When you write you sometimes get reviews or at the very least a comment telling you what they think about what you have to say. Only the people who strongly dislike or enjoy your stories mention what they think. Those individuals in the middle seldom say anything.
It’s been my experience over the years that you can’t please everyone but it is important to insult as few people as possible otherwise your ratings fall. Unless you are going for shock factor and then you get a lot of people tuning in for a very different reason. They only show up to argue and tell you how terrible you are and if you piss off the wrong group of people you can be fired like Howard Sterns found out. Or if you are self employed you will be shunned which is the same thing.
I prefer to be a peacemaker ruffling as few feathers as possible. Oddly enough being a pleaser upsets some folks so like I said you can’t please everyone.
Watch television or movies for very long and you will realize that people’s taste change over the years. What was popular in the 70’s are not necessarily interesting to anyone now. Even people who grew up during that era may not find that type of story to their liking. We grow, evolve and our taste change. That is why redoing a movie from that era doesn’t always have the same popularity the original did.
Be brief: People don’t have a lot of time and those stories that go on and on repeating what you have already said in previous paragraphs bore a reader. They will soon move on.
Be accurate: If you aren’t sure of information say so. Nothing worse than posting a story only to find out later that your facts were wrong.
Edit, edit, edit: Read your work, let it lie for a few days or weeks and then reread it. We are too close to our articles and stories to see every error. Computer tools only catch so much. If you spell a word correctly but use it in the wrong context spell check won’t underline it.
Write what you want, what you know and what makes you happy and if you are lucky someone will enjoy reading what you have to say.
Ricky Nelson- Garden Party:
