Writing musings

I feel like I’ve moved into a new level of writing.

There’s nothing concrete to put forth to present this.  But I find that, when I look at stuff I wrote even six months ago, I can see so many places where my writing is weak.  I can step back from it, and – even better – I can see how to fix it.

Undoubtably I’ll be saying the same thing in another six months about what I’m writing now.

This is a good thing.  There’s no point in writing and learning unless you can progress.

How has this come about?  Lots of different things.  Reading a lot – reading critically, especially of books that are popular (and often not considered “good”) is a really important way to learn.  It’s not all about dry technique – we can all point to a book that shows very little actual writing talent, but is loved by the public all the same.  I’ve also been listening to a lot of writing podcasts – namely I Should Be Writing, The Secrets and Writing Excuses.

Finding an awesome group of beta readers who are willing to deconstruct my writing word by word is probably worth more than all of these things combined.  I cannot express how valuable all of my betas are.  Anyone who’s writing in a vacuum – find yourself some first readers.  You won’t regret it.

I learn almost as much betaing for other people, too.  I read or heard recently that we’ll often look for the things in others’ work that we’re actively working on ourselves, which is a really interesting way of looking at it for me.

It’s challenging myself, forcing myself to keep on learning and developing.  And it keeps on going.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.