Goodreads asked Shelagh Watkins:

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Shelagh Watkins The challenge of creating an imaginary world that will captivate readers is the best thing about writing. Every writer sets out to create a world that will be as vivid in the minds of readers as it was in the mind of the writer, but not all writers succeed in doing so.

Since they cannot read a piece of their own work with the same fresh eyes that readers do, it is difficult for authors to assess their own writing. Even leaving the work unread for several weeks or months doesn't erase the storyline. You can't say to yourself, "I wonder where this is going?" Your mind doesn't try to work out whether a passage is a hint of something to come or not. Re-reading a last chapter that neatly draws together and explains all that went before, you can't feel the same sensation that a reader does -- rewarding, satisfying or disappointing. Also, the bits you get real enjoyment out of are the passages you enjoyed writing not the bits you enjoyed reading; that's for readers to decide, which becomes the real challenge for the writer: to write something that is as enjoyable to read as it was to write.

flag