H is for Honesty

This year for the A-Z Challenge, I'm attempting to act like I know what I'm talking about and offering advice about writing.  Let's see how I do!

Also, don't forget to stop by the Parallels blog to see more posts about the upcoming anthology, which will be available on May 3rd!

Writers struggle with honesty when it comes to their own work.  We don’t intentionally lie to ourselves about our work, of course.  We simply don’t have the objectivity required to look at it in an honest way.  It’s our baby.  We worked countless hours to bring it to life.  Every line, every character, came from us.  We may love it so much that we can’t see when it needs to be changed.  When someone suggests that we cut a section of it or switch things around, it may be hard to even entertain the thought.  Why would we destroy something that we worked so hard to create?

If we want to improve our storytelling abilities, we need to consider the suggestions our readers make.  While we as writers must make the final decisions as to how we tell the story, we must also acknowledge that readers may spot things we don’t.  If you get a suggestion that makes you cringe, take the time to read things over and seriously consider it.  Be honest.  Consider it as if you’re a reader.  Instead of resulting in the butchery of your tale, it might make the story stronger.