You're a relatively new writer, and a week ago, you came up with the Coolest-Idea-Ever. Seriously, as soon as it popped into your head, you very nearly screamed in joy and then proclaimed yourself a genius. So you sat down, and you started writing. The first night, you wrote two whole chapters! The second night, you wrote three! Now you're almost done with your first novel, and you're really sure that it's the best thing you've ever seen.
You're going to share it with a few of your friends. Because, hey, they should get to experience the awesomeness, too. And then, once they're done reading it, you're going to e-mail it to a few agents with a query letter that you shouldn't even have to include because your manuscript is good enough to sell itself without any further assistance. Within a week and a half, you're definitely going to have a book deal, because you are just that good.
Of course, a few days after you handed it out to your friends, one of your friends calls you and says, "I didn't understand this scene." You explain it. They still say they don't understand it. You say, "Well, then, you just don't understand life." Then you hang up on them and wait for your real friends to call.
While you're waiting, you decide to post a few chapters online, because you would really like to get some feedback from people who aren't friends. And, besides, your friends don't read fast enough. You want responses now.
The thing is, ten minutes after you post the first chapter. You've gotten three hits and no reviews. Twenty minutes later, you've gotten one review and it says something like, "There's potential here, but the second scene doesn't make sense, the story seems rushed and this chapter seems rough. I recommend revising."
The world is clearly going crazy, because now two people don't get what you wrote.
But the truth is, the world is just as sane as it was a couple of weeks ago.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
I've been mucking about in the writing world for roughly seven years now. In other words, long enough for me to run across the above scenario and many other similar scenes. And when I first started writing, I fell into a mindset similar to that writer above.
I do a lot of reading online. And, once upon a time, I decided that I wanted to write for online writing communities like the ones I was reading in at that point in time. As soon as I decided that, I sat down and started to plot. Within a few short hours, I had something planned out that I thought was bound to be a hit. And after two more days, I had four chapters written. I was on roll and I felt pretty good.
I posted the first chapter somewhere under a name I don't even remember now. And, low and behold, I got reviews. Not one, like the writer above, but five -- positive ones at that. As soon as I saw that, I was smiling for days on end.
I was a the top of my game. My writing was great; perfect, even.
And it was that realization, that feeling, that shot me in the foot.
It took me a couple of years to pull my head out of the sand and realize my mistake. That's right, I said mistake. We have now reached the core of today's topic.
As far as I am concerned, the BIGGEST mistake a writer can make, is assuming that they are at the top of their game. I don't care how long you've been at this business, the minute you assume that you can't get any better is the minute you've started to fail.
Whatever you do, don't let your ego blind you.
If you think you've written something awesome, but people are saying they don't get it, don't blow them off. Just because someone said they didn't get it doesn't mean you've written something horrible, but consider the possibility that maybe you have written a doorstop, instead of a literary masterpiece. Look at your work and pretend you weren't the one who wrote it. Are you confused? Is it rushed? Could it be revised?
If you've got five positive reviews, ask yourself why you haven't gotten more than five. Pick up novels from the library or your local bookstore that are similar in storyline to what you've written, and read. What's different? That novel probably has hundreds of reviews. Granted, it's published, but there are a lot of readers online, too. Why don't you have hundreds of reviews?
Realize that you're not great, yet. And, instead of becoming discouraged, keep working at it.
They say that practice makes perfect, but that's not true. You will never be perfect. And that, my friends, is a good thing. That means that you always have room to improve, all you have to do is want to be better and put in the effort.
K. L. Stevens
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