Hello, beginner's question:

[Pythagoras]

Hello everyone, I am new to this site and am interested in discussing cool things with cool people.

I have a question: I write fantasy-esque stories, but only as a hobby. I have no serious plans for publication. However, I feel uncomfortable sharing my stories with anyone who is not a very close friend of mine, or my sister. Is this normal? And if so, how can I get over it without feeling like I've given too much away?

Thanks,
- Pythagoras

 

[Scribble]

I came to realize that the most interesting thing to us about other humans isn't when they are brilliant, but when they are goofy, like us. We are all goofy in our private imagination space. We all churn out ideas that are half-baked. People who are professional tend to manage their process better than beginners and hobbyists, recognizing what is "finished product" and what is "stuff on the workbench in progress".

When all we see are the finished products, we can compare our little efforts and by comparison they are misshapen, half-finished, messy, with weird hairs sticking out. It looks weird and immature, and we don't want to embarrass ourselves.

That is normal! If you keep working on those things, learning how to shape and craft them they will get better.

7 years ago I was very overweight. I was eating all the wrong food and I felt terrible. I changed my diet and started going to the gym. When I got there, I felt like a slob. There were all these super fit people running and working out. I was unable to run more than 3 minutes.

I kept going. After a few years, I trimmed down, and now I am the guy who runs for 30 minutes like the wind. I am an expert in weight training, I have amazing energy, I feel great. I can tell someone what to eat and how to train in order to get the results they want.

Now, I see these guys come in just like me when I started. If I see them coming back day after day, getting it wrong, getting it right, keeping at it, being persistent, these guys are my heroes. I go up to them and give them encouragement and let them know if they ever have questions or need a spotter, they can come to me.

Why? I remember how hard the training was, how painful, how embarrassed I was for letting myself go so badly. Now, working out is a pleasure, I enjoy it immensely. At the start, it was brutal. Persistence and a learning attitude is something to be respected. That is how we accomplish great things.

Beginning writing is the same way. You wander in, not quite sure how to use the equipment. You feel like a dork doing things wrong when there are all these people who seem natural, and you think you don't belong.

Everyone started out the same. The trick is to keep a learning attitude and keep coming back every day. Writers will respect that and encourage you. Keep an eye on what the other people are doing that seems to work, and ask for help.

 

[Spider]

Sure this is normal. You have a story to tell and people want to hear it. You may feel like you're giving too much away, but really you're getting so much more. By sharing your stories with others, you can find out where you're strong in writing and what you need to work on. You can improve a lot. Like Scribble said, get out of your comfort zone and you won't regret it.

 

[Scribble]

Thanks Spider. I think I strayed a little from the question in my metaphor, and I missed making an important point! Spider said it well, I'll just expand on that.

New writers are often very jealous of their ideas. There is really nothing new under the sun. What we do that is new is take the same elements and we rework them in new combinations in our own unique voice. Even grandpa Tolkien said in one of his essays that there is no such thing as "creation", only "re-creation". Something always comes from something.

I think it is of greater value to get feedback on your work by exposing it than to hide it away. Best selling authors "appear" to hide it away, but they also have beta readers contractually under non-disclosure, hired editors, etc... They've got the learning basics done, and hiding it away is a marketing decision, a business decision.

When the day comes when you have 200,000 fans dying to know what happens to your character Grimwald Goreheart in the final book of your best selling 12 book series, whether he will finally give up his swashbuckling and settle down with Molly Two-Hammers, or will he keep wandering the world in search of the Hidden Flame.... then, on that day, you need to hide it away.

 

[Pythagoras]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement, I appreciate it.

 

[Svrtnsse]

People who are professional tend to manage their process better than beginners and hobbyists, recognizing what is "finished product" and what is "stuff on the workbench in progress".

When all we see are the finished products, we can compare our little efforts and by comparison they are misshapen, half-finished, messy, with weird hairs sticking out. It looks weird and immature, and we don't want to embarrass ourselves.

We also have no idea why. It's easy to blame it on lack of skill/talent/money/fortune/luck/karma/whatever.


For me, it was a really big step the first time I posted a link to my stories on Facebook. It was the first time I just put them out there for everyone to see, without control of who clicked the link. It made me really excited and nervous and I just sat there waiting for notifications about how someone had made a comment or clicked Like on the link. It was a Really Big Deal to me.

Nothing happened.

Eventually I got a few likes and someone posted a comment along the lines of "cool, I'll have a look later".

Nothing continued to happen.

I got a little bit disappointed. I felt like no one read my work and no one cared and they probably didn't, much. Some people may have clicked the link and looked at it - but I doubt any but a very select few actually read anything.
Eventually I realized that the important part wasn't whether anyone read it or not. What was important was that I'd taken the step and put it out there.