How Do I Know If I'm A Good Writer?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2018
- Question from AngelNatari via email to say: how do I know if I'm a good writer or not?
To which my answer is: well, first it depends what you mean by a good writer, and second it's not really that important what your opinion of your writing is. It is, however, important to improve your writing in any way you can.
So let me give you a few suggestions for that. - บันเทิง
1:24 looking at a blank page and going: "well what now?"
Ha! that was good.
"Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."
- Mark Twain
As someone who has recently been transitioning from casual fanfiction writing to, actual professional work I hope to get published, I feel like adding in the maxim, all writing is re-writing. Especially for those who want to go professional, then it's probably best to give your draft a couple of days, and go back and edit it yourself, and by edit I don't just mean typos, I mean large scale things. Rarely is a first draft really that good. Your story may change substantially, but that's a good thing. And the time you spent on the first draft wasn't wasted. The more time you write, the better a writer you'll be, and even professional writers don't tend to make their best work until later into their careers writing.
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I completely agree. I see my own writing process like the ship of Theseus. A story will probably have very, very little in common with the rough draft by the time I'm relatively satisfied with it, but the rough draft gave me something to work with until I felt like it was getting somewhere.
One of the things that keeps me motivated to write is reminding myself that I don't have to be a good writer at all. Writing is just fun. I can go back and revise the story and try to make it better, and I might even write a Good Story eventually - but at the end of the day, I spent time doing something enjoyable, and that's mostly what I'm trying to get out of it.
The point about "not everyone being able to look at bad writing and pinpoint what's wrong" is something I've learnt the hard way. Even the most creative and talented people you know don't always have the critical thinking to assess why something might be good or bad. I had embarrassing experiences where some of my more creative friends looked at my work and weren't always able to articulate how it could be improved, they might as well have just told me to stick to the daytime job. A lot of improvements I made came from really going over the draft to see what works and what doesn't.
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Hi. I love this.
So are you a writer now?
I need a mentor.
My vehicle is rusty and 40 years old, and I love him passionately. I also love proofreading. I feel somewhat offended. 😂
To everyone regarding feedback, sometimes negative feedback can be a good thing, it gives you something to improve on. In a story I am still working on a friend of mine told pointed out that one aspect of a main character made no sense. The result was adding a minor character who was able to give the main character more of a back story and also set up future plot point relating to both characters and the rest of plot.
I'm trying to write. Advice I give myself is to not ask "so what happens next" about the story. This pulls from memory so you just write what you've read. Focus on the feeling you want to convey from the scene and write that. The feeling usually comes from the char's current emotional state.
So, know your chars, know how they feel, express that feeling with the words they would use, and continue your story by working through that feeling to whatever comes next.
As someone trying to start out as a writer, this is something I wonder about as well. I've been posting my work online for a while now and have gotten a good mix of feedback often decently in depth. I've also tried to give feedback on other people's work as a way to figure out my tastes in more detail. I'm not sure I totally agree that someone's opinion of their own work isn't so important. The reason I say this is that for any work (once you're past the stage where you're writing is legible and coherent) there's not such a thing as objective quality, so you'll get people who will argue in any direction for all aspects of your work. For example, a lot of what I write is fairly strange and personal as well as being based in a fair few niche sensibilities (I'm trying to use different scientific concepts as metaphore/ allegories for emotional issues) and I'm making choices that have proven polarising. I think it's important to acknowledge that you'll only have any confidence that someone else will like your work you have the potential to like (I'd struggle to tell a good and bad sports narrative apart). In those cases it helps to have a sense of self, because they'll be people who tell you your work isn't good, or suggest changes that don't fit what you want to do. I think writing is as much about refining your own tastes so you get your own work closer to how you want it as it is about meeting other people's standards. Much like how there aren't bad jokes, there isn't bad writing really, human tastes are too diverse for you not to have an audience somewhere. So it's about being a writer you'd like to read and finding people who agree. So get out there.
Well said. I hope I can improve as a writer based on this advice.
Grammar and punctuation, that’s a plus for me. Grammar is a wonderful weapon when used correctly.
It was fabulous to meet you at VidCon.
Absolutely agree!
My God, you're right on every point. Lol
To hear you speak was like having a bigger kid come and kick a bullies ass :)
Your first recommendation of, “to write something,” then wait for a reaction is best; but then I would have to be aware of the fact of getting over myself.
