When I first started posting stories, oh so many years ago, I thought I had a pretty good hand on my writing. I figured that I knew what I was doing, I had a college degree, was well read, and had been dabbling in writing since I was eight.
But, I began to notice some things and a lot of things were pointed out to me (some overuse of words, lack of continuity, things that plainly didn't make sense and mistaken certain words for others. I learned the importance of outlining (even if just superficially so I know where I want the story to go) and proofreading. I didn't realize how annoying it was to wade through a myriad of misspellings and poor grammar. Back then, I suppose comments were more pointed back then and people could be more critical. Sometimes I miss that, because, though praise is nice, a critical eye can make you really evaluate your work.
It is funny. Now when I look back at what I had written when I first began, and at the time thought was so great, I realize exactly how bad it was. Now I am writing yet another novel and I'm starting to use the tools that I have picked up across the years.
Here is some advice.
1. Outline. Though it might be tedious, you'll be amazed at how focused your writing can be. It is easy to go off on tangents, sometimes producing something that was far from your original concept, maybe something you didn't want to at all. Though it can be fun, what happened to the original vision.
2. Character Sketches. Now, this is not my strong point and I kind of cheat. I make characters out of people I know so they tend to be more well rounded. But, jotting a few notes about a character does help. It helps them stay true to themselves and to the story. If a person isn't a fighter and then you have them starting a barroom brawl it detracts from the story unless you give a damn good reason for it.
3. Proofread. When I started, I just typed and then posted the story online without ever looking back. The results; a poor product. There were times when I inadvertently changed character names from an older story. Even when I look at stuff online now, I can see all the mistakes and it even pisses me off.
4. Have someone Edit. This is something I learned the hard way. No matter how many times you proofread, you will miss mistakes. It's human nature and after going over a story so many times you get bored and sloppy. Case in point. I have edited God Bless the Child about 20 times before giving it over to Erin to edit. She edited it, I don't know how many times, catching a lot of what I missed. Then I gave it to Wren. She found even more mistakes. Guess what, I published it and someone picked up on even more mistakes. Sometimes you need to put your pride to the side.
5. Take criticism. If someone points out something, don't think of it as them being mean, but actually trying to help you improve. Though it might hurt a little, it will make you better (unless they just tell you that you suck or that you enjoy writing abusive crap)
Hopefully people feel free to be honest with me when I post my stories, because, quite frankly, that's the only way I'm going to get even better.
!!!!!THANK YOU!!!!!
Comments
I will definitely agree...
I will definitely agree with the latter three... as to the first two... I find that that sort of thing has to be individual to the writer. Me? I actually do more poorly when I try to structure my writing too much. When I try to structure ANYTHING too much, really.
I think this depends on our way of organizing ourselves. I'm a "go-with-the-flow" organizer. In other words, I just do what seems right when I do it and I just automagically stay organized. Katie might be one of those people who need to work at organizing herself ahead of time.
There's nothing WRONG with either way, if that's the right way for YOU.
Additionally, I'd say you ought to have some separate proofreaders and first-readers. This divides out the "editor" job into two distinct jobs. Some people can do well at both jobs at once, some can't. But even so, if you can find some people, at least one, willing to JUST proofread for you, have them work on the manuscript LAST.
Your first-reader is your continuity and "does this even work" checker. You use them even ahead of any editors. Their job is to ignore any mistakes in spelling et al and JUST look for mistakes in the craft itself. And it's best if this person DOESN'T know anything about writing. That probably sounds odd to you, but the truth of the matter is that you're not writing to an audience of writers. You're writing to an audience of readers. What makes sense to another writer might be confusing as hell to any reader.
Abigail Drew.
criticism
Criticism that is done and actually looks like criticism is great.
Telling people right off there story is shit will pissed them off.
Be kind tell them what you like and ask for clarification or use an asking question to lead them to figure out what might be wrong. After all if a person is smiling its hard for them to not listen.
Becoming a better writer
And have people you trust to read the finished product to see what message is conveyed.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Criticism
Indeed, criticism is critical. Nobody can edit their own manuscript. You already know what you meant to say. The problem is that it's not necessarily what others infer or understand when they read your words.
I was furious with my first editor. I knew she was picking on me, denegrating my work, and being just plain mean. She wasn't. She was right every time. My ego was getting in the way of improving my skills as an author.
This criticism only got worse as I attempted to write term papers, theses, dissertations, journal articles, books and other good stuff. Slowly, but surely, I learned to accept that when an editor said they had a problem with a word, sentence, paragraph or even a general theme, they were not the ones at fault. I was the one who had failed to communicate effectively, and it was up to me to correct the problem.
Now, I strongly recommend writing labs to all my students. They can't write, even though they try really hard. They've never had to write extensively. They haven't had to communicate using the written form of their language. It's not their fault. They just haven't had to do it, so they're not very good at it. And, the writing lab professionals are just terrific at helping my students write better.
Red MacDonald
writing
I started writing and sharing stories in the third grade, and I will say this; practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Just pounding out word after word isn't going to help one improve. One of the things that I think is a disservice when using an editor is to have them fix your grammar and spelling mistakes and simply handing it back to you finished. One of the great things about the new word processing programs is that you can see where changes are made (I got to learn how to do that.) Look to see what's been corrected, so you know better next time. I use to have a huge problem with certain things when I first started. Erin pointed them out to me, I became more and more aware of them, and now I do them much less (we all slip up at times).
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life