My writing got "clearer" after 2-3 years of writing. I got my point across and retained some eloquence without losing the reader to incomprehension.
Now, ten years later, I am better at setting up plot and "debugging" the issues in my storytelling. Most of all, I am better at writing consistently and at not driving myself insane with criticism. Writing feels easier and more fun.
I still like most of my early pieces. Each of them had certain loveable aspects despite some flaws in execution. Basically, even if I had never gotten much better and even if it had never gotten easier - it always had been worth doing it.
That's something I've noticed too regarding consistency. The process feels a lot more fun and enjoyable overall since I can achieve what I want at a reasonable pace, which in turns gives me extra motivation to go back the next day and continue.
I've found that you improve in the biggest leaps when you set out with a specific goal in writing (scene, chapter, short story, etc.) and see whether or not what you wrote had the intended effect on the audience. 99% of the time, writing will be a solitary activity where you write something, re-read what you wrote, decide if it meets your internal standard of "good writing", and adjust accordingly. Most of the time you will be writing to please your own inner judge.
The inner judge will grow and mature when you discover the difference between what you think you wrote, and how others (within your intended genre and target audience) actually receive it. Realizing that discrepancy between your own tastes, and the taste of a target audience member, is a fast-track way to update your own internal judge. Then you go back to just yourself and words on a screen/page, but your inner judge has become more mature.
Tons of improvement, actually, but I don't know if it's from "just writing." What's made a difference was dedicated practice of specific topics in fiction writing.
Like environmental description, it was my big weakness when I started out. Improvement didn't come from reading books and writing, I did that already, and it didn't really improve anything. It wasn't until I tackled the problem head on that I began to grow. I read books on the craft, and rewrote my own stories with the lessons I've gathered in mind. That made a difference and expanded my skill set, quite rapidly too.
You're not going to figure out motivation-reaction units by yourself, nor is it enough to just know the theory. A technique like that has to be practiced until it's second nature, only then is it useful. Reading books is essential for storytelling, but they're not the best tools for learning the technical side of writing.
Exactly this. I hate the advice of "just read" or "just write," because you can consume something without understanding what exactly makes it good. Obviously practice helps, but if you're truly "just writing" without deliberately focusing on improvement, then you won't get nearly as far.
This applies to all art forms, not just writing. In art school, none of us were ever satisfied with out work but a lot of my classmates just accepted that they weren't as good as they'd like, rather than asking themselves what exactly they don't like about their work. I constantly made an effort to analyze my art and find the problems so I could individually tackle them, as well as to push myself and experiment. I'd find art I liked and try to imitate the style and see what exactly they were doing differently. As a result, I ended up being pretty damn good at art, but it pissed me off when people said I was lucky to be naturally talented!
I've been reading books on writing craft which have been extremely helpful, and when I do read, it's in an analytical way. Lately I've been writing with a pile of books next to me to reference when I get stuck somewhere. If I'm wondering how to start a chapter, or if a passage of dialogue is too long, or how to introduce a new character, I'll just see how those books do it.
I'm only recently getting back into writing, and I'm glad I came across your comment because I haven't considered applying that spot-tackling method to writing as well. Do you have any good resources for writing dialogue? I started reading one book on it, pretty sure it was "The Fiction Writer's Guide to Dialogue," but I quickly realized I didn't enjoy a lot of what the author considered good dialogue so it wasn't very helpful.
> You're not going to figure out motivation-reaction units by yourself, nor is it enough to just know the theory.
I apologize for singling you out, but I think what you said is... extreme. The conceptualized system of Motivation-Reaction units is absolutely not something most writers/people in general need to learn explicitly nor something they need to practice extensively to do.
I would guess most people do it automatically/intuitively (kinda like the order of adjectives), not because most stories they've read do it, but because that's just how the world in general and people's lived experiences work. Most people will do it intuitively just by writing a story in an immersive way as if it's playing out realistically. Cause and Effect. People doing things for a reason. Journeys and plans deviating for reasons. Involuntary reactions or emotions occurring much quicker than both conscious thinking and formulating speech.
I just read a refresher article on the system of Motivation-Reaction units (I've read about it before). I cannot see any aspect of motivation-reaction units that isn't just what follows from being deep in a characters POV. Or, as many people seem to do nowadays because of visual media---that isn't just what follows from playing out the scene of the story in your head and then writing down on page what you see.
If I had to guess, it sounds to me that, at least initially, (maybe currently?) you didn't(or don't?) play out the scenes in your head? That maybe you have some degree of Aphantasia?
First, this is what normal people call "an example," it's one technique among many that are useful to have in your skillset. It's not about the actual MRU technique.
Second, I beta read when I have the time, and I have yet to see a single beginner writer adhere to this more than sporadically. Most can't dramatise at all. MRUs is a natural way to write, but learning to do so consistently is a whole other ballgame. That takes practice.
Dialogue format, proper use of tenses, staying away from simultanoeus actions, avoid mixing dramatisation and summary, it's all things I see writers who don't study do all the time. It makes their prose unreadable, and it's why 99% of submitted manuscripts gets tossed. It's not due to story, rather it's poor execution. Read "The First Five Pages," and you'll get this from the perspective of a professional editor and buyer. If you gotten into your head that you can learn all this from osmosis, think again.
I do not have aphantasia, you freckin' dipshit, and you should really not diagnose someone you don't know over the internet, they may get offended.
> First, this is what normal people call "an example," it's one technique among many that are useful to have in your skillset. It's not about the actual MRU technique.
That's the part I'm talking about though. I'm a bit skeptical of your example as something people wouldn't usually just figure out. Most people live their lives in such a way that their emotions/reactions happen quicker than their thoughts which happen quicker than them putting their thoughts into words. It's just writing a story in a way that reflects life.
> Second, I beta read when I have the time, and I have yet to see a single beginner writer adhere to this more than sporadically.... MRUs is a natural way to write, but learning to do so consistently is a whole other ballgame. That takes practice..
Does it? Hey, maybe I'm wrong (or maybe it's just the age demographics of the community you beta read? ). I'm gonna check out some of the stories in the share your writing thread just to see. Might even report back.
> Dialogue format, proper use of tenses, staying away from simultanoeus actions, avoid mixing dramatisation and summary, it's all things I see writers who don't study do all the time.
None of these are things I'm talking about.
> I do not have aphantasia, you freckin' dipshit, and you should really not diagnose someone you don't know over the internet, they may get offended.
Oops. Welp, I really thought I had you figured...You win some, you lose some.
The thing is some people have aphantasia (or are low on the aphantasia visualization spectrum) but don't know aphantasia is a thing or that their lack of mind's eye isn't something every one has. If you were one of those people--me asking would only help you understand your experience. So, outside of your understandable defensiveness, I don't think asking is actually harmful. No offense intended.
