Advice For Writers: Know What Your Goals For The Story Are

I recently spoke to some new authors who were worried about their work-in-progress. They were worried if they were “doing it wrong” or if a technique they employed was “too weird.” The answer for them — or any writer — has everything to do with the author’s goals for the story. The goal determines who the customer (or audience) of the story actually is. You’re writing it for yourself or your friends. You and your friends are the customer. The only metric that matters is whether or not it’s effective for you and your friends. Want to write in text speak? Go for it. Shift POV every sentence? Have fun. You want to self-publish. Potential readers are your customer. Therefore, you do need to worry about what other people think, but only if you care about the volume of sales. You can publish a ginormous volume that discusses whaling in exhausting detail. It might still become a classic, or it may be ignored, but that’s solely between the author and the reader(s). You want to publish with a…