How did you learn to write well?

Discuss writing, including writing tips & tricks, writing philosophy, writer's block, etc. If you have grammar questions, marketing questions, or if you want feedback on a poem or short story you wrote, please use the corresponding forum below.
Featured Topic: How to Get Your Book Published
Forum rules
If you have spelling or grammar questions, please post them in the International Grammar section.

If you want feedback for poetry or short stories you have written, please post the poem or short story in either the Creative Original Works: Short Stories section or the Creative Original Works: Poetry section.

If you have a book that you want reviewed, click here to submit your book for review.
Post Reply
User avatar
CinWin
Posts: 565
Joined: 29 Apr 2018, 18:42
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 311
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-cinwin.html
Latest Review: The Crystilleries of Echoland by Dew Pellucid

Re: How did you learn to write well?

Post by CinWin »

I believe it is a work in progress. The more I write, the better I get. The more I read, the better writer I become.
----"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."----
User avatar
eastandalchemy
Posts: 215
Joined: 05 Mar 2019, 05:42
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 23
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-eastandalchemy.html
Latest Review: Sir, I'm Not That Kind of Girl! by Mary Lynn Archibald
Reading Device: B00JG8GOWU

Post by eastandalchemy »

I'm still learning, but my best advice is to write every day (even if it's only in your journal) and be open to constructive criticism. Even if you don't agree with a critique, try to take away at least one thing to improve your writing. Also, as everyone else has said, it helps to read a lot of different types of books!
User avatar
Quickstudy
Posts: 152
Joined: 28 Mar 2019, 10:05
Currently Reading: A Witch in Time Saves Nine
Bookshelf Size: 28
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-quickstudy.html
Latest Review: The Engine Woman's Light by Laurel Anne Hill

Post by Quickstudy »

I believed I had inked out a working knowledge of the rules of writing.
However, I am quickly learning from others on this site and reading there is room for improvement .
Afturnitsa
Posts: 15
Joined: 20 Jun 2019, 17:47
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 3
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-afturnitsa.html
Latest Review: A Kingdom Forgotten by Charles W. McDonald Jr.

Post by Afturnitsa »

I developed a love for words in college. I, initially, started pursuing engineering. However, I was forced by several biased science and math professors to switch my educational path to liberal arts and psychology. Although I lamented the loss of status an engineering career can provide, I'm thrilled about writing. Yet, I don't engage in it nearly enough. Through goals, putting my butt in the chair, writing book reviews, and doing close analysis of books I read and/or keeping a reading journal, I believe that I can write better.
User avatar
clint_csperry-org
Posts: 126
Joined: 06 Mar 2019, 16:02
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 24
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-clint-csperry-org.html
Latest Review: Executive Hoodlum by John Costello

Post by clint_csperry-org »

I take every writing course I can find at the local Junior College, any classes being offered at the Library or by local authors. I joined and attend meetings with Willamette Writers on the Coast, and I have joined a writers group where six to ten of us do critiques of each others writing. But, I also write a lot, generally every day.
User avatar
Ngozi Onyibor
Member of the Month
Posts: 1539
Joined: 19 Mar 2019, 05:19
Favorite Book: Sugar & Spice
Currently Reading: The Wizard of Fire
Bookshelf Size: 174
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-ngozi-onyibor.html
Latest Review: Devine Enquiries by Martin Hull

Post by Ngozi Onyibor »

I'm still learning. But frankly, I think I'm getting more anxious rather than better each day.
User avatar
WhiteLotus
Posts: 28
Joined: 23 Apr 2017, 17:44
Currently Reading: Raven's Peak
Bookshelf Size: 1019
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-whitelotus.html
Latest Review: Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks by Morton E Tavel, MD
Reading Device: B00JG8GOWU

Post by WhiteLotus »

Just by reading and writing a lot, you can learn to write to a level your comfortable calling good. Of course, people who can critique your stuff (avid readers, teachers, critique partners, editors) would help make the process faster, because doing it solo you might not always notice your mistakes.
User avatar
Ngozi Onyibor
Member of the Month
Posts: 1539
Joined: 19 Mar 2019, 05:19
Favorite Book: Sugar & Spice
Currently Reading: The Wizard of Fire
Bookshelf Size: 174
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-ngozi-onyibor.html
Latest Review: Devine Enquiries by Martin Hull

Post by Ngozi Onyibor »

WhiteLotus wrote: 28 Jun 2019, 06:25 Just by reading and writing a lot, you can learn to write to a level your comfortable calling good. Of course, people who can critique your stuff (avid readers, teachers, critique partners, editors) would help make the process faster, because doing it solo you might not always notice your mistakes.
I appreciate your answer. But I have a problem, what do you recommend to someone with no editor or writing partner to review their writing?
TLWoodliff
Posts: 11
Joined: 19 Jun 2019, 11:40
Currently Reading: No Pit So Deep
Bookshelf Size: 4