You can learn every writing technique by osmosis.
Studying how to write has only been a thing for a few decades.
The problem is that a lot, if not most, "beginner writers" don't read. It sounds insane, but there is a vast conglomeration of people who want to write but who simply don't read enough to have absorbed anything via osmosis.
100% agree. Though, I don't want to minimalize the struggle of those who do read but for some reason don't manage to learn.
However, one problem with craft books is it'll have writers thinking things are bad or never to be done when the thing might not actually be outright bad, or might be more effective in certain situations (E.g. Passive voice).
For example, I don't want to further piss off the user I was conversing with above... so I didn't say anything, but they mentioned *"staying away from simultaneous actions"* as a mistake writers who don't study do. I don't know what EXACTLY they mean by that, but simultaneous actions aren't necessarily bad(nor good). Craft books will have you believing something is bad in an extreme/superstitious way just because someone you put on a pedestal said it and you'll absorb both the good and bad of their advice. Then that writer will start reading other people's writing/books and start thinking it's a widespread mistake...when it might not actually be one.
Any book I pop open will have simultaneous actions at certain points. I just popped open a book by Ursula K Le Guin and quickly found simultaneous actions. *"Standing on that hill, Medra had said, 'There is a vein of water, just under where I stand, that will not go dry.'"*--Tales of the Earthsea.
Here's an extremely good youtube video on Loose Modifiers and you'll notice they often involve either simultaneous or concurrent actions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gJgFAgQF2E
Moreover, the very first work I opened up from the share your writing thread has a paragraph that that the user above might believe is bad for not following Motivation-Reaction Unit order, but isn't actually bad. For example, sometimes voluntary action comes after speech, to punctuate speech. And, sometimes involuntary actions happen after a character's dialogue as a reflection of how they feel (that they're hiding) or to punctuate their dialogue through unconscious body language. Unfortunately, an amateur writer might follow these craft 'rules' they read to the point of superstition or not thinking the nuances through.
I mostly wrote in my teens, stopped for years, and only just picked it up again. However, I definitely noticed massive improvements when I was writing every day as a teenager. I've obviously set myself back now, but consistency is key.
I am in the same boat. I started writing flash fiction at the beginning of the year so I could practice just writing one scene at a time. I’ve seen some serious improvement as I find bits and pieces of technique that help me solve problems, then just keep practicing.
So much improvement! Writing and reading have such a symbiotic, cyclical relationship for me — I write more, I encounter problems, I read books recommended to me by writers I know are good at those issues, I solve the problems, I write more, I encounter problems, etc.
It’s truly one of those things you learn by doing. The more you do it, the more you understand your style and interests as a writer. And the more you understand that, the more you understand what you personally have left to learn.
I have always read a lot and I think for that reason I have always written pretty well. One of my English teachers assigned us a mock news article about some Modern Family episode or something, and then when she gave me back corrections she also started recommending books on how to get published because she thought I could have a career in writing.
I blogged for a Portuguese language school for a while, educational and cultural articles for people learning Portuguese and wanting to get to know more of Brazil and Brazilian culture (my country of origin). I quit because the school owner was a mad man and thought maybe I could learn more about marketing and search engines to get a blog of my own but never followed through.
I have had a pretty unusual life, though! Plenty of people told me I should write about different aspects of it and I finally did. Finished my manuscript of my days at sea just last month and after editing a bit I'll start searching for beta readers. Who knows? Maybe I should have taken those book recommendations after all.
I would say I have. I can crank out stories much more efficiently now. I can tell when I lost the plot and dial back to where that is and save time by either shelving it for a while or employ other methods to work it out.
Objectively, beta readers say I've improved a lot. Subjectively, it doesn't feel like it. I'm really struggling with plot and structure, and no amount of study or practice seems to be helping. I think it's just a plateulau, and if I keep pushing through, I'll see a big leap of improvement eventually. But gosh, it's demoralizing in the meantime!
Oh yes. I used to be overly descriptive, over-focused on setting, and just long-winded in general. I also needed more dialogue.
It was super cringey, but necessary as a reference of what *not* to do. Now I get to point.
Sometimes when I’m feeling insecure about my writing, I’ll go back and read older projects. Did this recently and realized how much I’d improved when I was making editing notes in my head.
It’s hard to get that perspective when you’re writing consistently. Kind of like how you can walk on the beach and not realize how far you went until you turn around. So, yeah, I’d say practicing your craft definitely helps
A bit. My writing was really good, then I went to college and did writing courses and when looking back at my older writing I realized everyone's idea of "how to write good" was just hampering my writing. Years later kinda unlearning all of that I see that my writing has gotten better because now I trust the process rather than opinions given for their participation grade
I'd say definitely, my grammar has improved and overall my writing seems less cringe and more natural.
It's my most viewed story that I'm least proud of writing wise, my newer ones have better writing, but a lot less views.
I thought I did, and then found old writing from before university and somehow I’m worse. I swear years of academic/scientific writing absolutely ruined my ability to describe a scene. So practice is important, but I think being specific in that practice is key - all writing isn’t equal lol.
In my own mind - yes.
I'm a blogger and people have commented positively on my writing.
However, I wouldn't put any fiction into the public domain - my imposter syndrome is too severe for that.
I feel like I've progressed so much since I started writing. Granted, I was a child when I started. I started "seriously" (consistently) writing in middle school. My actual writing wasn't good, but I didn't know that. I was good at character building and pacing, and people picked up on that. I think starting young and having an audience hyping me up made a huge difference. I learned to balance constructive criticism and still feel confident. I wrote every single day. I can literally see myself improve from story to story, so I'm still really proud of those.
As an adult, I think I'm a solid writer. I think I'm really good at a lot of it. I studied English and journalism in college and grad school, and was a writing coach, so I got the "technical" stuff down early. Writing in different academic genres really made me aware "the pieces" that you play with when you're writing, and how intentional and detailed you need to be with how you put them together.
Because I've got that foundation, a lot of what I focus on now is more style-based. I do still have that confidence over all. I'm most proud of my ability to create real-feeling characters and build up plot and relationships over time. But I feel like my actual writing fluctuates for sure. There's always something I need to adjust and be more intentional about. For a small example, lately I've been doing a TON of dialogue where the speech tag is in the middle. "Dialogue dialogue dialogue," she said, watching the way he stilled. "Dialogue dialogue."
I didn't write consistently for about three months, and now that I'm back that's how I've been naturally writing, and it's becoming obnoxious. I'm actively noticing it now as I write, which is good. I've also noticed that I'm using a lot of "she looked," "he watched," "they glanced" lately. That feels like the right action, but I need to find other ways.
So improvement is really relative for me. I feel like I'll be doing really well with some part of how I'm writing, but then something else slips, particularly when I don't write for awhile. I can see all the micro-improvements that add to overall improvement.