No one likes being judged, but the way I figure it, I'll leave that up to the jealous hearted.
(that's not being overly confident is it..?)
I never new I was able to write, until I took a placement test to enter college. I not only was praised by individuals, but had the score to back it up. I left school early in life in 1968 at the height of the Vietnam war. I managed to continue my education while in the service.
As a former ghost-writer, I came highly recommended; especially when it came to making love between the front and back cover. God is correct, man's imagination is sinful from his youth.
As life would have-it, I matured in what matters most in life.
I think you may be wondering, or not; how did I come about having the ability of writing without a firm basic education and the answer is, reading books of good writers. To be honest, I never knew at the time that I was adopting their style of writing and the way they pronounce themselves in thought.
Great job on your video 👍
Rust on a car. That's an excellent analogy 👍
I have become a better writer by learning from very good editors. Over the years I have learned that editing which once angered me because I felt it defaced my masterpieces actually was constructive criticism, and a gift to me.
This aged well. I am here after reading Jill debut novel, which I very much enjoyed, even though I do not typically read romance. What is great about the story is the character work, the characters are clearly defined and there aren't a lot of things that happen, "because plot". If in a few years Jill returns to Just stab me now I will glady pick up all the sequels, prequels and in betweenquels.
Just wrinting this, because it is mentioned that feedback is very important, and in my eyes Jill is a successful writer.
Greetings from Germany.
Both writing for and working on my school's lit mag helped a lot. I got honest feedback and had the space to improve. So I recommend participating in a group like this if available to y'all
Steven Pinker has a book called "The Sense of Style", which goes into tricks for clear writing and the cognitive background to why those tricks work. Although it's mostly aimed at technical writing, it contains tips for all authors.
Any pointers as to where to get it?
@@obinnaobiekwe4910 I would guess anywhere boos are sold?
@@Valdagast Come'on, man!!!
I'm serious here.
@@obinnaobiekwe4910 Amazon? Is that good enough?
@@Valdagast Thanks.
You bought. Didn't know that.
One thing that helps me is using a good text-to-speech, a computer will point out every mistake indicate that you are not properly punctuating. Also, you have the story read to you helps very much.
I'm a relative novice, in the middle of writing my first novel, but what you're saying is entirely in line with everything I've learned from more experienced writers or picked up on my own. My beta readers from local writers groups are, by the way, almost embarrassingly enthusiastic about my work (as were my teachers in school) and I feel rather confident that I will be published when my novel is done. Wish me luck, please!
This deserves way more views and likes.
A trick I've picked up for proofreading is to use text-to-speech to read it to you. A word can *look* correct no matter how many times you look at it, but *sound* wrong when you hear it read to you.
I've been in a writer's workshop for over 10 years where members bring a selection and read it aloud while the other members proofread a copy. I always tell newcomers if they have any questions about a section while they're writing, read it to their pet, or a potted plant, because they process auditory stimuli in a different part of the brain than visual stimuli. It helps.
Getting good feedback is gold. and my 'good' I mean feedback that makes you think about what you have written.
I got feedback on a small novel I published (before publishing it). In the submitted copy, character A was the main character, character B was a supporting character. Things were fine.
The editor asked some questions about character B, saying they need to be a bit more rounded. So I had to find their back story. And his back story was awesome!
It totally changed the focus of the story. Character B became the main character and it all fitted together so much better.
So find a good 'tester' of your writing and then 'really listen' to their feedback, even if it is not want you want to hear. You just never know what gold you'll uncover by doing so.
Good advice.
Honestly, i do fully agree with this yet can be inconsistent at times. I had tried writing a fanfic that ended up slowing to a near stop because despite attempts to find beta readers or literally anyone who may be jnterested, they never got past two chapters of feedback before losing interest and ghosting me. It became so demotivating not knowing if my work was good that i just couldn't continue anymore.
Reading a document out loud can help but using the Word narrate function (or similar if you are using a different tool) will read what you wrote, not what you think that you wrote. I recently had an audiobook made of one of novels and we found glitches that four editors had missed.
