A book for everyone is a book for no one
This post should take about 3 minutes to read through.
As I mentioned in my previous post, a book for everyone is a book for no one. It is very important that you remember this if you want to create a book, or in truth, anything at all, be it a video game, a drawing, a sculpture, a house, a shirt, or anything else.
Every person in this world has his or her own specific taste. Something that one person might like, another will dislike. There's someone right now who's trashing your favorite writer to their friends, hating on exactly the things that you enjoyed.
I've had this happen myself. I was talking with a friend who I consider incredibly intelligent who had countless negative things to say about my favorite author, mentioning as negatives the very things I would consider positive. At the same time, this person once suggested a book to me, which he describes as the best book series he has ever read, and I could barely read through the first book. In my eyes, and in my opinion, it was one of the worst books I had ever read. I had an equally countless amount of negative things to say about his favorite book as he had about mine.
Even if you polish your editing, even if you master the author's two skills, even if you write perfect paragraphs, there will still be someone who will leave a one-star review with the title "DNF" (Did Not Finish) for your book. They might even highlight as negative the very things you are proud of. This isn't simply an example of "haters gonna hate," which I'll highlight in another post, but an issue of taste.
You, me, and all other creators, need to have this always in our minds: we will never be able to create something that will please everyone.
And, in truth, we shouldn't even attempt to do it.
When a writer tries to write as story "for everyone," it caters to the lowest common denominator. It's a creation that uses the most common tropes, the most common character traits, the most common story structures, the most common everything, and often includes "token" characters or characteristics out of a checklist just for the sake of including them. The result is a bland, uninteresting, passionless, flat story. Movies, TV series, and video games made in the last decade are filled with such examples, as big studios are trying to "play it safe" and create for a "broader audience" that doesn't exist.
You should write what you enjoy. Give yourself permission to be a freak. Write what you love, what you're passionate about. You'll never please anyone, so concentrate on pleasing yourself, and your ideal readers.
Your ideal reader is the person who will pick up your book and read it all in one sitting, eyes wide with excitement, then recommend it to everyone they meet. If you can find them, a real person who truly loves your writing, then you should do your best to keep them around. Give them your drafts, make them give you detailed feedback, and follow that feedback like scripture! I'll write more on how to correctly use a reader's feedback, but the most important rule is: the reader knows what's wrong with the book, but not necessarily how to fix it. It's your book, you should do the fixing, but if they tell you something's not working, you better believe them.
Do not be discouraged when those negative reviews start popping up, for they will. Go right now on Goodreads and check your favorite book. There's no book that has a solid five stars. The good books are above four, the great books above four point three or four. There will be plenty of one-star reviews. Read through a few of them about your favorite book, about the books you consider to be masterpieces. This will help you get inoculated, though no one ever is truly immune against negative reviews, I believe.
Instead of being discouraged when the negative reviews inevitably arrive, learn from them, if there's something you can learn from them. And return to your roots, your origin, your source. Write what you love! Write what you'd like to read!
Thank you for taking the time to read through my article. As always, you know where to find me.
Keep writing.