Improving my writing (advice, links to guides, hints, etc)

[Zixinus]

I want to try my hand at writing, however writing in English is my weak spot (that's where I got the lowest score in my language exam, still passed though).

I have some ideas, and I've even slowly starting to structure and detail the events, characters and backstory of my worlds, but I still feel that I'm doing something wrong.

So what advice can be given regarding writing? I'm not even very familiar to how something is properly written down as a story in English (heck, not even sure how its properly done in my own language), what guides or similar stuff can you people recommend to start learning about how to craft a story?

Also, any help regarding the technique of poetry would also be appreciated.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Read Gibbon, MacCaulay, Churchill, Mill, etc, the great classical age of English prose. Doesn't even need to be fiction works. They'll give you a sense of texture and grammar, of how to phrase things and how to describe things very vividly, which works perfectly for any mode of realist writing. That's how I did it.

[Norseman]

I can only agree that you should read, and I'd also advice you to avoid stuff like "Ulysses" or "Finnegans Wake" or... let me just put this way, read this:

A Readers Manifesto to learn in detail what you ought to avoid. This is a small book, but great writing. I can't praise it enough, I really can't.

But there's not that helps as much as reading and writing.

[Zixinus]

So I should avoid Modernist literature?

[rhoenix]

Here's something even simpler.

Find stories that move you somehow, or draw you into themselves so thoroughly you forget what time it is. After you've finished the stories, read them again to see what techniques the author used to drew you into the story so effectively, and practice those.

Above all, keep doing that, and read more. Expand your horizons of writing a bit as well - learning writing, like anything else, means stepping outside of your comfort zones and pushing yourself to do better.

If you do something badly, then enjoy doing it badly. However, constantly strive to improve.

[Zixinus]

Read Gibbon, MacCaulay, Churchill, Mill, etc, the great classical age of English prose.

Could you please be a little more specific please?

[Norseman]

The problem for me is that when I look at the stuff I've read very little of it has a style that's all that good... Note I include people like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H.P. Lovecraft in the "not very good style" section. You may disagree but the writing style is not why people read them.

So on to my short list:

Joseph Conrad "Heart of Darkness" basically oozes style. I have my copy by my side all the time. There are scenes, and sequences in there that are nothing short of astounding. Moreover once you've read it you'll be surprised at just how many movies and books are inspired by that one. Best part is that it's very short, 110 pages of reasonably large type.

Oscar Wilde is also good, "The Picture of Dorian Grey" is a good one since everyone knows about it, and it's well written.

Mark Twain obviously, he wrote essays and articles too, you can find them on the net. It's hard to suggest a book to read though, he wrote so many.

Lewis Carroll too, he wrote lots of brain teasers, and a few essays too IIRC. Try Alice in Wonderland, it's reasonably short and well written.

G.K. Chesterton is also a good one. If you want a place to start try the Father Brown mysteries, though he also wrote essays and articles that I'm sure you can find.

Finally there is one other writer you might want to try: Jennifer Johnston, "The Captains and the Kings" might be a good place to start. She's the only modern writer in there.

P.S. I'd stay avoid pre-1840s writers like the plague! And I actually like and read their writings. The style is not going to be helpful. For quality of writing look at writers who worked between 1840 and 1920; this is before modernism could mess things up too much, AND the passage of time has filtered out the crud.

[Stormbringer]

So I should avoid Modernist literature?

I think chose wisely would be a better motto. Marina is a snotty classicist in many respects so you might not want to take her too far. There are works worth reading in nearly every period and in anything as subjective as taste in literature you shouldn't take anyone as absolute gospel.

Really, the best course of action would probably be to figure out what genre or style you want to write for, find out who the big names are, and then start reading, branch out into other authors and make room for things out of genre*. Make note of what you like, what you think worked and didn't, and then go from there.

And last of all, just freaking write. Get yourself into the habit and discipline of writing. No author worth a damn is going to tell you that writing it easy; only dabblers and dufuses think it is. So go forth and write and find some place you can get real feedback (unlike fanfic groups that are just there to hand out meaningless praise). Practice is going to do you more good than anything else.


*It's one thing to like a genre, another to blinker one's self to only that genre. It's surprising how often authors can be "revolutionary" simply for doing a bit of cross-genre pollination.

[Setesh]

So I should avoid Modernist literature?

Here are some 'classic' authors to avoid:
John Steinbeck: Master of boring depressing writing, his works are considered 'classics' and foisted on highschool student cause he won a nobel and pulitzer prize for a couple of them. His style is boring and over details everything.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: Lord of Clumsy dialogue, and overblows emotion

Ernest Hemingway, another 'classic writer' who's works are very clumsy in some ways.

J.D. Salinger: Unending random tangents set off by things like holding a chair, Supposedly this is to create a 'theme' and the random tangents have some purpose beyond making it really hard to follow.

So I'd have to say yes avoid modernist period writers (1900-1940) most of whom have one maybe two good books, but all their crappy work is considered 'classic' as well cause their name is on it.

The only other writer I can think to avoid is Hunter Thompson, dude was awesome but was on drugs when he wrote and it shows.

[Zixinus]

So I should try to become more literature and try to practise. Any other advices?

[Shinova]

Read up on all the suggestions everyone else listed above, but I think the most important thing you can do is practice. It only makes sense that if you wanna get better at writing you should write a lot. So work it, basically.


EDIT: Another thing. Having a thesaurus at hand will help you immeasurably. Depending on where you write, an online one might be nice. You can find a good one on the first result on a Google search of "thesaurus".