend to dump me soon after getting to the third chapter and have to create lies to get out of working on my stories. I really love getting my stories edited to where I can get them ready for publication.

I do have one beta reader that I really like a lot and I cannot wait till she gets to the next chapters of my story as I am doing at least three edits and rewrites of each chapter before I move onto the next chapter. I hope this one doesn't leave me as I really like her a lot.

I present to you for your reading pleasure....

I did some rewrites of the beginning of Chapter Three of Warrior Princess. I kept the old version as I think I will probably rewrite it to fit how the story is flowing with more dialogue than scenery, probably flesh out the character more.

So here is the old version of Chapter Three.

Tarisn woke to the smell of wet grass and dirt. She raised herself up seeing that she still had hold of the sword that she had brought into the gate that it had created along with her flute case. She looked around to find herself in a strange area, nothing like the forest around her home. Her first thought was - is there enough oxygen in this planet for her to breathe in as she looked at the fauna that surrounded her. She realized that the air was cleaner and it had enough oxygen to support her. Tarisn rolled herself over to where she could stand without problems as she looked around to find no one was around, just forest. She walked away from the spot she landed at trying to figure out where exactly was she. She glanced at the sword. I hope you can lead me to whoever opened that gate or maybe I’ll wake up from this dream and find myself on the floor of my bed.

And now, I present to you the newer version of Chapter Three of Warrior Princess.

Aderyn stepped from her hut over looking the huts as a group of men and women sat around the fire. One of them was stirring the kettle over the fire, she looked up and smiled. “Morning Aderyn, come have some broth,”
“Morning Amelia,” Aderyn said, with a smile on her face. “But I cannot for I need to be elsewhere at this moment.”
“Very well, we shall keep it warm for you if you return before we start making our noon meal.” Amelia turned her attention back to the broth as the sorceress walked towards the group.
“Rhiannon, we need to go now,” Aderyn spoke as she looked at the woman.
“Why and where?” Rhiannon asked, as she stood up from the log.
“I will explain on the way,” Aderyn stated, as she looked at the bag by her feet. “Did you get what I asked you to gather?”
“Yes,”
“Good,” Aderyn replied. “Did he bother you about it?”
“No,” Rhiannon said. “He hasn't emerged from his hut since she was captured,”
“Good.”
“I don't know why you asked me to get clothes from Tatyana's hut for,” As she bent down to pick the bag of clothes up.
“You will see when we get there,” Aderyn replied. “Now, we need to hurry.”
“Hurry to where?” Rhiannon asked, as they hurried out of camp and into the woods, heading for where Rhiannon not know.

I'm thinking about blending the old version in with the new version after maybe a rewrite of the scene to flesh it out more. But what do you think of the beginning of both versions, which one suits the beginning of the chapter better? The old one or the new version?

Thanks.

I really love getting comments.

About my chapter bits that I put up. For one thing, it helps the author to grow as a writer if people would comment on their posts, either saying I like how you are taking the characters in or I think you need to rewrite this scene better as it doesn't sound right anymore.

Some people may not like posting chapter bits up, but I do. As it helps me grow as a writer and you can never tell who will give you an idea that changes the chapter totally around for the better.

Just a heads up, I'll be posting a tidbit of the start of chapter Three of my original story Warrior Princess with two versions of the start of that chapter. I want to know which version is better for the chapter.

Thanks and have fun writing.

Don't you even bloody listen! Rant time!

Thirteen hours ago, I posted a status message on my Facebook account this message:

My ‪#‎writing‬ goal for this weekend is to get one chapter done on both ‪#‎Warrior_Princess‬ and ‪#‎AttackofToadegaBay‬ stories. Can I do it? Maybe.

Well, five of my friends, doesn't 'see' it that way. Since 10:04am this morning, they have been calling me and now they text message me just a moment ago stating 'I need you', 'I really need you' and other text messages.

I'm trying my hardest to get two chapters on both of my stories done, but when you ignore the fact that I am trying to write all weekend long, calling me or texting me saying I need you is a form of harassment and a sign of you being co-dependent and the thing is I am a loner by nature. I hate being bothered when I clearly stated that I want to be alone! And seriously, at this time I want to be left ALONE!, so I could write my two chapters to two of my stories! I wouldn't have minded if I had said I had done it, I got two chapters on both of my writing projects done this weekend. But I made no comment on my Facebook account as of yet, really I shouldn't even be writing this rant blog right now but seriously, the constant fucking calls is pissing me off to where I have put my phone on vibrate and placed it where I cannot see it nor hear it vibrating when a call goes off, so I can write in peace.

Seriously, people! When someone says on their Facebook account I will be doing this (writing, painting or something that they want to be able to do by themselves) all weekend, don't assume that on Saturday morning that you can bother them about things, they are busy the entire weekend, unless they say I did it! I got whatever I was doing this weekend finished today! You do not call or text them and demand that they listen to you whine about something or that they want to come over and spend time with you to which you have to go get dressed, go drive to their location, pick them up and bring them to your home only to repeat those steps minus the getting dressed part at the end of the day.

So, I have no problem in ignoring the phone calls or the text messages right now as I am doing something other than paying attention to some needy person at the moment - it is called writing and I am hoping to get my original stories finished to where I can send them to my beta reader and get them ready to be published by next year.

Am I wrong to be so cold to them or am I doing the right thing since they clearly do not realize that I do not want to be bothered at this moment?