You Are An Audience Member Of Your Own Writing

Being the author of your own work, you are in a unique position. You have created this work. You are intimately familiar with how it was made, what it could have been, what it used to be, and all the details that didn't make it onto the page. However, once your work is finalized, it exists outside of you. And in that sense, you are no different than any other audience member.

Although you made your story, you should read it the way you would read anybody else's story. Similarly, it should be as satisfying as anybody else's story (rather, you should demand the same quality and be equally as critical of your writing as others').

Especially when enough time has passed, reading your own story almost feels like reading somebody else's story, anyway. This ends up being a handy skill for your writing process, too. When you are not sure where you want to go, or when you are revising your work, just take a step away from it and ask yourself, what would I want to read? Since you are an audience member of your own writing, the answer you get is valuable reader input.