(no subject)

[owlectomy]

Hmm. Though I was skeptical that my writing had improved much in the last two years, I've been reading over "Festival of Ghosts," and I have to say: it has. By a lot.

No matter how much advice on writing I read, there's nothing but practice that can really cause improvement. The one thing I've consistently had problems with--what it all comes down to for everyone, I guess--is making what comes out on paper match what I see in my head. And because I saw it so clearly in my head, it truly was hard to tell when I'd been doing it badly.

That doesn't necessarily mean that I'm doing it well now, though I hope it means I'm doing a little better... but it does get me out of feeling like I write novels, and they get rejected, and it's all a pretty pointless endeavour.

Comments

Re: Everything we were talking about the other week regarding drawing and writing.

[meaghanchan.livejournal.com]

It's all the same. I used to obsessively buy new art books and new art materials thinking they would make me a better artist. While this has been true in some cases (Copics, half-decent watercolor materials)... Overall it's practice, practice, practice. And everything you do is never good enough.

Life of a creative person... Whee. Sometimes I wish I was an accountant or something. It's either right or it's wrong. In creative fields, it's never, ever, good enough.

Michelangelo probably didn't think he was good enough. How depressing is that?

Re: Everything we were talking about the other week regarding drawing and writing.

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

The awesome thing about being a writer? I get to be convinced that whatever I'm writing now is not only good enough, but TEH BEST THING EVER PUT TO PAPER. It takes a long, long time for me to be able to see its flaws. (I'm guessing, though I could be wrong, that it's easier to see when you've got your colors or proportions wrong...)

The thing that's depressing about it is the realization that in two years I'll probably think the fairy booze story sucks too. And it might well take two years to finish writing.

Re: Everything we were talking about the other week regarding drawing and writing.

[meaghanchan.livejournal.com]

That's interesting... I always thing I'm *nearly* there. Like I always think I'm *nearly* good enough. I thought I was nearly good enough 6 years ago, when I truly, truly sucked. (my shading was very good. I thought that was all there was to drawing well). The good thing is that you know you're improving. And the worst that happens is that in 2 years, you realize that you've improved so much that the stuff you were writing 2 years ago sucks. And you keep writing, and writing. And you keep getting better. I know it's hard to see sometimes, but you keep at it, and you keep getting better. I don't know a lot of people who keep trying and keep trying in the face of rejection, but the ones who do are the ones who make something of themselves... You are not the middle-aged person who sets out to write TEH GREAT AMERICAN (Canadian?) NOVEL. You are a 22-year old writer... And if you look at 99.9% of books, or drawings, or screenplays, or poetry, or song lyrics, made by 22 year olds.... They seem unbelievably immature. But most of those people grew up and made great works of art. Billy Corgan was 7 years older than you when he wrote "Melancholy and The Infinite Sadness". Art Alexakis was older than that when he wrote "Sparkle and Fade". Maturity in writing can only be gained one way: through maturity- though growing older, and getting mroe experienced. And every novel you write is only going to be better than the last.

I just realized that what I just wrote is just a bunch of sentences strung together that, together, may not make much sense. So this is much more concise: GANBATTE!!! Do your best!!! Keep trying!!!

Re: Everything we were talking about the other week regarding drawing and writing.

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

Yepyep. :)

The only thing that concerned me was that, not having reread my older stuff, I assumed that my skill level had stayed pretty constant for the past two years. (Because what have I actually been doing to improve it, besides writing?). If that's not true, then I've got some hope.

Counterexamples, though. Rimbaud wrote all his poetry before he was my age, and he is so cool. But he was also in a dysfunctional love affair the likes of which was made into a terrible Leonardo DiCaprio movie, and never wrote poetry again, so who knows what would've happened if written poetry for longer?