My writing problem!

[ashthehunk]

Hi guys
when i write , it seems to me that my stories lack structure and are awkward.
However my friends don't feel that way for my writing.
Is it normal to feel awkward for what you have written?
Is there something you guys could suggest me to better my writing skills.

[JamCrackers]

Aside from practice, I have these thoughts. Let's say you are the best writer and you have the best idea ever. I would steal your notes. The idea is valuable. The writing is not. Everyone has their own take on writing. In movies you hear about people planning on making a novel. That is what? 100,000 words or whatever? That alone to me is a huge issue. If you dream of writing one some day, I'm not sure how you get better. If you are not that person, I would suggest writing your first ten to develop your style. My latest improvement was this text aloud software that speaks my writing aloud in a voice. It totally opened my mind to dialog tags, the whole 'said' debate. When you listen to it as audio, you actually need them. You can't hear paragraph breaks so you go back and put all the 'said' back in right to make it understandable. Like anything else difficult, like climbing the ultimate mountain, writers cluster at the bottom by the millions. Each stage higher, many gave up. When you don't give up long enough, you find hardly anyone is left around you. Write more. Part of that is editing is not writing. Spend more time making more and less time fixing what you have. My brother tells me, a lot of my best stuff was my first stuff. Personally, I think my style early on was bad, so I would change it all to my new way of thinking. Your audience is not you. They are much more interested in being entertained than admiring your style. Another thing many do you can avoid is phony mechanical writing. People seek to make 'long sentences' or use semicolons, or keep checking the word processor for average word size, dropping thesaurus words just because they are big words. All that stuff is phony style you need to keep writing until you cure yourself of being so ego about it. Another tool is back off your work and put some time into the concept of a sentence. Take a sentence that was important to you, then like a school exercise, make 50 versions of the sentence. Each of the 50 has to be the same message, only written in a different way.

[Alexander III]

Aside from practice, I have these thoughts. Let's say you are the best writer and you have the best idea ever. I would steal your notes. The idea is valuable. The writing is not. Everyone has their own take on writing. In movies you hear about people planning on making a novel. That is what? 100,000 words or whatever? That alone to me is a huge issue. If you dream of writing one some day, I'm not sure how you get better. If you are not that person, I would suggest writing your first ten to develop your style. My latest improvement was this text aloud software that speaks my writing aloud in a voice. It totally opened my mind to dialog tags, the whole 'said' debate. When you listen to it as audio, you actually need them. You can't hear paragraph breaks so you go back and put all the 'said' back in right to make it understandable. Like anything else difficult, like climbing the ultimate mountain, writers cluster at the bottom by the millions. Each stage higher, many gave up. When you don't give up long enough, you find hardly anyone is left around you. Write more. Part of that is editing is not writing. Spend more time making more and less time fixing what you have. My brother tells me, a lot of my best stuff was my first stuff. Personally, I think my style early on was bad, so I would change it all to my new way of thinking. Your audience is not you. They are much more interested in being entertained than admiring your style. Another thing many do you can avoid is phony mechanical writing. People seek to make 'long sentences' or use semicolons, or keep checking the word processor for average word size, dropping thesaurus words just because they are big words. All that stuff is phony style you need to keep writing until you cure yourself of being so ego about it. Another tool is back off your work and put some time into the concept of a sentence. Take a sentence that was important to you, then like a school exercise, make 50 versions of the sentence. Each of the 50 has to be the same message, only written in a different way.

I agree with hs advice it is definatly a sound start, also post some of your poems or stories in the apropriate sections in this forum and you will get impartial advice from people who not only dont kniw you so there will be no buas, but people who also write themselves.

[Charles Darnay]

Writing a lot is certainly the key. Also have the willingness to edit/re-write. When ideas first go from your head to paper/computer, it is natural that the writing might be a bit awkward, because you are focusing on how to get the ideas out. Once you have a nice mess on your paper/computer, then start to play around with it to make it "less awkward."

[ashthehunk]

I thinks i agree with you sjbraz
Explaining everything hardly leaves anything for the reader.It can make the writing a bit boring for the him.
But while writing there is powerful urge to write everything that is in your head.
if this urge is well managed then i think it will make a good writing

[JamCrackers]

With so many differing opinions, the question could be defined as, how do you write commercially? You would write in a common genre, you keep the erotic angles on a leash. I would call it, 'not being too clever'. Avoid revolutionizing how writing is done.

A technique I use is word collecting. I keep notes when I hear a cool, very rarely used word, saw it in a book or was in a movie. That word will appear one time in the novel length feature.

I was talking to a friend who is a poet. I'm reading 900 days the siege of Leningrad. The writer drops these clips of reality, like a young man with the blue bundle. The met him on the road. He took a rifle. His blue bundle was his pillow when they buried him the next day. There is no before/after story to the kid. It adds a lot of color to the world. That says to me, what do you want in your story? Blue Bundle kid - yes. Character gets out of Bed. Character goes to kitchen. Character makes coffee = no. Tell me something entertaining, even if it is only making your fantasy world seem more real.

