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Just a collection of my thoughts on the benefits of writing and reviewing. |
| There's a lot to be had from the community on writing.com. Most importantly are the many selfless people who spend time to offer their own opinions on a writing. I'm so grateful for all of you who give time to us aspiring writers. As such, I dedicate this collection to you. |
| Now that I'm back and writing again, I'm becoming accustomed to the familiar feeling of not quite knowing how to write what I want to write. I dealt with this a lot before I took my break, so it's not anything I haven't experienced before. Just as back then, I still find myself returning to the same routine to prime the creative process. I think it's fair to assume like most others, sometimes the muse isn't really there. Some days it just kind of dangles like a carrot on a stick and every word put to paper seems to be a struggle. If that's the case, I feel for you all. I hate days like that, and sadly they happen more than I would like, despite how much I may plan and outline a story. Sometimes, I just need an appetizer to really get the gears turning. A creative push, so to speak, that can get my ideas flowing onto the pages. That is why I utilize flash fictions. The one here on writing.com tends to be my go-to stop when I simply can't think of what to write. If you haven't looked into it, I can't recommend it enough.
This is a terrific little daily contest that more often than not, primes me into a more creative state of mind. Just as you might stretch and limber up before exerting yourself, this to me is a warm-up into more heavy-handed writing. I don't do it every single day, as some days words just simply flow better than others. However, If I have a need to oil some rusty cogs, this is always the first stop. Of course, there are others that I use. There's prompt generators and simple photos that can strike inspiration, but in the spirit of writing.com, I always start the creative process here. The added benefit to this particular challenge, is finding ways around the limitation of 300 words. If anyone has read some of what I write, I tend to get pretty verbose pretty quick. I like words. For that I apologize because I know some of my sentences get long-winded. The constraint of 300 words keeps that in check. As I sometimes say in reviews: Less is More. It's a remarkable creative exercise to find a way to write a story in only 300 words but still have it say what you wanted to say. Sort of like finding the path of least resistance. This all gets the gears turning with an added benefit of exploring the English language to find that perfect word that gets done what originally took me 3 or 4 words to say. Because of this little exercise, days that would have wound up being a dud, creatively, become days that I pushed ahead by leaps and bounds.   |
| I try to review as much as I can while keeping it reasonable. I don't go into it with some sort of lofty goal to pump out as many reviews as I can in a day, month, week, and so on. I do this to ensure there's enough time in my limited free time, to do all the other things I enjoy. Whether it be writing, reading, wine making, fishing, hunting, or foraging, I draw a line when I need to. I didn't understand this a few years ago. On top of always traveling, and having long working days, I tried hard to write, read, and review every day as much as I could. That really burnt me out and I stepped away for a lot longer than I should have. That said, I'm back now, with boundaries, and modest goals. Along with new writings come new reviews, both sent and received. Honestly the greatest part of writing.com is the community of reviewers here to help those budding writers, like me, learn a thing or two of the craft. That is why I welcome honesty and criticism. I accept that my stuff isn't for everyone. While I'm elated that someone enjoyed one of my stories so much that they saw fit to give it a five-star review, it's the lower ratings I'm interested in. I never take it personal. If you didn't like it, I want to know why. There's a lot to be gained from feedback, negative or positive, and not all negative remarks are just that. They are in fact the feelings of someone who believes that the writing has flaws and are so graciously showing those flaws to you. Like I said, I don't expect to please everyone. A lot of my work, especially my short stories, get into a verbiage not really used anymore. For anyone that appreciates the classics, this isn't an issue, but for others, it's a chore to wade through complex and archaic language. I get that. If that is how you feel about the writing, thank you, and I appreciate the feedback. There's a line somewhere that I need to draw between the verbiage I want to use, and the verbiage that's easily understood. A happy medium of sorts that doesn't come across as a guy that's simply trying to impress people with my vocabulary. Had I not received those types of comments, I'd have never known. I'd have just sat there thinking that what I wrote revived a style of writing that has long since gone extinct. Granted, I know wholeheartedly that I'm not that good. No need to tell me that  But again, there's a lot to be gained from those less than stellar reviews, more so than the super mega positive ones. Should a writing have the benefit of numerous reviews, I can spot the patterns and try to adjust the writing accordingly. Granted, I don't think I've ever received only bad commentary, which means there's hope for me yet! But every comment that wasn't a compliment was honest and fair, and each one is another step towards improving my ability. I want to be clear however, that not all negative comments are the same. A truly negative comment is simply that. "You're terrible." "You Suck." "This story is awful." "You can't write." These are all quite simply, negative comments. Though I've never had one of these and I hope nobody else has either, I want to show what a real negative comment is. The negative comments that are constructive are the ones I'm referring to. "There's a problem in this writing and here's why I say that: xxxxxx" "There are too many adverbs in your writing, here's some thoughts on ways to utilize some better words:" "You tell more than show, here's some examples and ways to fix them:" These on the surface aren't the greatest, positive comments, but they're still great comments. Each one of them can bring to light whatever flaw that I might not see. As I've said, I'm probably the worst judge of my own writing and without comments like these I wouldn't know where I need to improve. This is coming from someone who writes simply because I enjoy it, and not as someone who does it as a profession. I think that each critique and negative comment is a tool for me to use to look at my work from someone else's perspective. After all, I'm probably the worst judge of my own writing. Anyone good enough to point out flaws in my work is to me, a rock star. Granted, when I first joined this site, that was not how I thought. I thought any negative comment was simply people being mean, or someone just didn't get what I was writing. I was 100% incorrect. It was a group of well established, and terrific writers, helping me realize that I wasn't in fact the next J.R.R. Tolkein. (I was a big fantasy writer when I first started) At that time however, I only cared about the 4-5 star reviews, anything else was just mean or wrong. I was an idiot. It didn't take a long time for me to realize that, but it was long enough. Now I can say this with 100% confidence. Any negative comment is an opportunity to turn it positive. It's an invitation to learn something. Anyone who may have recently received a not-so-great review, take it as an opportunity to improve. For the most part, that's what those comments are. To all of you who have given some time to reviewing something of mine and helped me see the error of my ways, thanks a lot, you've all been a big steppingstone in my development. |
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