On Writing · 10:27am Jun 27th, 2014
I've received comments and questions about my writing skill and style multiple times and thought, maybe, some explanation might interest my followers. Hopefully this will be brief.
First, I learned to write with practice and care from my young teen years. Formally, I learned through school what the rules of grammar and composition are, some in middle school, a good amount in high school, and a good deal more in college. I wrote essays of all kinds, technical, persuasive, opinion and research-based. Even though I didn't always do well, even failed miserably by not finishing or procrastinating too long, even though I hated the stress, I didn't let it deter my love of wordsmithing. I refreshed my understanding of basic rules often by looking at scholarly examples or for explanations online. Informally, my practice didn't stop there, but extended into journals and forums. I wrote a lot on religious forums, on forums about psychology, and on forums about lolicon. I practiced erotic writing through erotic role play for a couple years from a variety of perspectives. I took technical and style tips all along the way from other stories I'd read, from the works of Dante to erotic books and other fanfics.
I'm still struggling with technical things like dividing my paragraphs and chapters and even the use of some punctuation, but I figure that will all improve with time, as I sit down and research rules and pay closer attention to published literature. I still look up many words to be sure I'm using them correctly, and I keep thesaurus.com open almost always for word suggestions when writing.
I remind myself constantly that I'm nowhere near as talented as the classical writers are. A great deal of published modern writers put my writing to shame too. This pushes me to improve.
For style, I decided to pattern my writing after popular stories like Harry Potter and Twilight Saga, because I found that they were easier to read, more involving to the modern reader, and thus better suited for conveying the messages I want to get across.
I take my characters, themes, and emotion from real life examples that I've seen or read about, but, most especially, I write about my own experience, since I know that best. If my stories are grounded in reality, I feel more confident that they'll reach through to readers. I think about my characters when I'm driving to work or bored somewhere, what they might be doing and feeling, how they might react in some situation. If I'm feeling happy or angsty or struggling against my impulses I think about how that can come out through my writing and characters. Sometimes I take a break to write something on the side for things that don't fit into my current story but I feel need to be let out urgently.
If I begin to lose motivation to write, I think about what made me want to write to begin with, how I might be deviating from that purpose, and I correct my attitude. Then, if I'm still having trouble, I think about the outline I've made for my story, where I want it to go next or at least soon, and what the characters should logically be doing in the meantime based on their personalities. I try not to rush them to my next plot point, but just enjoy the ride there. If I try to rush, I feel I often get stuck going nowhere fast.
I guess that's mostly it.
TLDR :
I read & practice.
7/31/14 - Edit: I've been asked whether I set a schedule and, while I mentioned not rushing above, I think a little more explanation is in order. See my response here.
I'm glad that some people are actually passionate about their writing, given the way you learned.
I'm only 19 and haven't been able to take much pleasure in writing for my own purposes. I've done a little bit and can say i've still a lot of practice to do, but as I've not really had the best experiences in my social life over the years of growing up, I feel like it's negatively affected my ability to communicate, in words both written and spoken.
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Over the last 5 years or so I've been struggling to pass my GCSE English exams, so I've had to redo the whole year several times. This year I got myself tested for dyslexia; the results did show that I've got some issues, albeit minor (I'm pretty sure I'm also autistic, but the test didn't check for anything relating to it which doesn't help, as there are more factors than what it checked for that have caused me to perform awfully in exams). Thankfully the results had earned me extra time for the exams, i've done my exam for the year and hope that with the extra time i was able to get enough marks to finally pass and be done with it.
a little over a year ago the english course i was in wasn't your usual english course, it was far more laid back, it was during that year that i was able to relax and look at the english language from my own perspective without the stress of having to learn this that and the other all over again. I discovered I have an appreciation for things like alliteration, wordplay, synonyms, and other things that just make language more exciting!
I've also learned I'm not completely terrible at writing erotica, or at least segments of it (I might have read a few too many
I'd like to eventually be able to express myself in writing. I have desires to create and express my imagination (shame I can't easily get paid for that), I'm always getting better at doing that visually, through illustration and through programming, I hope that writing is something i'll be able to effectively express myself in, in time.
Your style of writing is certainly.. unique, it's good, stupidly in-depth when it comes to characters, their thoughts, feelings, interactions and all that, as you've been told time and time again by me and others, brilliant. Of course I wouldn't be here today typing my own wall of text if your writing didn't appeal to me, I hope to pick up a few things from reading your stories, learn some of your methods.
Also.. When writing, I tend to.. uh.. stream words from my mind without much consideration for pauses or sentence structure, I often have to go back and fix that, lets see if you can spot bits I missed
I've not yet read the new chapter of Fallen angels, due to the word count i have to wait until i have a nice open time slot, which would have been tonight had I not god distracted, so tomorrow most likely.
P.S. Summer holiday starting, lotsa time to draw, Lets see how much of my to-do list I can get done!
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Thanks for the comments.
For a long time I never seriously wrote any non-rp fiction. Ponies are what changed that, and I think the reason they did is that I became invested in the characters, was inspired by the fan community, and I reached a point in my life when I decided the distractions I'd suffered in past attempts at writing stories weren't worth it (were worth ignoring).
I'm borderline dyslexic and have always struggled with anxiety. I received extended time for tests and assignments throughout my academic career. Now that I've graduated, it doesn't trouble me as much, but it slows me down. I'm fairly unfocused most of the time so, if I'm not passionate about what I'm doing, if it involves sitting still for hours, I often lose the fight against distraction.
As for social life, that picked up for me when I matured during my travels as a young adult.
2240773 You're right about the characters, That's exactly how I feel about them. They're not like, super simple, as a lot of people would think, and often take for granted, There is so much more to them, and that makes me want to try and delve into something much more deep than their surface. I like to try and go out of their normal interactions/or selves and throw things another way; not completely different, but something that still holds onto their 'Element', if you will.
I'm sure I have the same problem. I mean, I know I have to fight a few distractions, and most of the time I do pretty good, but I'm pretty sure I've had some disability that affects me and my skills.
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Ooh, another programmer/artist? We're a rare breed, as far as I've seen
Do you make video games?
I also have difficulty with writing. Not so much dialogue, but everything inbetween. I think it's largely my own fault due to the way I read, though. Not much attention to the specific wording of things, and just run it through what basically amounts to a dream generator, so it's more like experiencing the story than looking at words
So even though I read tons and love it, it does nothing for my own writing technique 
It also makes me a terrible judge of writing quality, because as soon as you pass a certain threshold (and it's pretty low) where I can get a good mental image and not break immersion, I really don't care 
Subject matter is far more important. And I typically hate "classics", because they always seem to revolve around death and misery. I'll take a "personal conflict" story that includes the happy times in full detail like Fallen Angels any day 
One of these days I'm just going to have to tough it out and practice until I "get it" with story writing. Taking classes always feels kind of pointless, because all it amounts to is paying someone else to tell me to practice and yell at me if I don't. Much cheaper and more relaxing to just do it
And if you want to eliminate distractions, just unplug your internet connection
Preferably in a way that involves getting up to plug it back in, so it becomes less effort to just work on your project instead.
2241454 do I make games? sorta, I make what i need to, although they rarely classify as a "game", more so just bits of code that perform specific tasks. I dont really have the patience to sit down and make something worthy of being called a "game" all on my own.
2241454 heh! I actually wrote the most recent chapter of FA a lot faster because I didn't have internet. Internet is a difficult one to overcome.