Aww Beecubed, it's ok. At least you got here eventually.
I agree. Better late than never, right? But it would still have been so nice to have been around while you were writing about Vampire and Pirate Musumes. I would've had such a blast reading and commenting on those.
It can be hard to teach how to write better. Personally I just try to read good writing and absorb the techniques involved. I'm of the opinion that reading well breeds good writing eventually.
I second this.
I've compared my writing in grade 6 to my writing in Year 8, and the difference is just... mindblowing
What really made the difference was the fact that I read SO much in grade 6. The more you read, the more accustomed you become to the way professional writers use language and create meaning. This awareness then might manifest in your own writing, or otherwise you might have to put in the extra effort to study a good piece of writing and take some time to apply and practise.
I mean, everyone can obviously tell how much I worship Ai from how I write about her.
Totally
Then again, I'm very hard to please as a reader. So don't get discouraged if I'm not impressed by something. I just have ridiculously high standards.
You must not like things like Twilight then...
Not that I hate Twilight that much, but I just can't get into it. And it's even worse that people are placing it on the same bookshelf with genius stuff like Harry Potter. T____T
Anyway, that makes me curious, Essy. What's a really good book to you, then?
Most of the time I absolutely hate my own writing because I think it's absolutely horrible. I wish I was better...
I don't think you hate your own writing. You said so yourself in one of the latter posts - 'I need to get over myself' xD
So maybe your problem is that you ache and agonise over your writing so much, the process of writing and editing for you has become somewhat horrid at times.
You might be the type to read through a paragraph and think, 'Wow, I've done pretty well here...' and then look at the same paragraph some weeks later and just feel like
lol, I know I do that sometimes.
It's good to want to improve and all, but don't say stuff like 'my writing is horrible' when we all know very well that it is far from that, Essy. ^__^
If you were looking to maybe publish your works to the masses, then perhaps such feelings would be more justified. But we're just talking fanfiction here, and I know a lot of us are very passionate about our literary conquests... but keep in mind the readers here probably spend most of their time reading, experiencing and fangirling/boying rather than glaring daggers at an awkward-sounding sentence
I don't think fanfiction should invite so much criticism anyway. Fanfiction is about writing and sharing stories about our beloved people for the pure joy it brings.
@Beecubed There are people that call Ai boring? Now I want criticism from you just to see how bad it could be. I'm so masochistic when it comes to my writing.
Yeah. Lots of them in fact. Actually, I might have been guilty of that a long time ago.
But only because I didn't know anything about her, of course.
I don't follow Berryz or C-ute, actually... >.<
And I'm not the type to completely rip somebody's writing apart. I can't do that. I could maybe read into some of your chapters and tell you what I think (in a very nice, non-confrontational way ^_^), but I wouldn't bash it. If you want your story to be bashed, I'm probably not who you're looking for...
@Beecubed : thanks for your advices and tips.... i'll try my best to fulfill the criteas that you have tell me... read my fic "Promise" if you got the time ok..... i'm not sure how much you like it though....
No problem
My advice wasn't very specific, but it's a start if you begin looking into it, I think... *scratches head*
Again, I'm not a Berryz or C-ute fan. But I could look into it for you at a surface level if you want.
Huge chunk of words = NO NO. It's one thing to have long paragraphs, it's another when your entire chapter consists of one unbroken paragraph.
Agreed. I massive paragraphs give me headaches even before reading them; so look so heavy and tedious to read. Formatting is definitely something that needs to be addressed well too.
But that's just my way of doing things, which is why it takes so much time and energy for me to get anything posted, since I really work hard at it. I'm never going to be able to post one chapter a day with work in my life now, since I'm always dog tired when I come back, but I won't compromise on quality for speed. At least, I hope I never do so. Haha.
I'm feeling you here too.
But if you're the type to take ages to post a chapter because you can't bear to sacrifice quality, it can also work against your favour. The reading can be jarred, because giving readers such a long break between chapters means their mood/emotional responses are continually disrupted or given time to fade. That's one of the main reasons why I think SarangAi is doing so well in the forum atm - she's updating so quickly and consistently.
It's like how I can't stand watching one Naruto episode and having to wait a week for the next to be released. It's not as fun. Watching 20 episodes one after the other makes for such an epic viewing!
So, my last message here would be: write with joy! Yes we should aim to improve, yes we should try and fix our weaknesses. But at the end of the day, we're dealing with fanfiction and the idols we love, so we should be happy in our writing.
Exactly what I was just saying before... xD
@Tundra: that and that. boot camp and betas. But remember it was back in 2008... the beta thing was a good idea while the boot camp...I don't think I ever agreed with that
The idea of boot camp and betas is cool...
And I read what Yuuyami and Loser87 had to say about Heyyouhiya's prologue... and my God, they completely butchered it
Though I disagreed with almost everything they criticised about... or is that because of my more lenient nature? I don't know, it felt like they picked on everything. I would've been pretty shot down if I were Heyyouhiya
I think I focus on the structure and flow of sentences. I can't stand it if a sentence sounds awkward. Although, I think I've been brainwashed well enough by my last 2 English teachers so that I can catch the awkward sentences in my own writing. I still think I'm going to go crazy one day while trying to figure out the right word to use in a sentence. Must improve my writing... Oh well, writing seems to be my new stress reliever.
Structure and flow of sentences is definitely something I need to work on too
There's no better way to improve than to keep writing
Don't sit there for hours trying to find the right word, you'll just end up hating writing
My new stress reliever is reading now. I love it so very much and haven't been doing it as consistently as I used too. For the last few weeks I've been reading pretty much nothing but Morning Musume fanfiction
Finally decide to randomly join in here I lurk...... a lot and maybe because is hard for me to give a decent post
Thanks for joining in!
I know you took the Eri graduation news pretty hard StephanyLee, but please don't disappear forever...
I once got I criticism of my fic and stop writing because of that u.u'........ LOL JK!
I told you no need to apologize ^^. Actually I was glad you give such a reply and just give my your point of view about it. I never got something like that and at H!O there was a person who REALLY like it and never point out the things you did, so I though I was doing well.
Is good for a writer to know what others like to read and what the readers REALLY think about the story, well at least for me was a good thing. Even though I'm not so good receiving a critic at all, I found them useful, but I guess it depends of the writer also.
I know you did, but I still felt bad afterwards. I just didn't think it would make you stop the whole story >.< I'm a bit of softie and I don't like making people feel bad. You might have told me that it was okay, but what if it wasn't? The fact that you stopped the story itself made me all
It wasn't that your story wasn't any good - it held lots of potential and I wanted to see it blossom so that's why I gave the advice that I did.
But yeah, it does depend on the writer. Some take criticism gracefully and for others... it's their downfall.
There's a HUGE difference now in the story 'cause I change a lot on it so now there are less mistakes but I'm pretty sure there're still some left 'cause event though I pay extra attention when I re-read what I write I found a mistake u.u'
I'm glad you're seeing improvement
I'll have to read some of your newer AiEri stuff
and on top of that I have to struggle with the fact that English is not my first language
Which is why it's so admirable that many writers continue to write and wow people despite the fact that English is not their mother tongue.
I would never be able to write that well in a second language.
.............................. Okay, I think I've established the fact that I love writing about reading and writing.