It's amazing how many posts I see on forums that basically state—directly or indirectly—"tell me how to be a writer". Tell me how to formulate my thoughts into written words. Tell me how to write grammatically, with proper punctuation and spelling. Tell me how to come up with ideas.

I know that all writers have to start somewhere. But, my goodness. What did people do before the Internet?

I'll tell you, because I started writing back before even Gopher was around. You read books. Lots and lots of books. Everything that interested you. Books on writing, if you could find them. But mostly the type of stuff you wanted to write. Eventually, if you read enough, and emulated enough, and practiced enough, the basics of writing would sink through your pores and into your brain and come back out through your pen.

Can anyone learn to write well? Yes, I believe so. Some people are born with the ability to transfer their thoughts to the written word with ease, with their own voice and magical flow already in place. Most of us, though, have to work at it. We spend years perfecting our skills, and even when we're good, we can still be better. But that's the key: WORK.

Jumping online, Googling "writing" and posting questions on a forum for people to teach you all about writing is not WORK. It's a shortcut.

WORK is spending time learning how to write instead of assuming you already know how. It's brushing up on grammar, how to form sentences, how to use punctuation. It's learning how to read like a writer, objectively, analytically. It's understanding that writing is an art and a skill that needs to be honed and nourished, and knowing that if you want to be a writer, YOU need to do the WORK.


TOPAZ status: Just finished Chapter 30 this morning. I think I have about three chapters left. That's...kind of scary.

I'm a regular over at the Writer's Digest forums, particularly in the Science Fiction/Fantasy Critique Central area. That's where SF/F authors-in-training can post segments of their works-in-progress to get feedback on various elements. I've found it extremely useful for uncovering problems with logic that sometimes, as the author, I'm too close to see.

Recently, it's come up that occasionally new members to this section of the forums don't feel welcome. That made me scratch my head a bit, so I went looking for these new members' posts. I found the critiques offered were well-stated and not overly harsh, even though there were some major problems with the pieces posted.

It got me to thinking about what you should expect when you post something online for feedback. Here's Jenn's Online Critiquing Dos and Don'ts List™.

1. DO make sure the piece you're offering for critique is as polished as you can make it. Check for spelling (using more than spell check!), punctuation and grammar before you even think about posting it. The occasional typo gets by the best of us, but obvious spelling or punctuation errors tell critiquers that you didn't take the time to perfect your piece before posting it, so why should they take the time to look over it?

2. DO tell critiquers what kind of feedback you're looking for. If you don't want line edits, say so. If you need readers' impressions of the main character, ask for them. This kind of guidance is invaluable in directing feedback to focus on what you need.

3. DON'T post your work expecting everyone to fawn over your brilliance. No matter how good you think your piece is, there are probably issues with it. Maybe just minor ones, but no one is perfect.

4. DON'T take feedback personally. Remember—you posted your piece for critique, so you need to be mature enough to hear what people have to say. You might not agree with the feedback, and that's all right. You're the owner of your work, so you can pick and choose what feedback you'll incorporate. But people aren't pointing out problems because they dislike you, or because you're a terrible writer, or whatever—they're trying to help you create the best story/novel/chapter you can.

5. DO remember that the people on the forums are doing this for fun and are volunteering their free time. Read the forum rules and stick to them. Keep your posts under the forum's word count limit. That's not to say you can't post a whole chapter, just break it up into multiple posts over the course of a week if it goes over the limit.

6. DO remember to offer your critiquing services in exchange for others'. If you've put up something to be critiqued, do your part and offer critiques on other posts. Try to provide helpful, insightful information. You don't have to be an editor to point out problems with logic or issues with characterization, and those comments are infinitely more useful than "I liked it" (although every writer likes to hear those three words too).

7. DO what you can to add to the online community. That's what makes websites like the Writer's Digest forums so great: the sense that even though we're miles, countries and maybe continents apart, we're still united by the act of writing. Be friendly, be courteous, and come in with an open mind.

Anything to add?

I finished Chapter 14 last night and posted it on the Writer's Digest critique forums for some feedback. I've gotten two responses so far, both positive, which is a relief. I think one of the reasons Chapter 14 was so difficult to write is that Chapter 13 was such a low point, emotionally, for my MC that I wondered just how I was going to have her start digging her way back up to semi-happy thoughts. I didn't want to shrug off what she'd been through, but it's a fine line to have her think about it and not dwell on it excessively. So definitely glad to hear that Chapter 14 seems to work.

I'm not sure how many other authors who ended up getting published used online forums to help with their writing. Probably not many, though I imagine a lot had offline critique groups—which, essentially, are the same thing I guess, just live versus electronic.

I've found the critique forum extremely useful in identifying parts of my story that just don't work the way I intended. In more than one case, comments from other forum members have prompted me to rewrite scenes and sections—but I never change stuff to please them, only to correct something that I agree doesn't work properly. I think that's an important point to remember if you're a writer and you're using forums: it's your story. No matter what other people say, you have the final control over it, and you don't have to change a word if you don't want to. (But then...why would you be posting in the first place?)

So a good tip for forums: All suggestions must be taken with a pinch of salt. And a sprig of parsley.


TOPAZ status: Chapter 15 is a blank page begging to be written, so I'll start on it at lunch. I think it's time Faith met the rest of Jason's crew.