Received wisdom

[den_down_unda]

Via ianrandalstrock:

This may be a bit harsh, but is dead accurate. Writing, methinks, is a lot like driving. Way too many people are forced to do it, and therefore think they can. In fact, comparatively few people are any good at it. Hell, I get paid to write and most days I don't feel like I'm any good at it.

I used to go bugfuck when I read or heard

Comments

[gee_tar]

Yeah, I read that screed a few days ago. It's interesting, especially since I'm currently finding myself in a position similar to his where someone thinks their novel is really great but is truly awful from everything I know about it, yet I can't bring myself to say that in a forthright manner. Why? Because of this mythology that every writer who has attained success first had to deal with ignorant fools who couldn't recognize greatness when it was right in front of their face. And I certainly don't want to be one those people. I want to be the person who gave the undiscovered wunderkind the morale boost they needed just when they were ready to give up instead of depriving the world of their genius. But this ultimately leads to a whole lot of crap that gets written.

I suppose the equation one must decide is how many badly written projects do we want to deal with just so the one masterpiece can see the light of day? I feel sorry for the gatekeepers, whatever the form of literature. They get all of the blame, but none of the

[den_down_unda]

Here's the thing, and one of the points the author was trying to make. Most of the time, lousy writing is never going to get better. Anything below "barely competent" isn't worth encouraging beyond: "Burn it. According to Heinlein, you have 1,900,000 words to go before you don't suck." Odds are, they'll give up at that point.

If it's barely competent or better, then offer any critique you feel is helpful or say, "I'm not competent to critique this. Have you ever thought of joining a writer's group?"