"... dissolving into a clear view of infinite nothingness. And he realized that that was all there ever had been, all along."
Is that right? That ending's got some oomph to it, no? Yes! Well, I think so. But now's the moment of truth. Ready to post it to the world? Um, um um ...
His mouse hovered over the "Comment" button.
Click.
There was the familiar adrenaline rush, a sudden feeling that he'd mistakenly exposed an embarrassing secret of his soul. Or demonstrated incontrovertibly that he was an idiot.
Followed of course by the realization that nobody, ever, had acknowledged anything he'd written. Ever. He was most likely just talking to himself. Like the transparently self-representative character in his story. Silly to think of other people's opinions, really, there ARE no other people. I did entertain myself here, though, yes? Kinda nice imagery in that last bit.
The bell icon turned red. Cold sweats again. No, it's another robot, right? Saying he had the wrong word count, or advertising Fidelity or something. He clicked on it to see what it was.
It was a comment on his story: "Loved it!"
He stared in horror. An actual comment. From an actual person.
He was NOT posting in a vacuum after all. Someone actually looked at it. He was wrong, telling himself he was just talking to himself. He'd have to reorder his understanding of the world. A real person had read it, and even been motivated to reply with a comment.
Pity the comment was totally unactionable.
Well, wow. I should be sociable or something. "Loved it!", huh, not much to work with. They have a name. Mxltwnk. Huh. Click. Huh. Pages of detailed comments about cat memes. Huh. Do I really want to be friends with someone who spends all day commenting on cat memes? I should make an effort, though, right? Well. Huh. "Loved it!" Huh. That doesn't really DEMAND an effort, does it? No not really.
Huh. So there really are people out there reading it. Does that change anything? "Loved it!". Huh. I think it does change things. I have to take others more seriously. Even if this, particular, other doesn't demand any serious consideration, maybe other others would.
"a clear view of infinite nothingness" is kinda self-indulgent nihilism, dontcha think? Well maybe other people would appreciate it too. I liked it. Huh.
Well, I guess I'll, just, continue?
This was first posted to reddit/rWritingPrompts in response to the prompt "An aspiring writer had spent the last few months posting short stories online, pouring his heart into each chapter. However after months he never got a single review, he decided that maybe he just wasn't good enough and should give up, until he finally got one review" by True-Religion-2149.
Yay, I've now officially written one gross of stories.
Huh. I've only got this one data point: this guy who likes cat memes, who commented "Loved it!". Huh. Maybe that's my target audience, people who like cat memes? God I hope not. Well, what do I know about my readers? Only that they like cat memes. Oh man that's bleak. I suppose I was trying for bleak with my infinite nothingness. But compared to cat memes all day, the senseless void looks downright warm and inviting. Does this mean I should include more cat memes in my stories? Ugh. I think I'll ignore that particular insight.