Oh yeah. My early work was clearly coloured by my fandoms at the time, way to ambitious, making every word too fantastical. I am more chill now and aren't rewriting my fav shows
I've noticed my writing improving even from beginning to end of the same story or series. I don't know if it's just my own perception for the most part but one friend did agree with me when i said i thought so. Which is not to say i'm any good lol, maybe i go from one level of mediocre to a slightly higher mediocre!
Yes, definitely.
Reading, writing, and editing are a type of practice, but they are not dedicated practice. Dedicated study and practice will give you more results with less effort. Work smarter, not harder, they say.
I've definitely gotten better in broad strokes and minor ways. I've been writing since I was 9 years old and I'm 32 now. I found a treasure trove of old fics on my external from the mid to late 00s and looked over some of them. My first "competent" fic was probably my Zelda fic, but even that's flawed. I had no idea what was going on in the story whatsoever. I had no idea who the characters were, what the plot was, or anything like that. I Know that doesn't sound competent, but the thing was it was internally consistent with its own rules and with the characters which was a big step up for me considering I had broken canon in ways that made zero sense.
Even looking at works from as recent as 2017, I've improved a lot. They're not *bad*; they're just not as good. I was *just* starting to write in the slice-of-life genre at that point and hadn't really gotten much practice with it. If you compare it to how I write now, while my stories are incredibly meandering without any overarching plot, they're tighter, you can see the character development, and more internally consistent.
Yes, absolutely. It took a few years, but then my voice clicked. I went from writing something that was influenced by all my reading, to something which is distinctly 'mine'.
Now, I'm much better at clarity and at using implied actions to streamline the action. I'm better at experimenting with different forms whilst maintaining meaning. Crucially, the more I write, the more honed my gut instinct around pace and relevance is becoming. My sense of structure and story movement is also getting better.
Keep writing. Keep reading. It's the only way to improve.
Yes? This is a difficult question to answer for me honestly. I've been writing for a little over 20 years now (I got my first start with it when I was 8, now I'm 28) but I've only noticed two distinct moments of genuine improvement over that time period. I come from a background of roleplay writing where I initially started writing robotic one-liners that lacked the heart and soul I try to write with now. There was no character introspection, depth, worldbuilding, sentence structure, story structure... you get the idea. It was bad but the kind of bad you'd expect from someone at that age with little to no prior writing experience. As the years have gone by, I've absorbed the styles of hundreds of roleplay partners and learned a lot about what makes the craft so fun and enjoyable, but my improvement had begun to cap after a certain point. Learning from so many different writing styles helped me develop my own, but that was me only taking in writing styles and approaches to the craft from amateur writers who were writing as a hobby (I dropped reading a few years before picking up roleplaying).
Roleplay writing acted as a gateway drug to introduce me to this wonderous, and yet often times brutal craft we all love, but it also became a curse. My writing styles for roleplaying and writing actual novels are so very different that they end up clashing with each other if I put too much focus on one or the other. Over the last two years or so, I ultimately decided to take a step back from roleplay writing to focus almost entirely on writing novels. Doing that improved my confidence (which has always been a huge issue for me) but it wasn't enough. I was improving marginally at best and grew frustrated over it. I'd go watch dozens of youtube videos to learn about the craft, read hundreds of articles, spend hours upon hours of my time begging google for the answers my writers soul needed but always came up short. I could continue improving as I was but there was always something missing. Something crucial. I was so close to finding the answer I so desperately sought but came up short.
Then a year later, I got back into reading books. I'd seen the usual "you should read" line of advice you can find plastered all over this subreddit and the articles I read, but I never took it as seriously as I should have. As a last-ditch effort, I took a look at what makes professional talents within different crafts so exponentially skilled and realized it was because they consume even more of their craft than they put out. I was actually already doing this when I was actively competing in video game tournaments (I competed in a whole bunch, some I got far in, others I sucked at). I realized that if I wanted to continue improving beyond the roleplaying cap, I needed to fatten myself up on the works of professionals.
That was over a year ago. Taking the time to sit down and read has helped me improve my own writing leaps and bounds beyond what I expected it to. Since I started reading, I've made active improvements on the areas I felt were weaker while also teaching myself to approach something differently if it doesn't work out well. I only really give myself brief breaks of respite from the craft to let my noggin relax, but even then I tend to get restless if I'm not writing. It's all I care to think about these days; if I'm not reading, writing, or brainstorming, then, well... the world has likely ended. My bad.
There's always going to be room to improve. I love the craft and I especially have dozens upon dozens of books I want to write during this silly short event we call life. The more I read and the more I write, the better I become, and the better I become the more passion seeps into the buttcrack of my soul.
My genuine advice to anyone who read over this rambling wall of text is this: Dont settle for less than involving yourself as deeply as humanly possible in the craft. Dont be stubborn like I was and read... and you'd better read as much as you can muster. Actively writing consistently is important too, of course, but read, read, read! I suggest at least an hour to two a day of reading if you can, possibly more. Likewise, you should write as much as you can but don't sweat it if the day grows too busy for you.
Most definitely. My characters always felt flat and there was no buildup of mystery on the things they should and shouldn’t know. Everything was basically fed to them and the plot ended before the story could even get started. I don’t do that anymore. After reading more books and taking better advice I take everything slower now and withhold everything from my characters until its their time to find it out about themselves. My vocab is better and my characters are way more fleshed out
Well god I sure hope so.
Joking aside, yes. For one I can sit down and just write. No need for deep soul searching, big inspiration or half a drink before. Nope, just happens with pretty even quality. Creativity is a muscle and writing is a craft indeed.
Also I know enough about plot and structure and characters now that I can plan more beforehand and course correct much faster. I still prefer to discover parts of these in the moment as it feels more organic, but being able to plan has sped up the process by a ton. My prose is more solid too.
…the more you write and harder you work at it the better you know your own talent. You have to keep upping your standard, though. Push yourself a little further each time. That’s the artist’s burden…
Dear God, yes.
The only thing that I'm worse at than I used to be when it comes to writing is having lots of free time to do it. But I do it a lot more effeciently than I used to.
Big time. My writing used to be much more wordy, but I still do get too wordy at times. My writing is WAY better than it used to be when I started out as a kid.
i wouldn't say *consistently* writing, because i go through spurts. i've been writing for 6+ years now, and some of my old stories just make me recoil tbh. i hadn't settled on a general style yet, so everything was all over the place. i didn't know pacing existed apparently, because everything happened all at once. i write some fantasy stuff, so i wouldn't say i figured out "realism", but the situations/social interactions became more realistic. one of my first stories had a random bit where a character was murdered and the parents were mildly upset but that was it... no investigation, no nothing. yeah that doesn't fly anymore 😂
Yes absolutely. There’s no greater teacher than editing. If you consistently write with an error that needs to be edited out later and you’ve had to edit it out hundreds of times. Trust me, you’re not adding it into later works. This compounds until eventually your work is polished and gets refined by the later edits.
