Successful Story

It was her successful story, because when she gave it to a publisher and when he read it, his face was shining with pleasure. The story was about a very romantic love which ended happily.

- This is great, Justine. Now you are talking my language and I will publish it in our magazine.

Justine was surprised with his reaction, although she was sure that her story was very good. But she had already written many stories which she considered as good as that one and she could not see what was so different in that one.

- Oh, thank you, Mr. Greene... I am so excited... I don't know how to thank you.

- You will thank me, don't you worry. You will thank me by writing many more stories as good as this one.

Justine went out of his office and after a few days she saw her story in the magazine. Her happiness was endless, she jumped and danced and proudly showed her story to everyone she loved and that loved her.

Her boyfriend was happy about it and proud with her, too.

After this successful story she wrote many, many more which were published and she even wrote many, many books which were published. After her successful story her life started to be filled with joy and happiness, although she never found out what was so special about this story compared to all the previous ones, for she had written many, many stories before that one and she was sure that they were just as good.

Intensely uncomfortable. Not unduly uncomfortable. This reader relates this to his more immature self- external validation. Hopefully this is something we grow past, and we realize the reason that a reader could like a particular piece is as arbitrary as anything else in the universe.

So it seems you hit your target there, free, and a subtle thing to snipe at for that matter.








J

I'm going to give this one the benefit of the doubt and take it as an ironic little fable. I say "ironic" because if the so-called "successful" story had been written exactly as this one-- uninspired, banal, and flatly expressed -- it would have been rejected the second it made it over the transom.

Jack, Aunt, thank you for reading and commenting my story. Its point is in the sentence which is repeated two times in the text: what is a successful story? What makes it successful? The fact that it is published, the fact that it is liked by its readers, or...?