Development as a Writer: What I've Learned · 1:03am Aug 22nd, 2016
I have compiled four points, or aspects, which I think provide the most assistance when you’re trying to improve on any activity you set your mind to. Most of this will be skewed towards writing, but I think the principles can be applied to many other things as well. I think they are all important in becoming better at whatever you put your mind to. I will give a quick overview of each, then go into details below.
No, there is no tl;dr, I apologize for the lack of pictures (ain't got time for that yo! This is srs bznz!), but I did put in a few video links!
Before anyone flips out at what’s said here, I realize that there is probably a ton of educational material on this topic already. This article isn’t meant to be an end all to everything writing or otherwise. Instead, this is a place for me to bring together my own thoughts and experience into a cohesive whole that will help me focus my own learning, and hopefully in the process help your own.
Criticism - This is one of the most useful tools that a writer has at his disposal. There is an additional blog post below which you should read when you get to it. A writer will always have their own style, but there are some things that just cannot be compromised. We have to learn what those are, and criticism is literally other people telling us where to look for those errors in our own writing.
Learning - This topic encompasses a number of things. How to learn. What to learn. And, do you really want to learn? From my experience a lot of people don’t want to learn, and either try to shunt the work off on someone else, or create bad products because they don’t care to learn. Otherwise, they give up and do something else. However, if you want to get better, then you will learn. Simple as that. Sometimes people may not understand what they need to do to learn, so I hope for those people that by the time they finish reading this article they’ll have some idea how.
Dedication - Michael Jackson wasn’t just ‘good’ at singing. He worked his entire life at it. It takes time and constant practice to be good at something. Sure, some people may be naturally inclined towards one thing or another, but they’ll never be the best they can be unless they spend years perfecting it. If you want to be a good writer, then you’re going to have to slog through a lot of words and a lot of feedback and a lot of practice.
Desire - This is the real kicker. The above aspects are separate, and come after Desire. To become a better writer you will have to learn how to receive criticism and dedicate yourself to working at your trade/hobby. But, if you don’t want to do it, then you’ll never reach a point that you can begin to use and apply the above aspects. It’s like what I tell new people I’m teaching to Wakeboard or Ski: “You’ve got to want it!” If you don’t have the desire or drive to be better, then you will never push yourself.
DESIRE
I guess we should start with looking at Desire a little bit first. There isn’t a lot to say about it, though. Either you have the desire to become a better writer, or you don’t. That’s something you’ll have to decide and figure out for yourself. However, I would encourage everyone, that if they’ve already come this far, to push a little more if they’re unsure if writing is for them.
It’s my opinion that if you’re going to at least try, then try hard. Don’t drop the ball until you are absolutely sure that you’ve exhausted any interest in whatever subject you’re pursuing. So if you’ve been on the fence about writing, I implore you to choose one side or the other. Go home, or dive in deep and giving writing all you got to really see if you want to keep doing it. You gain nothing by pretending, and it’s okay to stop writing if you find out it’s not for you.
At some point you have to ask yourself: Do I want to get better? Is this the quality of work that I want to show people? (AKA: Do I care? Am I proud of this?) This is the desire, and if you answer no, then you may as well go back to CoD or w/e kids are playing these days.
CRITICISM
I agree with a lot of the points made in the ‘Don't Be Blueblood’ blog by Crystal Wishes. However I think I’ll try to restate things concisely here and maybe even take a step back first. Google defines criticism as: “The analysis and judgment of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work.”
This is a good place to start. Definitions are often overlooked in our world today, and people instead turn to ‘urban’ or ‘slang’ understandings which usually skew the intended meaning of certain words. But, with this definition in mind, we can properly analyze what criticism is, and how it applies to a writer.
I’d like to differentiate criticism from feedback or comments. People can be nice, or rude, and not provide criticism. Criticism, to me, is a constructive statement that provides information and/or opportunity so that I can improve myself. Nice comments are... nice, and make you feel good, but you learn nothing. And the opposite feeling applies to rude comments, but again you learn nothing.
Moving on, criticism can be divided into two types: Positive and Negative. Positive reinforces things you’ve done well and approaches improvements using suggestions. Negative directly states and attacks problems and (should) provides solutions to making it better.
