I keep trying...

[yonkyu]

Everyone keeps telling to write. That the more I write the better I will get. And to read everything I write out loud because it will help make my story flow well guess what. I have to agree it helps but I still suck. I don't have a voice any form of voice but expressing the emotions of my characters. Guess what? That's only part of writing a story. There's so many more elements to work in and I doubt I'll make it realistic. Even it my characters are based off a TV show. Yet I should be happy with hits and kudos but guess what? I'm not. It shows me what people DONT want to read. When everyone else gets thousands of hits kudos and comments. I get NOTHING. I'll keep writing but I can't stand being told I'm getting better when no one can specify how I'm improving. It's so hard and something I'll struggle with till the day I die. I can't write o e scene at the beginning then another at the end. I just can't seem to do it. I know drafts are rough and a mess then you clean it up to make it stand out and guess what never going to happen. I read my stories and I like them and I'm just pushed to the side for a better writer. Whatever. It's never going to change. For once I would love feedback that's helpful to me in improving . Only to keep writing. I know writing is hard but I feel my grammar is my fear of never understanding the elements and points to writing a story. Kudos to me is I read it or thanks for a sharing the story felt it was worth the time to take a chance on it. Whatever I'm only improving one step forward five steps back. At least it's how I feel about things. So I keep writing and putting the words down and do my best to make it flow without repetition and to make reminders throughout fic. Not every paragraph. I keep trying new things. Write small and even that's a struggle. And I'll never be the student to make progress.

Comments

[alexisjane.livejournal.com]

Practical help...if you want concrit, I can give it...you won't like it but it might help : )

First of all, if you're not enjoying what you're writing, no one else will either. Sure, it can be hard, and challenging, and frustrating at times but you have to love the story you're telling. Also, if you're writing anything to get a pat on the back, forget it. Coz even if you get it, there will always be someone doing better than you to resent, or one bad comment that will ruin your year regardless of how many nice things people say. A good piece of advice is to write your story with one reader in mind. When I'm writing the thing I'm working on at the moment, I write it for Milly_gal. I know lots of other people will read it but I write it with her in mind, and I even send her the chapters right after I'm done. Focusing that way helps be stay consistant.

You talk a lot about elements of the story, and grammar, and technical stuff, but when you're writing the story down that shit doesn't matter one bit. Write the story. Let the idea flow out of your head onto the page. Once you've done that, then you make it so other people can read it and understand what you're talking about. Writing is communication. Once the story exists, then you get to mold it into something that other people can understand. Like the man said "Don't tell me the moon is full, let me see a beam of moonlight glinting off the broken glass." Or something like that anyway. When you write the first draft it's okay to say the moon is full, but you better damn well go back and fix it. The thing I'm working on now...I've done six drafts, just about to start number seven...because writing is easy. Editing is hard. You have to learn to love it, because it's part of the process.

If you want, I'd be happy to work with you on a short thing, maybe 500 words that we could go over critically a few times. I'm not the greatest writer, technically or otherwise, but maybe I can help a little bit xx

[siennavie.livejournal.com]

This is the second time I've read someone say that grammar and technical stuff doesn't matter when you're writing a story.

That doesn't sit well with me because, yeah, first drafts are rough, but the editing process requires those technical and critical thinking skills. You could argue, "that's what editors are for," but how far should they carry you? How much of it should be your work versus theirs?

If you just want to be a storyteller, I guess ideas are all you need. But if you want to be an effective storyteller, you need the technical skills too. I'm not saying you have to be Ms. Perfect Grammar - most of us can't lay claim to that title - but you need a good grasp at least.

It's fine to say "grammar doesn't matter" when the writer has an implicit level of technical skill. But, as you're obviously aware, your technical skills are a weak point, so I don't think it's something you should ignore.

But then again, let me ask you: Do you want to be a good writer, generally speaking? Or do you just want to tell stories?

The more I look at your struggles, I worry you're getting too much advice from different sources and it's just overwhelming. We all have different ideas about what's important and what you should be doing to improve. I'm wondering if you're getting ahead of yourself, jumping into the deep end instead of taking it step by step. I know you've been taking classes, but I'm not sure what kind. Ultimately, I hope they help you figure out how you best learn.

[poisontaster]

You're almost never going to get constructive criticism as a comment to your story. The fandom culture is set up to discourage that very thing; most people don't want it and respond horribly to getting it. So fandom itself is set up in a way that people are either only going to say the nicest things or nothing at all (mostly nothing at all). So if that's your goal, stop trying to get it from there.

The other part of it is that a lot of people don't know HOW to give concrit and giving it feels too confrontational, so they're afraid to do it. They don't want to hurt someone's feelings, they don't want to be "mean" (I completely disagree with the notion that concrit has to be mean, though I will concede that some people use the idea of concrit to just be assholes). And, too, a lot of people just don't know HOW to give concrit. They know what they like, but they don't think about it critically, they don't know how a story fits together or how to make it better. Finding someone who is good at concrit, period, but ESPECIALLY in fandom, is REALLY HARD. In my ten years in fandom, I've had basically TWO friends who were really good at concrit. Two. And I don't have one of them as a friend anymore.

So don't give up, but recognize that it's HARD. Improving is hard. Finding a person or people that can help you improve is hard. And recognize that it's art. And art is subjective.