Young Writers Society

So, I've recently decided that my writing is no good anymore. There's no detail, and nothing that grabs the reader. I used to react to my stories, and get totally caught up in them. Now, however, I'm just...putting words on a page. Nothing's good enough to post, and nothing is to my liking.

I definitely need some help improving my writing, so, any tips on how to add detail, without adding an excessive amount, and what makes a story appeal to the reader.

Thanks a bunch!
-Wildest

I know the feeling, heh.
But don't give up. ^_^ We all go through this phase at one point, and the reason you're on this site is to learn and become the absolute best you can be.

The Writing Tutorials section of the knowledge base is good for informative reading. It's got all sorts of articles; on developing characters, writing beginnings, ends, and plotting in general. Take a good hour and just read; it will definitely help a lot.

Feel free to PM me if you have any further questions. ^^

-Ellie x

Practice, practice, practice. That's the only way you're ever going to get better. Read books from all kinds of genres, pick up books on writing, find writing blogs that give good advice. Keep a writing journal and scribble down any story ideas you think of. Try NaNoWriMo in November - it's a great excuse to write a lot of bad writing in a short time.

Don't be afraid to post your stories on here. If you think there's something wrong with your writing, we'll help you. That's what YWS is here for, after all. You could also try reviewing more. It will teach you to point out flaws in other people's stories and then you can avoid them in your own.

And don't be afraid to take a break from writing. I know people say you should write everyday, but sometimes you just need to take a step back. If the words aren't coming, don't try to force them. Put the story away and go try something else for a while - get a new hobby, try a new experience, anything.

As for adding details... here's an awesome article Kitty15 wrote about description. topic33840.html

Hope that helps!
Magnus

Hey, it's good to suck! It means that you have a chance to improve since you know how sucky you are. If you didn't know you sucked, imagine how horrible that would be! You would never be able to write.

As far as writing? I think you're focusing on the wrong things. Nobody really looks at a story and says, "Wow, the way that string of words was used was FABULOUS." I mean, writers do that... but normal people do not. Normal people look at the conflict, the characters, and the idea. They keep reading because, either the story grabs them (through the conflict!), or the characters are fascinating, or the idea is just so interesting that they NEED to keep reading.

For instance, I am reading a book called "Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China" by Jung Chang. Fascinating stuff! What grabbed me, initially, was the strangeness of the idea. A man basically decided to give his daughter up as a concubine to this warlord of sorts. "Whaaaa?" I asked myself. "What's a concumbine?" So I read more, and it basically explained what a concumbine was... and that it was considered pretty disgraceful. And I thought, "Whaaa? Why would he do that?" So I read more, on how this woman had a wedding ceremony, how she was locked up in this house, how she was brought to the warlord's house, how she was enslaved by his wife, how she produced for him a child, how she managed to fake the child's death (since, if the child wasn't dead, the child would belong to the wife and not her), how she escaped the house... and on and on. But it was the strangeness of the beginning and the drama of it all (gah, so much conflict!) that has kept me reading. Plus, now I am attached to the characters. Sooo... even though it's agonizing to read at times (one of the people there just got locked up in prison by the communists, and I'm pretty sure he's going to die, either from neglect or by execution) it's still utterly dramatic and I can't seem to get it out of my head.

Is the writing good? Are the descriptions good? Well... it's okay. But it's the story that interests me more.

So, concentrate on your story. And, instead of asking what would grab the reader, figure out what you are grabbed by. After all, if you're starting to realize that you suck as a writer, this is a good sign that your tastes are starting to become more sophisticated and more cultured. So, write what you want to read. It'll be better that way.

Also, read. That can give you tons of ideas right there!

One more thing... it's typical for people to go through writing slumps, especially around your age. I went through a writing slump when I was 16... it was because of some really awful things that were going on... you know, the sorts of awful things that teenagers go through. Anyway, I realized that my writing was pretty much awful too. I stopped for a while, in fact. But, when I got a story which totally captured my mind, I started to write it. And, because it completely engaged my mind, I didn't worry about catching people or description or whatever. I just had to write it, no matter how much it sucked. So don't worry. It's okay to go through slumps... really.

A random tidbit, when using sensory details in your writing, try to incorporate smell as much as you can; you know that feeling of nostalgia you get when you catch a whiff of a certain smell? Maybe a brand new box of crayons' waxy scent takes you back to your first day of school, or the scent of vanilla makes you think of weekends at your grandma's house, where the stove is never without a fresh batch of cookies inside. People relate more to smells than to any other sensory detail, so the more sentimental scents you have wafting around your writing the better!

Hope I've helped at least a little,

♥canni

PS- Another simple grammatical thing I can never stress enough: always, always avoid using the passive voice. Your grade 10 English teacher was right. It's a horribly unforgivable literary crime, towards both the reader and the author's hardwork.