Learning from Mistakes: Rethink, Redesign, Rewrite
Writing is in some ways a strange process. First you tell the story you want to tell; when you're done with that you have the option of sharing it with others who might enjoy reading it. (I've written about this Writing vs. Storytelling dualism before.) On platforms like Ao3, the "sharing with others" part is easy and low-risk, because everything is free. People browse, they skim the tags (sometimes), they click, they start reading. If the story goes somewhere they don't like they stop reading. Sometimes they yell at you in the comments; usually they just move on. Sharing your…