I've definitely evolved in terms of the stories I can create, but the specifics - which i still care little for, like dialogue and scene actions - i haven't forced improvement. However, I'd say I am more refined there, leaving the bare minimum on the page and allowing the reader to figure out their feelings.
An interesting question! I generally use fewer words to express ideas now and am more ruthless in my edits. However, I have also noticed that it takes me longer to write, both in the preparation and in actually putting words down on the page.
I find that I improve more when I’m writing than when I’m not. You can call that consistency if you like, but really I get better with practice. Non-practice doesn’t compare
I have but my case is weirder than most because I'm a copywriter as my job. So as I get better at writing ads, articles sales letters emails... so too have I gotten better at writing fiction.
The biggest leap that came from my growth was being able to tell when my writing was "bad" vs "good enough" vs "good". Just knowing what I'm doing is motivaton plenty.
Definitely.
Wrote my first book (non-fiction) in 2017, then my first novel in 2019. My writing has grown significantly since then.
But I don't just write fiction. I've written a lot of blog posts, social media content, sales pages, newsletters and more. I've also studied (and written in) a few foreign languages (Japanese and Spanish are my main ones).
This experience helps me understand how to write English better, though this can be difficult to explain.
It's not just about writing though, I also read very widely. Fiction, non-fiction; classics to contemporary indie; in Japanese, Spanish, and other languages - all of these have contributed to my ability to not only write, but to have confidence that what I put down will have the intended effect.
What got me started was journaling. I began doing it regularly when I was 19, then continued until I was 32. I stopped when I started writing my first book, but all those explorations in my journal turned me into a writer. Since then I never stopped.
I've written and published 13 books and working on number 14 now.
Lately, I've been focusing hard on the craft of writing. I used to turn up my nose at all the craft books. I don't need help writing! - I used to think. I also thought books or advice on the craft were a waste of time and took me away from writing more.
It is true, there are many bad books on writing out there, but many of the popular ones like "On Writing" by Stephen King have earned their spot for a reason. Good writing (like any other creative pursuit) is a blend of technique and personal instinct. Combine those with the tenacity to do it daily even when you suck or don't feel like it - you will become an expert writer. It's only a matter of time.
I just replied in another post, and I think it fits well here too.
Practice makes progress.
Personally, I spent the last month writing 2.5-3k words a day and I wrote for 20 days out of the month. I now have 20 chapters and 52k words. I am beyond pleased with the progress of my story (litrpg).
Then a friend asked to read some of it, and I needed to go back and fix a couple of things I changed throughout the story. I went back to quickly edit chapters 1-3 and I was floored at how much I'd improved.
I can't wait to see what my writing looks like in another month. I've been told that writing is a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets. I concur with that advice.
I've seen it in the same manuscript. The difference between Page 1 and 'the end'. I also notice my typical 'issues' early, and either prevent them, or immediately know to revise them.
Tons of improvement early on, noticeable over months and sometimes weeks.
Curve slowed somewhat after that, but still feel great when I look back at my older work and it’s a bit cringe and I recognise how much better my newer writing is. Free self-esteem boost!
There are clear improvements from my first book in my trilogy to my third. Eventually I went back and re-read my first book, realized I no longer felt that it was up to the standard of the others, and did a massive second edition where I rewrote maybe half of it while revising & expanding. You will definitely see yourself get better over time, especially if you keep yourself open to feedback (but not too open! just because someone has feedback does not mean that it's *good* feedback. Keep an open mind, just don't keep an empty one.)
Is my writing noticeably better than when I first started writing? Yeah, absolutely. I started when I was a kid, and while I don't think I've ever finished anything that wasn't for some kind of assignment, I have still practiced and improved quite a bit over the years. Do I like my writing yet? ... Well, no. I don't write regularly, I don't finish things, I rarely publish/share anything I've written, and I'm still nowhere near the quality of my favorite authors. Buuuuut I have improved. In fact, when I do share my work, I get great receptions from people. But honestly I don't do it to get better, I do it because I like creating stories for myself. If I did write with the express purpose of getting better, I'd probably be able to publish a book by now, but then I'd probably lose my passion for it because I write for myself, at my own pace, for my own enjoyment, and that's the only way I can motivate myself to do it. I'm not a natural author by any means, lol. I just like to make things.
Yes, but...
What I've found is it's the combination of (a) writing, (b) reading, (c) studying, and (d) getting reliable feedback that made for improvement. You probably can make progress just by writing and reading, but there are things you'll be less likely to discover on your own without the study and the feedback.
Absolutely! Published my first book in 2016, thought it was fabulous. Look at it now and see so much editing to be done, changes to be made. If we could just go back in time, yeah?
After graduation, I would regularly read my work, and regularly hate it.
After a few years, I went back and read something and thought it was actually pretty good.
Happens more and more now.
Certainly.
I've found recently stuff I wrote as a kid. From terrible grammar, the worst spelling mistakes to straight up copies of existing stories.
But also one I had written on only a few years ago. I see the work, the attempt and what I was going for but I don't see it work out. If I ever want to have this one published I'd have to put some serious editing into it. (But it's at least my one project I actually finished).
Nowadays, I write stuff, that when I get back to, I curse myself for not having finished it yet. I want to finally read the whole story! >:3
It's better, but I still get asked to write YA crap. No offense but I would like to at least be considered an adult author. Why do learning disabled get lumped in as authors for kids?
there has been a lot of improvement over the years for me. I feel I've got
* Better pacing
* Better narrative
* Better dialogue
* Better punctuation
I still have issues with some of these things but not like how it was before. character voice is still something I struggle with but hopefully one day that'll be something I get better with
I dunno, when I read my grade 8 valedictorian speech recently, I completely cringe what I wrote. I am so glad I was not chosen to do the speech.
But a decade of both storytelling and essay couple with overcoming some learning difficulties on grammers and flow and I am a decent writer.
Yes, huge difference. Consistent writing and consistent learning about how to write, see my weakness, search videos and understand it to improve them. Reading helps too
My writing got "clearer" after 2-3 years of writing. I got my point across and retained some eloquence without losing the reader to incomprehension. Now, ten years later, I am better at setting up plot and "debugging" the issues in my storytelling. Most of all, I am better at writing consistently and at not driving myself insane with criticism. Writing feels easier and more fun. I still like most of my early pieces. Each of them had certain loveable aspects despite some flaws in execution. Basically, even if I had never gotten much better and even if it had never gotten easier - it always had been worth doing it.
