Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms. She writes weird books in lots of weird genres like fantasy (Blood of Kings and Kinsman Chronicles), science fiction (Replication), and dystopian (The Safe Lands trilogy). She had a podcast/vlog at www.StoryworldFirst.com. You can also find Jill on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or on her author website.
“You can’t trust your own judgement when your script is done, but you can’t trust other people’s judgement before you begin.” ~ Michael Hauge
I love, love this quote.
I must have rewritten The New Recruit a dozen times, and I still wasn’t sure it was right. And all these years later, even long after a book is published, I feel like it’s still never really complete. In fact, I have a notebook with pages devoted to each of my books–pages that are filled with lists of things that I need to fix, should I ever get the rights back. These are things I discovered as I read to my kids over the years, referenced the book for some reason, or from emails I received from readers. Not always typos. These could be continuity errors or simply phrases that make me wince now that I have so much more writing experience.
My point is, what Michael said is true. It’s really hard for authors to trust their own judgement and believe that their story is done. Most the time we just have to let it go–let it be done. Move on.
The second half of Michael’s quote is: “. . . you can’t trust other people’s judgement before you begin.” So true. If you have a story idea, you can share it with hundreds of people, but until you put the story on paper, no one will likely grasp your exact vision for the project. It’s one thing to brainstorm with others, but be careful of taking too much criticism at this stage. If you have a story that you’re itching to write, trust yourself and write it. Don’t rely on feedback from others to tell you what to do.
I would like to suggest that it’s equally difficult for authors to trust others for feedback on a story that’s not finished. When you are writing a new story, it’s normal to get excited about it and fall so in love with your characters and plot that you are eager to show it to people–curious to see if the story has the same affect on them as it’s having on you.
Besides, if I’ve only written a chapter or two, it’s not really fair to ask people for story feedback at that stage. How can anyone give honest feedback on a fraction of a story?
Writing is hard sometimes. It can be lonely when the story lives in our heads alone. And while I like to get together and vent with writing friends about my story and places I’m stuck, I never let anyone read it until the story is done.