Friends, not fans, please ^_^

When I went into novel writing, what I wanted was one, to earn a bit of extra money; two, to see my name (or pen name, as I don’t use my real name) on the cover of a book; three, of course, be able to create a story that will make it somehow sell more than 10 copies excluding those I buy for myself, my mom, my mom’s friends, and some of my friends, else, my publisher may ask me to just stop contributing because I’m a waste of time; four, be told I write well, or if not, just fairly well and that a reader’s P29 (at the time, which has now increased to P32 a piece for the regular print and P65 for Premium) was worth it and maybe just a tad more; and five, be more than a one-hit wonder.

That’s about it. Popularity is just icing on the cake.

Of course, I expected to be popular with my friends. I expected them to buy my books, even if they won’t read ’em. Just for posterity, you know? And for support. Some of them do. A lot of them don’t. Not that they don’t want to show support for my work. Tagalog romance novels just aren’t their thing. But I still wish they would buy my books. 😀

Oh, well. Didn’t stop me from creating more and more stuff. At least, my parents love my work. So do some close friends who have been with me since the beginning. As the novels came, I also created more friends. Some of them are fellow writers, others avid readers with whom I became friends through time.

And the icing just came. There’s not a lot, I mean, there isn’t much cake just yet. It’s not much fun having a cupcake that you can’t find underneath all the icing. What I love about my icing is that it ain’t made of too much sugar. Yep, that’s right. Not too sweet, and with just the right amount of spice and tang.

See, sugar is what fans bring. They smother you with sweet words and butter you up with empty praises you don’t need. Oh, I know sometimes it’s fun and ego-boosting to hear all that but sometimes one tends to wince at too much sweetness. It isn’t natural. I don’t exactly want to get diabetes.

I’m saying I’m thankful for having fans but really, I’d rather have friends. Or acquaintances who can come close to being friends. Those who can be honest enough to tell me my work sucked and needs a little more effort here and there and I’m made to feel that the reason why I’m being told my work sucked is that they are concerned about me improving myself.

And I do want to improve myself. I want to improve how I can leave a good impression on the readers by inspiring them with more than just a kilig romantic story. I don’t want to be a preacher. Just a subtle push to the right direction by creating sensible plot situations.

So, are you my friend? Or just a fan?

 

EDIT:

by the way, there’s also one thing i like about having friends. you don’t all have to agree with everything i say as gospel truth. we can debate and discuss over issues, and trivial stuff. or you can tell me to go to hell because i went overboard with a post or a comment. and i want friends because i’m no celebrity and therefore, don’t deserve fans.

there.