Author and publisher, Arlene Chase, once told me that to be
a writer you had to have a thick skin. How true! I talk to aspiring writers and the one thing that
holds many of them back from writing is the critique from others. I recently saw a post on Facebook where the
person had asked her friends if they wanted to read her new novel. All of her
friends replied that they would love to read her novel. That may be great for
the ego, but not for the quality of the writing. Friends never want to hurt your feelings. What
you want is honesty, frankness, and truthfulness above all. I have three
readers that are allowed complete freedom when they read my manuscripts. Sometimes the red marks are discouraging, but
their remarks and corrections are what will make me a better writer—hopefully.
If a friend or acquaintance tells me they found a grammatical error, I don't
wring my hands and implore them to tell me the exact location on the page in
the book. I don't try to explain the difficulties of writing and publishing my
books. I just make a mental note to be work harder on my next book to eliminate
errors. The writer needs to continue to
improve and not become stuck correcting past endeavors.
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