Learning to Practice Good Writing Morals

Do you have morals you adhere to as a writer?

I know I do.

It is tough to build your morals as a writer/author when you go it alone and there is no one out there to teach you right from wrong. You scan the internet looking for ways to publish your book and get it to sell, but of course you will make mistakes. When you first start out you will stumble a lot along the way.

I’m sure you will do stupid stuff too. It is all part of the learning process.

The morals I have developed over the past few years have come from bits and pieces I have learned on many different blogs I follow. It might be from given advice in the blog or by seeing what another author did that they shouldn’t have done.

No one wants to be an example. Why? Because it is embarrassing, but once you learn to move past the embarrassment it takes you down a whole new path and a learning experience happens.

Examples can be:

poorly edited books you have published
over reacting to bad reviews
becoming offended when you can’t find readers
being offended at a critique session
stalking editors
stalking agents
Putting down other writers books in hopes of making your own look better.

After you get over your embarrassing moment you begin to enter your learning experience. There is no telling how long a denial period is for a newly published author. Some can take years before they are ready to grow from their experience, just like life in general.

Learning experiences can lead to:

Making multiple revisions of your published works until you can’t revise them anymore. Then waiting two years to go by and then taking another look at that story and attempt to revise it once again.
Learning to laugh at reviews or if they still bother you then don’t look at them. A negative review can be used as a heads up saying that maybe you need to return to that story and take another look at it to see if you can make it better.
You can’t shove your story down someone’s throat. If they want to read it then they will read it. Just accept the fact you don’t write for everyone. If you did then you would be God.
Learning that critique sessions are in your best interest. It is a good place to throw out your ideas and maybe brain storm with your colleagues. That is how some best sellers are formed.
If you write it and write it good the editors and agents will come.
Putting down another person’s book is not in your best interest. We all want to be liked and have our stories liked. If you really have found fault with a particular story then don’t leave a review. Give the author a chance to learn to make their story better. Send them an email instead letting them know what they might want to look into to make their story better. It is called paying it forward. Help them to become better writers.

Do you practice a writer’s creed?

Tell me about it. I would love to hear it.