Concerns about my writing.

[silentmetaphor]

I attempted to join the community almost a year ago. I was expected to deliver my writing ( text ) a few months ago... but because of my work and personal issues, I wasn't able to decide not only the specific text I would want to deliver but also the "form". I don't consider myself to be a perfectionist, but I can't get rid of the feeling that "it's not enough".

I translated a few shorter stories in English, but couldn't force myself, to fully edit or finish them. I keep procrastinating and moving from project to project, unable to finish any of them.

My English is far from perfect, so I want to know exactly what is and isn't an acceptable level for a chapter of the
"material".
I would also want to know limitations regarding the volume and form ( of delivery, should it be consistent or the variations ).
Thank you for your time and I apologize for the irksome session of one's timidity.

 

[msstice]

1. Writing isn't easy
2. Writing in a foreign language is hard

Just follow the guidelines in the "Critiques" sub-forum and submit your work. Everyone I've seen here is kind and thoughtful but honest. Expect to get incisive critiques and you have to be prepared for that, but that is the only way to improve.

Looking forward to seeing your pieces.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

One of the biggest challenges of being a writer is learning to turn off your inner critic and to just write.

Writing, possibly more than any other art form, is a craft. And, like all crafts, the more you do it, the better you get.

Write your first draft and don't worry about it until you've finished it. Then, let it sit in a drawer for a month or so. After that, take it out, turn on your inner critic and rewrite it, with special attention to structure, characterisation and plot. After you've nailed those, rewrite it with special attention to language. Your final rewrites are for polish.

Write one thing at a time, finish it and move on. The more projects you have on the go, the more likely you are to never finish anything.

Every writer procrastinates. Writing is a discipline and a habit - the more time you force yourself to sit daily at the typewriter, the more productive you will come. Set a daily word count, or a time to sit and write, and just write. 90% of it might be rubbish, but you have to produce the rubbish to get to the gold.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Just a thought* @silentmetaphor ; your writing might appeal to others who don't use English as a first language -there is probably a place for writing that uses a more international form of the language, and what might seem like errors for some work fine in that space (I've no clue about volume, I think in general our human attention span is rapidly decreasing!) ...I could be very wrong, sounds like you have a rough style already, might be worth seeing how it works in Critiques before changing anything.
*I'm no expert and am just learning.

 

[DLCroix]

Well, suppose you are a bird that is learning to fly, the point is that once in the air it is already, you fly. Simple. Obviously you can learn theory from literature or advice to fly better, but the most important aspect of a writer is that he feels comfortable writing and enjoys it, only then will the bird, returning to our example, fly better, because training itself to resist the urge to pick up the dictionary every so often, or worry about how much progress is being made, in a word, interrupting the writing process itself, is equivalent to a bird flying with too much extra charge. In this matter, self-confidence equals spontaneity, and it is easy to see in which of the two scenarios one is more creative. It is not about being arrogant, but about being aware that everything can be improved and you should not obsess about trying to do everything at once, but about progressing step by step.

 

[Wayne Mack]

Go ahead and submit something to Critiques. You can only start where you are right now.

Once you submit something, remember the responses that you receive are only opinions. Feel free to pick and choose among the recommendations and only address the ones that you feel are appropriate. This may eve be none. Do not feel that you need to accept every comment and recommendation.

I try to view responses not as criticisms, but as indications that the reader did follow the trail that I had laid out for them. It then becomes a puzzle to figure out how to get the vision in my head translated over into most readers' heads. Despite what recommendations of a section may say, I most often find that the problems are best fixed elsewhere in the story (outside of the published section).

Jump in and realize that the respondents are truly nice and helpful people. Imagine them sitting around a room sipping on coffee (or wine) and pontificating about your story. Give it a whirl and enjoy.

 

[sknox]

>I want to know exactly what is and isn't an acceptable level for a chapter of the "material".
We can't answer that. There isn't some rule that says exactly what's an acceptable level.

Or, to put it another way, everything is acceptable. There are, however, some guidelines. Those are clearly posted in the Critiques forum, but here's a direct link.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: Rules and Guidelines for Posting in the Critiques Forum

Welcome to the SFF Chronicles Critiques Forum. This is a place to post excerpts from your writing for comment and critique by other members of the forums. PLEASE POST CAREFULLY! Your ability to edit your post will expire shortly after posting. SFF Chronicles is under no obligation to remove...

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[The Judge]

I attempted to join the community almost a year ago. I was expected to deliver my writing ( text ) a few months ago...

