Any method that ends up improving the product as well as your writing skills is a good thing. There're too many writers, these days (maybe there always were, I don't know), who settle for mediocre writing, they don't push themselves. (I had a big argument over at Bizarro Central over this, among other things, a while back . . . a couple of people took it very personally, thus I had to leave. They just weren't used to people challenging them, and the only feedback they ever get is "hey, that's really cool, I wanna read more", they're never challenged and they never challenge themselves. I found out pretty quickly that Bizarro is a dead end, it's a pool of young writers who think all they need to do is write stuff that's weird, and that's enough. Being weird just isn't enough. You should also know how to write well. And it takes a lot of time to write well, it's very difficult to learn to write fiction well. These people have been led or are being led into complacency, and this is very dangerous for young writers, especially those with ideas and potential. I wanted to get through to them... .)CrazyBernie wrote:As a writer (albiet an amateurish-wannabe-but-hopefully-up-and-coming writer), I've (more than once) scrapped an entire work and re-wrote it from scratch. By doing so, even if I ended up writing a lot of the same stuff, I was able to incorporate new ideas that presented themselves, making what I re-wrote a better piece. I'm a big fan of that "fresh outlook," even if it is a more time consuming way of doing things.
(Not that I'm any great writer, myself, but I'm still pushing myself, still trying to improve, trying to learn how to improve.)
It's always best to keep pushing yourself, no matter how good a writer you think you've become. Whenever you start to feel safe: deliberately try to break yourself, to scare yourself, always challenge yourself. And if you find that there're other people whose judgment you're always keeping in mind and whom you're always trying to please: deliberately write something that will really piss them off. Maybe then you'll feel more free to write what you truly feel.
I've still yet to learn that last part, myself . . . really, it's not easy. One's ego is very much defined by how other people see you; therefore so is one's art, since the inception/creation of art is through the expression of the self.
But... writing isn't the subject of the thread. So... back to the topic, about which I personally have nothing to say, oh well. At least I was good for a short tangent?... maybe?
![Officer [Bronze Rank]](./images/ranks/officer1.png "Officer [Bronze Rank]")
