Any insecurities you authors have about your novels?

[Assurbanipal_II]

Good for you. To me, it's different. English isn't my mother tongue and trying to simply copy other styles not only slows my writing even more, it also makes it feel all the more unnatural, taking any motivation out of the process. And while I work on that, it isn't as easy for me. In exchange, I don't struggle at all with stuff, other people struggle with.

Indeed, writing in your second language is hard. Especially, when it comes to flow, language barriers prove to be a challenge.

PS. I like your avatar.

 

[LostLibrarian]

English is my third language, and so it's a bit hard to find the right words in English without thinking about the words from the other languages.

Tell me about it. I'm German and we have such crazy words, I would have to use one sentence just to describe its meaning. But even worse is sentence structure and commas. The whole flow is different. And while I'm really good at reading and writing English in a more neutral way (work), going for the flowery descriptions can stop me right in the middle of a chapter. I try to actively "think" in English while writing my chapter, but sometimes I still struggle to find the right words...

PS. I like your avatar.

I do, too. Found it for a few bucks in some stock images website and had to use it

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Good for you. To me, it's different. English isn't my mother tongue and trying to simply copy other styles not only slows my writing even more, it also makes it feel all the more unnatural, taking any motivation out of the process. And while I work on that, it isn't as easy for me. In exchange, I don't struggle at all with stuff, other people struggle with.

Have you tried it in your mother language? I mean if at first you dont succeed, try, try again. Smh. Story of my life.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Tell me about it. I'm German and we have such crazy words, I would have to use one sentence just to describe its meaning. But even worse is sentence structure and commas. The whole flow is different. And while I'm really good at reading and writing English in a more neutral way (work), going for the flowery descriptions can stop me right in the middle of a chapter. I try to actively "think" in English while writing my chapter, but sometimes I still struggle to find the right words...


I do, too. Found it for a few bucks in some stock images website and had to use it

An erudite owl.

As for sentence structure, English is more permissive when it comes to the use of gerunds and participles. As for commata, I set them where I want usually. Where there is no comma, there shall be comma.

But on the other hand, English suffers from being a language that has lost most of its inflections.

 

[LostLibrarian]

Have you tried it in your mother language? I mean if at first you dont succeed, try, try again. Smh. Story of my life.

I also tried writing in my mother tongue and translating it afterwards. But it came out really awkward because the sentence structure and meaning of words were hard to exchange directly. So yeah, I'm on the "try, try, try again" part and slowly getting better. Nowhere near where I one day want to be, but also nowhere near giving up.

Baby steps to giant leaps =)

 

[Lord_Drakonus]

Tell me about it. I'm German and we have such crazy words, I would have to use one sentence just to describe its meaning. But even worse is sentence structure and commas. The whole flow is different. And while I'm really good at reading and writing English in a more neutral way (work), going for the flowery descriptions can stop me right in the middle of a chapter. I try to actively "think" in English while writing my chapter, but sometimes I still struggle to find the right words...

Exactly! I'm from Indonesia and we have more than 700 local languages and 1 national language. My local language is Manadonese and it's very different compared to the national language, which is Indonesian. The problem with the education system in Indonesia is that they force you to learn the Indonesian formal language until high school is over. Plus, there's colloquial Indonesian which is used by Indonesians both in real life and in media, and is mostly used in the capital and the surrounding cities. There's also dialect Indonesian where each regions and provinces have their own dialect of colloquial Indonesian. And there's also the ever evolving slang Indonesian where it's mostly young people who use it, and since I'm still in high school in here, we use it quite a lot.*SIGH*

This basically turned into a long rant of languages. And I'm basically letting out steam from frustration over my language. Haha.

 

[YuriDoggo]

I always felt my novels isn't as complex. Feels like a single-track railroad going on and on without any exciting side adventure

 

[CupcakeNinja]

I also tried writing in my mother tongue and translating it afterwards. But it came out really awkward because the sentence structure and meaning of words were hard to exchange directly. So yeah, I'm on the "try, try, try again" part and slowly getting better. Nowhere near where I one day want to be, but also nowhere near giving up.

Baby steps to giant leaps =)

Atta boy. Cant get discouraged m'dude, everyone gotd their own pace. Me, im good at certain shit with writing. But if im honest, whats my problem?...i have a HUGE vocabulary. And i just don't use it very much. Its a right fucking waste. Like i always go, "man i coulda worded that better" after the fact. Its weird cuz i always look at other works and go "could have said thisninstead and it wouldve been more impactful." Like i know right off the bat when reading other people's work. But with my own, it dont come that quick all the time.

 

[Lord_Drakonus]

Atta boy. Cant get discouraged m'dude, everyone gotd their own pace. Me, im good at certain shit with writing. But if im honest, whats my problem?...i have a HUGE vocabulary. And i just don't use it very much. Its a right fucking waste. Like i always go, "man i coulda worded that better" after the fact. Its weird cuz i always look at other works and go "could have said thisninstead and it wouldve been more impactful." Like i know right off the bat when reading other people's work. But with my own, it dont come that quick all the time.

