I've done a lot of writing this year, more than last year. I'm primarily a short story writer and an essayist. And I submit a lot. And I get published, though, I do wish that happened more. Still, everything I have on submission I feel really good about. There are no duds or maybe someone will like it. I believe in the work I am putting out there. And I believe in my writing more than I did this time last year. I'm also more in love with my novel-in-progress. It's turning out to be a better story than I thought it would be. I've gone back and reworked it because I'm a better writer now and I realize my novel can be a better novel now. It's hard to really measure progress, but than all of a sudden we notice changes in the way we write and the way we approach our material. It can be a slow process, but it happens. We get better. So, I'm just wondering if you guys also are seeing improvements. Are you a better writer now? And what sort of things made you realize this?
Sorry. I saw you hadn't had replies. Crikey, I hope I've improved. Imagine if one went through all this, and got worse.
I think my knowledge and my critical eye has improved. But whether y skills have changed much I'm not sure. Writing is a craft that takes years to succeed in. It's like being a piano player, it takes years of dedication and patience to become a master and two years (for me) really isn't very much.
Yes, my writing has improved in many respects, but it makes me all the more aware of how far I've got to go before I really start reaching anything close to my potential. I can kick the ball farther, but the goalposts keep moving away.
Hard to say with my WIP. Sometimes I read over something and find it brilliant other times I run across a paragraph that sounds like I can't string coherent sentences together. One thing I feel I've improved on - character voice, layers, word choice. Some I'm working on - getting the right he to address the right he, hyphens, choppiness.
In a three steps forward two steps back way, yeah, I’m improving. It’s come to my attention that I’m a bit of a perfectionist. Combined with being quite sporadic it’s a hard balance. I just try and focus on individual slices of improvement. I’m never happy with anything over all, but I am usually able to allow myself some sense of achievement with a good line, metaphor or technique here or there. Same issue with any form of expression not just writing.
I'm going through a phase in my literary career where I'm tackling the dynamics of plot rather than technical proficiencies
its funny.... i think I've gotten smarter about my writing. I enjoy writing just as much now as I did when I was in middle school and high school. However, I cant seem to FINISH things. I finished almost everything I started back then, and rarely encountered writers block. Rereading those things now, its cringe-worthy because of all the spelling mistakes. i'm not talking about the occasional typo or missing letter in a word, but straight up terrible spelling! (example being the use of "strait" instead of "straight" and the use of "big words" that are poorly spelled that dont fit in to the scene). It was so much easier to write and be creative then as it is now. I dont know what that means. I was also heavily in to DeviantArt and Protagonize (RIP). I liked the feedback after each chapter I wrote. I feel like the audience is what drove me on back then...I had people who WANTED to read what I wrote, and couldn't wait to know what was coming next, and bugged me to keep writing when I'd go a week or two without adding to the story. I think, stylistically, I've improved. My attention to details have improved (though sometimes I dont know when i've added TOO much detail). And, as I've said, I've gotten smarter about it in terms of organization and plotting and character development. How do you measure improvement/progress? Is it by the amount of work you've finished? gotten published? I dont even know
I sure hope I'm a better writer. It's like knowing things, the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know. The better I get, the more I realize how far I have to go.
I don't really understand this. What are technical proficiencies? How to you tackle the dynamics of plot? I think I work on everything that needs to be worked on at the same time and usually just call it writing because, well, I'm writing.
I have been writing my MS for three years and I am making slow steady progress. I am not the same writer now that I was two or three years ago, I am far better. There is a temptation to improve my older work but if I did that I would never finish anything. I have learnt to work on short stories and novellas until I am ready to write my full novel. Although I wish there were a shortcut...
It's different for each person, but generally if you can feel you're writing better, if it looks better and reads better, then you're improving For me, I'm constantly looking to improve and am rarely satisfied. I look at things I wrote two, five, ten years ago and cringe.
Yes. My writing was garbage when I was on here ten years ago. Now I feel like an amateur, but no longer an imposter.
