Q&A with Ottilie Weber discussion

Be fear to ask me questions in here especially if it does not fit into the other folders!

How do you know if you're writing is good and without mistakes?

Good question and hard to tell, I think we are all our worse enemies, or at least I know that I am mine. I have some stories that I keep trying to go back and fix it up. Part of the problem is trying to figure out which stories to go back and fix up and which ones to step back and stop over analyzing. Sometimes you just got to read through a story, take a deep breath and realize that you did infact write a good story, the characters are well developed ready to take on the world, for me partly it is okay I really can't add more to this story without it sounding forced. Sometimes I also have a friend read through a story to see if they have any comments, or just run through a story verbally with one. AFter a certain point we all have to put a little trust in the story we write and let the world see it. Haha hope that made sense!

That does make sense, I always judge my stories and I don't think they are good enough, even though people told me that it's great and I should keep up the good work:P I would agree with you that you can't add too much into a story without it sounding forced, and I would always bear that in mind. Truth to be told, I suck at tenses and I tend to be repetitious, maybe that's part of the reason why I have low confidence for my writing, haha.

Natshane I actually have the same problem with tenses and repetitiousnes. I got that in reviews so with my other stories I'm trying to work on that so that my writing can improve.

o_O! I don't even know :P Do you have any tips on how to improve our writing?

Haha I'm working on that! I had a friend suggest watching the tenses in books to help notice trends. I read simiplier YA fiction to help that so that I don't get too involved with the plot. I'm taking my time with the tenses when I'm editing/writing. I have another friend who suggests reading the story you are working on outloud. My problem with that one is I start outloud and slowly talking softer till I'm reading in my head, did that in school too. I'm also having a friend read one of my stories to see if she can tell me when I'm being too repetitive.

Wow, you have good friends! I do send my stories to one of my friend who I considered my personal professional editor and vice versa, haha. We edited each other.

Haha I have a very small circle of friends, I've lost a bunch over the last few years. The ones that I'm close with I really hold close to because they are such great friends. My friend Amy and I are like that we read each other stuff, and she's reading my pirate story right now, she's good at finding loop holes that I might have missed. I added a new scene to End of the Line because she did that to me so when that comes out the new edition will have a small new scene.

She sounds like a very good friend! I think we always need to give someone to proofread because we might not be able to trace the loopholes, therefore a second opinion is vital:D

Oh a second opinion is always needed! I know I have a tendency of thinking a word is there and it's not so it's good to have a second pair of eyes.

Or a third pair too! Haha.

Haha excatly!

What's your experience with traditional publishers?

Family Ties is with a micro publisher which I'm liking. Traditional traditional my experience is me sending out over 60 query letters to agents and every single of them were rejections. Most of which were like the college rejection letters not real personal, minus one responce they were professional and not bad. I had one that was a responce was very unprofessional.