What's your next step?

We all want to be good writers but how are you planning on accomplishing this? What do you need to do to improve in your writing and how are you going to do it?

I need to:
1 Write longer stories-by-Increasing the complexity of my plot and characters and the detail of my descriptions.
2 Write stories with clear themes-by- Creating a much fuller outline beforehand so the themes become clear before I start.
3 Write realistic romances-by- I dunno, I think I need to figure this out in real life before I write about it.
4 Write better action scenes-by- I think this is my strong suit but I would like to study actions scenes in published novels and learn from the pros.
5 Write great climaxes-by- Practice, practice, practice.

There's probably a lot more but I'm starting to get depressed.

Jamesaritchie said:

What's a good writer? I sold the first several short stories I wrote to national magazines. I also sold the first draft of the first novel I wrote, and on it's first trip out. Does this automatically mean I was a good writer? Maybe, and maybe not.

But I will say I've always gone against your number two goal. The last thing I ever wanted to do was write stories that had a clear theme. I never, ever try to write to a theme. Such stories always seem preachy, to me. Every story comes with a built-in theme. I think doing as King does usually works best. Just write the story, and then find and tighten the theme in the second draft.

Honestly, I don't know of any way to become a good writer other than the old adage, "Read everything, write much, and hope you have the talent to make use of all the reading and writing you do."

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I'd say that's a pretty good indication that you're a good writer. Either that or you're some kind of wizard.

I don't disagree about the theme thing but I think that stories are a powerful way to influence people and I want to be aware of the messages I'm sending. For instance, I think it's good for people to realize that they don't need to follow the path that others set for them, but the message "Do what makes you happy" can be incredibly self centred and destructive when you apply it to relationships, which many people do.

At the same time I know that not everyone will get the message no matter how clear it is. I know a kid who basically ran away from his family after watching the movie Into The Wild and getting the exact opposite message that the movie was trying to send.

As far as improving my writing goes I learned a valuable lesson from playing guitar. I've been playing for about 10 years now and I don't mind saying that I'm pretty talented but I haven't been intentional at improving my skills. As a result I am not much better than I was 5 years ago. I know people who have been playing for only 3 years who are much better than me because they have put in the effort to improve constantly. I don't want my writing to be the same. I want to enjoy myself when I'm writing but I also want each of my projects to add to my skills and in order to do that I have to choose them carefully and not allow myself to make the same mistakes over and over. Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

Re-modernist said:

I think both planned and unplanned themes and character voices and traits can be included. Some are 'pre-fabricated', while the others grow naturally through the act of writing. Then during editing it's a question of the 'finding and tightening' of the unforeseen themes, voices, and traits, and of managing elements so that the spontaneous ones don't clash with the planned ones. Sometimes the pre-fabricated stuff needs to be trimmed anyway, because the actual book often enough goes into its own directions.

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Well said