Examples:
Positive - ‘I think your descriptions and settings are done well, I feel like I’m really there. So keep it up! However, I do think your dialog on X character is a little stilted and could be improved by speaking what he says out loud to yourself.’
Negative - ‘This fight scene is terrible. The choreography makes no sense and I’m unable to understand what’s happening. It’s pulling me out of the story. Now you can do two things, (or we, if you work together) rework the descriptions until they make sense and flow nicely, or gloss over the physical interactions and focus more on dialog while only hitting high points on the physical side.’
There is a time and a place for both types, and more often than not, people leave negative criticism and don’t provide clear solutions. But for the dedicated and intense learner, negative criticism is more effective by far in my opinion. I would correlate it to losing and winning in a video game. When you win, it’s hard to determine what you did bad because it was better than your opponent, but you can still continue to get better and improve through various means. But when you lose, it accentuates the parts of your play that you are bad at, allowing you to identify them and improve. Not a perfect analogy, but similar enough to make a point, I think.
The first time I went out to actively seek help from the editing community, I received some very tough negative feedback from a well respected editor (so they said) and it was the toughest thing I’ve ever had to swallow/deal with in my writing history. But the thing is, I had the desire to be better so I took that criticism and rewrote the heck out of my stuff. It taught me a lot about creative writing, and while I still have a ton left to learn, it set me on a good path.
Since then I’ve received a lot of positive feedback and I’m still learning from it, but my education hasn’t continued to explode like it did in my first year. I’ve found that close friends give the best feedback. When you push them to give you a critical response, they will go to town. It’s tough to swallow, but they help so much. The problem is that they can’t provide as in depth responses as an editor can. Editors know how to explain problems to a writer, and if they’re requested/paid to do it, they will do it well.
Anyway, criticism is probably the most useful tool that a writer has to improve themselves. Learning to identify what is/or can be criticism will give a writer tons of information on how to be better, but they still have to take it to heart and apply it. That comes with practice through dedication and having a willingness to learn.
Finally, to put this in perspective for all types of people, you need to really consider the ‘Don’t be Blueblood’ blog in its entirety. As stated by the author, positive feedback is extremely encouraging to new writers and a number of other individuals. It still allows them a sense of accomplishment that they were looking for, while prodding them to do just a bit better. It shows that you care about what they’ve created.
Negative criticism is extremely useful in developing as a writer, but it needs to be used carefully around people who haven’t asked for it. I think sometimes people need a push with negative criticism, but often times the situation is subjective so one has to be careful. Remember: embrace it, you’re learning! Just be aware when dishing it out.
LEARNING
I hope I’ve explained how to identify criticism, and provided means for you to apply it. Most of this article has been describing ways for you to learn, but I think providing direct examples, some from my own experience, will help teach us how to apply our knowledge.
I’m an editor now. Editing wasn’t something I thought I’d like to do, but when you get into writing you inevitably end up doing editing for someone somewhere at some time. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see someone’s work become the best it can be. I feel accomplished when someone posts a chapter I edited and people say: good job! Sure, most of the time it’s the author getting the credit. They deserve it, they came up with the idea. But deep down, I helped refine that idea into something people wanted to read.
I think I’ve learned more editing the work of other people than I ever have from just writing. When I edit, I look at what is already written and I say: What would make this interesting to me? And I go from there. It’s amazing how much a sentence here or there really changes the dynamic of a scene.
Oftentimes it’s hard to realize what needs changed on your own work. I continue to struggle with it myself and anytime I write something I send it through my own personal peanut gallery for critique. This video explains what I’m getting at well, and also tells you the most important thing you can do to get better: practice!
Anyway, I’ve harped enough about writing and editing. Editing may not be for everyone, so don’t get worked up about it. I do recommend trying it, though, to see if it’s something you’d enjoy. Considering all facets of writing, and getting practice in them, only furthers your knowledge for writing.
There are a lot more things that go into learning: Reading, studying, conversing... and so much more. It’s not just words that are important to writing. You need to understand relationships, biology, geography, meteorology, human conditions and tendencies. The list goes on.
