A writer recently asked me to review her memoir. She’d been through an incredible journey in her life, and I had to admit the experience amazed me. She’d already tried self-publishing a few years ago and had gotten scammed by an editor before also learning that not all self-publishers are created equal. A mutual friend introduced her to me, assuring the lady that I was an expert and could solve all her issues.

We held a long conversation by phone. As I predicted, she wanted to talk story, trying to validate her story and assuming publishing the easier part. She kept wanting to talk about herself.

This is very common with new writers.

After a long time, I offered to send her an email listing suggestions on writing and publication, and explaining the differences between self-publishing and traditional. But she wanted me to read her work. Over and over she asked. After she prodded pretty darn hard, becoming quite the pest in subsequent contacts, I offered to review two chapters. I took way more time with it than expected, but I gave her a couple hours of my time in hope it enthused her in the right direction.

Instead, she kept reverting back to making me to understand why she wrote the book, elaborating on how this was HER story, about HER. I advised I knew that, but regardless how good the tale might be in her mind, she had to learn how to write first. She never got it. She just kept seeing in her head that this was a good story. Her writing need a ton of work, as you might guess. She wasn’t open to hearing that, though.

I finally told her pointedly that she needed to learn how to write first. That it didn’t matter what the story was, if she wrote poorly, it didn’t matter. It went totally over her head. I wished her luck and parted ways.

A good story is one thing. Good storytelling is quite another. There isn’t a person on this planet that I cannot pull a good story out of. But there are few of those who can pen the story well, and there isn’t a soul who doesn’t need to study craft. Serious attention to craft is grossly overlooked

And even then, once the craft is superb, there is the obstacle of publishing. Please, if you manage to master craft, always your first goal, do not throw away all that work by not studying publishing . . . and intelligently selecting the proper method that suits you, your style, your goals.

That understanding only comes from understanding it all thoroughly. Your story deserves it.