Advice for Authors (Part 1)

The First Draft

Writing is not easy. I know many a people who look at a story and think to themselves, “I could do better.” Perhaps they right, or maybe not, it’s hard to say. It is even more notable, that a good writer will not always craft the perfect novel on their first time through. I might be so bold as to say they never will, not the first time at least.
It is with these thoughts in mind that each of us should approach a social website for author’s, such as this one. No matter how many editors you have, or how many times you go over that first draft, it is still just that; the first draft.
A book can never be reviewed in full, until it is complete. Every chapter may be able to stand on its own, but it is nonetheless part of the greater whole. This becomes evident with the more you write. Often times the ability to find the mistakes in your story comes only with hindsight. You might not realize it in the moment, but that entire romantic sub-plot, or the epic fight scene you love so much right now, does not fit into the story. These are simply the possibilities that every fiction writer must be prepared for. It is why we should not rely too heavily on first impressions.

If you are a weathered writer, I challenge you with the following: count the first one-hundred views as your control group. These specific people; be they friends, or the shmucks who wander in off the street, are only a fraction of your reader base. The ones who are first drawn in by your book cover, who happen to crack open the pages to read the summary; they are not the general public, but your pre-readers.
“What about the people who volunteered to read the story first?” you ask. Sure, they are pre-readers as well, but we have forgotten one important thing; the story is not finished yet. I hate to use the term, but in the “real world,” you would never send an incomplete story to an editor, let alone the true general public.
Creating a novel, or even a short story and sharing it with others as you go, is little different than showing it to your writers’ group. The exception being, that those first one-hundred folks are likely to be a little more open on how they really feel about it.
The bottom line here: don’t get too upset over the process we go through on this website. If you know that you can write. If you understand completely and fully that you have the talent necessary to finish a successful novel, (and I do not solely mean fanfiction) then treat this as what it is; a learning process. Find what you need to work on and improve upon it. Do not let the rest of us decide whether you should or should not be an author. Only you can make that decision.

Sincerely yours,
FeatherB