Here are more notes on a great panel at Life the Universe and Everything SF/F symposium. The topic is on ‘Common mistakes by first-time authors’.
– Sometimes you may need to stop to see how you can improve your book and writing. It’s okay to suck because writers often perceived writing to be terrible, but when they review it. They find the text is not as bad as previously perceived.
– Finished the first draft and put in a drawer for about two months and work on something else. Then you come back and review the book with new eyes and see the mistakes that were missed when it is fresh in your mind. You may not want to share the book with anyone else on its third draft.
– Find new readers. They can often see what you do not see. You have to be careful on your rewrites because of people continuing take rewriting. They will often take the voice and creativity out of your book.
– Something that I like doing which I need to do more is I have certain mistakes as I do every time I write a book. I need to write that list and go to that list by myself and add to it as I know my but my common challenges our selected six those prior to give someone else.
– You can often catch a lot of mistakes by simply reading out loud. That helps with the flow realistic. Dialogue and pacing.
– Authors need to be not so sensitive to critique sessions. The people at review your book or simply want to make it better. The ability for an author to be teachable and to improve their work from suggestions of others shows maturity of that offer.
– When you do, get critiques, is not necessary to do everything that everyone says. Have confidence in your inner got so that you can determine what a good suggestions, and water not. The more frequently a comment is made by multiple readers, the more serious you should consider those recommendations.
– Don’t trust agents and people will offer a critique for money. Sometimes they may want to change the true intent of the story. Don’t let fear control your decision. You need to maintain the integrity of the original story.
– Check out the software, called scribbler. A lot of authors really enjoyed this product.
– Don’t write your baby/favorite book until you get better in your writing. You should write what you are excited about. Resist the temptation to present down again is not working. But they put it down to long. Many times it will abandon the book. Maybe just a short break from the manuscript may suffice.
– Don’t attach happiness to perceptual success. You need to find happiness in the journey of being a writer. The same should apply to critiques or book reviews. If you get a negative book review does not need to stop writing.
Have something to add to the list? Please do so in the comment section of this blog.
