Hey people, I'm new. 1 post. I got bored with painting. Somewhere along the line I decided writing a novel THAT WILL DEFINATLY BE PUBLISHED would be a good idea . So I did a lot of internet research, read "On Writing" and "Bird by Bird", outlined a plot, developed characters, decided on POV, tense and setting. Great. Now I'm half a chapter in and want to rip my face off. Turns out grammar I know not. Speling is an issue. Dyslexia is a nightmare and for some reason I can't stick to the past tense. Apparently putting a commar after and is a mortal sin and Micheal Gove has recently taught me me that starting a sentence with However, is deplorable. However, I want to keep trying. Just tell me it gets easier. Or tell me it won't but I can pay some proof reading wizard to sort it out for me. *headdesk*
It gets easier. When you started painting you had to learn how different paints produce different results. How to mix them. How to layer them. How to manipulate them. You had to learn that language of technique before you could begin speaking what you wanted to say on the canvas. No? Same thing here. Have a scan at the New Member Quick Start to get you acquainted with how we do things here. After that, participate! Wrey
Thanks I've checked out the link. Shame I painted badly... But I get your point. It's not something I'm going to just be able to do without a lot of effort and technique.
Read. Learn. Write. The more effort you put in, the easier it gets. On a side note, this cracked me up: 'Turns out grammar I know not. Speling is an issue.'
Hi welcome to the forum. I'm still putting crappy chapters down first, then I fix them and they're not so bad, and then I fix them some more and I think I can write. But when I get to another new section, I write another crappy first chapter. So I go back and read a revised chapter to remind myself I really can write. And I set about fixing yet another chapter. I'm getting close to a book that only needs editing and doesn't need any new chapters.
Hey, new poster here, but I think it's hard to say it gets easier. The more work I've put in, the more I've realized about writing. I think people who've read a lot of the writing workbooks would say their creative processes have actually become more complex. As a recommendation, I'd say read Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style. The effect it had on my own grammar has been pretty great, though I'd admit it's dry as hell and I wanted to *headdesk* pretty often. But the book itself dispels a lot of the myths about grammar, and has simplified the way I approach grammar immensely. There are, in fact, a lot fewer rules about grammar than we'd like to admit, and if you're interested in that kind of thing, I think the book is a great read. Part of writing does get easier, and that part, for me, has been knowing what I want to write and how I should go about doing it. Guess it comes with reading a lot, but I don't for sure. Anyways, I think it's cool you want to write. I've actually been wanting to paint recently, as I see a lot of creative parallels. In writing, I'm a terrible speller, but you don't really need to spell well to write well. It's sort of a surface thing. And I'm mildly dyslexic too, mixing up p's and b's all the time, but it hasn't stopped me from trying to learn how to write better.
