I wouldn't mind a little advice from the regular contributers

Rubecula

Just wondering if anybody could offer a little advice.

I seem to have very little talent at writing, although I do like to have a go. My imagination is full of ideas but I struggle very hard to put these ideas into words.

If you are a regular contributor on here may I ask: How do you do it?

Musiconomist

I'm a bit in the same boat as yourself, as I'm only starting out. I have to say though, I've found some on boards to be quite unsupportive and critical. I think, though, that if you can look past that, you should be able to judge your own work. I think you'll start know whether or not your work is any good.

For me, the first step is writing like no-one will read it. If you can do that, there's a lot less pressure on yourself to be perfect.

coffee_cake

There's no point us telling you you're great if you aren't, and ending up like that poor creature who self-published a lot of nonsense with spelling errors on amazon

write like nobody else is going to read it - first. get it all down on the page.
then refine it. spend time thinking about it. put it down and come back to it with a fresh eye and refine some more. then get feedback.

EileenG

Just write it. Well, I find it helps to plan it out a bit first. Know where your story starts (at the point where things go wrong) and where it ends, and then jump in.

Sit down every day, and write for a set amount of time, whether you are inspired or not. The more you do it, the better you'll get. A day when you have to struggle to drag out the words is usually followed by one where they flow like water.

Keep going until it's finished. Even when you hit those days where the whole thing seems like rubbish and you can't see the point of finishing. Every writer gets those days.

When it's all finished. pat yourself on the back, and think about editing and polishing. Don't stop writing to do it.

Musiconomist

bluewolf wrote: »

There's no point us telling you you're great if you aren't, and ending up like that poor creature who self-published a lot of nonsense with spelling errors on amazon

write like nobody else is going to read it - first. get it all down on the page.
then refine it. spend time thinking about it. put it down and come back to it with a fresh eye and refine some more. then get feedback.

I respectfully disagree with Mr Wolf. I think it's actually kind of dangerous for just anyone to review your work. There are some people who will never give positive feedback, and also some who think nothing of writing a negative one liner, which could easily damage a budding writer's confidence. Also, peoples' standards are unique to each person.

Personally, I would first ask for friends/family to review, as these (hopefully) would be more supportive than impartial. For me, it's more important that you enjoy the writing process than anything else. If you dont, you'll end up hating what you write and the time you spend writing.

pickarooney

If you want to actually get better you're wasting your time asking your friends and family for feedback. They're just going to tell you it's great and you'll learn nothing. Secretly they'll resent you for making them lie to you.

Antilles

I plan every scene out, then free write the whole thing with no attention to quality, then I go through what I've written and get delete/reword 90% of it.

Musiconomist wrote: »

here are some people who will never give positive feedback, and also some who think nothing of writing a negative one liner, which could easily damage a budding writer's confidence.

Everybody I've seen giving you negative feedback here has given glowing feedback to others before. What you've posted here has been fairly weak.

Rubecula

Thank you all very kindly for putting your advice into words. I am not really interested in publishing stuff as I write (when I do write) for my own pleasure. If folks don't like what I write, then that is their opinion and they are entitled to it. For those who actually give feedback, good or bad I thank you for taking the time to read it in the first place.

My problem is really putting things down in a readable way. If I can't be bothered to read it myself when it is done then I have failed. And that is mainly my problem, the ideas are there. I have them in my head even as I write this. I am just so bad at typing them out.

A bit like Inspector Japp from Poirot. I type away then screw up the paper and start again, never actually achieving anything.

Not so bad with short story stuff as even if it is bad it is only a few minutes of wasted time reading it. But for longer things I only manage a page or two before I realise just how woeful it sounds.

This is probably why I love reading some of the great things I have seen in here.

coffee_cake

Rube, they all sound woeful in the first draft. You're not going to write something that readable first go unless you get lucky or a lot more practise, so put that notion out of your head.
If you want to improve, the only way is to revise and revise the first draft of what you've written. Sit down and think about it, take some stuff out, put other stuff in. Think about why you don't want to read it and adjust accordingly.
Once you have done this a lot of times with a lot of work you *might* be able to have slightly better first drafts in future, but don't count on it.

Me, I tend to think about start/middle/end before I write, where do I want it to go, what kind of ending will it have, etc... then start writing
still not gonna be great first go though

Rubecula

Thank you bluewolf. I will post the start of a story in here and see what folks think.

(When I have drafted the first bit anyway)

Sharpen your knives folks as I expect it to get slashed to ribbons.

donalh087

EileenG wrote: »

Sit down every day, and write for a set amount of time, whether you are inspired or not. The more you do it, the better you'll get.

To me this is the absolute key.

If you want to become a good musician then practice your scales every day and listen to great music.

I found it good at the start to pick an age (say seven years old) and go back and describe your life then, what you wore, who your friends were, who your teacher was, what you had for lunch.... Don't worry on one will ever read it.

