Other people are there for you: Srsly (Get 5 Beta Readers!)
#3 of Srsly
Other people are there for you: Srsly (Get 5 Beta Readers!)
When you start writing, be aware there's a large and well established community to help you out.
5. Because everybody is clearly there for your own personal use.
Have you ever sent someone a piece of writing filled with typos and grammar errors and expected them to fix it for you? Congratulations: You just gave up on learning how to fix them yourself and hence never make them again. Did you just ask people for a plotline? Isn't that kind of like giving up on one of the major points behind writing, expressing yourself? Yourself, not some other person? Did you read a writer's guide to firearms and now know that when you're describing a shooting or murder scene you should include vivid descriptive terms like 'the smell of cordite'? You do know cordite was primarily used in artillery shells, right?
Gosh. Maybe you should... rely on yourself more.
Other people are not there for your benefit. You are there for theirs. There is a concept that's been floating around SF circles for decades called 'Pay It Forward'. Piffle, you might say, but it is gospel. Do kindly unto others as you yourself have been kindly done to. There is a huge community out there, you should definitely interact with it, but never ever think you're entitled to anything from it.
Having people critique your work and edit it for you is, yes, very very handy. But don't make them edit it for you until you've fixed every potential error you can find. Asking for ideas is fun, sure, but you need to figure out the shocking truth. Ideas are absolutely worthless and there are trillions of them floating around, the only value in a good idea is how much work you yourself have put into it - so get into the habit of coming up with 'ideas'. Staring at a blank screen is one tried and true method. Going to museums - temples of the muse - is another good way to do it.
When you want to write something involving a little expertise, don't rely on other people to tell you how it is. They say 'write what you know', and what that means is if you're three feet tall and want to write something about tall people, watch tall people you know. Think about what being tall means. Maybe grab a pair of stilts for an afternoon.
And if anyone actually does do something useful for you? For God's sake, pay it forward. You'll learn more about your own writing than you could possibly realize by critting and editing other people's works, you'll figure out plenty about how plots sit together by trying to help other people develop theirs, and if someone's lost on some small bit of expertise you will know so much more about it by helping them out.
They're not there for you - you're there for them.
This work is hereby released into the Public Domain. To view a copy of the public domain dedication, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA.
That means you can do whatever the hell you want with Srsly, from ripping it off entirely to 'quoting' it in your own guide to rewriting it. Please feel free and encouraged to make copies for your writing newsletter, blog, or anything at all. If you would like to link back to me, which is nice and polite but by no means compulsory, please use 'http://www.furaffinity.net/user/foozzzball/' or my e-mail address, [email protected]'.