Seeing Improvement after 200K+ Words.

[ChronicleCrawler]

Honestly, I never thought that I would reach this milestone. From my ragtag grammar to somehow a good grammar. I have at least 4 novels - all currently ongoing. And I have two novels, which are already posted here. I'll share with you guys what I experienced and learned so far after working my way up to this word count.

1. My writing style is improving at a very fast rate. I could sense coherence as I write more.

2. Getting better at showing and not telling.

3. Better Grammar.

4. Better understanding regarding the creative use of sentence structures.

5. A better understanding of the art of editing and proof-reading.

I still have a long way to go. I'm not telling you that I'm already a good writer. But somehow, I'm getting better.

Anyway for the other authors out there. What are your experiences and insights as you write more and more? Care to share?

 

[gaylolis]

as someone who started posting stories from 2010, i think i had less and less idea about writing, and in the end i stopped giving a damn.

i kinda just write whatever i want. as long i'm satisfied and having fun with it, it's enough xD

my brain's screwed up enough to actually make sense of anything

 

[Mihou]

What are my experiences, despite nearing 200k words?

- Nothing.
\
- Koko is still the same, lovable.
/
- Koko still writes as a hobby.
[
- Koko doesn't care about proofreading.
]
- Koko relies on Google Docs and Grammarly.

 

[Glorious_Milfhunter]

What are my experiences, despite nearing 200k words?

- Nothing.
\
- Koko is still the same, lovable.
/
- Koko still writes as a hobby.
[
- Koko doesn't care about proofreading.
]
- Koko relies on Google Docs and Grammarly.

Ohhh, you poor thing

 

[BenJepheneT]

if you can't point out your improvements, don't worry. here's a fast questionnaire to answer all your questions.

1. Do you cringe when you read your old materials?

If you answered:
No: You probably need more improvement.
Yes: 'Grats, you improved.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

What was in the past unreadable, is now more readable.

 

[ChronicleCrawler]

if you can't point out your improvements, don't worry. here's a fast questionnaire to answer all your questions.

1. Do you cringe when you read your old materials?

If you answered:
No: You probably need more improvement.
Yes: 'Grats, you improved.

Very!

 

[Ace_Arriande]

Very!

While it's pretty normalized to cringe at your past works as a sign of improvement, try not to be too hard on yourself. You can improve with a healthy mindset without having to cringe at your old stuff. Recognize the flaws and think on how you would improve on them, but there's no need to put yourself or your past work down. It's much healthier to still find enjoyment without cringing at your past work, imho. That aside, congratulations on 200k words, and keep it up! Most people who want to write struggle to even write 1,000 words for the same story throughout their entire lifetime. You should be very proud of yourself.

 

[BenJepheneT]

While it's pretty normalized to cringe at your past works as a sign of improvement, try not to be too hard on yourself. You can improve with a healthy mindset without having to cringe at your old stuff. Recognize the flaws and think on how you would improve on them, but there's no need to put yourself or your past work down. It's much healthier to still find enjoyment without cringing at your past work, imho. That aside, congratulations on 200k words, and keep it up! Most people who want to write struggle to even write 1,000 words for the same story throughout their entire lifetime. You should be very proud of yourself.

but it is best to recognize your own faults. if you do cringe, it means you are self aware to a certain degree. don't deliberately cringe on everything. let the cringe naturally come, like a knock on the lower kneecap. if the cringe doesn't come, you got two possible conclusions. it's either you've peaked, or it's off to author's gulag for you.

 

[Ace_Arriande]

but it is best to recognize your own faults. if you do cringe, it means you are self aware to a certain degree. don't deliberately cringe on everything. let the cringe naturally come, like a knock on the lower kneecap. if the cringe doesn't come, you got two possible conclusions. it's either you've peaked, or it's off to author's gulag for you.

To each their own. I personally never cringe at anything I've written before but still recognize the faults, and there are many faults. I love to reread my earliest chapters and have nothing short of a great time rereading them. However, I still notice errors that I never noticed before, would write things differently if I were to write them again now, and acknowledge that it is of significantly lower quality by my current standards. Cringing at it accomplishes nothing other than making me feel bad. You can be self-aware without cringing. Knowing that I tried my best at the time and was honest in what I wanted to write is all the reason I need to not cringe. But, I do understand that a lot of people cringe at their past stuff as a sign of improvement or evolved tastes, and that's fine. We all have different reactions to this sort of stuff. A part of me just wishes that people could appreciate their older works more without feeling the natural need to cringe. I rarely ever see people go back and still love what they originally wrote, and that always makes me feel a bit sad. Anyways, as long as it has more of a positive effect on your mental health than a negative effect, then there's really nothing wrong with it.

 

[BenJepheneT]

To each their own. I personally never cringe at anything I've written before but still recognize the faults, and there are many faults. I love to reread my earliest chapters and have nothing short of a great time rereading them. However, I still notice errors that I never noticed before, would write things differently if I were to write them again now, and acknowledge that it is of significantly lower quality by my current standards. Cringing at it accomplishes nothing other than making me feel bad. You can be self-aware without cringing. Knowing that I tried my best at the time and was honest in what I wanted to write is all the reason I need to not cringe. But, I do understand that a lot of people cringe at their past stuff as a sign of improvement or evolved tastes, and that's fine. We all have different reactions to this sort of stuff. A part of me just wishes that people could appreciate their older works more without feeling the natural need to cringe. I rarely ever see people go back and still love what they originally wrote, and that always makes me feel a bit sad. Anyways, as long as it has more of a positive effect on your mental health than a negative effect, then there's really nothing wrong with it.

