The lessons we've learnt

Tecdavid

Tecdavid

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Here's something I'm curious about. Across the articles you've read, the writing styles you've sampled, and the critiques you've received, which lessons on writing have stuck with you the most? Which have you found most helpful, or the biggest "wake-up call" as to what you were perhaps doing wrong in your early-days naivety?
I think it'd be interesting to see which newbie mistakes many of us made, thereby which could be the most common, as well as what we did to overcome them. :)
 
I once had a partial returned (in the old days, when you sent an SAE) in which the reader's comments had been accidentally left in. This was quite early in my writing days. The reader rubbished it, quite correctly, and I was mortified. But it sure made me raise my game.

The only other "lesson" I remember - and I wish I could recall which author said this - is; 'If you're stuck, don't think about words - imagine it better.' That one stayed with me...
 
Something I've found out myself: when you suspect something's not quite right, but you think you might get away with it -- you won't.
 
Will I ever visit this place again?

In more detail - this was from proof-reading for a friend. There was a beautifully described room, setting the scene, several doors, person making an entrance in one door someone else through another door and the like. And no-one ever went in that room again for the whole book, yet it took up a page or more setting the scene.
In the second draft the descriptions and actions were rather trimmed back..... :D
 
HareBrain said:
Something I've found out myself: when you suspect something's not quite right, but you think you might get away with it -- you won't.
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This (partly because a certain hare has an unerring instinct for rootling such things out).

Also, that whining and passivity are not very attractive character traits.
 
Words are not your friends. Don't be afraid to kill them off.
Trust the reader to have a Brain too.

Learning to be tight and not go over board with boring description.
 
Learning how to plan a story out on paper before beginning to write was an eye opener. Before, I had never completed anything. My stories fizzled out after a chapter or two and I just put it down to "not enough inspiration". Now I realize I need to organize a story before writing it (this is very personal - plenty of writers wing it beautifully, just doesn't work for me).
 
There are rules.

And then there are guidelines. Styles. Expressions. And so on ...

... but at the end, when you realise you're an artist, all those rules, guidelines, styles and expressions disappear as you art takes a place and shapes all those things to one thing.

Your book. Your story.

And I'm sorry, I was in a dramatic mood at the beginning, but the hardest lessons I have learned is that no matter how brilliant you think you're at the beginning, you suck. Your produce just isn't good enough, and it takes very long time for one to learn to be good enough.

But when you reach that level, you realise that you're just reached the bottom of the ladder, and there so many better people out there than you. And that makes the competition hard, because in this day and age we're living in a society that lives by the economic rules.

Then again maybe an artist can dream a dream and see a vision of other land, where the storytellers are kept in highest regard. Not as gods but something better than living day in, day out in the starving line.

That's my two cents.
 
I've had few reviews but the one I remember the most was the one that said that they loved the character and the story and that some day they intended to finish it, but here's what annoyed them.

And then there were a list of things things that could seem a bit annoying as I went through them.

Oddly they then stated that it was just things that show up a lot in everyones writing that they found annoying and they would only expect me to do anything with the suggestions if I thought they would improve my writing.

They also said they thought it was in a lot of writing these days because people were giving out bad advice about writing rules. And suggested if I'd been following someones advice I should stop.

Strange but true.
 
The best lesson I have learnt, is to just keep writing. I try to write a bit every day on a project. Even if it's rubbish, it helps keep the mind ticking over. Sometimes I just write useless babble, but it's just like physical exercise, the more you do, the more natural it becomes.
 
Tecdavid said:
Ah, but how do you know when you've reached competency? :eek:
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When my betas stopped sending chapters back with more red than black was a good indicator. And when crits here (and I got a lot when I first started) indicated that I was getting into the nitty-gritty. I can't say enough how much feedback was the single biggest thing in terms of development for me.
 
I haven't really come to any yet, except it might be to always remember that the average book goes through several drafts. Seems a sort of a duh thing to say but it's very easy to think you'll never be as good as the writers you admire. It doesn't matter that you're writing rubbish, the important thing is being able to rewrite it.


And Springs, please, how DO you kill the passive voice? I seem to drop into it all the time.
 
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