writing style

Now that, in my opinion, depends. A person can churn out the same or similar stuff over and over and pay little or no attention to errors made in grammar, punctuation and indeed style. You can only improve if you pay attention, learn from your mistakes and actually want to improve.

For example, you could do an exam but you can only really learn from this by seeing where you were right, where you were wrong, and brushing up your skills and knowledge where you need to.

It does take intent and effort on the person's part to improve, not purely the act of writing. Linda and I used to brush up our skills - me much more than her as she wasn't rusty she just liked doing it - doing little exercises we found on the internet for example. This did me the world of good as it was a long time since A level English and I had forgotten a lot.

The test of time is a hard one.

H.P. Lovecraft was considered a hack during his lifetime. Robert E. Howard - the same. They wrote for pulp magazines. They never won a single literary award.

Now they have Awards named after them.

There is a list of bestsellers of the 1920s at
http://www.caderbooks.com/best20.html
- and all I could recognise from it were 'All Quiet on the Western Front', Zane Grey, and H. G. Wells. Meanwhile virtually every tale of cosmic horror owes a debt to Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard's work is still inspiring movies (he brought us "Conan the Barbarian").

Those 'hack writers' stood the test of time when virtually all of the bestsellers didn't.

Goodgulf

I have to agree wholeheartedly with Pink on this one. To improve, you have be able to look critically at your own work, and that of others.

I'm not talking about in-depth literary analysis, but a simple way to do it is to take two pieces of writing - one you like and one you don't. Now try to work out what you like and dislike about them.

For instance, are the paragraphs too dense? Maybe the work could be improved by splitting them up.

Is the sentence structure repetive?

She went to the dressing table. She took out the hairbrush. She walked back to him. She handed him the brush.

What's wrong with it? Grammatically, nothing, but it could be improved by joining two of the sentences with a conjunction: She went to the dressing table and took out the hairbrush.

Or starting a sentence with an adverb: Nervously, she walked back to him.

Or a present participle: Trembling, she handed him the brush.

What do you like about the other one?

Maybe interesting word choice, or natural sounding dialogue.

I don't believe anyone can improve just by writing more. There has to be a conscious effort, and a real desire to make the work better.

I couldn't agree less with this! It scarcely merits a response!
Apart from anything else, comments are of necessity in note form - and all the better for it -
while, hopefully, there is a proper structure to the text of a story.
Or, I should hope so!

On the flip side, reading books on grammar will not make you a writer - otherwise the bestseller list would be dominated by English teachers.

Writing - just sitting down and writing - is the first step to improving yourself as a writer. Without writing and continuing to write the rest is meaningless.

The next step is (of course) reading. As in you see how others treat the English language and begin to borrow from them. You copy their turns of phrases until you have the confidence to coin your phrases. You see how they structure sentences and gain a practical understanding of how to write.

Also, this is the internet - which means that you don't have to be perfect to post. If a story is good then the reader will be able to see the content through the words (to borrow from the "forest through the trees" saying). One of the best spanking stories I've read on the net (something now lost in the great bit bucket in the sky) was written by someone whose first language was clearly not English. The grammar was atrocious, there were misused words, the punctuation was almost non-existent, but it was a wonderful story.

So if you're reading this and saying to yourself "I can't post a story - I'm not a good enough writer" then stop thinking that and try writing something. As you work at your writing you will improve, but if you don't start then you won't have a chance to horn your craft.

Nobody said you did. And nobody suggested reading grammar books either, though a good knowledge of grammar and punctuation, particularly of speech, is an asset to any writer.


Exactly, and the important word is work. I think that's what Pink and I said - work to improve.

I never expected this amount of commenting on the question I asked. I believe every writer is to be admired for taking the chance on submitting the story, I also believe practice makes perfect, whether in writing or punucation (or spelling..LOL). Please everyone, just make sure no matter how you read or interpert a comment, feel free to write and submit stories, I have found on this site all writers get a lot of support and postive feedback.

She went to the dressing table and took out the black ebony hairbrush. Then walking back to him she placed it carefully in his hands.

I like the sentence better with some detail. As the brush probably has some significance in the story it is good to have some idea of how it looks. Also how does she hand it to him? Of course you can just say she handed him the brush as if she did it all the time but if you say she placed it carefully in his hands you are giving her action a poignancy which may help the atmosphere of your story.

Cronin was a wonderful writer . He is much undervalued. I like R.F. Delderfield as well, particularly The dreaming suburb, also Alexander Cordell and Richard Llewellyn. None of them fashionable authors but all great storytellers.

English was not my strongest subject at school and it probably shows all too clearly in some of my offerings. Grammar, composition, syntax, punctuation , mysterious then and now unfortunately. It`s just as well those more proficient than myself are not too critical or judgemental of lesser mortals. If they were I would not post anything for fear of ridicule and thus not engage in this forum where I have learned so much about writing which is a subject dear to my heart. For me words are the stuff of dreams and writers who use them well have a special gift. This library seems to have lots of gifted people and it`s a pleasure to belong.