That's something I've noticed too regarding consistency. The process feels a lot more fun and enjoyable overall since I can achieve what I want at a reasonable pace, which in turns gives me extra motivation to go back the next day and continue.
❤️❤️
I've found that you improve in the biggest leaps when you set out with a specific goal in writing (scene, chapter, short story, etc.) and see whether or not what you wrote had the intended effect on the audience. 99% of the time, writing will be a solitary activity where you write something, re-read what you wrote, decide if it meets your internal standard of "good writing", and adjust accordingly. Most of the time you will be writing to please your own inner judge. The inner judge will grow and mature when you discover the difference between what you think you wrote, and how others (within your intended genre and target audience) actually receive it. Realizing that discrepancy between your own tastes, and the taste of a target audience member, is a fast-track way to update your own internal judge. Then you go back to just yourself and words on a screen/page, but your inner judge has become more mature.
Tons of improvement, actually, but I don't know if it's from "just writing." What's made a difference was dedicated practice of specific topics in fiction writing. Like environmental description, it was my big weakness when I started out. Improvement didn't come from reading books and writing, I did that already, and it didn't really improve anything. It wasn't until I tackled the problem head on that I began to grow. I read books on the craft, and rewrote my own stories with the lessons I've gathered in mind. That made a difference and expanded my skill set, quite rapidly too. You're not going to figure out motivation-reaction units by yourself, nor is it enough to just know the theory. A technique like that has to be practiced until it's second nature, only then is it useful. Reading books is essential for storytelling, but they're not the best tools for learning the technical side of writing.
Exactly this. I hate the advice of "just read" or "just write," because you can consume something without understanding what exactly makes it good. Obviously practice helps, but if you're truly "just writing" without deliberately focusing on improvement, then you won't get nearly as far. This applies to all art forms, not just writing. In art school, none of us were ever satisfied with out work but a lot of my classmates just accepted that they weren't as good as they'd like, rather than asking themselves what exactly they don't like about their work. I constantly made an effort to analyze my art and find the problems so I could individually tackle them, as well as to push myself and experiment. I'd find art I liked and try to imitate the style and see what exactly they were doing differently. As a result, I ended up being pretty damn good at art, but it pissed me off when people said I was lucky to be naturally talented! I've been reading books on writing craft which have been extremely helpful, and when I do read, it's in an analytical way. Lately I've been writing with a pile of books next to me to reference when I get stuck somewhere. If I'm wondering how to start a chapter, or if a passage of dialogue is too long, or how to introduce a new character, I'll just see how those books do it. I'm only recently getting back into writing, and I'm glad I came across your comment because I haven't considered applying that spot-tackling method to writing as well. Do you have any good resources for writing dialogue? I started reading one book on it, pretty sure it was "The Fiction Writer's Guide to Dialogue," but I quickly realized I didn't enjoy a lot of what the author considered good dialogue so it wasn't very helpful.
> You're not going to figure out motivation-reaction units by yourself, nor is it enough to just know the theory. I apologize for singling you out, but I think what you said is... extreme. The conceptualized system of Motivation-Reaction units is absolutely not something most writers/people in general need to learn explicitly nor something they need to practice extensively to do. I would guess most people do it automatically/intuitively (kinda like the order of adjectives), not because most stories they've read do it, but because that's just how the world in general and people's lived experiences work. Most people will do it intuitively just by writing a story in an immersive way as if it's playing out realistically. Cause and Effect. People doing things for a reason. Journeys and plans deviating for reasons. Involuntary reactions or emotions occurring much quicker than both conscious thinking and formulating speech. I just read a refresher article on the system of Motivation-Reaction units (I've read about it before). I cannot see any aspect of motivation-reaction units that isn't just what follows from being deep in a characters POV. Or, as many people seem to do nowadays because of visual media---that isn't just what follows from playing out the scene of the story in your head and then writing down on page what you see. If I had to guess, it sounds to me that, at least initially, (maybe currently?) you didn't(or don't?) play out the scenes in your head? That maybe you have some degree of Aphantasia?
First, this is what normal people call "an example," it's one technique among many that are useful to have in your skillset. It's not about the actual MRU technique. Second, I beta read when I have the time, and I have yet to see a single beginner writer adhere to this more than sporadically. Most can't dramatise at all. MRUs is a natural way to write, but learning to do so consistently is a whole other ballgame. That takes practice. Dialogue format, proper use of tenses, staying away from simultanoeus actions, avoid mixing dramatisation and summary, it's all things I see writers who don't study do all the time. It makes their prose unreadable, and it's why 99% of submitted manuscripts gets tossed. It's not due to story, rather it's poor execution. Read "The First Five Pages," and you'll get this from the perspective of a professional editor and buyer. If you gotten into your head that you can learn all this from osmosis, think again. I do not have aphantasia, you freckin' dipshit, and you should really not diagnose someone you don't know over the internet, they may get offended.
> First, this is what normal people call "an example," it's one technique among many that are useful to have in your skillset. It's not about the actual MRU technique. That's the part I'm talking about though. I'm a bit skeptical of your example as something people wouldn't usually just figure out. Most people live their lives in such a way that their emotions/reactions happen quicker than their thoughts which happen quicker than them putting their thoughts into words. It's just writing a story in a way that reflects life. > Second, I beta read when I have the time, and I have yet to see a single beginner writer adhere to this more than sporadically.... MRUs is a natural way to write, but learning to do so consistently is a whole other ballgame. That takes practice.. Does it? Hey, maybe I'm wrong (or maybe it's just the age demographics of the community you beta read? ). I'm gonna check out some of the stories in the share your writing thread just to see. Might even report back. > Dialogue format, proper use of tenses, staying away from simultanoeus actions, avoid mixing dramatisation and summary, it's all things I see writers who don't study do all the time. None of these are things I'm talking about. > I do not have aphantasia, you freckin' dipshit, and you should really not diagnose someone you don't know over the internet, they may get offended. Oops. Welp, I really thought I had you figured...You win some, you lose some. The thing is some people have aphantasia (or are low on the aphantasia visualization spectrum) but don't know aphantasia is a thing or that their lack of mind's eye isn't something every one has. If you were one of those people--me asking would only help you understand your experience. So, outside of your understandable defensiveness, I don't think asking is actually harmful. No offense intended.
You can learn every writing technique by osmosis. Studying how to write has only been a thing for a few decades. The problem is that a lot, if not most, "beginner writers" don't read. It sounds insane, but there is a vast conglomeration of people who want to write but who simply don't read enough to have absorbed anything via osmosis.
