The Return of the Inner Evil Author

Inner Evil Author has been fairly well-behaved for the last few weeks with Dragon's Whisper. But wowee, I should have known better than to think that would last. My beta-readers are going to kill me. It's a very good thing I have my writing cave of feels to hide in.

A Crazy Idea

I have had a crazy idea. It won't leave me alone. This might be called a plot bunny. Or it might just be considered insanity.

What if I wrote a short prequel for my current WIP? Just the thought ... *shudder* It is frightening. But it makes sense. I've read a bunch of articles lately about what a good idea short, free stories are. It would make sense for my situation. Prime the pump for when I self-publish my novel.

I think I shall go hide under my bed and try to ward off the plot bunnies now. HELP.

Self-Confidence ... Again

I still haven't gotten the hang of this "standing on your own work." (Thank my mother for that quote.) A quick glance at a list of fantasy cliches sent my recently recovered self-esteem down the drain. Oops. But something I'm wondering - Does any author ever learn how to "stand on their own work" and stop caring if it's "officially" cliched, or if they get a bad review? Even the New York Times bestsellers.
Writers are perfectionist--people-pleasers.

Self-confidence

I NEED to get better about posting more often. Maybe I'll get this someday.

But for a topic for today. This time, I actually have a somewhat good one. I've been working on my Y/A Christian fantasy novel, and a few critique partners had suggested I change a certain event. I took their advice and edited a major event out of the first few chapters. It took away some major character development, too.

Then I sat back and looked at the chopped version. And I discovered something.

I hated it. I had just neutered my story. I took someone else's advice for it, and it was no longer mine. Something was gone out of it. Some of its heart. The spirit of the thing.  So I restored it to its original condition and breathed a sigh of relief.

Now, this doesn't mean that taking all advice is bad. It's a good thing. You need outside opinion. Dragon's Whisper would be a hunk of junk without all the beta readers and critique partners.
But taking a bit of advice and using it for your purposes is different than taloring your story to fit everyone's opinion.

Not only will you kill yourself trying to please everyone (It's impossible!), you will no longer have YOUR story. It'll be everyone else's story. It won't be yours.

Your should be writing for YOU. Not for the market, or to make everyone else happy. It's great if that happens, and if you enjoy yourself and write a great book, it usually does. But it shouldn't be your goal.

So, this blog post was slightly longer! (And I'll hopefully get better at posting regularly.)