Wired for Story

What you do need is perseverance. The one thing that makes a person a writer is writing. Butt in chair. Every day.

If you have trouble now hearing it from a friend, in private, imagine how it’ll feel from a stranger, in public. Thus your goal is to toughen up.

Be prepared: regardless of how successful you get, people are going to be analyzing your work, for better or worse, from here on out. Some will come at it with bizarre, idiosyncratic potshots; others will zero in with dead-on accuracy and illuminate massive trouble spots you won’t believe you could have missed.

start reading reviews—book reviews, movie reviews, reviews of all sorts. Why? For perspective. Think of it as a training course.

My advice is to make sure the person you hire has a background in publishing—either as an agent or as an editor.

Using freelance editors and consultants to help get a manuscript in shape is increasingly common.”

HIRE A PRO The other option when it comes to getting feedback is a trend that is gaining momentum.

Keep in mind, too, that a writers’ group, by definition, will hear your work in pieces. Thus it can be difficult for them to tell whether the story is building, if the setups are paying off, or if that beautifully written passage

Writers need impartial feedback, and one of the logical places to get it is in a writers’ group.