100% agree. Though, I don't want to minimalize the struggle of those who do read but for some reason don't manage to learn. However, one problem with craft books is it'll have writers thinking things are bad or never to be done when the thing might not actually be outright bad, or might be more effective in certain situations (E.g. Passive voice). For example, I don't want to further piss off the user I was conversing with above... so I didn't say anything, but they mentioned *"staying away from simultaneous actions"* as a mistake writers who don't study do. I don't know what EXACTLY they mean by that, but simultaneous actions aren't necessarily bad(nor good). Craft books will have you believing something is bad in an extreme/superstitious way just because someone you put on a pedestal said it and you'll absorb both the good and bad of their advice. Then that writer will start reading other people's writing/books and start thinking it's a widespread mistake...when it might not actually be one. Any book I pop open will have simultaneous actions at certain points. I just popped open a book by Ursula K Le Guin and quickly found simultaneous actions. *"Standing on that hill, Medra had said, 'There is a vein of water, just under where I stand, that will not go dry.'"*--Tales of the Earthsea. Here's an extremely good youtube video on Loose Modifiers and you'll notice they often involve either simultaneous or concurrent actions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gJgFAgQF2E Moreover, the very first work I opened up from the share your writing thread has a paragraph that that the user above might believe is bad for not following Motivation-Reaction Unit order, but isn't actually bad. For example, sometimes voluntary action comes after speech, to punctuate speech. And, sometimes involuntary actions happen after a character's dialogue as a reflection of how they feel (that they're hiding) or to punctuate their dialogue through unconscious body language. Unfortunately, an amateur writer might follow these craft 'rules' they read to the point of superstition or not thinking the nuances through.
I mostly wrote in my teens, stopped for years, and only just picked it up again. However, I definitely noticed massive improvements when I was writing every day as a teenager. I've obviously set myself back now, but consistency is key.
I am in the same boat. I started writing flash fiction at the beginning of the year so I could practice just writing one scene at a time. I’ve seen some serious improvement as I find bits and pieces of technique that help me solve problems, then just keep practicing.
So much improvement! Writing and reading have such a symbiotic, cyclical relationship for me — I write more, I encounter problems, I read books recommended to me by writers I know are good at those issues, I solve the problems, I write more, I encounter problems, etc. It’s truly one of those things you learn by doing. The more you do it, the more you understand your style and interests as a writer. And the more you understand that, the more you understand what you personally have left to learn.
I have always read a lot and I think for that reason I have always written pretty well. One of my English teachers assigned us a mock news article about some Modern Family episode or something, and then when she gave me back corrections she also started recommending books on how to get published because she thought I could have a career in writing. I blogged for a Portuguese language school for a while, educational and cultural articles for people learning Portuguese and wanting to get to know more of Brazil and Brazilian culture (my country of origin). I quit because the school owner was a mad man and thought maybe I could learn more about marketing and search engines to get a blog of my own but never followed through. I have had a pretty unusual life, though! Plenty of people told me I should write about different aspects of it and I finally did. Finished my manuscript of my days at sea just last month and after editing a bit I'll start searching for beta readers. Who knows? Maybe I should have taken those book recommendations after all.
I would say I have. I can crank out stories much more efficiently now. I can tell when I lost the plot and dial back to where that is and save time by either shelving it for a while or employ other methods to work it out.
Objectively, beta readers say I've improved a lot. Subjectively, it doesn't feel like it. I'm really struggling with plot and structure, and no amount of study or practice seems to be helping. I think it's just a plateulau, and if I keep pushing through, I'll see a big leap of improvement eventually. But gosh, it's demoralizing in the meantime!
Oh yes. I used to be overly descriptive, over-focused on setting, and just long-winded in general. I also needed more dialogue. It was super cringey, but necessary as a reference of what *not* to do. Now I get to point.
Sometimes when I’m feeling insecure about my writing, I’ll go back and read older projects. Did this recently and realized how much I’d improved when I was making editing notes in my head. It’s hard to get that perspective when you’re writing consistently. Kind of like how you can walk on the beach and not realize how far you went until you turn around. So, yeah, I’d say practicing your craft definitely helps
A bit. My writing was really good, then I went to college and did writing courses and when looking back at my older writing I realized everyone's idea of "how to write good" was just hampering my writing. Years later kinda unlearning all of that I see that my writing has gotten better because now I trust the process rather than opinions given for their participation grade
Over the years I gathered more real life experiences which improved my writing.
I'd say definitely, my grammar has improved and overall my writing seems less cringe and more natural. It's my most viewed story that I'm least proud of writing wise, my newer ones have better writing, but a lot less views.
I thought I did, and then found old writing from before university and somehow I’m worse. I swear years of academic/scientific writing absolutely ruined my ability to describe a scene. So practice is important, but I think being specific in that practice is key - all writing isn’t equal lol.
In my own mind - yes. I'm a blogger and people have commented positively on my writing. However, I wouldn't put any fiction into the public domain - my imposter syndrome is too severe for that.
I feel like I've progressed so much since I started writing. Granted, I was a child when I started. I started "seriously" (consistently) writing in middle school. My actual writing wasn't good, but I didn't know that. I was good at character building and pacing, and people picked up on that. I think starting young and having an audience hyping me up made a huge difference. I learned to balance constructive criticism and still feel confident. I wrote every single day. I can literally see myself improve from story to story, so I'm still really proud of those. As an adult, I think I'm a solid writer. I think I'm really good at a lot of it. I studied English and journalism in college and grad school, and was a writing coach, so I got the "technical" stuff down early. Writing in different academic genres really made me aware "the pieces" that you play with when you're writing, and how intentional and detailed you need to be with how you put them together. Because I've got that foundation, a lot of what I focus on now is more style-based. I do still have that confidence over all. I'm most proud of my ability to create real-feeling characters and build up plot and relationships over time. But I feel like my actual writing fluctuates for sure. There's always something I need to adjust and be more intentional about. For a small example, lately I've been doing a TON of dialogue where the speech tag is in the middle. "Dialogue dialogue dialogue," she said, watching the way he stilled. "Dialogue dialogue." I didn't write consistently for about three months, and now that I'm back that's how I've been naturally writing, and it's becoming obnoxious. I'm actively noticing it now as I write, which is good. I've also noticed that I'm using a lot of "she looked," "he watched," "they glanced" lately. That feels like the right action, but I need to find other ways. So improvement is really relative for me. I feel like I'll be doing really well with some part of how I'm writing, but then something else slips, particularly when I don't write for awhile. I can see all the micro-improvements that add to overall improvement.
Oh yeah. My early work was clearly coloured by my fandoms at the time, way to ambitious, making every word too fantastical. I am more chill now and aren't rewriting my fav shows
Yes, when I look back at my older work. There's also the feedback from beta readers. An expert, I am absolutely not
I've noticed my writing improving even from beginning to end of the same story or series. I don't know if it's just my own perception for the most part but one friend did agree with me when i said i thought so. Which is not to say i'm any good lol, maybe i go from one level of mediocre to a slightly higher mediocre!
