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I love the way you approach things. This is a very good point. But many of the good readers out there are not always good writers. I feel that some of them can write , but they are finding it difficult take the first step. If they read about the experiences, they may get encouraged to write.KarelVanCanegem wrote: But he has never written down something. So when he dies, all of his personal wisdom will disappear, forever.
Damian,DamianLake wrote:Well, here is an interesting topic. I am still unpublished, though that will soon be changing. How successful it will end up being is another story, but the fact is that I have so many stories in my head that are bursting to get out that I will keep publishing as long as my base costs are met. I'll be self-publishing soon in e-book and print-on-demand at Amazon, so I hope at least some readers out there enjoy my fantasy worlds as much as I do.
I'd been wanting to write stories ever since high school. I tried a few shorts stories that ended up being aborted because, truth be told, I had absolutely no plot in mind. I just started putting down words on paper. That sort of thing quickly leads nowhere, and instead of telling myself it was a natural part of learning to write, I convinced myself that it showed I had no talent at the craft at all.
Years later, I was working at a bookstore when I abruptly got fired along with several other people who had the most seniority, and thus highest wages. It was pretty obvious despite the thin excuses that management wanted to cut some costs. I was pretty upset, and unemployed, and unsure what to do. I spent that day bouncing around trying to find another job, then that night I succumbed to depression. But at the bottom, I decided that instead of slaving away for bare wages in a job that sucked the life out of me, I would take this as an opportunity to do what I WANTED to do! I decided on a story idea that had bounced around in my head for a while and sat down to work on it.
I had learned something from my earlier attempts after all, and since I intended this to be a full length novel, and hopefully a trilogy at that, I decided to put some forethought into it this time. I started by charting my ideas and making a story outline from start to finish that forced me to think about all the stages of the story. Once that was done, I went to work.
I won't bore you with the details, but after several months, I had a complete novel. I was proud as could be of it, even though now when I look at that very first draft I cringe in pain. I still had so much to learn about writing! But I had a few things going for me that most others don't. I happen to know a romance author who had over 20 books published through a New York house, and she encouraged me all the way and gave me a lot of great advice. I traded shamelessly on that connection to have a later draft of my novel read by a fantasy editor at that same publishing house. I scored 2 our 3: I seemed to know what the fantasy market wanted, and I seemed to have interesting ideas. My writing, however, needed work.
That was a hard blow to take, especially after multiple drafts, but instead of letting it crush me, I tried to see what she meant, using her comments as a guide. It has been many years since then, and my writing has improved greatly. I base that statement on other people's comments rather than my own ego. I look at the draft I sent to that editor in New York and feel appalled.
So the moral here is not to stop writing, if that is what you truly want to do. The more you write, the more you improve over time. Even the best authors today, if you look at their initially published work, you can see how their writing has improved over time. But if you constantly wait to publish until you have reached what you think is your best levels of writing, you'll never end up publishing at all. Sooner or later, you HAVE to put your work out under the public eye. Reader commentary is what helps you improve, and even though you need to develop a thick skin, don't ever let it grow so thick that the good advice bounces off.
Oh, yes, I did get some really great reviews, too. 
In fact one lady was so excited about the book that she somehow tracked down my phone number and called me to tell me how much she loved it. 
But it was those 1-and-2-star reviews that really irked me. I mean, how dare they? 
But after I got over that initial shock and disappointment, I began to realize they were really the most valuable reviews. I read them over and over and then went back and re-read my book. Son of a gun, if those reviewers weren't right on the money. Well, most of them, anyway. I started taking to heart the things they said and I set about to do some serious learning about what readers expect from a book and how I could improve my writing to satisfy those expectations. I'm pretty confident that my current novel (just out on Kindle as of Dec. 2011) is much, much closer to satisfying those expectations. A couple readers of my first novel have told me as much. 
I won't bother to go into a discussion about the book here. I'll just say, if you're a novice novelist, you'll learn a lot from that book. Most of it, really, is not so much about the how-to of writing as it is King just sort of casually talking about his career as a writer, the ups and downs and ins and outs. The last part of the book goes into more of the how-to stuff. On Writing is an easy, relaxed read and it feels like you're just sitting around in your living room with a cup of coffee while Mr. King is right there with you, coffee in hand, telling what he knows and letting you know that you can do it... assuming you have what it takes. 
