K/S keeps coming up with these creative threads. If she were not Christian she could probably make a lot of money as a gossip columnist.
Lol... Well I'll take that as a compliment, JD, but I've never done any writing-for-pay. I wouldn't be against it, but from what I've read, writing is a very competitive field and as you can tell, I'm not the competitive type.
One of the reasons why I like to write "for free" is because I get to say what I want, and in the way I want to say it. If I were writing for a paycheck, all of that would go out the window, and then I'd have to write in a way that would please editors, advertisers, and audiences... and if it's one thing I'm not good at, it's changing myself to suit the wants or demands of people who have a different vision of what I want to be than I do.
I would also like to thank everyone for all their answers. I'm really happy to see that this seems to have been a topic of interest to many people--please keep right on talking. In the back of my head, I'm already thinking of a possible sequel to this thread, if there seems to be enough interest.
I must confess--I usually take my coffee with cream, but now you guys have me debating on a half-and-half scale.
I agree that it DOES take a bit of work to "land" someone, and they just might happen to have others who like them, so persistence could be necessary.
When I wrote this thread, I was thinking of people I observed in my 30's who liked to play anyone who gave them attention like a game. They'd keep up just enough interest to keep people pining after them because it was the attention that they craved, not any of the actual people involved, and when someone started losing interest, they would flirt or try to "reel" the person back in for the sake of getting attention.
When I wrote this thread, I was thinking of the last two boyfriends I had in my late 20's... and a few girls I had observed in high school and college.
THIS is the type of behavior I was thinking about when I said I wouldn't compete for someone's affections--not just someone who happened to have someone else who liked them.
One of the things I appreciate about all your answers is that it helps me clarify my own thinking as well.