The BSN writers club

Re chapter size, it really depends on the style and theme of your book. I am reading a lot of Ian banks stuff right now and he will have a long chapter followed by a one or two page chapter just becasue he is bumping the story back and forth and feels the need to get important info to the reader at certain points in time.

Reading through your posts here, some things come to my mind.
I suppose in a way it's responses to some here, but I want to generalize.

Now, I don't have much of an education in literature and language. I did mathematics and physics at University. So I sometimes feel very out of touch.
I took a writer course once and mostly reacted with revulsion against everything they tried to teach me. I certainly recognized it though. It was the pathetic (my opinion) formula which virtually all bestsellers adhered to and indeed most books and movies. "This is how you build a story" they wanted to tell me.

That kinda worries me because I will never do that. I'll just flatly refuse. Does that mean my stories are lacklustre or unsatisfying to 'normal' people? Do everybody just crave "stupid" cliches? Does it mean no agent or publisher will ever consider my creations? I just don't know. On the other hand every language teacher I had during the school years told me I should be an author. So in those days I couldn't have been totally talentless, right?

But over the years as I grew older I started on something like 30 - 40 projects, never finishing anything because even I could recognize that it was crap. Cringeworthy crap which I destroyed in shame, burning or tearing up and flushing down the toilet, that nobody would get to read it in case I suddenly died.

- But I think it got better and better! (Or I'm losing my powers of judgement.)
Anyway, I believe that writing will make you a better writer. You have to read your own stuff and edit it, of course. In the end, it suddenly started to flow and that's how I got to 800+ pages of my fantasy epic. I'm going to rewrite a few parts of that, and I don't know what will become of it, but in general I kinda like what I wrote there. And I haven't tired of it. I have every intention to continue.

So just keep writing. I think that's more important than getting too ambitious about your project. Write and write again. If you happen to start on something worthwhile one day, well...

My honest opinion, you become a better writer in three ways:

1. Keep writing. Keep rewriting. It's like exercising a muscle or trying to master a skillset... you do this by practicing, by doing it over and over until you start getting better/stronger/etc. You will almost always look back at your previous writing and cringe. That's okay. You'll always do that. Because you're a better writer today than you were yesterday.

2. Read other writers. If you think what they wrote is crap or doesn't resonate with you, then don't mimic them. If you see things you like, maybe add that to your flow. A LOT of my vocabulary came not from school but from reading books, seeing a word I didn't understand, and looking up the definition.

Those are the two really big ones. # 3 is finding someone whose opinion you trust both to not murder your heart yet also provide constructive feedback, and have them read and comment on your stuff. But that can be very hard for people to find, so that's why I separate it from # 1 and # 2... because the first two will still mostly get you there.

This might sound weird or possibly "girly", I dunno, but a Pinterest account might be a good idea for you. Lots of writing prompt ideas get put on there if you search for them - some are crap, but some are interesting or reading them might spark a related idea. I've made a private little board on there where I hoard the ones I find and like, saving them for a rainy day.

I highly recommend.

how do you maintain that growth though? The best thing I've ever written was fan fic five years ago. Granted maybe not grammatically but in terms of everything else? Just hard catching that lightning in a bottle. Though really looking forward to writing the second book in the series I'm working on.

I love the bolded line. 

Yep. Growth as a writer is messy, and it's not linear. It spreads out; sometimes your grammar and word usage is changing; sometimes your plotting and pacing improves. Sometimes you learn how to give and receive better feedback. Sometimes it's characterization or dialogue. But it's hard to put it on a neat chart, or to even track it quantitatively.

I've been writing most of my life; there really is no secret to bottling the feeling, and if there was, I'd love to find it. I still have times of writers block, or times I read something and am pretty sure I should just give up. All I can do is assess what I'm learning from those times, and then figure out how to grow more from it. What is it about this author's work that makes me feel inferior? How can I improve my own stuff as a result of reading this? Why am I blocked creatively? Can I go do something that will get me thinking again? And then, sometimes it's the good old, "Why aren't I writing? Oh, my ass isn't in a chair in front of a computer." Or however you write.

Most of all, just keep writing. Anne Lamott's essay Shitty First Drafts is also helpful-- a short read about why it's okay to give oneself permission to write tripe to get started.

How to deal with criticism:

Every writer is different, so I can only tell you what works for me.  I like to jump around between projects, and often within a project itself.  I like to work on other little pieces for challenges (in the writing group I moderate).  I find that by writing what's on my mind when it's there, it keeps me from stagnating or starting to resent any one thing.  Branching off also helps me return to the larger project with fresh eyes.  Some writers are able to focus on just one big project and stick to that.  If you're looking to get practice, and to just write, then... just write, regardless of if it's the Big Project or something smaller.

Better writer, I doubt I'll be a a good writer but I can improve certain aspects of my work.

My first fic is the Korean historical drama fic. I'll call it officially, first fic. Before, I did a transcipt of The Longest Journey on my website which is now defunct. I added subdivisions, besides the dialogue, to explain the events that happened in between.

I did the Korean fic because the ending was ambiguous; the protag did not make a choice. I felt that she should. Such was my interest that I wrote what happened to her in the years after. This was one fic in which I went all out. I read books on Korean culture and their history because I'm very fussy about details. I don't want to write silly things or use modern terminology. I want to get it right. I want it authentic; how her life, what life was like in that era.

I'm definitely constantly popping #1. Rewriting. My way of writing is not very much into working out a blueprint. I just dump down what images come into my head. Like watching a movie and then putting the events into words. I know doing so means there's going to be mistakes, there's going to be dialogues, events coming across as illogical, stiff, peculiar.

Thus, even though MET#1 fic is completed, I'm constantly going back now and then. Looking it over to see what improvements I can make in the narration, sentence construction, grammar. I'm presently in my 4th editing and I still see errors. 


#2. Reading other writers' work. I do. Professional writers, all their works completely unrelated to ME. Other fan fic writers on the same subject, I did read a few when I was contemplating writing the MET fic. Some were interesting in the first few chapters before muddling off into romantic mushes. I wasn't interested in romantic mushes, I was interested in exploring the aftermath of a Reaper War which was won at great costs. I started on it and never read another fic on the same topic thereafter. I know there're other ME fic writers who have better adventure / SF stories but if I read them, I'll feel like I'm picking their brains / ideas. Whatever inspiration I could get, I take it from reading up scientific researches in the internet and reading the SF works of professional writers.  

#3. That is a tough one. I don't look very hard. Some of the readers who read the fic offered to edit, etc but I declined politely since I don't know them. I've a feeling I'll end up clashing with them. 

No, never read it. I did a search, it's your own fic. No offense meant but like I've said before, I keep away from fics on the same subject since I'm still writing working on the sequel, etc of my own.

Finding other writers you can trust is so important. So many people (usually non-writers) view writing as solitary, and it is to a degree, but it's so valuable for writers to have other writers they trust. It may be a beta, or it may be a small group, or just some people you can bounce ideas off of, share your joys, vent your frustrations, and in turn, do the same for them. This thread is great, because we're discussing writing and how to become better writers.