Cool video Perhaps this goes against the profile of this channel (and it is), but I'm interested in the following question: what can you apply these very tips for drawing (not necessarily fanfix) and determine how much work - in this case, the illustration in the comic style has a chance for commercial use and where it is better to turn to determine your artistic level to get an adequate grade. Whether these same methods are appropriate or need to look for other ways to maximize the objective assessment of creativity. It would be nice to know where it can be done. But it's strange to write when the comments are almost never read. Thank you all the same. Good video. Good luck.
I am not a writer. I never thought I was a particularly good writer. But, when I wrote a maybe... 500 word scene from one of my D&D sessions that everyone said was amazing, I had to watch this video.
I am going to slightly take issue with your self assessment. Specifically, you are good writer of youtube monologues. I can tell by listening/watching you deliver them. They are witty, entertaining. Of course, that's probably a different talent from being a writer of fiction, or from being a writer of technical exposition. The two things that I think all kinds of good writers have are (1) something to say and (2) an audience. For example, I am hopeless at writing fiction but (after thirty something years as a transport modeller) I can manage a transport model report that transport planners will like.
I would say, once covid lifts, join a critique group if there's one in your area. Even if you're a genre writer, I would say there's more value in joining a mixed genre critique group rather than a genre specific one. As opposed to getting feedback from family and friends, you're engaging people who are also students of the craft, and hopefully they will be constructive in discussing what works and what doesn't. You may have to limit the length of your submission to a number of pages, so the critique won't capture the overall arc, but you will get a real feel for what's working in scene and what
is not. Also, being in a mixed genre group will force you to read things that are outside of what you'd naturally gravitate to. While I write fantasy, in the group I belong to I've been asked to critique history, narrative non-fiction, general fiction, or romance, horror, new age and spiritualism, LBGT lit, poetry, plays and screen plays, etc.,--you will be asked to give feedback on things that are outside your comfort zone and it will make you a better writer as a result. So read a lot. Write a lot, and engage others interested in the craft.
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Hi Jill. I dunno if you are a good writer, but I think you are a damn fine [and eloquent] Speaker.
Hi Jill
Jerry here.
I'm currently working on my very first book, a non-fiction book about Disney movies and I've decided to Beta some of the chapters to close friends (mainly those of whom that I know are writers themselves). I noticed that if give them a chapter that has not been proofread than the bad grammar and spelling are all they focus on. If I have proofread it, they have very little to say. I'm not exactly sure what that says about my writing.
What it says, usually, is that your friends either aren’t writers (except in this case they are 😁) aren’t good at figuring out what’s good or bad about writing, don’t want to hurt your feelings, or some combination.
It’s tricky, not going to lie. Getting people who are skilled enough to spot stuff and honest enough to risk hurting your feelings is really hard.
Becoming your own critic is also hard, but at least you’re always with you!
What I read from it is that they don't really have anything to say about the writing itself, which may be a good thing. Most of the commentary skews toward grammar or questions of "How are you qualified to write a book about Disney films?"
I don't hold people hostage and go "is it good?" I hold people hostage and go "RIP IT APART!"
Well its not a quastion for me, I already know the answer: I am shity writer, lol.
But I am not struggling with ways how to improve me skills, rather I am struggling with absence of any "direction" in my writing, if its make sense. LIke: Should I write from first person point of view? or second? or third? Should I start from the beginning, or start at the end and jump to beginning? Should I spend more time on dialogue, or description of surrounding, or worldbuilding? This questions are hard to answer for me
How does one convince others to read something one has written? Bribery comes to mind but that is likely to influence the final review as untrustworthy I have several fan fiction ideas including Star Trek Stargate and in collaboration with my granddaughter Gargoyles and The Further Adventures of the Seven Dwarfs I am pretty old to get started but Jill is right writing numerous 1st drafts of novels and keeping them in the attic in boxes isn't working well
I personally find the question "Am I a good writer?" useless. A more useful question is "Is this particular piece of my writing good? Does it get across what I wanted to get across?"
With that in mind, I disagree with the statement that the best thing you can have is a beta: The best thing you can have is multiple betas. I say this because I found that my usual betas for a fic I wrote recently think too similarly to the way I think. I have a usual partnership with Sophie, by which we beta each other's fics; the problem arose when I wrote a sequel to one of hers. Where she had slipped in a single line about an experience in a character's backstory that was rather blatant but easy to miss being a single line, I chose to write a conversation between two other characters about him, extending it into several paragraphs, but never explicitly saying what it was they were talking about. Sophie picked up on what I'd done right away, because we had similar thoughts on this character and his experiences in and outside of canon.