No, no, no! Nothing was "expected" of you! If you want to get feedback on your work -- and ultimately such feedback is important for all of us who want to improve as writers -- then Chrons is a good, safe, encouraging place for you to start. But don't feel under any pressure to do it within a certain time, or indeed at all. Take things as slowly as you want

I don't consider myself to be a perfectionist, but I can't get rid of the feeling that "it's not enough".

That's a feeling many of us have, so you're in good company! One way to get over it is to repeat to yourself "It isn't perfect but it's as good as I can make it for now." After all, the whole point of asking for feedback is to find out what areas of our writing need help, so we know what we need to work on.

My English is far from perfect, so I want to know exactly what is and isn't an acceptable level for a chapter of the
"material".

Your English is very good, and you're to be congratulated on it if it isn't your first language. And while it's perhaps not wholly idiomatic, from what I've seen of your posts it's good enough to put up a short extract in Critiques. You may receive some specific comments about the English, but such comments will be made with a view to helping you to improve.

I would also want to know limitations regarding the volume and form ( of delivery, should it be consistent or the variations ).

The word limit in Critiques is 1500 per thread, but I'd suggest you only put up around 600-800 words in the first instance, as that will be enough for readers to see if there are any specific issues which need to be dealt with. You can then put more up later when you've taken any comments into consideration. As to form, do put in a line's break between paragraphs, and it helps if you adhere to standard British/US English conventions as to grammar and punctuation, but we can cope with most things people throw at us.

What I'd suggest you do now is have a look at some threads which have gone up in Critiques. You'll see that there is a broad range of ability on show, and you'll see how such threads are received by other Chronners and the kind of comments that are made.

Meanwhile, to get you started on putting your work up, but without any worry about criticism, join in the Challenges here in Chrons! There's a 75 worder which is open for another few days, and on the 1st Jan there will be another 75 worder and a 300 worder. The Challenges are invaluable for learning how to write succinctly and to a given theme or genre, and will in themselves help improve your work.

 

[WSDuffy]

I would echo what everyone else said, but I'd also add that it is really helpful to other writers to respond to your work. Even if you were to have grammatical and syntactical issues, all of us get better at using English by trying to helpfully explain it to others.

 

[Biskit]

My English is far from perfect, so I want to know exactly what is and isn't an acceptable level for a chapter of the
"material".
I would also want to know limitations regarding the volume and form ( of delivery, should it be consistent or the variations ).
Thank you for your time and I apologize for the irksome session of one's timidity.

As others have said, the only way to really learn how to write is to try and then get feedback.

I translated a few shorter stories in English, but couldn't force myself, to fully edit or finish them. I keep procrastinating and moving from project to project, unable to finish any of them.

Adding to what @Mon0Zer0 said, you seriously need to finish one. I have stories that I abandoned because they weren't working, but if all your writing goes that way then you need to ask yourself what it is about your stories that means you don't want to see them finished. When I skim back over some of the flash fiction on my blog, I see stories that I could have written better, but I also hit ones that still draw me in enough that I re-read the whole thing, even though I read them to the point of screaming when I was editing.

 

[Droflet]

We all have this terrible voice in our heads say 'is it good enough. Start with your story. Do you like it? If yes, then others might also like it. If no then the chances are that others might not like it. Start with a story that will interest you and then hone it. Writing it to an acceptable commercial level will come with time and effort but if the story is not engaging then you'll get the obvious poor feedback. Story, story, story. After that everything else will slip into place. Good luck on your journey.

 

[Biskit]

This!!!!

Writing it to an acceptable commercial level will come with time and effort but if the story is not engaging then you'll get the obvious poor feedback.

This reminds me of some feedback I got many years back from a major UK agent - writing skills A++, story-telling F--.
OK, maybe the story-telling was more like a C, but the bottom line was that until I sorted out the story-telling, it didn't matter how good a writer I was.

 

[silentmetaphor]

Looking forward to seeing your pieces.

Thank you... hopefully, it won't be disappointing

 

[silentmetaphor]

That's a feeling many of us have, so you're in good company! One way to get over it is to repeat to yourself "It isn't perfect but it's as good as I can make it for now." After all, the whole point of asking for feedback is to find out what areas of our writing need help, so we know what we need to work on.


Your English is very good, and you're to be congratulated on it if it isn't your first language. And while it's perhaps not wholly idiomatic, from what I've seen of your posts it's good enough to put up a short extract in Critiques. You may receive some specific comments about the English, but such comments will be made with a view to helping you to improve.

Thank you for the kind words... I will try my best to complete the canvas.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

When you post them, it might be worth mentioning that it's a translation. You can ask people to post corrections to the English seperately from general critiques of it as a piece of creative writing, to stop it all being proof-reading comments!