Dear Reviewers

Dear Reviewers,

Yes my dear reviewers, I realized that I may be technically cheating for this challenge, since I am writing a letter for more than one person, not just one. But the rules for the challenge never said I couldn’t write to more than one person, so here we go.

I am most grateful to you, my reviewers. From the beginning, you have shaped me into the best writer I can be.

Speaking of the beginning, I suppose my parents were my first reviewers. They have been supportive of me being a writer, and they were always willing to read my work. I remember when I was in high school and wrote the first chapter of what I planned to be my first novel (which never came to be, for multiple reasons). When I showed it to my parents, they took their time reading it and told me that they liked it. However, they had to inform me that there were no hills in Kansas. As someone from Virginia, a state with plenty of hills, this blew my young mind. And I had even seen Kansas for myself!

Then years passed and I was in college. I was just getting into the world of fanfiction and eventually, I had the urge to write some fanfics of my own. So after deciding what I wanted to write, I wrote the first chapter of the story I wanted to write and waited. I didn’t have to wait long before I got my first review. It was a nice one, coming from a reader who loved it and couldn’t wait to see what happened next. That review was followed by another one that said similar things. This boosted my confidence so I quickly wrote the next chapter and even moved things around so that the first chapter became the third chapter. Before I knew it, my first fanfiction was completed and my reviewers loved it.

Looking back on it now, that first fic of mine was sparsely detailed and probably could have used some editing to fix some grammar mistakes. But as simple as it was, that fic was a great start for me as a writer. Those reviews, and the reviews I received on the fanfictions I wrote after that, gave me the confidence and guidance I needed to improve my writing. Of course, some of the reviews had criticisms about my work. Most of it was constructive, while some were just confusing or nitpicking. And some reviews weren’t reviews, just someone spamming me. However, I was able to learn what to apply to my writing and what I just needed to ignore. Thanks to those reviews, my stories gradually had more descriptions (on scenery, emotions, etc) and weren’t mostly just the characters talking. My grammar also improved. These things just helped me bring the essence of my stories out even more.

Then after college, the day finally came. I was going to write a book that I not only planned to finish but also to publish. I wrote a chapter about every two weeks and after editing it, I sent it to my parents to review it. I also sent it to a couple of friends and other family members. It was not easy, nor did it take less than a year to do. I was busy with life and other projects. I also sometimes had trouble knowing exactly what to write. Some of the people I sent my book to took a long time to get back to me or never ended up reading it.

But I did it. I finished my book, found an editor and a book cover artist, and am now a published author on Amazon. It is by no means a well-known book, but people have taken the time to review it on Amazon and I am happy to know that I have written a good story.

Sometime during my long book process, a friend of mine suggested that I join Vocal. I looked it up, was intrigued, and now am a part of the Vocal community. My writing has bloomed here, and I have you guys to thank for it. You have encouraged me to keep on writing, to get through the days when I couldn’t find the motivation to write at all. I am sure some of that encouragement kept me going when I came across mountains while trying to edit and publish my book not long ago.

So with a grateful heart, I thank you all.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Patton