You and I have very different feelings towards cringe. Maybe it's more of a personal thing. When I cringe I see it as a good thing. That knot in my heart when I go "seesh" tells me I've advanced to the next level to be able to see how far I've come since before. I feel even more motivated so I could cringe at what I'm writing NOW in the nearest future possible.

 

[Ace_Arriande]

You and I have very different feelings towards cringe. Maybe it's more of a personal thing. When I cringe I see it as a good thing. That knot in my heart when I go "seesh" tells me I've advanced to the next level to be able to see how far I've come since before. I feel even more motivated so I could cringe at what I'm writing NOW in the nearest future possible.

You take cringe and turn it into something that's positive, which is great. Cringe is a much more negative thing to me. Then again, I might be biased since I have an extremely high tolerance for cringe. I pretty much only cringe at things that are physically painful. You know, like somebody falling off their skateboard and having their face dragged against the cement, or getting hit in the nuts by a baseball. That stuff makes me cringe. Anything short of that, not really. Unfortunately, though, I've seen a lot of people talk about how cringeworthy their creations are, and they would usually talk about it in a sense like they're depressed from it rather than motivated from it. That's mainly why when I see people talk about cringing at their past works, I see it as a negative thing rather than a positive thing. But if you're motivated from it and not depressed from it, that's great!

 

[FriendlyDragon]

Here’s the thing with writing a bunch. You have to actively want to improve and be conscious about mistakes. Writing a lot, but just for the sake of writing isn’t going to lead to much improvement. A fuck ton of bad practice isn’t going to get you anywhere. If anything, it’ll have the opposite effect where you’re reinforcing bad habits by not actively trying to change them.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Here’s the thing with writing a bunch. You have to actively want to improve and be conscious about mistakes. Writing a lot, but just for the sake of writing isn’t going to lead to much improvement. A fuck ton of bad practice isn’t going to get you anywhere. If anything, it’ll have the opposite effect where you’re reinforcing bad habits by not actively trying to change them.

What are you trying to tell us?

 

[FriendlyDragon]

Advice.
Do good practice.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Advice.
Do good practice.

That is a ... truism.

 

[AliceShiki]

While it's pretty normalized to cringe at your past works as a sign of improvement, try not to be too hard on yourself. You can improve with a healthy mindset without having to cringe at your old stuff. Recognize the flaws and think on how you would improve on them, but there's no need to put yourself or your past work down. It's much healthier to still find enjoyment without cringing at your past work, imho. That aside, congratulations on 200k words, and keep it up! Most people who want to write struggle to even write 1,000 words for the same story throughout their entire lifetime. You should be very proud of yourself.

It's always amazing to look back at what we wrote in the past that we thought was so awesome, and then look at it and be like... "God, did I really write that!?"

It's certainly a good way of seeing our improvement... But I don't think cringing is necessarily a bad thing, it's just... Well, a normal reaction I guess?

My usual reaction is more along the lines of being amazed at how much I changed since then though.

To each their own. I personally never cringe at anything I've written before but still recognize the faults, and there are many faults. I love to reread my earliest chapters and have nothing short of a great time rereading them. However, I still notice errors that I never noticed before, would write things differently if I were to write them again now, and acknowledge that it is of significantly lower quality by my current standards. Cringing at it accomplishes nothing other than making me feel bad. You can be self-aware without cringing. Knowing that I tried my best at the time and was honest in what I wanted to write is all the reason I need to not cringe. But, I do understand that a lot of people cringe at their past stuff as a sign of improvement or evolved tastes, and that's fine. We all have different reactions to this sort of stuff. A part of me just wishes that people could appreciate their older works more without feeling the natural need to cringe. I rarely ever see people go back and still love what they originally wrote, and that always makes me feel a bit sad. Anyways, as long as it has more of a positive effect on your mental health than a negative effect, then there's really nothing wrong with it.

Aye! I can still see all the emotions I poured into my earlier works and see how invested I was at them! Even if their quality was by no means great! >.<

It's nice to appreciate our early writing days for what they were... Early writing days, where we were just getting started and still had much to improve~

... Though I still need to improve a lot myself... T.T

 

[weakwithwords]

The Emperor's New Clothes

The obvious might be obvious, but it takes courage or innocence to declare them, as one might be ridiculed for doing so. Then again, the so-called obvious might not even be obvious to the majority. Like some of my jokes as BenBen painfully noted.

Postulates are only postulates if they are actually stated. Otherwise, people will just be guessing that they might be on the same page as everyone else. Yup, just like economics experts.

Recall when you first started tracing letters of the alphabet with a pencil so much bigger than your fist. (Depends on your culture.) With time and effort, you eventually learned to write. (If you later became a doctor, your handwriting likely devolved into chicken scrawlings, but that's another story.)

With time and effort, your writing will progress. Whether in a good or bad way depends on how you went about it.

Unlike with sports where it is advisable to have a trainer or a coach to avoid ingraining bad habits, writing prose and poetry is not just technical but also an art. Sports is an avenue for self-fulfillment while writing is more of self-expression.

Imagine. Your mistakes, if they remain posted somewhere, can help contribute to the devolution of the language. History in the making! Just like peeing in the ocean, every little thing is of some significance more or less.

thesis + anti-thesis = synthesis
Luddites vs machine translations: room full of monkeys

Grammer is the bastardized cousin of grammar.