A shared thought / how has this site changed your writings?

JJewel

JJewel

Douglas Morrison
Joined
Sep 22, 2020
Messages
385
Location
Cheshire UK
Okay when I joined this site 1 week ago it was a bit of fun and a desire to pick all your brains, if you didnt mind sharing some of your knowledge.

Before I would and could write 5000 words in an evening through stream of conscious and then do some clean up.

Now after learning a huge amount already and feeling like a lot of my ideas were either wrong or need polished I write a lot less and then agonise over a word or pathway. But It feels like the stories is tighter and their is a focus, so I will probably never finish my next book as it will take me years to perfect but it will be very good :)

Has this site changed your perception?
 
The 75-word challenges were a great eye=opener for me. The way they force you to focus on the story is wonderful. (I should get back to doing them again.)

The critiques/writers' group sections have also been instructive, not just for feedback on my own work but also to see the various reactions to other peoples posts. While the critiques can sometimes throw up masses of wildly contradictory advice, they have made me more aware of issues like Point of View and the inner state-of-mind of characters. This has led me to experiment with different ways of handling these in my own writing.
 
Hi! Everything is part of an evolution in which you must assume from now on that everything is going to change in the way you perceive things, and it will increase as you absorb more knowledge. I have been writing since I was ten years old and I will never learn everything but that is the grace, right? So give it what you have, tomorrow for sure you will have more to give it and so on. The important thing is not to lose the magic of writing.
 
Awesome site with kind folks willing to give their time to help you improve your writing. Ideally, a writer would have a local writers group where they can go gather at someone's home and read and critique each other's writing. Some of us are introverts, some of us have families and schedules, and most of us are in the middle of a pandemic. These forums are an awesome place to form virtual writers groups.

With the help of kind critics, I'm steering my writing away from exposition towards more natural dialog and action, and I'm paying attention to my POV. While I get my technical points from the web, the interaction here - seeing other people's writing, seeing the critiques they get, and also critiques to my own writing - helps me put those technical points to work.
 
were either wrong or need(ed) polish(ing) I write a lot less and then agonise over a word or pathway. But (i)t feels like the stories (are) tighter and (there) is a focus, so I will probably never finish my next book as it will take me years to perfect but it will be very good :)

a great help. )
 
J Riff said:
were either wrong or need(ed) polish(ing) I write a lot less and then agonise over a word or pathway. But (i)t feels like the stories (are) tighter and (there) is a focus, so I will probably never finish my next book as it will take me years to perfect but it will be very good :)

a great help. )
Click to expand...
Thanks Riff, my grammar is often awful and when not focusing on a story the words trip out higgldy piggldy. But when I write I have grammarly and my wife to proof read. I have ideas not nec the ability to write it well (we all need to have something to work on) but your very sarcastic (I presume) reply demonstrates well that it takes a a lot of different natures to run a forum site like this, I will keep in mind your comments when next I decide to put anything up.
 
Last edited:
Before word processors were used with the ease of kitchen appliances, it was not unusual to spend a lot of time writing a book. However, my extra time is spent doing other things between writing bouts. I try not to write as other people do, imaging a cheap gateway to originality, when in fact, over the past 40,000 years, everything has already been written. That said, this site expands my thinking by exposing me to lots of ideas, thoughts and opinions, and authors and stories I have never read before. And a good story gives me new insights, new ways to look at the same old things, which hopefully translates into better writing.
 
I have learned a lot here, and then learned here that I needed to unlearn a good deal of what I've learned here. By which I mean I learned a lot about being a punchier, hookier writer who evades common pitfalls, but over time, I've had others point out I've lost a bit of my voice. Next step in evolution is to get my voice together with writing right (well, mostly right), learning how to finish books, and learning how to love editing (or more importantly, editing as I go, as I simply can't do churn it out and fix it later).

MikeAnderson said:
:pDanny McG taught me a killer recipe for authentic British bathtub gin. Otherwise, I learned nothing from this place.:p (jokes, folks!)
Click to expand...

Did you try it and can you still see?
 
Cherry pick. I would advise against treating the site as 'an education'. (specific writing threads excluded) It is for me more about camaraderie. Being with others and sharing the joys and frustrations of our chosen career/ hobby. Writing can be a lonely business, especially under draconian covid laws, so having somewhere to come and 'meet' other writers, as I previously did, before the criminalization of writers group meetings, has become a boon.

Regarding influence: Getting down to specifics, I am by nature a romantic and poetic writer (with occasional excursions).
If I followed the trend in the winning challenges I would end up trying to write gags and sting in the tail stuff. Laughs seeming to be more important than, heaven forbid, a deep thought.
I could perhaps get wins by doing that but I wouldn't be me. I would have become a reflection of the audience, subverted by peer pressure.
So read, absorb, enjoy and use anything useful, but don't become a pleaser, stay true to yourself.
 
Last edited:
You are correct Astro, at least for me, I like my style and what I write but appreciate it can be improved. So I am cherry picking just as you say, correcting my mistakes while keeping the body of work intact.

And I suspect for me anyway your words make the most sense of anything I have read here so far.
 
JJewel said:
Now after learning a huge amount already and feeling like a lot of my ideas were either wrong or need polished I write a lot less and then agonise over a word or pathway. But It feels like the stories is tighter and their is a focus, so I will probably never finish my next book as it will take me years to perfect but it will be very good :)
Click to expand...

@JJewel Please do not feel discouraged. The critiques are merely opinions of what might aid your writing. In a purely written form, the suggestions do tend to come across as cold and harsh, but would be much less so if we had the chance to sit in a room and have face to face discussions. Of the blitz of comments received, I suggest taking only one and try to apply it for a writing session. Does the suggestion help or hinder the story development? Do not try to address every suggestion in one attempt.

Keep plugging away that is all we can do. Please try to read critiques as encouragement to move slightly in a different vein and not as an indictment of what you have already written. By all means, keep writing.
 
To the OP, this site has been utterly formative for me as a writer. This applies not only to by pet writing obsession, but also my career as a grant writer. The editing skills learned in the challenges and critiques are genuinely irreplaceable.
Robert Zwilling said:
Before word processors were used with the ease of kitchen appliances...
Click to expand...
Now, my problem here is that you're assuming kitchen appliances are easy... Some of the machines which have infested mine are so convoluted that they require advanced engineering and computer science degrees...
 
@Wayne Mack I wasnt discouraged and infact was actually pleased I received some pointers. I have always felt the core of my work is good, the ideas and so forth but the presentation needs work. And that is what the Critique and so forth has given me, a lot of ideas I can work with. I have already created a list of 5 key points I want to make sure I address in every story I write from now on.

And equally their was a few things in critique I disagreed with which I do feel adds value so it is all good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
Hugh Sperm whales in 19th century shared ship attack information Science & Nature 5
I Obscure series of shared-world novels Book Search 8
I Low amount of shared syntax in modern english Writing Discussion 19
Cli-Fi Should Disney/Pixar make a Shared Universe? General Film Discussion 3
HareBrain Shared author websites -- good idea or not? Writing Discussion 12

Similar threads


Back
Top