Would this be acceptable to share?

by Dorry Lawlor-Hudson
11th February 2013

Hi all

I am writing a humorous take on my life, or more to the point, a part of my life that was more than difficult to deal with. It stands right now with a word count of 46,000 words, and is not yet finished.

Let me explain how it all began before I put my question to you all :-)

By this, I mean why I started writing it.

From as far back as I can remember, if I have ever had anything difficult going on in my life, that I had trouble making sense of, or moving on from, I always found it therapeutic to transfer my thoughts onto paper. This particular period of my personal life was proving to be more than difficult to make sense of. So as always I sat down and started writing. After completing a few pages, I read it over. It screamed 'pity party’; this was a world way from what I wanted. The last thing I needed was to portray myself as a 'victim' of circumstances. By now I had walked away from the situation anyway, so although I didn't immediately see it then, I was maybe a survivor, a winner, a stronger person than I gave myself credit for, but I refused to be a victim... yet I was writing like one!

I quickly binned it and started writing my story with a humorous take on it. Everything I have written is all based on true happenings, however there has been fictional humour added in, which would be obvious to any reader.

Another useless bit of info about me is that when it comes to writing, I am not in the category of writers who have a flair for writing novels. In this lifetime or the next I just don't have what it takes.

I have always written in Rhyme (or is that poetry, who knows, I have never really grasped the difference. (Maybe I should Google it!)

So yes, the 46,000 words and counting are all in rhyme!

So here is my question.

In order to write my story it required me to use a ‘lot’ of strong language, the ‘f’ word being frequently used. This is because the unnamed person who I write about, barely put a sentence together without using this word. In order to quote the person I had to write as he spoke.

So, with this in mind , would it be acceptable to share it on here, or would this be a big ‘no no’?

I obviously wouldn’t be putting all 46,000 words on here but just a taster to give people a chance/opportunity to read it.

I have been writing this on and off now for a number of years, during this time I have shared it with a number of family and friends, they believe it should be published. I say there would never be a publishing house who would touch near it. Not because of the bad language, but simply because of it being written in Rhyme form.

This is one of the main reasons I would like to share it on here. The opinions of people unknown to me would be more valuable. Let’s be honest, family and friends are always too kind , right?

I look forward to any advice, or should I just try to contact admin and ask them direct?

As an end note to my lengthy post, I am more than happy to receive constructive criticism, even people telling me it would be better off in a box under my bed for ever more. As long as it is an honest opinion then it will be a massive help, whether that be a negative or positive one.

A huge thank you in advance to anyone who has read this.

Replies

Dorry,

I can see your point, but have you thought of launching a blog? It's a real "me" space with unlimited opportunities for comments and feedback from like minded people. Try Wordpress for a really easy and free way of setting one up (...and I am not on commission!)

Just a thought.

Good luck!

Frankie

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Francesca
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Francesca Emmett
11/02/2013

Hi..i haven't been on here long but id think it was OK to share that with the other guys!

I'm working on a similar piece too and have got up to 10,000 words, i use the f word a lot and C word, it reflects all the crap i had going on in my life and i had to use it within the text.

I really believe that you cant write a piece like yours from the heart unless you use this grammar, it helps the reader connect with the text better anyway and makes the scenarios more believable

Id say go for it, I've just read an autobiography about a lad in London who,s father was a drugs lord..he used F all the time and was a brilliant read.... just make sure you warn people in the opening paragraph. ilove these reads so would be happy to read it:)

Kat.!

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katherine swain
11/02/2013