[Kari]

Ugh, I just hate these noobs! They put up one chapter of their first fanfiction, then start asking around how good a writer they are, if they should stop or continue. Honestly! You’ve written one darn chapter, not your first novel! How do you think we can answer? Guesswork?!

Other than that, this usually happens in fanfiction and is their very first piece of writing. As an editor, but as a reader as well, what do you want me to tell you? That yes, poppet, you’re a good writer and carry on? You most likely suck. Heck, I sucked when I first started. But I stuck it out and am now much better. You will hopefully improve as well.

We readers aren’t here to hold your hand and lie to you; we’re here to tell you if we like how the story feels ( Editors are there to correct you, but readers also do that. Especially they aren’t there to hold your hand). Stop seeking to boost your low self-esteem as a writer, we can't answer for a long while after you start. We judge by your progress and, after a considerable amount has been made, if you have the innate skill to be called a good author.

In fact, here’s how a writer’s progress most often goes, mainly in fanfiction:

- You start out with your head full of your theories for how the book will go. Good.

- You set about putting up your first chapter/ chapter segment. Of course, since you’ve never written anything before, you most likely suck, but we won’t tell you that. There are a million subtleties to writing that aren’t immediately apparent. Reading a lot helps you see these, but even then, people usually have to punch them into your head for you to get them, never mind apply them.

- Lets suppose you get four readers. Three are the noobie readers themselves, which start congratulating you on your genius. They don’t have to give you too much praise, but your ego exponentially inflates to Siberian proportions. Not good. If you’re lucky, an experienced writer/ reader/ editor will look and take the time to critic on it.

- Usually, the first reaction is to defend your writing (exponentially overinflated ego, anyone?)

Now, you can follow one of two paths:

a) You listen to him/ her and gradually try to apply what he/she is telling you, so that you steadily improve. Your writing will get better and better, and you as a writer will eventually start looking out for your most common mistakes and avoid them. From this point on, as long as you keep your ego down, you can only get better, if you persist.

b) The other route you can take is to get on your high horse and ignore the kind, more-experienced person, and continue on stubbornly. The writer/ reader/ editor type will move on, as he/ she really won’t dash their head bloody to save one newbie writer, and you will carry on as before. Result: your writing doesn’t get any better and stays at the newbie stage, where it most certainly sucks. You lose in the long run, no one else does.

Note that time is that which will eventually show if you get better or not. We all go through the first newbie stage of crap writing, even the best of authors. You can’t expect someone to tell you if you should stop writing or not in the first two pages of your story. Frankly, if they were honest, they’d say you sucked. If they were nice, they’d just lie and give you a nice pat on the head. You want neither, really.

Moral: Don’t start asking big questions when you’re so new. I know many of you want to hear that you’re good writers, to boost your confidence and continue, but it just doesn’t work that way. Writing is a skill you hone, and anyone who starts is bound to be a rookie. Just enjoy yourself; after all, that’s what writing, and especially fanfiction, is about! Having fun! Suck it in and plough on with it, listen to criticism you’re given and eventually, you’ll get the answer to if you’re a good writer or not!

[/end rant]

[WxY]

Ugh, I just hate these noobs! They put up one chapter of their first fanfiction, then start asking around how good a writer they are, if they should stop or continue. Honestly! You’ve written one darn chapter, not your first novel! How do you think we can answer? Guesswork?!
[/end rant]

Calm down, calm down! No need to yell. Plus, is it really that hard to spot a couple good points a text has? Agreed, "good points" and "good writer" are very different. Yes, most novice writings leave much to be desired. But don't yell over that!

Anyway, allow me to explain a few things more, for the more novice writers out there. A patient person will search your writing for redeeming qualities, mention them to you, and point out your mistakes one by one. That's called "constructive criticism". Ignoring this is a very good way to become very bad, very fast--if you believe you're perfect, all your mistakes will be magnified, your quality will suffer, and (if that didn't seem like much) a puppy will be left homeless.

You will most probably find patient, experienced, wise people out here, and would do well to heed their advice. Out of gratitude, you might want to make their job a little easier. That could be done by keeping in mind some mistakes you're likely to make.

1) A good idea is never enough. You might just have had the best idea in the world--by itself, it won't do. You need a good execution: believable characters, awesome battles, coherent plot, that kind of stuff. Your goal is for your writing to be...
2) Good writing needs to be immersive. See, the reader wants to feel drawn to your text, to have a vivid image of it. There, we hit a snag; you wouldn't believe how many details can ruin this. Typographic and spelling mistakes. Incorrectly used tenses. Bad punctuation. Bland characters. Too vague descriptions. Unrealistic dialogue. Mistakes in the research of the subject. All those, and many more, can easily turn a good idea into a horrible execution.
3) If it's your first time, you're writing about yourself. Just accept this for now, because it's not neccessarily bad. After all, you're the person you know best, and you use yourself as a reference. One character is going to be your Author Avatar, and the story is going to rely heavily on that one character. Try to make it interesting regardless. Once you have a little more experience, you could start envisioning other characters: until then, stick with your self-insert.
4) Just because you enjoy writing it, doesn't mean others will enjoy reading it. There, I said it. Having fun isn't all there is to it. See, if you have a good plot idea, whatever you write, you're going to be satisfied by it. The reason being, you have a very good idea of what it should be like. Your readers... don't. You have to let themselves immerse in your writing (see no.2). You have to allow them to sympathise with (or at the very least understand) your characters. If the plot exists solely to entertain one character, no-one is going to like it. There is much more to a good story, and it's your job to find out what will draw the readers' attention.

