The Write of Way [Work in Progress, Member Driven]

Growth Spurts In Writing--Phase 1

I have been promising this piece for some time in the forums.

These are a few of the stages of growth, retreat, and brewing phases I've experienced and witnessed in many years of observing and critiquing writers.

You may go through one of them, all of them or none of them and it may help those observing a writer's growth to understand what's happening. Some phases are harder for a writer or their supporters to cope with than others and not all writers will deal with different phases in the same way.

And yes, some of this is going to hurt. And some of it may help writers to understand why they feel the way they do when they cannot find a rational explanation for their moodiness around the writing process.

The Beginning:

This is when a young person, sometimes as young as four or five, usually around ten or twelve--first realizes that they have a talent for writing. It's often pointed out by a teacher because parents tend to either over-praise the wrong attributes or discourage creative imaginations and writing in their children by accident. Teachers, being neutral experts, tend to have a great deal of impact when they encourage a child to write. Sometimes it is a neighbour who writes or is knowledgeable that notices a flair for writing.

Books become not only a source of information to the child but a source of other worlds to explore and an explosion of imagination. While some people may not go through the above phase at all--at some point the writer WILL start to use books as escapism.

This is where reading well-written work comes in.

The kind of reading during this first phase [which lasts decades] will strongly impact how easy it is for a writer to later learn grammar, punctuation, style, pacing and plotting.

If a future writer reads nothing but simplified YA which is written for those with less than an 8th grade education, graphic novels or the Doggess forbid, error-riddled Wattpad amateurs--they will be well and truly shocked one day when yes indeed, their English teachers and critiquers find their errors in grammar, punctuation and syntax unbearable to read and it is not just their "personal style" but poor reading and writing habits now available to the entire world online in their substandard writing.

On the other hand, the future writer that has read some classics, even simple classics such as Treasure Island, The Land of Oz and Alice In Wonderland--will have a far greater grip on the language than the future writer who read Dan Brown, Stephen King and J.K Rowlings.

That's not to denigrate those authors, their storytelling skills and imaginations are prodigious and that must be learned too--but their writing level is not in the same ballpark with an Edgar Allen Poe,  Emily Bronte or Norman Mailer.

You write what you read.

Put as many tools in your toolbox as you can. Read widely. Different genres, different styles and add in some top-notch literature.

You may still choose to write in a simple voice but that needs to be a concious writing decision--not a limitation.

~*~*~*~

This is the first part of the series. Let me know if you enjoyed it and you are welcome to make comments and observations about your own writing experience or those you've watched, in the comment section.

I will likely have Part II up before January 15th.