When you write and publish, whether an article or a book, the reader wants to walk away from the reading with the knowledge they were educated or entertained thoroughly. The experience should be memorable.

A lot of writers make the mistake of thinking that writing in quantity or just getting the grammar correct or just relaying the topic, are the goals. FFW receives so many mediocre articles from people who think that a list of suggestions on how to write, how to win a contest, how to publish . . . lists like they’ve read on the web a thousand times, is writing. No voice. No originality. Just ticking off boxes on guidelines.

Readers value their time, and once they’ve decided to invest their time into reading something you wrote, they want to feel like the time was well spent. That’s why I’m against the oft recommended advice of reading bad and good works. Sorry, I only want to be immersed in the good, thank you. My time is limited.

The reader should feel like they made a good choice, a valuable selection. Your job is to provide top quality material so that enough readers are thankful for what they have read. It isn’t about the time you invested, how you published, or the money you spent. While those aspects are necessary, it isn’t part of your job to tell the world about it.

You only want to be remembered for how well you wrote . . . and the positive you gave someone else’s life.