Knowing this, I passed it on to someone else I often share my work with, Rose. I told her I was doing something subtle with the dialogue and wanted to see if I had gone too subtle or too straightforward, and wanted to know what she picked up from it. She told me she didn't pick up on anything. To her, what I was trying to do was so straightforward and obvious that I would write it, that she had gone in looking for it, and thought the subtlety that I had asked her to look for was something else entirely (it wasn't, the conversation only had 2 layers, not 3).
So I had another friend, who has never previously read my fics, in particular not for this fandom, read it. She didn't pick up on what I was trying to do at all, and indicated a third layer that I hadn't considered. Eventually I decided I was fine leaving it up to the reader to find the layers themselves and posted it.
So when you have someone beta, you want someone who has a similar enough thought process to understand where you're coming from, but different enough that they don't automatically go there themselves. Or, you want three betas.
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I'd say know who your target audience is and try to get several beta readers who are a good representation of that target audience. Also, while your hobby writer group may be one of the easiest places to find beta readers, try to find at least some beta readers who are not writers, because writers often are more aware of techniques and tropes than people who "just" like to read and thus may be much better at picking up subtle clues than your average reader.
I hoped there was a diffrient way :(
"Everyone can write. Not everyone can write well." - Me
My writing is mostly for me. I have one friend who loves to read my stuff, and I'll often bounce ideas off her via email (we live in different states) when I'm stuck. But, aside from my fanfic, what I write is very...uh...niche and I'd have a hard time finding beta readers for it. Thematically it'd appeal to a certain group of people, which is ok, but I'm not writing for them specifically - there is more to the stories than that one element, so I don't want to find fic groups geared towards that to submit to.
Do people read it? Bang, you're a writer.
Why do some people base their opinions on movies on the opinions of critics/reviewers? What I mean is, why do some people read who read movie reviews decide that IF the review is bad they WON'T go see the movie and IF it's good they WILL?
Presumably because they have, in the past, had similar taste to the reviewer. This is what I'd suspect anyway. And since it costs £15 a person to go to the cinema around here, it's good to improve your odds of getting something you like for your money, right?
I know that my writing is very mechanical and factual. There isn't much depth to it. It's something that I have been working on, to add layers of emotion and nuance to my stories, but so far it hasn't worked very well, and my stories suffer for it. But I persist. Maybe some day they will get better and I will try to publish something more than a cheap smut story, but I am not there yet.
It's been two years, have you improved? 🙂
@@Dwayne_Bearup if anything I have probably gotten worse... (I barely write).
@@TheeGoatPig Stephen King's advice for aspiring authors is, "To be an author you must do two things: write a lot, and read a lot." My own advice to members of my writer's workshop includes the addendum, "And treat writing like a job."
If it bothers you that your writing hasn't improved then it's more to you than a hobby. If you want to improve, try scheduling time for writing and force yourself to write something in that time. Also, if you watch a lot of t.v. or play video games then during the time when you would ordinarily do that, read a book instead. It helps.
Of course, if it's just a hobby, carry on :)
@@Dwayne_Bearup I would say it's barely a hobby. Since 99.99% of what I write is smut, I kinda have to be in the mood, but not too much, there's a balance...
The truth is you can't trust other people's opinions. People bring all their baggage along like jealousy, various agendas, and so on. It seems to me that a writer/ artist needs to please himself. That's it.
1:10 "...most people, me included, are not particulary good at writing."
That aged really bad :)
I am a Non-Fiction Writer; and, I have 3 Years of High School Technical Drafting Training; and, some Collegiate/Trade School Architectural Drafting Training.
Other than my half-dozen Hands-Outs of my FLOWER CHILD PROJECT "2004 Presentation Folder", I am not a Published Writer.
I have been working on a half dozen different Text Documents that are related to my FLOWER CHILD PROJECT Manned Spacecraft Design Concept; but, those Projects are On Hold; because, my Computer-Printer System is non-functional.
In terms of Presentation Quality, my FLOWER CHILD PROJECT "2004 Presentation Folder" is a piece of trash. It is also 50% Incomplete.
The reasons being for the Incomplete & Poor Quality of my FLOWER CHILD PROJECT "2004 Presentation Folder"...
