What can I do to Improve my writing?

[megamania]

What am I doing wrong?

Many Storyhours here have a constant flow of "good job" or "tell us more". I don't.

I thought my storyhours had originality and character but maybe I am misleading myself.

So- what can i do improve my storyhours?

I have cut myself down to two so that I may concentrate on them. One is held up due to little play time and the other since I am including artwork.

Comment on either of those or even my Darksun and Strikeforce SH.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Well, up until more recently, I went pages without comments. I suggest giving people time. They'll comment when they like...heck, I asked for a favorite update for me to put up in the sampler thread and only got one response. Bah! I know there's more readers than that because I'm nailing about 50 to 60 page views per update!

Maybe make a comment at the end of an update that you'd like some feedback(if you haven't already) or something to that extent to kickstart people talking. No promises it'll work. Only the 'big name' SHs get lots of comments...

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I'll address the question asked ("What can I do to improve my writing?") rather than the one implied ("What can I do to get more reader comments?")

Two simple things to improve your writing:

1) Read more.

2) Read Stephen King's On Writing. It's short, entertaining, and has some good, general advice.

 

[megamania]

I have been doing Storyhours here for about two years with little comment.

I do ask for feedback but rarely see any.

As for views- you got me beat. I vary between 20 and 30 generally.

Though I know some of this involves feedback, I do honestly wonder if I need to improve my writing somehow. A friend of mine noticed I jump from 1st, 2nd and 3rd person at random which I had never noticed before. I never really thought of it as an issue but I guess he's right. I'm just wondering what else there is I'm doing wrong.

 

[Mouseferatu]

While there's lots of good advice--read more, read certain "How To" books, etc.--there are three primary steps to improving your writing.

1) Write a lot.

2) Get people to read what you've written, and give feedback. These have to be people who are willing and able to give honest feedback. Anyone who's going to tell you what you want to hear, or to go easy on you, is useless in this regard.

3) Learn to take their advice and criticism, without offense. That doesn't mean every complaint you get is valid, or every piece of advice a good one. But at least consider all of it, even though you'll choose to take some and leave some.

And BTW, I have to put a disclaimer on Wulf's suggestion of On Writing. (Sorry Wulf. ) While it does have a lot of good advice (and is a good read), you cannot and should not take all of it at 100% face value. King makes a lot of assertions about the "proper" way to write that simply do not hold true for all people. People have different writing styles. For instance, King suggests working without an outline. That's fine for some people. In my case, and the case of many other people, an outline is essential.

Read On Writing. But take it as the advice of one man who, though good at his craft and with plenty of good ideas, is just one man, and not as word from on high.

 

[Shemeska]

What am I doing wrong?

Many Storyhours here have a constant flow of "good job" or "tell us more". I don't.

I thought my storyhours had originality and character but maybe I am misleading myself.

So- what can i do improve my storyhours?

I have cut myself down to two so that I may concentrate on them. One is held up due to little play time and the other since I am including artwork.

Comment on either of those or even my Darksun and Strikeforce SH.

Few comments doesn't mean that you're doing something wrong. I honestly suspect that around 10% of a SH's readership might post within a given time period, sometimes less depending on what's going on.

Storyhours also tend to need one or two people who really get into your stuff and then with a little namedropping by them you get more readers. For some of us this was easier than others. My own storyhours since they were set within an established campaign setting had an inbuilt rabid fanbase, and I've had a growing number of readers since I started, in no small part due to preexisting interest in the stuff. And if need be, pimp your SH on relevant forums (like your Darksun one) and link to it in the course of discussions where it might even marginally apply.

As for getting better at writing, I might be bad help here since I have no formal writing training and I never got above a B in any of my college english or lit classes. However when I write, and I write alot, I do it entirely for fun. But here's my own suggestions: read backwards by paragraph to see if the story flow works, which I do half the time since I never write anything from start to finish in a linear fashion. I skip around from idea to idea, portion of a story to the next portion and tie them back together later, but I write what comes to mind at any given moment and what is most perking my interest when I'm writing a given story. It works for me at least, but than again I also drink about 10 shots of espresso a day.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

What am I doing wrong?

Many Storyhours here have a constant flow of "good job" or "tell us more". I don't.

I thought my storyhours had originality and character but maybe I am misleading myself.

So- what can i do improve my storyhours?

I have cut myself down to two so that I may concentrate on them. One is held up due to little play time and the other since I am including artwork.

Comment on either of those or even my Darksun and Strikeforce SH.

I saw this thread and could not help but feel your frustration. Anyway, I thought I'd go over to your latest story hour - Eberron: The Pathfinders - and read it so I could at least give considered feedback.

1. I'm most likely not in a great position to be giving advice so take any of this with a grain of salt. (In other words, read more into the fantastic advice by Mouseferatu and others than myself.)