Let it be known: I can't write. I can't create characters with personalities different than mine. For all the vivid pictures I can envision, I can't put them to paper or describe them well. For all the plot ideas I can think about, I can't decide which one would make for a good story. Still, I hope I can advise other people about how to write well.

P.S. Most of the above post is really How Not to Write a Novel summarised

[Kari]

That is probably the best frist post on this forum. Period. XD

I do apologize if I sounded angry at first; bad mood. I do think it evens out afterwards. But yes, thanks for the antilogue to my topic. Basically doing what you say is the key to writing something worthwhile- waiiiit. John?

[greenriderangel]

Also, the "noobs" want to know if they should continue posting the rest of the story from the excerpt (the first chapter).
Or at least that was my point when I waited for people to respond to my first chapter of my first story on here. I finally added that I had like 10 reads and no comments, and then some people started to comment.
It wasn't that I expected people to know that i was a good writer from only my first chapter; I just wanted to know if it caught their attention enough so I could continue.
But that's my personal story

[Kari]

I'm pretty sure that goes for everyone, greenriderangel. Not a single person isn't disheartened when their views go up and they have no comments. You should update nevertheless. Read Spinner's piece on putting up long pieces in the OPW section, I think that covers everything. XD

Well, a writer should always continue, whatever a reader will say. I'd tell meyer to burn her books, not continue, but a million others will throw me off a cliff.

Plus, the term 'noob' was a bit harsh, I admit. XD

[Go for Gin]

That is probably the best frist post on this forum. Period. XD

Quoted for truth. Welcome to the forums, and way to be a contributing member already.

[Dragon eggs from the]

That is probably the best frist post on this forum. Period. XD

Quoted for truth. Welcome to the forums, and way to be a contributing member already.

I think she has been on here for quite a long time.

On Topic: Yes I hate that too but that is probably the way the newer writers ask for harsh critique. Just my opinion.
DFT

[Kari]

We were referring to the other guy. XD

And permit me to disagree. It sounds more like asking for attention and ego-boosting than serious criticism. That could be just me, of course.

[Hold Your Peace]

Nice thread Kari! I totally agree with it. I mean, even if you do insist upon making some sill poll on whether or not you should go on after you post one chapter and we can't judge it, it doesn't matter. Who cares if someone says 'Stop Writing' Don't listen to them, just write!

Thorn Pwns

Edit: DwarvesRule; Your post has been seconded. Like Kari said that is probally one of the best first posts in IF history xD.

This post has been edited by Thorn Pwns: 15 November 2009 - 05:17 PM

[Buddhist]

I'm pretty sure most of you guys missed the postscript at the bottom of his post.

[Bagenbaggage]

I'm pretty sure most of you guys missed the postscript at the bottom of his post.

I think most of them missed the fact he spelled summarized wrong.

But yes we know this, this has been an ever growing problem in the OW. You know what you could do? Not critique them, that is what i've been doing for over 4 years, it is a great method, try it. Critique the ones that you like and give enough.

[Rinion]

I think most of them missed the fact he spelled summarized wrong.

Are you familiar with English outside of the United States?

I must say that I doubt any of the people guilty of jumping the "good author" gun will get around to reading this, considering, as you say, they lack the patience to wait a few weeks and post some more updates before asking if they're good writers. The chances that these people will read through an essay on what they're doing wrong before going ahead and posting their work are slim.

Your best bet is to address these people individually in their story threads and explain to them why their ability as writers can't be gauged from their very first updates. The problem with just ignoring the stories whose authors don't understand this is that there will always be other members who will step in and tell the authors that their work is the best thing ever, without offering any sort of critique, without realizing that straight-up praising is going to do more harm than good in the long run. And every time that happens, the authors' ego-balloons of certainty in their own creative ability will get a litter bigger, and it'll be harder for proper critics to come along and deflate that balloon in the future.

[ArgetBlodh]

ah, i remember when i wanted to do that, such a young noob was i.

that's why whenever i post excerpts there's three things i always ask:
"do i have your attention?"
"could you please avoid telling me i suck without telling me why?"
"does anybody want me to keep posting the rest or are you sick of me?"
about the third question really i dont care it just makes me mad when people post excerpts, they catch my attention, i ask them nicely to continue posting (or at least send me the rest XD) and they say they quit writing because they heard too many people saying they suck

the second question came from when i posted a page or two of a short story i was writing and i had about 12-or-so pages of nothing but "you suck" "you're good" "i hate you" "is there anything else?" hence your point about too many noobs thinking you're a genius or the ones with their inflated egos.

good getting it out there!