I read a lot, probably ten times more than I write at least. I’ve read good books, I’ve read bad fanfiction, English papers, tax letters, technical documents and and and... Because of that, I now have a clearer understanding of what I enjoy to read, and would like to write about. I have read works that I desire to emulate for their subject matter and/or quality, and I have also read works that I want no part of and do my best to not follow in their writing footsteps.
All of this because I’ve read so much from every end of the spectrum. It’s easier for me to tell when someone has an editor, or cares about what they’re writing, because I’ve seen writers with/without editors or passion. I’m not saying I’m an expert, not by a long shot, but that reading is a great tool to understanding what good writing is. It also makes for great reference material! “How did this author capture my attention so well? Let me analyze their work and see why!” Studying all of the above topics: relationships, dialog/conversations, biology, to name a few, provide a knowledge backbone for creating believable characters.
Example:
Something I came to learn when writing is that a lot of fanfiction writers skew character (inter)actions towards their own gender. Why? Because they don’t understand the opposite sex.
Newsflash for all those (us) closet bronies out there: Girls don’t think like us! Women rely more on feelings and relationships to make choices and get through their lives than men, who have a more objective outlook and oftentimes don’t consider the ramifications of their actions or words.
I am guilty of this myself, and when I show my work to the ladies, they tell me: “Sasha, a girl would not say these things in this situation.”
And just like that, bam, I’ve learned something. But I take it a step further and reply with: “What would they say or do, then?”
Before you know it, you’ve spent two hours learning how things are different for the opposite sex. If there are any girls reading this article, realize the same applies to you, just in the opposite direction. I couldn’t begin to tell you how many times my sister has assumed a boy will react a certain way and I go: “Nuh-uh, that is a guy, sis, and he won’t do that.”
We have to be careful, because we always holds some sort of preconceptions about the opposite sex that are oftentimes extremes and not normal. Things like: ‘Well that’s a bug, so clearly this girl I’m writing will be grossed out.’ This couldn’t be farther from the truth! Personalities have so much to do with how someone was raised. A farm girl will not be grossed out by a bug, just as a city boy will puke the first time they see a deer field dressed in front of them.
This is a huge topic, and there is so much to know! I haven’t learned everything, and I probably never will. But, understanding that things are different to different people and genders is the first step in learning to write good characters. I try to get input from both genders for my characters, then I study that input and rewrite rewrite rewrite!
So yeah, learning. I apologize for going down a rabbit trail there. But relationships are huge and makes a great example for why learning is so important. Criticism, when received properly, provides so much opportunity for learning, which you can then turn around and increase the quality of your words tenfold.
DEDICATION
I’ve been writing for over three years now, almost four. A lot of writers I admire have been writing for 10+ years and have been a part of multiple fandoms. This also helps me realize that Shakespeare wasn’t an icon the day his first play was published. It’s going to take a lot of time, and a lot of practice, to eventually understand the nuances of good writing and then be able to apply it.
If you are actively seeking to become a better writer, there is nothing better than practicing. Find yourself a schedule for writing, once a week or a thousand words a day, it doesn’t matter how much, but find time to set aside and just do it. Once you get into a routine, it becomes easier. Then, before you know it, you’ll have something written, and you’ll start receiving criticism and you can learn from it to get better!
The key, though, is to never stop. If you are having trouble with a story you are writing, set it down and try something else. It is even beneficial to get crazy sometimes! Write outside your comfort zone. You don’t have to post or publish anything, but getting practice in with a variety of styles and topics only makes writing as a whole get easier.
I hope this helps somebody out there. I certainly enjoyed writing this, a lot of what I said wasn’t my original script either. I go off on tangents and lose focus of the point I was trying to make, so I had to go back and simplify examples. But, it got me to thinking, and if I can do that much for someone else, then yahoo!
We-he-he-he-he-heeeeeee...!
*skips off into the distance*
I'm not sure what to say other than "Yes!" We've seen writers who fell prey to their fears or dismay and stopped writing (dedication), people who post "first story, go easy" or "I'm not good at grammar, deal with it" comments to spare themselves work (learning), and authors who snipe at or delete comments from others who reply with thoughts other than "this is amazing!" (criticism). (We're on a fan fiction website; desire is everywhere!) You do really need all of this to be a writer, even if your skillset gifts you with natural ability.
Implementing it all? That can take time and effort, but the rewards are amazing!