-- I was wanting the USA 2004 Election Democratic Presidential Candidates to talk about Outerspace Issues in relation to the USA Societal Infrastructure and USA Economics and USA Employment and USA Education and whatnot.
-- I wasn't Eating & Sleeping & Shitting FLOWER CHILD PROJECT because I considered it as a Personal Hobby Project.
-- I was Eating & Sleeping & Shitting my "The History Of Querinworld" Mega-Genre RPG Campaign World Setting; which, was my Life-Long Personal Project at that time.
Instead, USA President George W. Bush did his Outerspace Speech; which, I didn't watch; because, I was a Homeless Person at that time.
¿So how do I know whether, or not, my own Writing is good?
By Proofreading my a writing a lot.
During the Initial Writing Process, you will looking at what you are writing to determine if you are putting the words you want into the Writing.
I do Edit my writing as I am Writing. Computers are a Godsend for this.
I wouldn't have tons of Unpublished Literary Work that I have; if, Computer Systems didn't exist.
There comes a point where you have to stop writing; and, walk away from the Writing Project for whatever reason.
Eventually, preferably when you aren't exhausted from just writing your Literary Work, you should read your Writing as if it was someone else's Published Work that you recently purchased.
This isn't a Proofreading Session where you are trying to find Grammatical Errors and Spelling Errors and Punctuation Errors.
However, if you do notice such Errors, make note of them.
The purpose of this Reading Session is to determine the following...
-- ¿Does the Writing convey the Thought Processes that you want it to?
-- ¿Does the Writing impart the Emotionalism that you want it to?
-- ¿Does the Writing flow the way you want it?
-- ¿Are there gaps in your Writing that need to be filled?
By Reading other Published Material that is representative of what your Literary Work is about, or like, you will encounter established Terminology, and Thought Processes, that are associated with Literary Works that are similar to yours.
In terms of Non-Fiction Literary Work, you may need to research, or learn about, certain Topics in order to improve your own Writing Project.
By reading your Writing, you know if you need to rearrange Units, and/or Chapters, and/or Paragraphs, and/or Sentences within your Writing.
If your Writing is conveying The Wrong Emotion, figure out why.
If your Writing is conveying The Wrong Thought Process, figure out why.
If your Writing doesn't Flow in the right way, figure out why.
Try to Fill In Gaps that need to be filled in within your Writing.
¿Why is my FLOWER CHILD PROJECT "2004 Presentation Folder" a Poor Quality Presentation Portfolio?
-- Paper Folders
-- Low-Detail Visual Graphics
-- Low Quality Paper used for Text Documents and Visual Graphics Documents
-- Text Documents associated with Visual Graphics limited to 1-Page Descriptions
-- 1-Page Descriptions repeat Text from other Visual Graphics Text Documents
-- I hadn't used Scaling Mechanics Features available on DeltaCAD 3.0 Application (I didn't know to use, or access, that feature)
-- I didn't use Layering on my Visual Graphics (actually, I just started using Layering on some Visual Graphics within the "2004 Presentation Folder")
-- Visual Graphics were printed from a Dot Matrix Printer instead of an Inkjet Printer
-- Monochrome Visual Graphics instead of Colored Visual Graphics (Dot Matrix Printer Issue because my Computer Screen Visual Graphics was Color-Coded)
I find it kinda hilarious how I was the first person that got into writing in my friend group and due to my knowledge of grammar, vocabulary and spelling, my brutally honest feedback and the sheer number of feedback I myself have had from other people, I'm suddenly their "beta-reader" and they refuse to proofread my stuff. A writer can be a great "beta-reader" but, come on, they can still screw up greatly in their own works, haha.
You'll basically hate anything you write by the time you are done with it.
All of the ideas will be played out to you, because you will have thought of them continuously.
All of the jokes will be bland, because you'll have read them too many times.
You will be tired from typing out the same names over and over, to say nothing of the word "said".
Knuckle down.
To think there are people in this world who can actually get reader feedback. Sigh...................
The whole TLJ flame war and Black panther's automatic 100% on RT makes me think people simply choose in advance what writing they are going to like and stick to it. Purely based on the politics of the writers. I'm sad that i will no longer be allowed to like Tarantino movies now...or be CAST OUT OF POLITE SOCIETY.
Who else is trash at English here? (I only get C's :
ur a good writer because people think you are? wut