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Comparing you work
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Nicole
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Mar 01, 2014 12:43AM
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To write, first one must read. Can we deny this fundamental part, can't we? By reading we somehow get imbued with our favorite authors technique. Yet that's just toddler's crawling. To write each author must find the personal way to fly. Comparing the work to that of another author it's just ridiculous. of course there will be someone who's bether at writing dialogues and character developpement but that's another person and has nothing to do with how someone writes.
Comparisons are natural, but unrealistic expectations are where it gets nasty. Be careful about expecting your work to do as well as someone else right out of the gate.
I don't try to compare my writing to other works, because we all have our own style and tastes. Trying to compete with someone else could inadvertently alter our own way of writing, which would not only defeat building your unique way, but begin mirroring someone else's.
I don't really try to compare my work with others. I prefer to write in an action oriented style that I don't see a lot of other authors using. It's hard to make comparisons when what you're reading is a completely different style. Every author has their own unique voice. I wouldn't try to write using Stephen King's voice or Hemmingway's or Bisky's ;P You can pick up techniques and tricks from other authors, but you are still going to write in your own voice. To me it's like comparing apples and oranges, so I don't bother trying. I mostly try to enjoy the ride when I'm reading. I also keep my critical eye open looking for things that can help with my own writing. I always notice things the author could have done better if they had done another rewrite.
An editor once told me 'You will write no better than the best author that you have read. The more you read the better you will write."Mind you this is not advice to compare your work with others, and I don't.
Instead I tend to be more sensitive to what other author's are writing when I read their work. Elements of style, what narrative voice they use, their turns of phrase... We never stop learning.
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..."
That makes sense, although I'm pretty sure you also learn a great deal from the mistakes you notice in other's work. The things you don't like or irritate you are often the things that stick to you and you try to avoid at all cost.
Oh and welcome back :)
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Do you think by not comparing your books with peers or anyone that you possibly stand to lose any insight or knowledge for bettering your writing?
What about comparing something as simple as the "quality" of your writing with another's?
Okay go :D *Nicole enjoys our intelligent conversations ^^*
Mod
I never compare my work to anyone. One of the most important rules of thumb for authors is to find their own voice. Most authors are avid readers and so they can't help but be influenced by other writers on a subconscious level, and so the work of other authors' does come into play, but for me, I worry that comparing my work to the work of others could cause my writing style to become confused, so I try not to do that, and it's actually pretty effortless for me to avoid it. I guess it's all about how confident you are as a writer. Nicole wrote: "Does comparing your work with others motivate you to amp up your game or discourage you altogether? Are there any pros for comparing your work? Should you do it? What do you think?"
G.G I did that once. But I took two different parts oft novel and copied them in. I got two different authors so it doesn't seem to be reliable.
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Also, I don't see why you couldn't be the mix of two different ones. After all, what says you didn't take the best from each? :P
@nicole Again I feel like it's comparing apples to oranges. I don't feel like I'm missing anything if my apple doesn't taste like another author's orange. I also prefer originality, so copying another author's descriptive phrase doesn't improve my writing unless I can think of no better way to put it. At this point in history finding an original description is difficult/impossible. Someone has done it before. Mostly what I get out of reading is the mistakes that other authors make. I ask myself why it didn't work/what could have been done to fix it? It helps a great deal when I go through the same issues with my own writing.
Very true @Brian! Great point, about the mistakes and trying to avoid them. I do the same exact thing, and I've pointed that out to other writers as well. I love to read, but as it pertains to affecting my own work, I look for how I can appropriate my point or plot better by understanding the mistakes of other writers, and I'm sure my work can be used the same way.Also, I laughed at how you're not missing anything if your apple doesn't taste like another orange. Cute :)
@Brian and NikkiAgreed about the mistakes. I try to read a wide range of genres, and don't like to compare myself to others. But I do like to dissect books that I didn't enjoy and use what I learn as a cautionary manual on what not to do in the future.
I earned an MA in literature & I read a lot. I prefer to think of others' work as models for my writing. I'm at my best when I create something new that's better than the last piece. I am my own best mark for comparison.
Since I have become more of a writer, it is so hard for me to READ a book. :\
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For me, it's a little bit of both. I find good books set a goal to which I can aspire. On the other hand, most books by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen leave me a little depressed, as that's a wall I know I will never scale.
