The moment another person reads a story, even an unfinished one, it no longer exists only inside the writer's mind. Something changes. The characters are no longer imagined by one person alone. The world is no longer confined to a private document, a notebook, or a half-finished draft hidden away on a computer.

I've said this before, and I suspect I'll say it many more times throughout my writing journey: The goal is not perfection. The goal is progress.

[...] Make the audience feel something. Help them see something differently. Leave them with something worth carrying forward. For me, poetry is the most direct route to that destination. [...]

...We want readers to believe those worlds could exist. Sometimes, all it takes is the smell of damp stone, the flicker of a dying torch, or the worn grooves in a wooden floor to convince them.

This is one reason I enjoy writing darker fantasy. Darkness creates conflict, and conflict reveals character. [...] The darkness itself is not what interests me. The response to it is.

Take a peek into the psychology of fantasy writing