Eric's+Response

This was a bit difficult to decide between the seventh and the fifth, but I'll say five was the best. Sometimes, when you ask a person for their opinion, even if they say it's good, sometimes they'll try to put their own part into it. However, this can go two ways: helping the story, or confusing it, hence destroying it.

For example, you show someone a certain part in the story, like a fight. You want them to read it over.

"Cool," they say. "If I were you, though, I'd add (blah blah blah) to this part."

So then you say, "Okay, thanks." Later on, you figure out that it doesn't exactly tie into what you had in mind. Some thoughts might be, "No, this can't happen yet," or maybe, "This just happened."

Even asking a teacher (no offence, Mrs. Doughty) can harm you. You have this really great idea that you want to have branch off into something extreme, but then your peer has other ideas. Knowing the human mind, you'll almost always go with what they said until you look back at it. Only then will you go back to your idea (or you'll not learn from that mistake and go to someone else).

But, I'm not saying this is //always// the case. Sometimes some things people say could do even better than what you imagined. If I were writing a story, though, and I wanted advice, I would write it on a separate note, think about it very carefully, and then decide what I should do. Writing isn't just a child's drawing; it's a 25 hour job. Even in your sleep, you should be thinking about everything. Every little detail; every leaf, finger, blade, or whatever else is going on in your story.

If you truly trust somebody's opinion, make sure you can trust them //completely//. Going up to someone your friends with doesn't mean they'll be the best option. Even if it's a person you barely know, you should ask for as many opinions as you can.

And this is why Rule Seven of Neil Gaiman is extremely important to me. The moral of this story: Don't be shy of strangers' opinions.