Yeah me too, sometimes I just blank out. The story just goes smoothly in my head, but when I try to word it out, it comes out as stiff and repeated. After publishing, I'd suddenly remember all of these different phrases and wordings that I could've used.

 

[sxxaint]

I always felt my novels isn't as complex. Feels like a single-track railroad going on and on without any exciting side adventure

Honestly, in terms of novels, a tight main plot is so much more important than drifting all over the place with side adventures. If you can sell your main plot, you've sold it! Complexity will come with time as you learn more about weaving plot threads, but having a solid tower holding up your story is an essential skill to a writer.


And to add what I feel insecure about: I feel like everything I write is in some weird sub-sub-sub-genre no one actually wants to read, plus I'm looking back at some of my old work and instead of being like 'wow this is terrible' I'm thinking maybe it's better! Like am I going downhill and getting worse?

 

[Discount_Blade]

I often feel like mine is simply boring. I have no insecurities about grammar and whatnot. I have typos in some of it even now but I know a simple editing run will fix that with little to no effort. I'm always plagued by the feeling that its boring, or its not as interesting as I picture it even when I share it with people and they give me thumbs up. SOmewhere in my mind, all I translate that positivity too is ,"They are just humoring me so I won't ask them anything else", even if it isn't true.

 

[Sii]

I often feel like mine is simply boring. I have no insecurities about grammar and whatnot. I have typos in some of it even now but I know a simple editing run will fix that with little to no effort. I'm always plagued by the feeling that its boring, or its not as interesting as I picture it even when I share it with people and they give me thumbs up. SOmewhere in my mind, all I translate that positivity too is ,"They are just humoring me so I won't ask them anything else", even if it isn't true.

I feel the same. I hope that there are those who enjoy what I'm writing but most of the time I just assume that I'm the only one who's actually enjoying it.

On the flip side, I kinda don't care. I'm mostly writing for myself and if anyone else happens to like it, that's cool.

 

[PandaSempai]

If anything, I feel insecure about my obvious amateurish style of writing and the slow pace of how I write. Although it isn't a problem to hit 3,000+ word count per chapter if I really want to write that much, I still take more than 3-4 hours to finish one. Sometimes, I had to cram in order to meet the schedule I gave myself so it's kinda frustrating.

 

[PandaSempai]

I often feel like mine is simply boring. I have no insecurities about grammar and whatnot. I have typos in some of it even now but I know a simple editing run will fix that with little to no effort. I'm always plagued by the feeling that its boring, or its not as interesting as I picture it even when I share it with people and they give me thumbs up. SOmewhere in my mind, all I translate that positivity too is ,"They are just humoring me so I won't ask them anything else", even if it isn't true.

Really? Don't you think it'll be good if you just jump from writing story to story or some other things that can keep you interested?

 

[jokei]

I feel like my writing style is dry

W.M.D/killing the heroes so I can have my fun

follow the path of Jack while he becomes a weapon of mass destruction old name: killing the heroes so I can have my fun

www.scribblehub.com

 

[Lord_Drakonus]

I feel like my writing style is dry

W.M.D/killing the heroes so I can have my fun

follow the path of Jack while he becomes a weapon of mass destruction old name: killing the heroes so I can have my fun

www.scribblehub.com

Nice self-promotion there ;)

 

[Venior]

Aaaaaaall the insecurities. I'm surprised I manage to convince myself to update regularly.

Why is this so relatable?

 

[BenJepheneT]

It's less of an insecurity about my writing and more about my hobby as a whole. I understand both pros and flaws in my writing and have come to terms with them. What I haven't come to terms with is the future of my hobby. I really want my writing to take off and actually support me financially and keep me afloat in my life, maybe even take me to new heights. But considering my economic status and this creatively-bankrupt nation I live in, I don't have much of a hope. What I'm scared is that I might need to forgo writing altogether if I wanna make a living for myself, and if I wanna brute force my way through my decisions, I wonder if the harsh road is worth taking.

I mean, I might unironically go completely bankrupt and homeless from this.

That is unless I get picked up by some eccentric rich dude who'll pay me for every word I type.

 

[Cobblehoof]

That my prose isn't strong enough and plays out like a set of instructions. Also that I repeat phrases, words, etc, too much (disregarding the intentional bits).

Even though I'm writing for fun and predominantly for myself, I still worry i won't find an audience.

 

[Draculus-del-Viafat]

Being a non-native English speaker, I always worry about the poor vocabulary. Thanks to a powerful thesaurus, I manage to avoid real bad situations, but it still makes me uncomfortable to think that native English speakers might laugh at how I use the words. Well, at least I'm working on it.