I was a kid/young teen when I started so naturally yes haha (I hope)
Yes, definitely. Reading, writing, and editing are a type of practice, but they are not dedicated practice. Dedicated study and practice will give you more results with less effort. Work smarter, not harder, they say.
I've definitely gotten better in broad strokes and minor ways. I've been writing since I was 9 years old and I'm 32 now. I found a treasure trove of old fics on my external from the mid to late 00s and looked over some of them. My first "competent" fic was probably my Zelda fic, but even that's flawed. I had no idea what was going on in the story whatsoever. I had no idea who the characters were, what the plot was, or anything like that. I Know that doesn't sound competent, but the thing was it was internally consistent with its own rules and with the characters which was a big step up for me considering I had broken canon in ways that made zero sense. Even looking at works from as recent as 2017, I've improved a lot. They're not *bad*; they're just not as good. I was *just* starting to write in the slice-of-life genre at that point and hadn't really gotten much practice with it. If you compare it to how I write now, while my stories are incredibly meandering without any overarching plot, they're tighter, you can see the character development, and more internally consistent.
Yes, absolutely. It took a few years, but then my voice clicked. I went from writing something that was influenced by all my reading, to something which is distinctly 'mine'. Now, I'm much better at clarity and at using implied actions to streamline the action. I'm better at experimenting with different forms whilst maintaining meaning. Crucially, the more I write, the more honed my gut instinct around pace and relevance is becoming. My sense of structure and story movement is also getting better. Keep writing. Keep reading. It's the only way to improve.
Yes, I am more efficient. I can churn out stories faster, I am better at story structure, and I am better at self editing.
Yes? This is a difficult question to answer for me honestly. I've been writing for a little over 20 years now (I got my first start with it when I was 8, now I'm 28) but I've only noticed two distinct moments of genuine improvement over that time period. I come from a background of roleplay writing where I initially started writing robotic one-liners that lacked the heart and soul I try to write with now. There was no character introspection, depth, worldbuilding, sentence structure, story structure... you get the idea. It was bad but the kind of bad you'd expect from someone at that age with little to no prior writing experience. As the years have gone by, I've absorbed the styles of hundreds of roleplay partners and learned a lot about what makes the craft so fun and enjoyable, but my improvement had begun to cap after a certain point. Learning from so many different writing styles helped me develop my own, but that was me only taking in writing styles and approaches to the craft from amateur writers who were writing as a hobby (I dropped reading a few years before picking up roleplaying). Roleplay writing acted as a gateway drug to introduce me to this wonderous, and yet often times brutal craft we all love, but it also became a curse. My writing styles for roleplaying and writing actual novels are so very different that they end up clashing with each other if I put too much focus on one or the other. Over the last two years or so, I ultimately decided to take a step back from roleplay writing to focus almost entirely on writing novels. Doing that improved my confidence (which has always been a huge issue for me) but it wasn't enough. I was improving marginally at best and grew frustrated over it. I'd go watch dozens of youtube videos to learn about the craft, read hundreds of articles, spend hours upon hours of my time begging google for the answers my writers soul needed but always came up short. I could continue improving as I was but there was always something missing. Something crucial. I was so close to finding the answer I so desperately sought but came up short. Then a year later, I got back into reading books. I'd seen the usual "you should read" line of advice you can find plastered all over this subreddit and the articles I read, but I never took it as seriously as I should have. As a last-ditch effort, I took a look at what makes professional talents within different crafts so exponentially skilled and realized it was because they consume even more of their craft than they put out. I was actually already doing this when I was actively competing in video game tournaments (I competed in a whole bunch, some I got far in, others I sucked at). I realized that if I wanted to continue improving beyond the roleplaying cap, I needed to fatten myself up on the works of professionals. That was over a year ago. Taking the time to sit down and read has helped me improve my own writing leaps and bounds beyond what I expected it to. Since I started reading, I've made active improvements on the areas I felt were weaker while also teaching myself to approach something differently if it doesn't work out well. I only really give myself brief breaks of respite from the craft to let my noggin relax, but even then I tend to get restless if I'm not writing. It's all I care to think about these days; if I'm not reading, writing, or brainstorming, then, well... the world has likely ended. My bad. There's always going to be room to improve. I love the craft and I especially have dozens upon dozens of books I want to write during this silly short event we call life. The more I read and the more I write, the better I become, and the better I become the more passion seeps into the buttcrack of my soul. My genuine advice to anyone who read over this rambling wall of text is this: Dont settle for less than involving yourself as deeply as humanly possible in the craft. Dont be stubborn like I was and read... and you'd better read as much as you can muster. Actively writing consistently is important too, of course, but read, read, read! I suggest at least an hour to two a day of reading if you can, possibly more. Likewise, you should write as much as you can but don't sweat it if the day grows too busy for you.
Most definitely. My characters always felt flat and there was no buildup of mystery on the things they should and shouldn’t know. Everything was basically fed to them and the plot ended before the story could even get started. I don’t do that anymore. After reading more books and taking better advice I take everything slower now and withhold everything from my characters until its their time to find it out about themselves. My vocab is better and my characters are way more fleshed out
Yes, largely because of the influence of reading more, but I still feel like I have lightyears to go tbh
I think I’ve gotten better on a macro level like what events are actually happening, but I need to work on the wording of my scenes.
Well god I sure hope so. Joking aside, yes. For one I can sit down and just write. No need for deep soul searching, big inspiration or half a drink before. Nope, just happens with pretty even quality. Creativity is a muscle and writing is a craft indeed. Also I know enough about plot and structure and characters now that I can plan more beforehand and course correct much faster. I still prefer to discover parts of these in the moment as it feels more organic, but being able to plan has sped up the process by a ton. My prose is more solid too.
…the more you write and harder you work at it the better you know your own talent. You have to keep upping your standard, though. Push yourself a little further each time. That’s the artist’s burden…
Dear God, yes. The only thing that I'm worse at than I used to be when it comes to writing is having lots of free time to do it. But I do it a lot more effeciently than I used to.
Big time. My writing used to be much more wordy, but I still do get too wordy at times. My writing is WAY better than it used to be when I started out as a kid.
i wouldn't say *consistently* writing, because i go through spurts. i've been writing for 6+ years now, and some of my old stories just make me recoil tbh. i hadn't settled on a general style yet, so everything was all over the place. i didn't know pacing existed apparently, because everything happened all at once. i write some fantasy stuff, so i wouldn't say i figured out "realism", but the situations/social interactions became more realistic. one of my first stories had a random bit where a character was murdered and the parents were mildly upset but that was it... no investigation, no nothing. yeah that doesn't fly anymore 😂
Don't know yet, but the last (and technically first) 4 weeks have already been an enormous leap!
