Back to Basics

Eliza  
Advice for my younger self when I began writing: for your sake, lower the stakes

In the beginning there was light. An idea, a spark, a vision to manifest into reality through your powerful prose in shades of purple. You've got a great idea to explore, a wondrous setting, and a meta analysis on the topic. This is gonna be great.

So you write! And draft, and write, and revise, and redraft, and write again, and then you finally submit it for crits and… you have been found wanting.

You begin to lament [cope]: They just don't understand my vision! It's because they haven't read far enough along to see it all come together! They just don't like this genre! They just don't like my style! They just don't know!

Honey, [dear eliza], give it a rest.

If what you're trying to communicate isn't coming across, then it's not working. That's all any feedback is at the end of the day: this bit isn't doing it's job. Suggestions to help make something work are up to you to accept/reject - but the key takeaway is that what you have isn't clear.


Often when we begin our writing journey, we approach it from a place of self-assumed competence. We enjoy reading, the books we read are good, we have a good idea, therefore we will be able to write well right out the gate. Baha! If only confidence was all it took to learn a new skill.

We may start our stories in the beginning, but that's rarely where start our writing journey.


So let's start at the very beginning [arguably the very best place to start].

Writing and story telling are artistic expressions based on a foundational skill: communication. Hooray! There's hope for us all to effectively communicate our stories! But also… how unglamorous. How painfully embarrassing to have to scale back to a 3rd grade reading level to learn to write clearly and directly. How crippling is it to realize you wouldn't pass 5th grade grammar if you had to take it now?

My advice? Scale back your project.

Take off that load of self-imposed expectations and only come back to it once you're confident you can carry it. Sometimes that means tabling an idea that's too complicated for you to communicate at your current level. Sometimes it means scaling back on the theme/point so we can practice entertaining the reader. Sometimes it means giving up before you've fully started because you need to learn the basics. Sometimes it means working on something you're less passionate about so that you can learn to face criticism and rejection.

I didn't learn to play piano by starting with Mozart, but I have forgotten beginner 1. The curse of knowledge is real, and it makes learning a painful process.

It's so much easier to accept feedback and learn new skills when you're working with an idea that's fun enough, but the stakes are low so if it's awful, it's no sweat off your back. When the stakes are low, and the story is paired back it's easier to test our limits through play. Because who cares if you make a mistake while playing hot cross buns? It's expected and necessary to learn.

Adjust your expectations of yourself, and adjust your projects accordingly. Keep jotting down ideas until you find one that you aren't so invested in you're afraid to experiment with it, and use it to hone your craft. Pick a fun story to start with and enjoy the process!

And don't forget, learning to write is learning how to entertain with clear communication.

13 Comments

Honzo

Sound advice. While I am adamantly opposed to the people who advocate for 3rd grade level structure as the general standard for prose, I do believe that if you can’t write correctly at that level, your longer and more elaborate structures are likely to be seriously flawed.

I would add another ‘basic’ that few young writers seem to pay much attention to: Learn the art of writing what you know. If you don’t know anything worth writing about, it will show. I imagine that the young Eliza was, as I was, in a somewhat different environment that young writers today, in that relatively little of our life experience, brief though it was, was mediated through the words and ideas of others. Too many writers think that they can learn everything they know about life from novels, movies and the internet, but they end up producing derivative tripe that doesn’t stand comparison with writing more grounded in reality. Knowing everything there is about the Third Age is not the same as having serious knowledge of real historical cultures and languages. Writers need to work with raw material, not the processed food of other writers.

Dec-18 2023

Gurgmaster

I kind of agree, but I’d issue a caution alongside your advice.

Yes, there are people on here trying to communicate ideas that are above their current skills and also just a reminder to get back to basics is great. My first plot I played with here was too complicated. It’s always a good reminder – KISS.

However, there are people who will crit when they genuinely don’t like your genre. Some really do not take effort to understand what is going on, and are just racking up credits. Some don’t actually know what they’re talking about and others are just downright rude people who love dishing out their opinion.

