You have some really amazing tips, thank you! I'm glad I found your posts 😊

That is a great point, and definitely has me thinking!

I love this! 🙂 That's a great way to think about it.

I completely agree! Writing my book has been an amazing experience, but that part has been frustrating. As unlikely as it is that a single publisher is going to take your story, they should not demand you wait on them for weeks or months for them to reject you (if they even bother, like you noted).

Good point!

The first book is complete, and is YA fantasy (although I hadn't meant for it to be, initially). The second book is much more adult fantasy, veering into darker, more adult themes.

I definitely switch genres from story to story. What freaks me out is, I'm writing a series currently, and it's looking like the genre might switch from book 1 to book 2, if I let it take its natural path. This doesn't seem like a good thing!! 😆

Thank you 😊

Congrats!! 👏

(I just finished my first novel, so that seems like a monumental accomplishment!)

That's awesome, congratulations!! 🙂🥳

Drizzt, Tas, Flint, Silk, Barak...so many characters over the years that are like family to me now. Books that I pick up over and over again to dive happily into their world one more time. What a gift that is. That's what I want to accomplish as an author.

There's two things he taught me, directly and indirectly. One, to treat every reader with respect, as an individual.

And two, to create characters that stick with a reader long after they put the book down. Characters that get into your head, your heart.

It's amazing what an impact an author can have on their readers, both through their writing and through interactions like that. Even though he probably wrote thousands of those letters, it touched me deeply.

And you know what else? He was totally right, decades later I'm a MUCH better writer. 😆

Teenage me basically said, I can write just fine at this age, thank you very much! 😆 (I was writing fantasy stories by 5th or 6th grade). He wrote me back, and I was shocked. It was a kind, thoughtful letter, more than I deserved I'm sure. Still one of my prized possessions.

I wrote to R. A. Salvatore as a teenager, after reading an interview with him in Dragon magazine. He had said something about the best writers being ones with life experience, and this ticked young me off 😆. So I wrote him a letter probably with a bit of attitude in it, even though I adored him!

That is completely my style as well!

One of my all-time faves! (and my introduction to fantasy as well, in 5th or 6th grade).

Interesting question, and I enjoyed reading the answers, as an inexperienced writer. I'd be a terrible one to ask, I just completed my first novel that I started 30+ years ago 😆. But that being said, I can't imagine completing more than one or two books a year even working on it full-time.

Thank you so much!! I appreciate you taking the time to read my story 😊