how do we evolve?

I'm sure it's a combination of many things, but i'm interested in hearing what each of you think has helped you evolve as a writer.

 

Reading, reviewing, discussing and thinking.

 

Writing and reading (though not always in that order) and by examining what others have written.

 

Writing--editing--polishing--submitting, participating in a crit group, reading (magazines such as Locus and The Bulleting) and blogs about writing, novels, short stories, nonfiction.

Terry

 

I don't think we can evolve any other way than what has been mentioned already. It's basically a combination of reading, writing, sharing, and reviewing.

 

I agree with the others.

 

Life experiances, reading, daydreaming, and writing even if it is not worth the while. Those things have helped me evolve thus far.

 

agreed.

sometimes i imitate pieces that i really enjoy in hopes that technique or style will eventually work it's way into my writing.

 

i hate using words that dont fit (i'd suggest 'grow') but 1) writing 2) reading 3) reviewing 4) daydreaming, and 5) talking about it.

 

Trial and error.

I make mistakes, I learn from them. I make more mistakes, I learn from them too. And so on.

Experience bring knowledge of what works and, equally important, what doesn't.
To evolve and learn you have to reflect on that experience.

It's a cyclic process of doing, evaluating and/or getting feedback, reflecting upon lessons learnt, do again this time incorporating what's been learnt, repeat.

 

First was the daydreaming and fantasizing - my writing could not have even existed without it.

Then the actual writing itself, as mentioned above, is extremely important.

And finally of course reading other books, that's important too.

 

Probably a good idea to go completely bat-**** crazy every now and then, too.

 

Reading loads of books, writing and reading what I've written. The more I write, the more I develop my own unique style, and when I go back and read what I've written I see what works and what doesn't. And reading gives me ideas on how do develop my writing style.

 

Thinking. That has to be my biggest way I've evolved. But in order to think about things, and evolve my thought process, I have to take in information -- through reading, watching tv or movies, interacting with others, ect.

I don't just read fiction. I read a lot of non-fiction on philosophy, psychology, history, and general human interest. I also read fiction that excites me -- intellectually wise.

I think the biggest evolution comes through giving and receiving critiques. We can be writing along, thinking its all dandy, but to put it up for others to read and point out the flaws, makes us grown as writers when we incorporate those suggestions and perceptions into our writing. Give critiques makes us think critically about the information being presented and determine if there is anything wrong with it...or what is right about it.

We all seem to know good writing when we see it. But published authors go through a series of edits before it goes to the editor, then the editor sends it back at least once (usually several times) until they feel the author has achieved publishability.

SO what we are seeing in the finial product, is months, maybe years, of hard work in writing and re-writing, until it is almost perfectly polished (because I have never read a book without at least one typo or grammatical mistake.)

I think our determination to strive for better is a quality that makes us evolve our writing skills. If we don't have that, then there really isn't a point to continuing writing.