[Delta40]

Go with practice, practice, practice. Writing is like everything else in this world. It has to be developed. We all took a few tumbles when learning to ride a bike and it's a fact that some people get the hang of it quicker and can do somersaults while others struggle along but that should not be a deterrent. If you have the drive then go with your gut instinct and let it take you wherever it takes you. Read other works as different forms of writing can guide, enlighten and enhance your own. It's perfectly ok to feel awkward but never doubt your own drive for a moment.

[miyako73]

Come to Literature Network often or go to other literature fora to explore and feel other writers' ideas and vibes. Writing is like a disease- contagious and potent.

[ashthehunk]

With so many differing opinions, the question could be defined as, how do you write commercially? You would write in a common genre, you keep the erotic angles on a leash. I would call it, 'not being too clever'. Avoid revolutionizing how writing is done.

A technique I use is word collecting. I keep notes when I hear a cool, very rarely used word, saw it in a book or was in a movie. That word will appear one time in the novel length feature.

I was talking to a friend who is a poet. I'm reading 900 days the siege of Leningrad. The writer drops these clips of reality, like a young man with the blue bundle. The met him on the road. He took a rifle. His blue bundle was his pillow when they buried him the next day. There is no before/after story to the kid. It adds a lot of color to the world. That says to me, what do you want in your story? Blue Bundle kid - yes. Character gets out of Bed. Character goes to kitchen. Character makes coffee = no. Tell me something entertaining, even if it is only making your fantasy world seem more real.

Well i agree with you but with reservations. I mean yes everyone wants to be commercially successful but i think writing is something that is if not done by soul and satisfaction, will result in a work that would neither be loved by one's readers and nor by oneself.

[ashthehunk]

Go with practice, practice, practice. Writing is like everything else in this world. It has to be developed. We all took a few tumbles when learning to ride a bike and it's a fact that some people get the hang of it quicker and can do somersaults while others struggle along but that should not be a deterrent. If you have the drive then go with your gut instinct and let it take you wherever it takes you. Read other works as different forms of writing can guide, enlighten and enhance your own. It's perfectly ok to feel awkward but never doubt your own drive for a moment.

I think you made a good point. Writing is like any other exercise which needs to be perfected regularly.

[Delta40]

I think you made a good point. Writing is like any other exercise which needs to be perfected regularly.

I would be more inclined to say that writing is an exercise that requires ongoing workouts. Because we grow, learn and change our perspectives through the course of a lifetime, imagine the impact that has on our writing? Isn't that exciting? What a journey worth taking! Whether we perfect our writing is a question I'll try and answer in my dying breath... :-)

[cyberbob]

I feel that way about my writing too. I think it's natural for beginner writers, and I think the main cause is that you compare your raw work-in-progress to the finished works that you see when you read a novel. Remember that not only are those writers extremely experienced, but they've also done a lot of revisions to make their writing look like that.

I recommend you read On Writing be Stephen King. He gives a lot of good, practical advice for people who want to write and he even includes an example of one of his own first drafts (for the story 1408) and then shows the changes he made to it during revision.

[JamCrackers]

On a lighter note, I think about the structure of the novel. I noticed all my favorites were people who compressed wide-scoping stories into a paperback size. So, when working on a book idea, 'Star Wars' is a big project. I find it difficult to have a 100,000 word framework. To me that is like five scenes. Something that took place in one location lasting a day, like a bank robbery gone bad. Sometimes I think a way of doing a novel is 4-5 semi-related short story ideas, like a stage play, you limit your number of scene locations, then tell all the stories at once. Commercially you need a love element, an action element, fill in the genre expectations - practically writes itself. 4-5 good ideas can take you far

[ashthehunk]

I feel that way about my writing too. I think it's natural for beginner writers, and I think the main cause is that you compare your raw work-in-progress to the finished works that you see when you read a novel. Remember that not only are those writers extremely experienced, but they've also done a lot of revisions to make their writing look like that.

I recommend you read On Writing be Stephen King. He gives a lot of good, practical advice for people who want to write and he even includes an example of one of his own first drafts (for the story 1408) and then shows the changes he made to it during revision.

Thanks friend
I will try the book.

Name few more of those books if you can.

[ashthehunk]

On a lighter note, I think about the structure of the novel. I noticed all my favorites were people who compressed wide-scoping stories into a paperback size. So, when working on a book idea, 'Star Wars' is a big project. I find it difficult to have a 100,000 word framework. To me that is like five scenes. Something that took place in one location lasting a day, like a bank robbery gone bad. Sometimes I think a way of doing a novel is 4-5 semi-related short story ideas, like a stage play, you limit your number of scene locations, then tell all the stories at once. Commercially you need a love element, an action element, fill in the genre expectations - practically writes itself. 4-5 good ideas can take you far

The idea of breaking the novel or any long piece of work in small modules is vital. Doing a novel by 4-5 semi related short stories is nice proved the stories are well researched. Otherwise the work will look more like a short story book rather than a novel.