I know what you mean. Its so easy to be intimidated. But I kept running across a quote by Anne Lamott: “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.”
Even the greatest writers out there start out writing stuff they wouldn't share with anyone. We're all human and we all get better at our craft the more we practice.
Mod
Yes, it's really sad, I had to tell someone I went to college with that his writing is the equivalent of printing counterfeit money. The first stage of the communication was sad enough, with him launching the first f-bomb at me, then came the crucial thing, how he had no sense of telling what I said was care for his soul, not an attack on his identity. I mean, honestly, his writing is always going to suck because because of the limits he has placed on how he can become more mechanically competent and intellectually capable. We who've had the slightest benefit of art and reasoning shine on our lives have the right to love one of my favorite lines in film where Walter Matthau says in The Front Page, "Kick him down the stairs and tell him his poetry stinks." We who write, hopefully gaining the respect of others, and take the craft seriously, have every right in my opinion to act out in life what Matthau was expressing in character. Just because they're you're friends, don't feel the slightest hesitation on calling bullshit bad work. If you instinctively take the other side and say being harsh at your friends isn't a good idea, well then, step up, tell me why thousands of years of human existence couldn't cure idiocy and suddenly you can?
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@Angelo I'm starting to think you're trolling. Why did you private message me with coherant messages and can't seem to do them here. And you seem like you want to start a fight by writing something a little agressive. Y u do dis?
(Don't PM me anymore, explain here.)
@nicole: your questions rouse me toward understanding, as the best questions always do.
i compare my content, not my style.
when i read altered states, i said 'holy cow wow!' paddy chayefsky is WAY ahead of me in providing new ideas while still exemplifying how people interact.
when i read the first and last pages of a tale of two cities, even though i thought dickens carried on too far on page 1, i recognized that his great art was his alone, as different from mine as from chayefsky's, but i could emulate his ability to observe and describe beautifully (page first) and his ability to put the emotional power where it was most lasting (page last).
as far as i know, nobody compares these 2 artists to each other, but who can indulge in their intellectual and emotional art without recognizing the pathFinder in each, and then attempting, in our own creations--not to follow them, but to attempt to find a parallel, personal pathway into The Great Unknown?
my style is my own and ever-evolving. i can experiment with it but it is my undiscardable fingerprint, not my lunch, not my product. i don't remember chayefsky nor dickens for their style; i remember them for their content.
comparing what i say, what i give; that matters. how i say it? that affects sales somewhat, but i don't care about sophocles' style in oedipus--i am forever changed by its content.
i compare my content, not my style.
when i read altered states, i said 'holy cow wow!' paddy chayefsky is WAY ahead of me in providing new ideas while still exemplifying how people interact.
when i read the first and last pages of a tale of two cities, even though i thought dickens carried on too far on page 1, i recognized that his great art was his alone, as different from mine as from chayefsky's, but i could emulate his ability to observe and describe beautifully (page first) and his ability to put the emotional power where it was most lasting (page last).
as far as i know, nobody compares these 2 artists to each other, but who can indulge in their intellectual and emotional art without recognizing the pathFinder in each, and then attempting, in our own creations--not to follow them, but to attempt to find a parallel, personal pathway into The Great Unknown?
my style is my own and ever-evolving. i can experiment with it but it is my undiscardable fingerprint, not my lunch, not my product. i don't remember chayefsky nor dickens for their style; i remember them for their content.
comparing what i say, what i give; that matters. how i say it? that affects sales somewhat, but i don't care about sophocles' style in oedipus--i am forever changed by its content.
Mod
Going back to edit isn't a bad thing. There were many things wrong about the book. Taking in consideration what reviewers said, and what another discussion group said when they 'screened' my book, I'm trying to make the right changes. However, what is 'right' and what is 'wrong'? That's when comparing should stop. There is no right or wrong. For some people right is wrong and vice versa. That's why the world is interesting. Because people have different tastes, and different views.
An internet friend of mine made me realize that not being like the others is not always a bad thing. Being different, having a totally different style is also a good thing. Sure, you don't get as many sales as the most popular ones, but at least, you're you and not someone else.
@Tony I agree. I couldn't tell you what style my favorite author uses and quite frankly, I wouldn't care if the content 'sucked'.
