Noticing Newbies

Hello Nobody ,

I'm no expert by any means, but I'll try to help.

1. The simple (and hard) answer is to write! The more you write, the better you get at it and the easier it is. Akin to that is to READ! Read things you like, read things you don't, read other people's work here on WDC and published work elsewhere, and read books or blogs about writing. Of course, there are also workshops and classes you could take as well, either online or in traditional schools or at writing conventions. You might even look locally for small writers groups that meet regularly to discuss writing.

Interestingly, I've also found I've increased by skip through writing detailed reviews. Reviewing in a way that is both supportive and honest requires me to make sure I'm writing what I'm thinking, am concise, and focusing on the important parts. Reading other people's works that are MUCH better than mine has taught me a lot, and I've learned so much through giving suggestions for areas of improvement. I also have done a lot of research on punctuation and grammar - if I want to help someone, I'd better know that what I'm saying is correct, right? Ha!

2. When I get a review, at the very least I reply with a "Thank you for your comments" and I generally give extra GPs (since the reviewer has to read many, many, many words in one of my chapters ) If the reviewer spent extra effort to be really helpful, quote spots from my work and give specific suggestions (like, instead of saying "Found a few typos" they actually point out each of them), and does a bit more in-depth analysis, then I'll give a lot more GPs (1000 or more). Sometimes I have a question for them, because I either don't understand something they said or because I feel like maybe they missed something (or, more likely, I failed to be clear in what I thought I had written), so I might ask something like "Knowing X, do you think this particular spot would work better if I had written ABC instead?" or something.

Does that help?

--
1UppyEar

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