Daily Blog 17: Gambling and Writing

This post is super late today. Decided to take off.

This was a first-time visit to the casino in Milwaukee, Wisc. Interesting, though the noise and smoke got to me.

Funny as I'm competitive; I love a challenge and love the chance to "win." But poking a button on a slot machine wasn't much fun to me. It became more interesting once the game became more interactive, requiring me to pick something on the screen, but that didn't happen often enough. Overall, it didn't hook me.

Here's the writing analogy: stories obviously have to hook the reader. You have to have a good "prize" - a good story, a chance to see who the villain is, etc. - to have the reader continue.

Writers are gamblers in a way, aren't they? They write a story or book, send it out, taking a gamble - hoping that someone will like it and purchase it. You keep sending it out - putting more change in the slot (money for postage) on the hopes that it will eventually pay off.

We played the 2 cent slots mostly. Big gambler I'm not. I can't see throwing money away. In writing, it's different. You can put in a few pennies worth of effort, but why waste your (and everyone else's time?) You learn, you improve, and then you raise the stakes.

Put in the big stakes worth of effort and expect to get back what you put in. Play to win - (write to get published).