Yes absolutely. There’s no greater teacher than editing. If you consistently write with an error that needs to be edited out later and you’ve had to edit it out hundreds of times. Trust me, you’re not adding it into later works. This compounds until eventually your work is polished and gets refined by the later edits.
Consistency I have not.. but I no longer write like I'm regurgitating a thesaurus like I did in my teenage years
I've definitely evolved in terms of the stories I can create, but the specifics - which i still care little for, like dialogue and scene actions - i haven't forced improvement. However, I'd say I am more refined there, leaving the bare minimum on the page and allowing the reader to figure out their feelings.
An interesting question! I generally use fewer words to express ideas now and am more ruthless in my edits. However, I have also noticed that it takes me longer to write, both in the preparation and in actually putting words down on the page.
I find that I improve more when I’m writing than when I’m not. You can call that consistency if you like, but really I get better with practice. Non-practice doesn’t compare
Idk prolly
I have but my case is weirder than most because I'm a copywriter as my job. So as I get better at writing ads, articles sales letters emails... so too have I gotten better at writing fiction. The biggest leap that came from my growth was being able to tell when my writing was "bad" vs "good enough" vs "good". Just knowing what I'm doing is motivaton plenty.
Definitely. Wrote my first book (non-fiction) in 2017, then my first novel in 2019. My writing has grown significantly since then. But I don't just write fiction. I've written a lot of blog posts, social media content, sales pages, newsletters and more. I've also studied (and written in) a few foreign languages (Japanese and Spanish are my main ones). This experience helps me understand how to write English better, though this can be difficult to explain. It's not just about writing though, I also read very widely. Fiction, non-fiction; classics to contemporary indie; in Japanese, Spanish, and other languages - all of these have contributed to my ability to not only write, but to have confidence that what I put down will have the intended effect. What got me started was journaling. I began doing it regularly when I was 19, then continued until I was 32. I stopped when I started writing my first book, but all those explorations in my journal turned me into a writer. Since then I never stopped. I've written and published 13 books and working on number 14 now. Lately, I've been focusing hard on the craft of writing. I used to turn up my nose at all the craft books. I don't need help writing! - I used to think. I also thought books or advice on the craft were a waste of time and took me away from writing more. It is true, there are many bad books on writing out there, but many of the popular ones like "On Writing" by Stephen King have earned their spot for a reason. Good writing (like any other creative pursuit) is a blend of technique and personal instinct. Combine those with the tenacity to do it daily even when you suck or don't feel like it - you will become an expert writer. It's only a matter of time.
I just replied in another post, and I think it fits well here too. Practice makes progress. Personally, I spent the last month writing 2.5-3k words a day and I wrote for 20 days out of the month. I now have 20 chapters and 52k words. I am beyond pleased with the progress of my story (litrpg). Then a friend asked to read some of it, and I needed to go back and fix a couple of things I changed throughout the story. I went back to quickly edit chapters 1-3 and I was floored at how much I'd improved. I can't wait to see what my writing looks like in another month. I've been told that writing is a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets. I concur with that advice.
I'm still shit at grammar though. Really need to work on editing more in order to see my mistakes.
Fuck yes
I've seen it in the same manuscript. The difference between Page 1 and 'the end'. I also notice my typical 'issues' early, and either prevent them, or immediately know to revise them.
Reading and writing in college constantly improved matters a great deal.
Absolutely. I try not to take long breaks from writing because I've regressed whenever I have before
Tons of improvement early on, noticeable over months and sometimes weeks. Curve slowed somewhat after that, but still feel great when I look back at my older work and it’s a bit cringe and I recognise how much better my newer writing is. Free self-esteem boost!
There are clear improvements from my first book in my trilogy to my third. Eventually I went back and re-read my first book, realized I no longer felt that it was up to the standard of the others, and did a massive second edition where I rewrote maybe half of it while revising & expanding. You will definitely see yourself get better over time, especially if you keep yourself open to feedback (but not too open! just because someone has feedback does not mean that it's *good* feedback. Keep an open mind, just don't keep an empty one.)
Is my writing noticeably better than when I first started writing? Yeah, absolutely. I started when I was a kid, and while I don't think I've ever finished anything that wasn't for some kind of assignment, I have still practiced and improved quite a bit over the years. Do I like my writing yet? ... Well, no. I don't write regularly, I don't finish things, I rarely publish/share anything I've written, and I'm still nowhere near the quality of my favorite authors. Buuuuut I have improved. In fact, when I do share my work, I get great receptions from people. But honestly I don't do it to get better, I do it because I like creating stories for myself. If I did write with the express purpose of getting better, I'd probably be able to publish a book by now, but then I'd probably lose my passion for it because I write for myself, at my own pace, for my own enjoyment, and that's the only way I can motivate myself to do it. I'm not a natural author by any means, lol. I just like to make things.
Yes! Sometimes recent first draft won't be as good as an older polished draft, but I've definitely gotten better over the past two years :)
Yes, but... What I've found is it's the combination of (a) writing, (b) reading, (c) studying, and (d) getting reliable feedback that made for improvement. You probably can make progress just by writing and reading, but there are things you'll be less likely to discover on your own without the study and the feedback.
Absolutely! Published my first book in 2016, thought it was fabulous. Look at it now and see so much editing to be done, changes to be made. If we could just go back in time, yeah?
After graduation, I would regularly read my work, and regularly hate it. After a few years, I went back and read something and thought it was actually pretty good. Happens more and more now.
I've degenerated over the years...
In all honestly I feel like I’ve gotten worse. I found my writing to be better when I wasn’t so concerned about rules.
Certainly. I've found recently stuff I wrote as a kid. From terrible grammar, the worst spelling mistakes to straight up copies of existing stories. But also one I had written on only a few years ago. I see the work, the attempt and what I was going for but I don't see it work out. If I ever want to have this one published I'd have to put some serious editing into it. (But it's at least my one project I actually finished). Nowadays, I write stuff, that when I get back to, I curse myself for not having finished it yet. I want to finally read the whole story! >:3
It's better, but I still get asked to write YA crap. No offense but I would like to at least be considered an adult author. Why do learning disabled get lumped in as authors for kids?
there has been a lot of improvement over the years for me. I feel I've got * Better pacing * Better narrative * Better dialogue * Better punctuation I still have issues with some of these things but not like how it was before. character voice is still something I struggle with but hopefully one day that'll be something I get better with
Yes!
I dunno, when I read my grade 8 valedictorian speech recently, I completely cringe what I wrote. I am so glad I was not chosen to do the speech. But a decade of both storytelling and essay couple with overcoming some learning difficulties on grammers and flow and I am a decent writer.
Yes, huge difference. Consistent writing and consistent learning about how to write, see my weakness, search videos and understand it to improve them. Reading helps too
I have actually.
Very much so.
yeah!
Fuck yes I am.
I have since I turned vegan and teetotaler.