Wake Up Call
I just received a horrible review of my story. One of my beta readers said they couldn’t finish the story because it was too boring. My characters were flat. There were no questions that propelled the reader forward. And my descriptions were not visual enough.
What I thought was really good turned out to be really bad. I’m heart broken. I feel like a failure. A part of me wants to give up. But you know what? I’m not. Now that I know what’s wrong, I’m going to try fix these issues.
But knowing what’s wrong and knowing how to fix them are two very different things. I am self-taught. I read how-to books and I find information and tips online. But I’ve never taken any formal classes. I’ve never had anyone give me any real feedback before.
Now that I know, it’s back to the drawing board. I just finished reading and taking notes on a how-to build characters book. While I do understand how important it is to get the reader to ask questions that propel them forward, I need to try to figure out how to do that. And I need to remember when I write to show, not tell, so that the scenes are more visual and reach out to the other senses.
If anyone knows of any how-to books or any website resources that can help me, please share them here.
Fantasy/Sci-Fi Author Dawn Ross 
Another author once said, “Trust a reader when they say something isn’t right but never trust them when they try to tell you what’s wrong or how to fix it.” Or something like that :-p You are the writer. The story is bettered in whatever way you say it is. *hugs*