On Writing

On Writing, or: 'On Hating Yourself'

Every chapter I've published, hundreds of them, I've hated, except one or two. And every chapter I've published, a reader has said: "this touched my heart" or had a similar reaction.

Every chapter I've hated.
Every chapter has touched somebody, somehow.

Keep writing. Be critical. Do your best... then, publish it and let your readers benefit from words that will touch them.

On Dialogue

One day, magically, your characters will stop speaking in your voice and start speaking in their own voices. And then you'll backslide, and hate yourself. Really, that's how awful it is. But just keep writing through the black times, publish, and turn the page and start the next chapter. It comes and it goes, then you get really, really good. That's the next level.

You always can do better. And that's hard to bear sometimes. But it also means that you can and will get better if you keep writing.

On Publishing, or: "On Giving Your Story Away"

Persevere, but let your readers own your work, too. Then they'll tell you how good you are, and give you hope, instead of you telling yourself that your writing is shite. It is, because it never says what you thought it could've if only you were better, but it does say something that nobody else ever read.

On Reviews

Keep writing, persevere, PUBLISH, and get good, eh, and bad feedback, then ignore all three, and press on.

Good feedback is bad because you will never be that good so it inflates your ego AND makes you scared to be creative and explore. Bad feedback is terrible, because if you take it to heart, it can kill you AND THEN you won't write anymore. eh feedback is the worst, because it makes you think readers are stupid, because they are. They don't see your characters like you do. How can they?

But there are those readers who see something in your works you don't, and see something in you that you don't, and give you a reason and a purpose to write, to write more, and to write better. But you only get those after years of PUBLISHING your chapters.

On Reading Reviews and 'Not Being Affected'

What you fret about will never go away. I've published books, short stories, poems, and every single review slays me, and every story that doesn't get reviews saddens me. What can I do? Keep writing. People's lives actually depend on something to hope for: it's a barren, desolate, hopeless world out there, and my stories say: 'I am here. I am hurting, just like you. You aren't alone.' A reader thinks and feels, so does a writer. If reviews don't affect you, then I don't think you're either, anymore. That you hurt, laugh, cry, scream, means you are alive. That you write these things down give other people hope.