Post by TLWoodliff »

My writers' group; online writing prompt suggestions and examples; reading my favorite authors' book a second time to analyze WHY I stay so wrapped in their words; always trying to do better.
User avatar
Monet_va
Posts: 266
Joined: 10 Mar 2019, 03:26
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 49
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-monet-va.html
Latest Review: Cowboys Don't Fly by John Steed

Post by Monet_va »

Read. Read. Read.
Learning from other writers, writers that you love, really teaches you what works and what doesn't. Reading bad books is important so that you can learn from other people's mistakes. Other than that, it's all practice.
User avatar
clint_csperry-org
Posts: 126
Joined: 06 Mar 2019, 16:02
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 24
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-clint-csperry-org.html
Latest Review: Executive Hoodlum by John Costello

Post by clint_csperry-org »

I think many of us will say something to the effect of 'I am still learning.' That aside, I was told in middle school that I wrote well -- when I wanted to. (That was five decades ago)
User avatar
Rodel Barnachea
Book of the Month Participant
Posts: 1580
Joined: 24 Jun 2020, 22:16
Favorite Author: Lemony Snicket
Currently Reading: The Unfakeable Code®
Bookshelf Size: 84
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-rodel-barnachea.html
Latest Review: An Accessible Iliad by Emer Jackson
fav_author_id: 5004

Post by Rodel Barnachea »

I wouldn't say I am that good in writing, but I think reading a lot primes your brain for top-notch writing. After you get comfortable reading a lot, you can start practicing and studying different writing styles, techniques, tips, etc.
User avatar
Bigwig1973
Previous Member of the Month
Posts: 1007
Joined: 16 Apr 2020, 19:57
Favorite Book: Notes from Underground
Currently Reading: The Elements of Style
Bookshelf Size: 503
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-bigwig1973.html
Latest Review: You, This Is Me...OVER?! by Clinton Beaudel Dooley

Post by Bigwig1973 »

If I write well at all, I would have to attribute that to having reading the works of good writers. I suppose it's kind of like cooking - perhaps like making good soup. English classes for me were frustrating because my writing made me look like I knew the rules, and I did know how to write by the rules, and I knew the names of the rules, but I really didn't know the rules. A lot of people think that is good enough and in the real world, it is good enough or at least it suffices. Reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and books of quotations - I figured I could probably do about the same thing with ethics. If I read the right quotes, then I shall be perfectly mean. I imagine such a scheme would look similar to Crash Bandicoot running around, occasionally riding something like a polar bear or a wart hog. The "oogaa booga " mask is always handy and sometimes when he spins or gets something, he gets a really cheesy grin on his face. Or, in music, like Stealer's Wheels "Stuck in the Middle With You" song.
"...I'd discuss the holy books with the learned man...and that would be the sweetest thing of all...would it foil some vast, eternal plan..." Hamick Fiddler on the Roof

La Belle Dame Sans Mercy, Merci, Maria - Chartier, Keats, Hamik?
emidio125
Posts: 286
Joined: 20 May 2020, 08:15
Favorite Book: Tortured in Ashram
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 38
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-emidio125.html
Latest Review: The Fox by M. N. J. Butler

Post by emidio125 »

I prefer to say that I still learning. However, I read a lot stuff on the matter, so I can keep improving.
User avatar
Claudia DCD
Posts: 34
Joined: 21 Mar 2018, 19:34
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 15
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-sorcpenz.html
Latest Review: The Vanished by Pejay Bradley

Post by Claudia DCD »

Michelle Fred wrote: 28 Jun 2019, 14:33
WhiteLotus wrote: 28 Jun 2019, 06:25 Just by reading and writing a lot, you can learn to write to a level your comfortable calling good. Of course, people who can critique your stuff (avid readers, teachers, critique partners, editors) would help make the process faster, because doing it solo you might not always notice your mistakes.
I appreciate your answer. But I have a problem, what do you recommend to someone with no editor or writing partner to review their writing?
Finding that writing partner is so hard. I have people but not everything I write is interesting to them at the moment. I took a whole class in college teaching everyone how to be a good critique partner, kind and yet helpful with what can be done for the writing.

I am taking copious notes from all the suggestions here. But my current plan: lots of reading, collecting and reflecting on best lines in books I've read, and a list of writing advice books and youtube videos and a plan to take notes on each one. But I get very tired very easily. So the fire to improve runs into the wall of not enough time and the desire to just write my own stories now instead of later. How do you balance when to improve and when to just do the thing?
Post Reply

Return to “Writing Discussion”