Support Your Local Author

Does it entertain?  Does my writing only work for me?  Am I any good?

Those are the kinds of questions I suspect every writer has to work out, early on.  We all think we have what it takes or we wouldn't try—but are we right, or just deluding ourselves.

And we all need some kind of indication that we can do it.  For me, more than anything else, it's the contest response pictured above.  Not the creative writing class, that didn't help.  And having family read it, likewise.  "Death of a Captain" (see this recent entry) had and has its points, and I still had a long way to go, but this letter was the first sign I might get there.

If you are ever in the position to answer any of those first three questions for a budding writer, take the time, and give the most constructive answers you can.  Tell them what they did right.  Tell them what troubled you.

Need something more specific?  How about:

• Did the plot make sense?
• Did you care about the characters?  Can you say why?
• Did the dialog seem believable?  Was it witty, profound, or maybe sparkling?
• Was the world interesting?  What interested you about it?
• Was the story compelling?

 Once they know they won't fall to the ground, landing flat on their face, they can spread those authorial wings and soar.  But not till then.  Help them out from the constrictions of the nest.  Let them know they've made it.  Let them fly.