Why I Share My Fiction

Once upon a time, The Lily Cafe was a writing blog in 2013-2015. I shared my fiction and some poetry. Most of it’s still there if you’re curious; they’re too much a part of what this blog is for me to want to delete it.

When I came back to blogging in 2018, I hoped to find the same writing community I had left. I was a little disappointed. Back then, I had found several writers doing as I was doing and posting their fiction. I “met” Jennifer M. Zeiger at that time, as well as some other writers who no longer blog here, or, at least, not under the blogs I know. Now, it seems much harder to find writers doing that. There are a number of writers and authors I follow, but most of them now just post writing updates and tips and ideas.

I get it, of course I get it. Why post your fiction for the world to see if you want to publish it and make money? I understand, but I still miss the community I had found not that long ago. It seems to be harder and harder to find writers who are actively posting their writing projects.

Since coming back, I’ve posted my fiction almost every Wednesday. Sometimes it’s a completed first draft I put up. Right now it’s a first draft in progress, Queen of the Garden of Girls. Perhaps I could stop posting each piece and instead write about how it’s going and then publish and promote it. But I really like posting it for people to enjoy, to get any kind of feedback I can get, and have something to keep me writing.

Why do I share my fiction on my blog? Simply because I want to. Because I’m not looking towards publication any time soon. Because I want to entertain someone out there. Because I know it’s a first draft and the final draft might not look much like what I’m posting. Mostly because I like posting it.

The main reason, though, is because it’s the reason why The Lily Cafe started in the first place. It’s literally the only reason why this blog was started. In 2007, I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time ever and finished a lovely sci-fi novel I fell in love with. But my computer crashed and, since I was studying abroad and didn’t really know the language, I lost it. I didn’t write much after because I was too busy finishing college, but, in 2010, I wanted to write again. I was terrified of losing my work again, so went looking for a place online where I could store it. I had no idea what blogging was back then, but, after wandering onto WordPress, it looked like it fit my needs. I wrote a few snippets, hit a button called Publish because I thought that was how I needed to save my work, and then repeated the process a few more times for the next week. Then I discovered something called Stats and learned people had been viewing and liking my snippets. Freaked out that people I didn’t know were reading my snippets, I logged out and didn’t log back in until 2013.

So, you see, this blog started because I wanted a place to store my stories! It’s always been a writing blog, I guess, and that’s what a piece of it will always remain. I’ll always be a writer at heart with a million and one stories rattling in my head. Since I don’t plan on stopping blogging any time soon, I figure it’s still one of the best places I can keep my writings for when I’m ready to get serious about doing something with them.

I love sharing my fiction on my blog. And I’m not the only one. There are still some writers out there who are actively posting their fiction.

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings has been doing so for a while. Christian romance isn’t something I normally read, but there’s something fun about the stories she’s writing. It isn’t like the Christian fiction I’ve read before where I felt like it was being rammed down my throat. I love the characters she creates and the messes they get themselves into and the love they inevitably find. She’s currently posting a few (!) different projects: Fully Alive, The Farmer’s Daughter, and Quarantined. They can all be found in the menu at the top.

Autumn Rain has been doing this, too. Her stories are fun and undeniably romantic. She even has a couple of novels out, but continues to post fiction to her blog. Right now she’s working on a beautiful love story called Alice and the Warden in which Alice is a young woman who has made many mistakes and landed herself in prison, pregnant. The Warden is an incredible man who takes care of her. I’m loving their love story and can’t wait to see how it goes!

Then there’s Eli Schamane. She started posting her unpublished novel in the past few months and I’ve really enjoyed it. I have no idea where Daughter of the Forest is going, but it’s got an incredibly mythology behind it and it has an amazing ability to just draw me in. It can be found under the Table of Contents in the menu at the top.

Jennifer usually posts choose your own adventure stories, but, right now, she’s working on preparing her next novel for publication.

In 2014 I could have pointed to many more writers sharing their works on their blogs. There aren’t as many now, that I’ve found, at least, but I’m glad for those who have chosen to do so, and I’ve enjoyed every word.