Now let me preemptively state that I am sure there are good writing groups out there that have helped many new and experienced writers. Also, there is a lot of good information being bandied around on many forums that are super helpful to all writers, but I think any new writer needs to be very careful utilizing these resources.
Any new writer starting out to write lacks a certain amount of confidence in their abilities, which is quite normal. Unless you’re making millions and have a huge following these feelings of doubt and questioning your growing writing abilities is natural. Every writer I know looks upon their books online watching each and every review that comes in to get an idea of how their fans feel about their story and writing style hoping to get to that point where they can support themselves by doing what they love best, writing.
Forums would seem like a great place to put ourselves out there and get assistance from other struggling writers to learn the pitfalls of the whole industry. While this seems reasonable, this couldn’t be further from the truth. There are a lot of jealous people in the world. There are even more jealous people out there that do not want to see you succeed. Sometimes it’s as simple as they want to succeed in they think you’re in their way, while other times it’s a huge ego trip. There can’t be anyone better than them. Some people have spent years studying literature and writing style, but no matter how much they’ve studied, their writing isn’t very interesting. Not to mention the people who simply think they are the best or are self-proclaimed experts.
Completing the whole writing process is hard enough for any new writer, but one of the worst things that these people can do to you is make you question every aspect of your writing style and make you think that nothing you do is good enough. Before you know it they have stolen away your confidence by making you question everything you are trying to write. Before you know it you are more confused than ever before and are not one step closer to actually writing your own story.
Even worse than taking away your confidence and making you question every aspect of your writing style. These people can follow your online to where you are selling your book and give you negative reviews. I’m sure there are a million reasons as to why fellow Indie Writers do this to one another, but it’s pretty sad. Like rats drowning one another on a sinking ship. When Flight hit the #23rd place on Amazon’s Fantasy/Superhero list within the first three months I suddenly had four extremely negative reviews come in on that very first week. It hurt at first, it always does when you’re receiving your first negative reviews, but I couldn’t understand why it seemed like the readers were attacking my story and taking every little thing out of context in this page to page and a half long post. By the fourth one I can an epiphany and decided to check out their other reviews. Unsurprisingly they seemed to batch every new writer out there. I decided to do a search on these peoples’ names within Amazon and discovered that these people were fellow Indie Writers. Suddenly it all made since.
On the forums there are people who are not going to like your views or are going to be very angry that you dared to disagree with something that they posted. Some are just angry that you’re flooding the book market with something new that would block a reader from finding their own book, while others are simply afraid you might do better than them.
One of the common things to do on a forum is introduce yourself and your book. My own introduction to the forums was no different. If I had this to do all over again I would have never listed my book or changed my writing name so the anyone who didn’t like my opinions wouldn’t try to take it out on my novel’s reviews.
You might think than that I am totally against writing forums, but that is not the case. There are some very good people that you can meet and work together with online. I’m just saying to be very careful about exposing yourself, because it can also turn into a very bad experience with long reaching affects.
On a personal note, I just wanted to let you know I’m still neck deep in my regular 9 to 5 job. I hope this week will be better and I can keep the blog updates coming on time, either way I want to thank you for your patience and coming back to listen to my thoughts and personal experiences.
Any new writer starting out to write lacks a certain amount of confidence in their abilities, which is quite normal. Unless you’re making millions and have a huge following these feelings of doubt and questioning your growing writing abilities is natural. Every writer I know looks upon their books online watching each and every review that comes in to get an idea of how their fans feel about their story and writing style hoping to get to that point where they can support themselves by doing what they love best, writing.
Forums would seem like a great place to put ourselves out there and get assistance from other struggling writers to learn the pitfalls of the whole industry. While this seems reasonable, this couldn’t be further from the truth. There are a lot of jealous people in the world. There are even more jealous people out there that do not want to see you succeed. Sometimes it’s as simple as they want to succeed in they think you’re in their way, while other times it’s a huge ego trip. There can’t be anyone better than them. Some people have spent years studying literature and writing style, but no matter how much they’ve studied, their writing isn’t very interesting. Not to mention the people who simply think they are the best or are self-proclaimed experts.
Completing the whole writing process is hard enough for any new writer, but one of the worst things that these people can do to you is make you question every aspect of your writing style and make you think that nothing you do is good enough. Before you know it they have stolen away your confidence by making you question everything you are trying to write. Before you know it you are more confused than ever before and are not one step closer to actually writing your own story.
Even worse than taking away your confidence and making you question every aspect of your writing style. These people can follow your online to where you are selling your book and give you negative reviews. I’m sure there are a million reasons as to why fellow Indie Writers do this to one another, but it’s pretty sad. Like rats drowning one another on a sinking ship. When Flight hit the #23rd place on Amazon’s Fantasy/Superhero list within the first three months I suddenly had four extremely negative reviews come in on that very first week. It hurt at first, it always does when you’re receiving your first negative reviews, but I couldn’t understand why it seemed like the readers were attacking my story and taking every little thing out of context in this page to page and a half long post. By the fourth one I can an epiphany and decided to check out their other reviews. Unsurprisingly they seemed to batch every new writer out there. I decided to do a search on these peoples’ names within Amazon and discovered that these people were fellow Indie Writers. Suddenly it all made since.
On the forums there are people who are not going to like your views or are going to be very angry that you dared to disagree with something that they posted. Some are just angry that you’re flooding the book market with something new that would block a reader from finding their own book, while others are simply afraid you might do better than them.
One of the common things to do on a forum is introduce yourself and your book. My own introduction to the forums was no different. If I had this to do all over again I would have never listed my book or changed my writing name so the anyone who didn’t like my opinions wouldn’t try to take it out on my novel’s reviews.
You might think than that I am totally against writing forums, but that is not the case. There are some very good people that you can meet and work together with online. I’m just saying to be very careful about exposing yourself, because it can also turn into a very bad experience with long reaching affects.
On a personal note, I just wanted to let you know I’m still neck deep in my regular 9 to 5 job. I hope this week will be better and I can keep the blog updates coming on time, either way I want to thank you for your patience and coming back to listen to my thoughts and personal experiences.
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