Take Some Pride

I am, what I consider, still a newbie when it comes to the writing world, though I now have four published books under my belt. I'm not sure I'll ever consider myself a professional - I am my own worst critic and I know it. I've only been online for four years now, though I spent several years before that pouring my stories out into my computer, amassing near thirty stories full length and short, and yet it wasn't until I got online that I actually started learning the tricks of the trade. Up until then, I knew how to type, and I could tell a story.

Being my own worst critic, I find it highly frustrating to discover others who don't seem to care. Now back when I was just learning, I read a lot of other works from other writers in my same boat. They, like me at the time, were just writers seeking helpful feedback in order to improve their craft. I'm still very willing to help in any way I can. I have no issues with answering questions no matter how stupid they may sound. How else is a person supposed to learn if they don't ask questions. Sometimes there's only so many places one can look without knowing what to look for.

What really tweaks me in my four-year-old-age is buying a published book, no matter how cheap - even free, and finding something riddled with mistakes like missing words, misspelled words, and totally wrong words (not those clever words that sound right but aren't).

I have tried my hardest not only to know what my writing weaknesses are, but to figure out tricks that will find these kinds of mistakes.

If you're going to put a book out there for anyone to read, take a little pride in the finished product. A mistake or two here and there is one thing - it can happen to the best of us, and we can all overlook the occasional goof, but something that looks like it was written by a grade schooler and then tossed out into the world is just wrong.