One of my peeves was that many of the unpublished writers wanted the 'validation' of an industry professional. This was one of the main reasons they were pursuing traditional publishing.
--I won't go into it again, but traditional publishing is changing, whether New York likes it or not. Print is NOT dead, but for publishing houses to survive they will need to be pro-active about the electronic publishing biz. Some are slowly evolving, but many aren't. Technology is moving too quickly to 'wait and see'.
Anyhoo, I had just received a good review from my target audience and I thought that was validation even though I self-published.
I was wrong.
Yes, I know some of you have to pick your jaws off the ground, but here it is again: I WAS WRONG.
But not entirely--see how I squeaked out of that one!
Being reviewed by a writer's target audience is important, but so is garnering the interest of an editor or agent. BUT both of those have problems with personal tastes, subjectivity, and the ability to sell your product.
So how does one gain the validation all of us seek? How do we know if we are a decent writer and storyteller?
Jody hit it on the head in her comments. Validation has to come from within.
But how, you ask. Here are a few thoughts that flew into my head, since I'm busy editing FAERIE.
- by accepting that your pacing is off in a chapter or chapters and DELETING them and rewriting it to make it work. (In GNOME, I deleted 10,000 words or 1/4 of the entire story. Sometimes tweaking will work, but sometimes it's better to start over)
- by merging or deleting characters/scenes who aren't doing their job. (currently doing this. It's hard to delete a character that you love, but ask yourself honestly about what they deliver to THIS story)
- by really looking at your own writing objectively (can take years to reach this point--trust me!) and making changes to make the story BETTER and not just DIFFERENT
Later, Peeps
Finally! Yes, you are a writer--a very good one. So glad you realized this! I love your voice, your characters, and the story line. Can hardly wait for Faerie!!!
ReplyDelete:-) Thanks, Megs! So . . . were you one of the people who had to pick her jaw off the ground when I 'fessed up that I was wrong??
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you what.....learning and really BELIEVING that one's own worth can only be validated by one's self was an epiphany that changed my life. What YOU think of YOURSELF will color your thoughts, words and deeds and will have a bigger impact on your life than any praise that can come from an outside source.
ReplyDeleteGo Margie!
It took a little bit of time to get my confidence to this level, Jody. I think I finally realized it when I made a decision to cut so many words in GNOME. I knew I had to do it to make the story BETTER. :-)
ReplyDeletesorry . . . am so stunned . . . cannot talk . . .
ReplyDeletemargaret . . . wrong? has world ended?
Hehehe, you are a stinker, Marilyn. :-)
ReplyDelete