Not very confident in my writing ability at all. I feel like I can't plot action to save my life, and don't my ability to actually make readers interested. I'd love for someone to be as excited about the next sentence in my book as I was the first time I read Hitchhiker's Guide. How do you guys determine if you actually have the gift of writing well? Hard to know for me, since no friends /family that can critique.
Unfortunately, I think that it's something that you have to put a whole lot of effort into before you know if the effort will pay off. You just can't tell at the beginning. I've heard lots of stories of writers who assumed that a particular colleague was never going to write anything worthwhile, and learned that they were dead wrong. This is something that I struggled with coming to terms with. A lot of effort into gardening gives you flowers and vegetables. A lot of effort into cooking gives you dinners. A lot of effort into sewing gives you, at least, pillow covers and pajamas. Even if you hit a wall and discover that you're never going to get any better, you get something out of your effort. But all that effort writing may come to nothing--at least in my world, where what I want is to be traditionally published. So, sadly, I think that all you can do is wait to see if the gamble pays off. That's part of why I put some effort into making the actual writing process sufficiently enjoyable, in the short-term, to motivate myself to continue. If I never get anything published, will the effort have been worth it? I don't know. But there's no way around the fact that it's a gamble.
Very well said. And it's even more of a gamble, because not everybody likes the same thing. Serious writers try to learn as much as they can about the tricks and pitfalls of writing in general. This learning process never stops, in my opinion. I know I learned more about writing AFTER I finished my first draft of my novel than I ever dreamed of before I began writing it. And I'm still learning. I'm in the middle of yet another how-to book at the moment, and it's given me a few more tools to work with. But will you produce deathless prose that sells well? Or a story that's enjoyable but forgettable, but also sells well? Or something that some people love, but not in huge numbers? Or something that just plain doesn't have 'it,' and never gets off the ground? Only time will tell. Personally, for me, it's worth taking the gamble. However, I always write to please myself first. Otherwise I wouldn't bother.
Writing is a skill, not a gift. You just have to work at it! If you want to measure how good your stuff is, try posting it in the workshop or submitting to contests. But don't worry if your stuff isn't golden yet. It takes a really, really long time to master any skill. About 10,000 hours. Just keep working at it, and listen to podcasts like Writing Excuses so that you know you're doing and practicing the right things. Write one book a year. You can do it, if you want to. Or you can just write a little on the side, and that's cool too. You get back in return what you put in.
You'll always be flawed. The best thing to do is identify your flaws and eliminate them. It'll be an endless chain of small self improvements but you'll improve as long as you have flaws to correct. I don't know if there's ever a stage where you truly have it or not have it. You'll always be liked by some and despised by others. However, as long as you're satisfied with your work but not too satisfied that you don't attempt improvement then you'll be fine.
There are lots and lots of writing guides and books out there. Also advice that comes free online, via blogs, etc. Many well-known authors do blogs these days, and many of these authors give good advice on these blogs. Each little bit of insight you take on board will bring you closer to your goal. If you can formulate what your problems are, in a few specific words, then put those words into Google, you'll probably come up with umpteen ways to tackle the issues you're having. You will also take comfort in knowing you are not alone! Maybe some authors just spring full-grown from the head of Zeus, but I suspect most of us learn by trial, error, and exposure to better ways of looking at the writing process. It's not going to happen instantly, but it certainly can happen.
I like what you've said a lot. Especially the last line. Of course there's built-in frustration, too. But I think that's probably part of what a writer, or any creator of artwork of any kind, will experience. Damn. It's good, but it's not perfect. Ach well, I won't make THOSE mistakes next time. Moving on....
You kind of don't, without reliable feedback. Every writer has strengths and weaknesses. Having some weaknesses doesn't mean you're a bad writer. It simply means you need to work on them. One way to tell is, once you start getting reliable feedback, think back to how you felt when you were writing the piece. When you were writing, did it feel like the words flowed out of you in the sections that received good feedback? Keep matching the feedback to what feeling you had when you wrote it, and you'll start to develop an instinct for what's working and what is not. I'm now reaching a point in my fiction writing where, when I get feedback from my alphas, the mistakes they find, or the things they don't like, tend to be the same sections where something felt "off" when I was writing it. If you pay attention to your gut as you write and edit, eventually it will help guide you. Also, I would encourage you to try to write a variety of different things to explore what works and what doesn't. I'm terrrible at writing most poetry, for example. But recently I tried writing dark Haiku, and I'm not completely awful at it. Had I not tried it, I would still have no confidence in my ability to write poetry at all. So, I think being open to exploration is really important.
Put what you wrote aside for a week or two. Then read it. Did you enjoy it? If so, congratulations, you have the gift. Its no guarantee anyone else will think so, but then, that's always the case. There's several famous writers who I think are terrible.
Enter the Flash and Short Story contests here. Yes, it's a close-knit group, and yes, one of those little badges may only be worth about as much as winning karaoke night at your local bar, but if you see people voting for your story when it's anonymous, you know that you're starting to get there. And I've taken plenty of zeros in those contests as well, which means... Well, gotta be honest, it means that I'm not writing to the taste and expectations of this particular group. Or maybe the world at large, sometimes my take on things is askew, and not in a way that's appealing to people. Someone commented on one of my stories that serial murder of children probably wouldn't sell well (or something similar), but to tell the truth, when I had the idea for the story, that hadn't even occurred to me. I just thought I had a clever premise, and a whole bunch of fictional kids had to die to make it happen. Oops. But when you put your story next to a bunch of others, with your name stripped off, it's gonna look awful to you, but that generates polite but honest commentary, and if it generates votes as well, you'll know you're getting "it".
Quoted for truth. I don't write to a 'market' as a beginning writer. To expect that any of my first few efforts would instantly catch the eye of a publisher and sell tens of thousands of copies is simply unrealistic. I have to hone my craft first and there is no point to writing anything I'm not deeply excited about. I have to want to write; to eagerly look forward to participating in the next chapter of the story. If I'm not having fun playing with my characters chances are my writing will stink. I'll write a first draft and then park it for months. When I come back to it I can have a much fresher perspective. The words that were once locked in as my 'only choice' can now be viewed with a more open mind. I've tossed complete chapters and added others and have never regretted it. I will open one of my books now years after completion and still read passages and think to myself, "That is excellent." Maybe not the entire book but you should feel that 'zing' from some of what you wrote.
