This is an old essay I wrote about why aspiring writers shouldn't be afraid to write poorly.

[I'm the kind of person who has occassional bursts of enlightenment. Unfortunately, my memory's kind of bad. This essay was originally posted in the Human in Equestria group, but I figured I might as well put it on my page. This way, I'll always remember what I said, and I don't have to worry about Fimfiction deleting it after a few months. Hey, maybe this post'll even be useful to someone else to stumbles onto my page. Oh, and for the record: I don't like the way I wrote The Monster of Canterlot Falls, but it's still my favorite out of all my stories.]

You suck at writing. I'm sorry, but there's no use sugar-coating it. As the old saying goes, "The bitterest truth is better than the sweetest lie." At least, I think that's how it goes. Now, before you back out of this thread or comment about what a jerk I am, you should know that I also suck. You suck, I suck, everybody sucks. Please don't argue with me, and just accept that you are, and will always be, flawed. But don't worry! I'm not here to crush your hopes and dreams, just to educate you on how to write. And yes, I am essentially a blind man leading the blind, but through my many, many, many failed attempts to write well, I've learned more than a few things, and now I'd like to pass my knowledge on to you.
Now, if you're like me, you spend a great deal of time fretting about making your writing as flawless as possible. If so, give yourself a pat on the back. You can't learn from your mistakes unless you realize what you did wrong. But, if you're really like me, and you become so obsessed about writing perfectly that you take forever to write new material, or abandon the story altogether, you need to relax. You'll never improve unless you accept your flaws.
When writers think they can attain perfection, they have a tendency to obsess over their writing. Other things take a backseat while the writer frets away at his or her computer, trying to make their work a masterpiece. This mentality is detrimental to aspiring authors, since they'll get hardly anything else accomplished. And by "hardly anything else," I don't just mean writing other stories. I mean anything. Chores go undone, pets and friends are ignored, and writers' smooth, sexy, golden-brown skin turns pale and pasty from lack of sunlight. That's how it was for me last winter when I wrote The Most Deplorable Attraction in the History of the Multiverse*. By the time I'd finished the story, my skin was whiter than a G.O.P. ballot, my body ached from lack of movement, and I left a butt groove in my couch so deep that, to this day, it hasn't fully disappeared. And my story still wasn't good!
I'm betting someone reading this is going to say that I'm just projecting my problems onto this forum, and to that person I say, "yes." Obsessing about writing well is something I struggle with all the time. But if I struggle with it, I'm sure someone else has too. I'm sure someone else has been so terrified of putting out bad work that they feel petrified to publish a story. "I can make it better," that person will say. "I can make this one of the best stories ever. All I need to do is spend more time on it." That person, in all likelihood, won't make it great. Take it from me, there's a good chance that, no matter how much time and effort you put into a story, there will always be flaws. I wrote a story called The Monster of Canterlot Falls last Summer. I kept telling myself that if I rewrote it, had people edit it, and rewrote it again, it would be spectacular. I read the final draft a few days ago, and I couldn't even finish it. Passive voice, wierd description, dark as hell. I was embarassed for ever thinking it was great.
Now I'm not saying that it's pointless to edit and rewrite your stories; in fact, editing and rewriting are neccessary for good writing. All I'm saying is that there comes a point when, at your current skill-level, you won't be able to improve your story.
But don't worry! You won't always be where you are now, because your writing will naturally improve over time. The more you write and learn from your mistakes, the better you'll become. And notice that I said write and learn. You'll never learn from your mistakes if you don't realize them, and you'll never hone your skills unless you practice. Football players run laps and lift weights, organic chemists make up retrosynthesis problems to solve, and writers write. You can't practice writing if you invest all your time into one story. You need to repeatedly try new narrative styles, think of new characters and conflicts, and visualize new places to explore. The more you do these things, the easier they'll be, and with time, your writing will improve dramatically.
Don't be afraid of putting out bad material. As long as you learn from your mistakes and try to avoid them in the future, you'll get better.
I know that alot of people on Fimfiction don't necessarily care about writing well and are more concerned with gaining a following, and the fear of being unpopular prevents alot of people from publishing stories. I know some writers fear that if they publish a story, people will either dislike it or move on without so much as a comment (which is incredibly rude, by the way), and the writers will be left with a story that nobody cares about. People will look at the writer's status, see that he or she has a story (or stories) but no followers, and assume that the writer's too unskilled to warrent a reading. Then, in a vicious cycle, a writer will put out a better story, but because of his or her small following, people will assume the story isn't very good. Don't argue that this doesn't happen, because I've seen it happen. A large number of the people in this group have had this happen, or maybe they've even ignored another's story. While people shouldn't judge the worth of a story based on following or likes, it's understandable that they do. People don't want to waste their time. And no writer can make a person think differently; the most a writer can hope for is that someone will read their story and enjoy it.
But how, then, can a new writer get popular on this site? What can they do to be like the kkats, the Chromosomes, the SkyWriters, the shortskirtsandexplosionss? Practice. What? You thought there was some secret process for cranking out a splendiferous story? Match A to B to C? Drink chai tea and do a handstand while singing Winter Wrap-Up? Nope. Nope, nope, nope. And don't let people tell you differently. Those great, popular writers didn't learn some special ritual for writing well; they got good through practice. I wouldn't be surprised if the first few stories Chromosome ever wrote were garbage. Yeah, some people write great things their first try, but the vast majority of people aren't that lucky. There's no secret formula. The hand of God will only a bless a very small number of people. Most of us will only improve if we practice.
So if you're worried that people won't like your story, or you're sure that you can perfect it if you just invest a few more weeks, don't fret. Chances are, your story won't be very good. Chances are, that even if you invest another month into your story, it still won't be perfect. Just do your best, show it to the world, learn, and move on.

Comments

[evilmilktoast]

thank you for posting that.