But, as EileenG says,,,,,,,, every day for a set amount of time.

nervous_twitch

Maybe this goes without saying, but reading is perhaps the most constructive activity an inexperienced writer should engage in. OK, obviously an aspiring writer needs to write as well, but unless you're getting regular, impartial feedback on your material, you might find yourself adopting some bad habits that are later hard to shake.

Exposure to various kinds of literature over the years has helped me more than any course or instruction could; you quickly find what you like, or what you don't, and you learn to identify styles/narratives/forms that you can experiment with in your own writing. It's great practice for vocabulary and use of language also. As others have mentioned though, writing every day is important - keeps you well oiled

On that note, actually, does anyone think it's possible to be a great writer if you don't read? I've always thought the two to be co-dependent, but maybe that's not the case.

nervous_twitch

Disclaimer: I have indeed noted that I'm not a 'regular contributor', but consider this my pledge to contribute.. regularly.

Pixie Chief

Writing and reading are really subjective. I have zero confidence as a writer anymore although I was quite regularly published in my early years. It only took one scathing "Poetry? Really? How sad is that!" from my then husband to stop me writing for the better part of ten years (or at least where anybody might come across it!) and I have found it really difficult to get going again. I don't (as yet) post anything that I write on here. I think that there is a huge melting pot of opinions which is fantastic but you need to be careful to pick the relevant ones (I don't mean just the ones you like!).

A good piece of writing is always a good piece of writing, whether someone likes the subject matter or not but there are a huge range of genres which a certain percentage of people will be more inclined to like, another percentage will not think too much about it and yet another will hate it.

I know only too well the feeling of writing something and then coming back to edit and thinking that it's not worth editing and ripping it up. I found an amazing book called "No more rejections" by Alice Orr. It's an old book but one that I found extraordinarily helpful to me in assessing my own writing. I stopped ripping things up and instead started trying to work out why it wasn't good enough. Maybe someday, I will actually have something I can share without curling up and dying if someone hates it!

Antilles

Pixie Chief wrote: »

It only took one scathing "Poetry? Really? How sad is that!" from my then husband

Gg, Pixie Chief. My girlfriend tears my writing to shreds but after I've fixed the issues she points out, my stuff is 10x stronger. That's what criticism is for.

Your then husband sounds like a no-talent a$$ clown. Good riddance!

Rubecula

Some great advice in here, and thank you all for taking the time to post your opinions. So far I have posted two short stories in here, nothing to write home about (no pun intended) and they were simply off the top of my head without any preperation, I think I took about ten minutes on the longest one

As and when I do it properly, I will put something up for you to disect. I would be happy to try any genre really but until I get an idea on that I won't do much, as I said earlier my imagination does fall down when it comes to putting pen to paper despite being full of ideas.

(If anyone would like me to show what I can do I am open for possible scenarios to have a bash at, apart from romantic stuff. I can never get that to sound right, it usually just comes out as rude.):rolleyes:

If you can be patient until I gather my thoughts, and time ( I work some odd shifts just now) I will attempt something fairly simple.

But once again I thank you all for the time you have taken to pass on your little nuggets of advice.

--Kaiser--

Pixie Chief wrote: »

A good piece of writing is always a good piece of writing, whether someone likes the subject matter or not

I disagree with this. Whether or not something is a good piece of writing is subjective, not objective

Rubecula

I used to have a short anonymous quote on my fridge door.

"Even a poor book is a book, and therefore sacred."

It must have made an impression on me for me to remember it after nearly 30 years.

--Kaiser--

Rubecula wrote: »

I used to have a short anonymous quote on my fridge door.

"Even a poor book is a book, and therefore sacred."

It must have made an impression on me for me to remember it after nearly 30 years.

In general, I respect books and get annoyed when other people don't handle them properly. I will, however, kick Dan Brown books (and the like) around with merry abandon

Rubecula

While I understand that sentiment (I almost like the Da Vinci Code) I have to say I don't really agree with it, as I am sure that if we all liked the same things the world would be a very boring and somehow empty place to live.

iguana

Have you heard of Nanowrimo, Rubecula? It might suit you a lot. It's basically a challenge for the month of November to write a 50,000 word novel. There are support forums, local meetings most weeks of the month and a graph that you submit each day's writing into that calculates how much you have written and presents you with your writing statistics. The idea is to write for fun, not worry too much about quality just keep going without second guessing yourself and get lots of support from the others doing it. Local groups often set challenges too, like the 4 province challenge in Ireland and you get inspirational emails every few days to help you keep up your work. It's a really good way to get yourself used to writing as it makes what can be a very isolated hobby into something where you can access lots of peer support.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums

Rubecula

Thank you for that iguana, I have never heard of that before.

iguana

A crowd on this board usually give it a go too. This was the thread from last year when I was inspired to try it. It was honestly one of the best things I ever did for my writing.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75011581

Hrududu

iguana wrote: »

A crowd on this board usually give it a go too. This was the thread from last year when I was inspired to try it. It was honestly one of the best things I ever did for my writing.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75011581

I did nanowrimo last year for the first time and I second Iguana. You have to get the words out in a month so you blast through problem areas that you might normally quit at. I learned an awful lot.