Quote:
Originally Posted by Assassin
I believe we have to take into account the status of the writer when expecting perfection. A beginning indie writer should be cut some slack until they have attained some measure of success.
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I disagree.
Any author that wants to perfect their craft should be open to having their mistakes pointed out at any time. Everyone makes them. Things get missed. Writers need to learn that early, and do their best not to continue to make the same mistakes over and over.
I've been reading, and doing a small bit of writing, in fanfic for years. I've found the better writers, those that produce' classic' stories in their fandom, never stop learning nor taking criticism. And they didn't shy away from it when they first started.
Those writers that fail in fanfic, (which means posting their stories with little response, few reviews, and in the end no readers, in a world where their
only 'pay' is a LOC or "Letter of Comment") usually do so because their writing is poor and they're closed to feedback.
(The worst ones are even closed to self-help. "Not Beta'd" or "Not spell-checked" warnings from the author themselves the first sign of disaster in the works. So much easier to skip those than to care what's been written beyond that warning.)
The poor writers may continue to produce, but they don't get better if they don't look for ways to improve. When they don't listen, they just become part of the mass of writers out there people consistently pass by because they're just not very good.
I think any author out there will only find an advantage to growing a thick skin early, listening to their readers, know that they'll make mistakes, and appreciate the fact that someone like their stuff enough to let them know that they found problems. And then take steps to implement what they've learned.
If they don't, they may find they never achieve success. They just become another flawed writer among millions of others that never get read.
There's too much competition out there not to do every single thing they can to produce their best work.