Yes, You DO Need Writing Courses
With KDP and all the self-publishing options out there, many writers jump the gun and publish a book before they’re ready. It never ends well. Usually, they are sad and disappointed when the reviews are bad and the book never goes anywhere. Some things in life have to be done correctly, and writing a novel is one of them. In fact, I would be hard-pressed to think of ANY occupation where you don’t first have to learn how to do the job correctly before you can make money at it or establish yourself in the field.
It’s hard medicine for some writers to take, but yes, you do need some kind of college or creative writing courses to ensure that your work is good enough to compete on the book market. I understand that in this day and age of political correctness, we’re not supposed to tell anyone that anything is not up to standard, every student is supposed to get an A no matter how well they actually did in the course, and no one should have to do anything they don’t want to do or anything that they think is too hard. That’s great if we lived in Utopia, but we don’t.
The reality is that readers have a strong tendency to toss books aside if the writing is amateurish and full of mistakes. You need writing courses if you’re going to make a living writing. You don’t necessarily have to get a Master’s degree in English or a bachelor’s degree in journalism, but simply put, you DO have to know how to write. I stopped reading a book 25% of the way through the other day because there were so many issues with punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, and spelling mistakes that I couldn’t be bothered to continue. THAT is the reality of how most readers feel about substandard writing.
Very few readers will slog through juvenile dialogue, fragmented sentences, and punctuation problems to finish a book. They’re simply going to move on to another book. In fact, one of the reviews about the book I'm speaking of said this:
“Readers (like me) spend good money to read novels and I understand all books are not for all people. And I don’t expect to agree with every plot line. But I do believe all authors should at least take the time to polish their craft before putting it out there for the public to purchase. I feel cheated because of all the grammar errors, fragmented sentences, and juvenile dialogue.”
No, that was not my review. But quite frankly, if I would’ve seen it before reading the book, I wouldn’t have READ the book. THAT’S reality.
There are many ways around college if you don’t have the money to go. Lots of distance learning establishments offer courses in creative writing, English, or whatever it is you need to get your writing clean and error-free. Just having a “love for writing” is not enough to make your book a success. Have the patience and the perseverance to learn the necessary elements before you just throw a book out there. You’ll be glad you did.
It’s hard medicine for some writers to take, but yes, you do need some kind of college or creative writing courses to ensure that your work is good enough to compete on the book market. I understand that in this day and age of political correctness, we’re not supposed to tell anyone that anything is not up to standard, every student is supposed to get an A no matter how well they actually did in the course, and no one should have to do anything they don’t want to do or anything that they think is too hard. That’s great if we lived in Utopia, but we don’t.
The reality is that readers have a strong tendency to toss books aside if the writing is amateurish and full of mistakes. You need writing courses if you’re going to make a living writing. You don’t necessarily have to get a Master’s degree in English or a bachelor’s degree in journalism, but simply put, you DO have to know how to write. I stopped reading a book 25% of the way through the other day because there were so many issues with punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, and spelling mistakes that I couldn’t be bothered to continue. THAT is the reality of how most readers feel about substandard writing.
Very few readers will slog through juvenile dialogue, fragmented sentences, and punctuation problems to finish a book. They’re simply going to move on to another book. In fact, one of the reviews about the book I'm speaking of said this:
“Readers (like me) spend good money to read novels and I understand all books are not for all people. And I don’t expect to agree with every plot line. But I do believe all authors should at least take the time to polish their craft before putting it out there for the public to purchase. I feel cheated because of all the grammar errors, fragmented sentences, and juvenile dialogue.”
No, that was not my review. But quite frankly, if I would’ve seen it before reading the book, I wouldn’t have READ the book. THAT’S reality.
There are many ways around college if you don’t have the money to go. Lots of distance learning establishments offer courses in creative writing, English, or whatever it is you need to get your writing clean and error-free. Just having a “love for writing” is not enough to make your book a success. Have the patience and the perseverance to learn the necessary elements before you just throw a book out there. You’ll be glad you did.
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