A.F. Zoelle
It sounds cliche, but the best advice for writing is to actually write. No matter how bad you think it is, now matter how stupid you tell yourself it is, even if you think no one will ever want to read it--write. It doesn't matter if you write 100 words or over 1,000 words a day, the important thing is getting them on that page. The more you write and develop your voice, the better your writing style will become.
Whenever I was first starting out writing in high school, I hated everything I wrote and tore it to shreds in edit after obsessive edit. Seriously, I once edited a chapter 227 times before I finally gave up and threw it away. I put so much pressure on myself to produce something worth reading that I could never finish anything. It was a miserable process and I was constantly hit with writer's block fueled by anxiety that it would never be good enough. But one day I had an epiphany: if I hated my writing, why should I ever expect anyone else to love it?
I was always writing with the pressure of readership in mind back then, despite the fact no one was reading anything I was doing, because I never finished anything. One of the hardest things for me was learning how to write for myself and how to have fun with it. Writing fanfiction was a big part of learning how to love my own writing, because I was getting feedback that other people really liked my work, which was WAY more fulfilling than writing in a vacuum where I was my only reader and harshest critic. And it was because of that wonderful encouragement from readers who took the time to review my stories that I learned how to be proud and confident in my own work. I realized it was okay to write the stories I wanted to tell, and it turns out people really liked them! It's what gave me the courage to return to original fiction again all these many years later.
It's also really important to remember that you can't please 100% of people 100% of the time. There's always going to be that person who is ready to criticize your efforts and tear you down. But you can't let that one negative review wipe out all of the good ones. It's okay that your story wasn't for that person. Take pleasure and comfort in the fact that your writing brought joy to all those other readers who appreciate you and your work.
In short, have fun writing what you love and don't worry about what people might think. It doesn't matter if someone leaves you a bad review, because you're someone else's favorite writer.
Whenever I was first starting out writing in high school, I hated everything I wrote and tore it to shreds in edit after obsessive edit. Seriously, I once edited a chapter 227 times before I finally gave up and threw it away. I put so much pressure on myself to produce something worth reading that I could never finish anything. It was a miserable process and I was constantly hit with writer's block fueled by anxiety that it would never be good enough. But one day I had an epiphany: if I hated my writing, why should I ever expect anyone else to love it?
I was always writing with the pressure of readership in mind back then, despite the fact no one was reading anything I was doing, because I never finished anything. One of the hardest things for me was learning how to write for myself and how to have fun with it. Writing fanfiction was a big part of learning how to love my own writing, because I was getting feedback that other people really liked my work, which was WAY more fulfilling than writing in a vacuum where I was my only reader and harshest critic. And it was because of that wonderful encouragement from readers who took the time to review my stories that I learned how to be proud and confident in my own work. I realized it was okay to write the stories I wanted to tell, and it turns out people really liked them! It's what gave me the courage to return to original fiction again all these many years later.
It's also really important to remember that you can't please 100% of people 100% of the time. There's always going to be that person who is ready to criticize your efforts and tear you down. But you can't let that one negative review wipe out all of the good ones. It's okay that your story wasn't for that person. Take pleasure and comfort in the fact that your writing brought joy to all those other readers who appreciate you and your work.
In short, have fun writing what you love and don't worry about what people might think. It doesn't matter if someone leaves you a bad review, because you're someone else's favorite writer.
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