Writers---Let Me Tell You a Secret

BORING ALERT!  If you aren't a writer or wanting to be, you will not find this interesting. 

I will preface this with these two points





*Though I've been writing all my life, I've been self publishing for about three years. I have sold and do sell books but I'm no million best seller (I can honestly say thousands sold) or award winning author (my rewards are that people do read my books). Obviously, this is my personal unsolicited opinion that I'm sharing today.

*I am not discouraging authors from using any tools available to improve their writing skills.  You don't have to have a degree or a piece of paper that says you are a writer. The internet is full of free help and advice on grammar and punctuation, voice, tense and point of view, guides and suggestions about plotting, structure and creating fiction and non-fiction.  I urge you to continuously research and study any material you can get your hands on. 

I also have to echo a common piece of advice. Grow a thick skin. Whether you have requested a critique of your work or you receive a review,  look at every piece of the appraisal carefully. Ask yourself honest questions about whether you understand what has been noted and if you need to make adjustments and corrections to your writing. Even if it's a stinging negative opinion, do not discard it. Analyze it and use it to your benefit.

Quoting Charlie, "SIGH-H". I've said that and now I'm going to tell you the secret. There are no Laws of Writing. The grammar Nazis have no power, the comma police can't put you on trial, a run-on sentence will not get your insurance cancelled or cause bodily injury.  It's true that there are some rules of writing, some widely accepted standards that are presumably intended to make your words readable. There's some logic to that.

Let's face it, unless you're some eccentric gnome of a writer, hunched over your computer and not giving a whit if your word soup ever sees the light of day, you really would like to be read.  Whether you're writing fiction or non-fiction, self-improvement revelations or erotic rot, you really would like to have someone read it. Crass as it may seem, in order to read it, they need to buy it and that has it's own little advantages.  We can probably agree, you want your work to be read.

I self publish, frankly because I can. I became aware that it was a possibility and ran like a gal with her panties aflame with it.  It has been a great joy for me and I'm proud of my minor success. Best of all, I don't have to answer to editors, agents or publishers. In reality, I don't have to answer to anyone except myself and the readers that I've come to treasure. 

Now, if you have your heart set on being published traditionally, then I encourage you to pursue that with enthusiasm. You will have to deal with the gods that control that domain and you will need to conform to the their standards and self imposed laws.  I'm not being snarky when I say, best of luck.

As for me, I've learned that the only important people are the readers. It is very important to me to present the most professional and enjoyable work that I'm capable of offering to those readers. I want them to travel with the characters that come from my heart through unexpected adventures that come from my imagination.  I don't write for agents or publishers. I'm not trying to please them.  I don't have to "grab" my reader in the first twenty words or apologize for voice or style. If a stray comma trips up the reader on occasion,  I hope that I've created enough interest to make them stomp right over it.

Readers rarely give bad reviews based on the mechanics of writing. They might say, "That sucked." or "I didn't believe the story" or "Won't read another book by this author",  etc.  It's not that readers are stupid, they just want to read. They don't feel like it's their job to tell you how to write. Unless your writing is a jumbled unintelligible mess, they don't comment and simply don't buy again.  Editors, critics, and unfortunately, other authors often are the ones that give scathing bad reviews. The thing is, most of them have lost their ability to just read a story without seeing all the mistakes.  When you're trying to sift through the suggestions you're given, keep this in mind. Only you can decide, what is my goal with my writing? why do I write?

My secret is no law when it comes to your writing. Beware, do not allow your creative spark to be smothered in the fault-finding of arrogant experts. Weigh and pick your advice, work hard at your craft and keep writing.