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Originally Posted by chrispenycate Now, a personal point. If you'reintending to become a writer, why not practice your skills while posting? And one which will be essential is punctuation (waves down jeers and cat-calls: yes, I know I'm always on about peoples punctuation, but believe me, it's important). |
Normally I'd just slap a QFT (Quoted For Truth) under this, but I'm trying to do better here
Speaking as a former mod and reader for a rather large fanfiction site which has forums on it, there's a distinct correlation between how writers presented themselves on the forums and how their writing turned out on their submissions. I'm not saying that someone who posts with perfect or near-perfect grammar is an amazing writer, but they tend not to my fingers itch to write on the screen just to
make it go away.
Also, Chris, I'm consistently impressed with the time you take on the critiques, nailing the grammatical flaws whenever they spring up (at least when they're not in overwhelming abundance). It actually warms my heart.
Stand proud. There's a line between being concerned for SPAG and being a Nazi about it, and you don't strike me as someone who would leap up and shout "SPAG HEIL." Of course, I could be wrong
tl;dr
(aka: too long; didn't read)
Write better here. It makes you write better elsewhere.
EDIT
I should, uh, try to keep with the OP...
Star Wars is Science Fantasy, or a Space Opera, whatever you want. Half of it isn't rooted in actual science. The day we actually manage to swing a Kessel Run in less than twelve
parsecs I'll eat whatever happens to be lying around. (A parsec is a measure of distance, not time.)
But the question asked earlier of "if you haven't read anything how do you know you want to write" is sharply valid. Knife-like. It's like saying how do you know you want to be a painter if all you've seen is a reprint of Monet on the walls at the dentist's office.
You want a list of books that are in this genre? Walk into a bookstore and to the shelves marked "science fiction" and "fantasy." Browse. Pick something up with a nice jacket and skim the first page. Get a stack and sit down between shelves - most stores won't really yell at you for this. Just don't spill on them.
And read outside of your genre, too. I firmly believe this makes for stronger writing. Read fiction, nonfiction, fantasy, scifi, philosophy, literature, poetry (if you're so inclined - I can't read poetry to save my life), mythology, history, biographies, how-to manuals...
Take the books you get in school very seriously. They are being handed to you for a reason. Maybe you think Dostoevsky, Camus, or Faulkner have nothing to do with science fantasy. But they wrote about people, and they wrote them darn well. Without compelling people in your stories, hardly anyone will care how good your world or plot is. Read them for style, read them for content, for plot, for pacing, for any drop of life you can get from them.
Then ask your teacher what
else you should read.