So here is my question, simple in essence but possibly complex in answer. How can I tell the decency of my writing without showing it to someone or posting it for review?
After you have written your last word, take a break and do something else for a while. Then come back to it and read your writing. Ignore what you want the story to be and focus on they words convey. Then imagine what you want it to be. If there is no discrepancy between the two the first time through, you probably need another break. Once you are confident your words convey what you want them to mean, move on. Overthinking writing is a terrible thing to do.
See I don't feel great about my writing but I'm on such a roll, I figure I'll fix it later. I just don't feel I'll be straight with myself.
You just... sort of know this stuff. Yeah, it sounds mystical and whatnot, but it's true. I usually loathe my writing -- actually, that's a bit of an understatement -- but after finishing a chapter and leaving it alone for a while, and reading it as though I was just a reader, and not a writer, I tend to find good stuff in it: a good phrase, apt characterisation, characters not acting like cutouts animated by wind, etc. Provided you've read books in your life -- and I assume you have, a lot -- you'll know whether your writing is good or not by rereading it.
I think it's very hard to be objective about your own writing, though. You may write like Hemingway, and yet be so insecure you think it's crap. Or you may write like Bulwer-Lytton, and be so conceited you think the publishers will line up to buy your script.
Bad example. Bulwer-Lytton was a hugely successful author, and gave us some memorable phrases ("The pen is mightier than the sword").
I always thought that was Benjamin Franklin. EDIT: But, I decided to check it out and digitig is correct. You learn something new every day.
just compare any page of your writing to that of several of the best writers in that genre... you should be able to see if it suffers by comparison, or comes close in quality... if you want a private assessment, you can send me a few pages of whatever you think is the best thing you ever wrote and i'll give you some feedback on it...
If you feel a slight discomfort, a curling of toes, a twitch on your face... Pay attention to your own reactions and be honest, even if it feels brutal. Thinking no one else will notice, or kidding yourself by saying it's probably great anyway, is doing yourself a huge disfavor. The first and most crucial step towards great writing is identifying bad writing. It feels horrible to realize a part of your own writing sucks like a black hole, so remind yourself that this realization is a catharsis, and it leads to growth!
Not all people suck at writing, at least not "like a black hole." Some of them are great at some bits, and mediocre at others, and not disastrous at any.
Thanks for the offers and responses, I guess I just have to leave it alone and be honest with myself.
Kinda missed my point. It says "a part of your writing". My post was about identifying bad sections of writing, not about someone -- or anyone -- being bad writers.
If that's the case I recommend finding a few people who are objective and who you trust and having them review the writing. There's really no other way if you're concerned about your own ability to judge it.
I've exchanged with some people here. Could ask around via PM if you've met people here you are comfortable with.
Old danish wisdom is never wrong I agree with everything you said, and I'll pay attention to it myself when rereading my ms during editing. good point.
I'm new at this myself but I agree with others that suggested stepping away from whatever you wrote for a while then re-reading it with fresh eyes. I've noticed that after a day or two I sometimes have a vastly different opinion of something I've been working on. Determining the quality of your writing is a subjective exercise that really depends on the opinion of your audience. If you are the only one to ever read it and decide you like it then there you go. It's good! If you want other people to eventually read your work it might be best to let folks you trust critique it to get a feel for how it might be received by a wider audience.
Simple question deserves a simple answer: Unless you are one of those rare individuals - one in a few million - who can read your own work and disengage your heart, soul, emotions from your critique of that work, you probably can't. It is incredibly difficult to disassociate ourselves from our own work. That's why we need to have trusted, objective readers to tell us when our work is good as well as when it is crap.
So true. I know when something is good, and I know when something is rubbish- but all the same I never think it's good enough.
I'm not a very good writer, but I am a good artist. What I would do with a drawing is hold it up in the mirror to look at the mirror image, or hold it upside down. If it still looks good from all the angles than it's pretty good. So...as for writing...maybe you could read your work into a tape recorder and play it back to yourself to see if it sounds good. (?) I am reading The Secret Miracle right now. It is a collection of interviews of published writers. There is a whole section on revision. Some of the authors show their manuscripts to trusted friends, and some don't show them until they are finished. Some admit that when they are working on the manuscript, they really just want to hear praise until it's done. One author said that she would print the manuscript out, then read it. She would drink a bit first, then she would use a red pen to mark the places where she found her attention wandering, or where she was skipping ahead. One of the most surprising things I've learned from this book is that many of the writers interviewed only shoot for writing 3-5 pages a day, though they might spend much of the day writing. Stephen King says he shoots for five good pages.
You really should post your work here. It's pretty objective and supportive bunch. Otherwise, how do you know? I knew I was ok when I noticed that my writing voice was natural to me and not a projection of something I thought was cool. I stopped getting the 'ugh' factor. That said, I'm still paranoid but I have moved out of that 'it's total garbage' zone.
And that, Declan, tends to be the biggest problem. Writers generally fall into one of two camps. Either they think everything they write is golden and anyone who doesn't like 'just doesn't understand'. Or they judge themselves too harshly and think nothing they write is 'good enough'. The truth is usually somewhere in-between.