So I think it’s really important to balance crits against each other. If everyone is saying they just don’t get it, then fine - chances are it’s you. But if you have a few people reading along happily, picking you up where they get lost and making suggestions, then be happy. If one or two straybees then wander in at Chapter 20, all guns blazing, then my advice is to read what they say, consider it carefully, look at their work to see if it’s any good but don’t be scared to ignore them.

I’d just caution against reading too much into a few negative crits. Remember that one person not liking your story doesn’t mean it’s not good. Lots of people hate Stephen King and JK Rowling, but they do okay.

Dec-18 2023

Jacksavage

Yup. Doing the basics well can be the basis of a succesful writing career.

Dec-18 2023

Lngwstksgk

There’s some old saw in writing along the lines of: If someone tells you something is wrong with your writing, they are usually right. If they tell you how to fix it, they are usually wrong.

It can definitely be a challenge to figure out WHAT is wrong or how to correct it, but I have found that most critiques, even one-off angry ones that seem to dislike me on principle, aren’t completely out to lunch. There is something there, and if I work with it, I can make my writing stronger.

Dec-18 2023

Honzo

“Everyone is a teacher, if you’re a learner.”

Dec-18 2023

Gurgmaster

I’d agree if that person has taken the time to read. Sometimes it’s obvious they have not. The moot is usually, I suppose.

I’ve had several crits where it is quite clear that the critter hasn’t read the content with any attention at all. I’ve had plenty who’ve dived into Chapter 10 and started gobbing off (aggressively) about how I haven’t defined a character well enough. Yeah, nah - I did that in Chapters 1 to 9.

I’ve also had quite aggressive crits on here from people who are quite clueless in their own writing.

Anyway, the point is not to get downhearted after a few bad crits.

Dec-18 2023

Lngwstksgk

Haha, OK yeah, people who pop in chapter thirty-something and complain the backstory isn’t clear are not included in my previous comment. Sometimes criticisms really ARE off base, but it still merits careful consideration every time to make sure I don’t have blinders on myself.

I have had some comments that were SO wrong I still laugh about them, but won’t repeat them here.

Dec-18 2023

Honzo

I think ‘every time’ might be excessive. Hopefully we are able to identify patterns without having to recalculate the entire problem every time.

Dec-18 2023

Gurgmaster

My favourite was a comment I received on, if I recall rightly, Chapter 5 … clearly labelled as such … “This is a strange place to start a story”

Even then, I cast a thought to that problem, as I wasn’t confident about my starting point … five chapters ago :slight_smile:

Dec-18 2023

Jacksavage

Some critters appear terrified of backstory, as if its inclusion means you have started in the wrong place. I see plenty of published works with backstory in Chapter 1. There are as many ways to start a novel as there are to die.

Every published novel I attempt to read has backstory in Act 1. Why? Because backstory in Act 1 is part of a novel’s structure.

Unfortunately, reading a novel to its conclusion for the first time in twenty years only served to remind me why I don’t read. The author is worth a cool 5 million, btw.

And the most recent one I picked up is so basic I could have read it aged 6. I have tried to start it twice, and chucked it both times. Basics are great, but we are writing for adults. This author is also worth 5 million.

Reading these gives me hope.

Dec-18 2023

Patrickmil

There’s a saying in addiction recovery circles that’s applicable here: if you don’t stop practicing the basics, you don’t have to start over.

While we all have voices and styles and intentions when we put “pen to paper” we also have to remember that other people (who aren’t in our heads, don’t have the same life experience, and may understand some words differently than we do) have to read what we write. There’s a reason “the basics” are called the basics. They form the foundation upon which everything else follows.

Dec-19 2023

Imjustdru

Take 'em to church!

Dec-19 2023

Dougp

I like your emphasis on storytelling, which is a separate skill from writing. I wish more crits focused on the elements of storytelling (which admittedly is best accomplished across the span of multiple chapters).

Dec-20 2023
Click here to reply
Member submitted content is © individual members.
Other material ©2003-2024 critiquecircle.com