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How To Let YWS Improve Your Writing



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Wed Nov 23, 2005 6:22 pm
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Firestarter says...



How To Let YWS Improve Your Writing

Benefiting from what this site offers – taking critiques on board and studying fellow young writers’ works.

When I first arrived at YWS, over a year ago now, I was younger, less experienced and worse at writing. Only time, practice and YWS has changed me into the Firestarter of today. I’m not claiming any sort of levels of grandeur, but I am unquestionably a better writer than I was 12 months earlier.

Why exactly do you join writing sites like this one? I assume most people’s answer would be something such as “to improve my writing.” The general concept of a writing site is that people can post their work, others will review it, and the original author will learn from this and come back with better work.

Unfortunately the story doesn’t always go this route. Far too many times I see writers argue and shout at the reviewer who has voluntarily read their work and posted their opinion. The fact is a reviewer is never going to say what you want them too. If you come on to the Internet to simply get comments such as “Very good, I really liked it,” then you are either (a) deluded or (b) bigheaded. A reviewer is much like a parent, or a teacher. They simply tell you what is wrong with what you have done, and (hopefully) how to change for the better. What is so unique about young writer sites is that the people who are telling you to change are your peers, which makes it all the more powerful. Peer pressure is simply so much stronger than parental equivalents.

The point is, you shouldn’t argue with your parents, and you shouldn’t argue with your reviewers. It’s a common reaction to attack someone who criticises something you have created. Of course you are proud. Of course you have worked hard. Reviewers are not trying to take this away from you. They are simply revealing what you, as the creator, can sometimes not see – your creations are not perfect. The only way your creations will get nearer to perfection is by listening to your reviewers. No, don’t just read their post, and think, “Yeah, they noticed that my characters aren’t developed. Well, I knew that already.” Take note of what they said. Actually imprint it on your mind. Next time you write make a mental effort to specifically develop your characters properly.

To give an example, when I arrived at YWS, I didn’t write poetry. I actually thought it was rather stupid. Just a load of unstructured rubbish and some fancy words, I reckoned! Then I read some work on here, and thought, well, it isn’t too bad. Readable sometimes, as long as the poet isn’t describing the symbolic nature of the blood pouring from their wrist. Over a few months, for whatever reason, I decided I should try some poetry. YWS had given me the confidence to think I would be able to get something out that was understandable. I had no idea about rhythm, structure (not that I do too much now either) or allegory, imagery and so on. The point was my original creations were frankly, terrible. They brought out no emotions, they didn’t connect with the reader, and they made no attempt to look poetic.

I remember a few people taking particular notice of these mistakes and telling me straight. Eager to learn how to write poetry (I had suddenly realised it was much more difficult than using a thesaurus and randomly creating stanzas and line lengths), I took their advice on board. Slowly, but surely, after months and months of taking critiques on board, listening to my reviewers, my poetry started to develop. I got some positive comments and got some confidence. Sometimes I had the odd slump and posted some truly poor poems, but overall I was improving. Ever got that euphoric feeling run through you as you realise that you are getting better at something? It was great. 10 or 11 months later, I run out at least a couple of poems a week, and like to think people on the site often like them. I am at last proud of my poetry without being blind – I can see the mistakes and people still pick out things regularly. But the point is by letting myself get nitpicked and crashed by reviewers, I have improved. I know write more poetry than prose; in other words, my writing habits have been completely turned on their head.

There’s a second reason why I have been able to improve while being a member of YWS.

On these boards there is a wealth of talent to be seen, and the work that is sometimes written by young people on this board often impresses me, and more than regularly astonishes me. The poetry on this forum really does make me feel, and the prose really does make me think and vice versa. The point I’m trying to make is: with all this great work at your fingertips, why not use it to your advantage? And no I’m not condoning plagiarism in any way. Whenever I read a novel and greatly enjoy it, I often (consciously and probably unconsciously) understand how the author has written it so well – the style, the description, everything. So why not do that with the YWS work? If you read a very good story, why not study how the member has written it so successfully and try and apply that in your own work? Don’t copy. Just let them influence you.

That’s the key point of this whole article. If you really want YWS to improve your writing, you have to let it. It’s no good just posting some work and hoping that you’ll suddenly be the next JK Rowling. Utilise everything the forum has to offer. Other work, critiques, comments and of course, Writing Resources: Homework Help, Research and the Writing Tips forums are great places to receive help when you’re stuck.

Just remember: you probably joined YWS to improve your writing. So don’t sit idly by. Do something about it.



PS. Don’t review this article. I don’t need to improve. [/sarcasm]
Nate wrote:And if YWS ever does become a company, Jack will be the President of European Operations. In fact, I'm just going to call him that anyways.








Writing is like love: the real thing is a lot less romantic
— dragonfphoenix