Newbie

 

As a newbie writer, I wrote several different pieces and didn’t have the time to look them over. My excitement, in writing them, caused me to hit publish.  But my writing was far from ready…

It took me a long time to go back to my published writing. I saw negative comments and poor ratings on some of my work. After reading them, I can’t argue against the negative statements.

I looked over the work. As soon as they were opened, I was shocked. Had I really pubished this? Was I super blind to these errors? Anyone could plainly see how bad the writing was. The grammar was beyond recognition.

Terrified and replused by my own lack of writing, I instantly took them offline. I combed through each page. I felt worse with every step. It was like a heavy weight had been dumped onto my shoulders. I wanted to cry.

No wonder, it was so bad to others.

To myself, it looked awful.

As a newbie writer, boy did I learn my lessons well. I will never publish another piece, after writing it, without proofreading it first.

I also, learned that no matter how excited I was nor how many I wrote, publishing them takes a lot more work.

At the time I published each piece, I thought it was ready. I thought, woo hoo, I’m an author!

But that’s not so. Being an author isn’t just jotting words on a page no matter how good they sound as you type away. It’s the process of writing, reading, revising, and reading it again.  Or revising it as many times as possible before it goes live. Once live, everyone can see every word and will critique them harshly.

Be prepared, don’t rush into publishing like I did as a newbie writer.

Be patient. Read, revise, read, and re-write your piece again.

Also, I would recommend having someone, who is willing to take the time to actually read through what you have written before publishing, just in-case you missed something. Sometimes, writers miss the most common errors in their writing. It’s always best to have another set of eyes to look over and read what you have written.

My last recommendation is to have a second person to look over your writing. Sometimes, the person we first choose will only skim through it instead of throughly reading what we gave them. They  can say it’s perfect and ready, and you won’t realize the mistakes, until after publishing it live. Do not make that mistake! I did. First, the mistakes in my  own writing is entirely my fault. Second, you  can’t always count on others to read every page like you would like them to do. I think as readers, we read faster through the slow parts and slower at the exciting parts.

Even, if you spent ages writing your piece, still read it over, revise it a few times over, and read it again. Also, let others read and judge it before you decide or think it’s ready.

After going through the mistakes and writing about them, I hope that other writers won’t make the same mistakes, I did.