2. Reading through your SH, there where several words that looked to be incorrectly chosen from the spellchecker (will instead of with, choice rather than choose). If you want to be regarded as a serious writer, that generally means no spelling mistakes and no obvious grammatical errors. Be really strict on this. Print out a draft of what you wish to post, get the red pen out and get to work.

3. Whether something is "interesting" or not can be very subjective. Interesting stuff generally involves some form of conflict. I didn't sense much conflict going on in your SH. Fighting yes but conflict no. I didn't feel like the party were being truly troubled in any way. As such, things can be a little ho-hum.
Please don't take this personally. However, you have asked for feedback so go up to Mouseferatu's point 3. You want honest opinion so here it is.

4. I did not feel much of a connection to the characters. You only have two short updates as well as the jpeg stuff so you have not had much time to project their personalities and why I should react to them (like or dislike). Remember, there is nothing worse than indifference to a character. The character might as well not be there.

5. Grammar and Editting. I admire people who have perfect grammar when it comes to tense. I know in my writing, I swap and change for different effects but I know that if someone went through it with a fine tooth comb, I suspect they would carve it up. All I can suggest here is to print out your draft and read it several times. Change words, cross out phrases that don't feel right, add more description, take out redundant words,...
Edit, edit, edit. I'm just an amateur but I will normally sit on an update for two weeks before I "release" it. Sometimes, I'll come up with a better idea or a better way to present something and junk half the update. I'll tease words in and other times ruthlessly extract words out. I normally read an update more times than I care to admit before I release it. This may be a little bit "anal" but it's the only way I can truly be happy with presenting something that I have written.

6. Writing for yourself is important. Be happy with what you write. If you can't go back and read something you have written and enjoy it, question what you have written. Look for improvements. If you can please yourself, you are going to be less concerned about a lack of reads and you are going to be prouder of your work.

7. Reads, responses and updates. I have fallen into this trap of wondering how many readers I actually have so I'm a poor one for advice. Perhaps Shemeska's advice to pimp away is the best here and if you have a good product, readers will start to want to read what you have to write.

Case in point: have a read of my SH and tell me what you think - The Happenings of Lucifus Cray is a pretty fun story and a great character to write about. I've pimped this SH pretty hard and it has a reasonable readership as far as I can tell. There are certainly a few readers who appear to be enthusiastic. I do my best to answer their queries and questions and whet their appetite for more. However, I only write to the thread when I have an update - I don't do banter to keep it on page one of the forum. This is most likely strange but personally, I find it annoying when somebody writes to their thread without an update. I want to read story, not "filler".

8. Emphasiing what the others have said - read a lot. Write a lot and try to do different things with your writing. Imagine a scene and then really describe it noting how word choice can change the picture that you present. I would recommend several fantasy authors to you: Jack Vance (Lyonesse being a favourite amongst most of his stuff), George R.R. Martin, David Gemmel and for me, Raymond E. Feist (Magician to Darkness at Sethanon) is fun. I'm sure others would recommend different authors but in terms of fantasy, these are the guys whose books I will buy as soon as they come out without thinking.
A special note should go to the classics though. Charles Dickens is a favourite of mine - most of his stuff.

9. Lastly, don't take things too seriously. As soon as writing stops being fun, reading it stops becoming fun too. Don't be afraid to take a week or two off to freshen things up. Write when you have something to say, not when you feel like you have to.

***​

Anyway, I hope this helps somewhat. I'll stay tuned to any responses and I'll start reading some of your other SH's too. I'd like to help out and maybe the best way I can do this is by reading more of your stuff. I'll post back later. Best of luck.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

For instance, King suggests working without an outline.

... As is evident from his writing...

I suggest King because (a) he is very good at writing things that people want to read and (b) he's close to our genre.

 

[Mouseferatu]

... As is evident from his writing...

I suggest King because (a) he is very good at writing things that people want to read and (b) he's close to our genre.

Oh, I agree. (Though actually, not everyone wants to read his stuff. I tend to find his longer works rambling and directionless, and thus vaguely boring. Comes from the outline thing again, I'd guess. )

My point, as I said, wasn't to warn anyone off the book. Just a reminder that not everything he says in there is applicable to all writers, all the time.

 

[el-remmen]

Aren't your story hours the ones that are just fiction and not based on an actual game? (I may be getting you confused with someone else). I have never looked at them because personally I am not interested in story hours that are not based on a group of people gaming. . . if I want to read fantasy ficition I buy a book.

As for how to improve your writing. . . read a lot and read a lot of different things.

And write a lot - write a lot of different things.

Oh, and pay attention to point of view - nothing is more jarring than a haphazardly shifting point of view.