Rate my writing

snowdog

Master Don Juan
Joined
Mar 23, 2007
Messages
1,217
Reaction score
70
Yea guys, I'm thinking of writing a book. Fiction. The thing is, I'm not sure if I should do it in my native language or English. See, I like English much better because I feel it's a much more powerful language to express oneself then my native language. The question is, is my English good enough to seriously be read? Check the journal in my signature for some examples. The latest posts are the best representation of my style.
 

Furyguy

Senior Don Juan
Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Messages
467
Reaction score
19
Location
A better place, a better time.
8/10

You write fine, probably better than 50% of the people on this site.



Wait, this is just a ploy to get people to read your journal, isn't it?
 

KarmaSutra

Banned
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
4,821
Reaction score
142
Age
51
Location
Padron Reserve maduro in hand while finishing my b
If you want us to speculate about your writing style you have to give us something fictional to work with.

A journal is not representative of anything in a novelizational format.

I'll show you mine if you show me yours.
 

Aragon034

Master Don Juan
Joined
Jul 31, 2008
Messages
574
Reaction score
15
Location
T-dot
Ditto to what Karma said, i'm an aspiring writer myself (plot bunnies attack me constantly) and the best way to get better is to keep writing, have it beta read by someone else to see their reaction, then work on improving.

PM me for more details if you'd like. Writing is a passion of mine :D
 

Peace and Quiet

If you currently have too many women chasing you, calling you, harassing you, knocking on your door at 2 o'clock in the morning... then I have the simple solution for you.

Just read my free ebook 22 Rules for Massive Success With Women and do the opposite of what I recommend.

This will quickly drive all women away from you.

And you will be able to relax and to live your life in peace and quiet.

KarmaSutra

Banned
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
4,821
Reaction score
142
Age
51
Location
Padron Reserve maduro in hand while finishing my b
Aragon034 said:
Ditto to what Karma said, i'm an aspiring writer myself (plot bunnies attack me constantly) and the best way to get better is to keep writing, have it beta read by someone else to see their reaction, then work on improving.
I'm left scratching my chin by the paradox of this.

Karma's first rule of writing is to be as grammatically perfect as you can be, especially when you write posts which have no thematic value.

Habit will dictate your perfection, not practice.
 

MisterMcGee

Master Don Juan
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
825
Reaction score
18
KarmaSutra said:
I'm left scratching my chin by the paradox of this.

Karma's first rule of writing is to be as grammatically perfect as you can be, especially when you write posts which have no thematic value.

Habit will dictate your perfection, not practice.
honestly it doesn't matter how you write online or when communicating to others (no matter how many times you've heard that, we're talking about a different context here). i hardly ever capitalize. see? but you think i dont capitalize or put apostrophes in "dont" when im writing something?
its not like we're 'typn lik dis'. there's no habit involved, its just slacking on purpose
 

KarmaSutra

Banned
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
4,821
Reaction score
142
Age
51
Location
Padron Reserve maduro in hand while finishing my b
MisterMcGee said:
honestly it doesn't matter how you write online or when communicating to others (no matter how many times you've heard that, we're talking about a different context here). i hardly ever capitalize. see? but you think i dont capitalize or put apostrophes in "dont" when im writing something?
its not like we're 'typn lik dis'. there's no habit involved, its just slacking on purpose
Wrong. Habit is habit. How you treat your own rhetoric on a day to day basis influences EVERY aspect of a writer's craft.

If you shave corners here and there you'll find yourself shaving there and there.

It's a reflection of how much you give a sh!t about your work.
 

MisterMcGee

Master Don Juan
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
825
Reaction score
18
Speak for yourself, dont act like a creative writing guru when you aren't. I get that habits are habits, but when I work I take it seriously and write in a more professional tone. I definitely 100% step it up several notches when writing fiction. You should never write 'habitually' when you're working on writing a book, script, play, or what have you.
 

KarmaSutra

Banned
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
4,821
Reaction score
142
Age
51
Location
Padron Reserve maduro in hand while finishing my b
MisterMcGee said:
Speak for yourself, dont act like a creative writing guru when you aren't. I get that habits are habits, but when I work I take it seriously and write in a more professional tone. I definitely 100% step it up several notches when writing fiction. You should never write 'habitually' when you're working on writing a book, script, play, or what have you.
Walk the walk, Jack.

I have a business where I do script consultations, ghost-write copy and edit for Bright House Networks here in Central Florida.

I have experience in creative writing. What the fvck have you done that's worth a sh!t?

That's what I thought. All fvcking mouth.
 

If you currently have too many women chasing you, calling you, harassing you, knocking on your door at 2 o'clock in the morning... then I have the simple solution for you.

Just read my free ebook 22 Rules for Massive Success With Women and do the opposite of what I recommend.

This will quickly drive all women away from you.

And you will be able to relax and to live your life in peace and quiet.

Darth

Master Don Juan
Joined
Oct 20, 2005
Messages
1,635
Reaction score
101
Age
34
It's true; it all carries over. If you "get" spelling and grammar, then no reason why you can't use it online. Me, I don't even think about it. It's easier to type in complete sentences than to make mistakes.

It really is all about habit.
 

Aragon034

Master Don Juan
Joined
Jul 31, 2008
Messages
574
Reaction score
15
Location
T-dot
Lol put the handbag down man.

This isn't a pissing competition Karma, yes you have your script consulting business but that doesn't mean your word is bond when it comes to something creative.

Grammar and spelling can be taught/fixed/use a spell checker... Creativity is a little more complicated than that.

I'll tell you from my own personal experience, when i was in jr high i loved writing, but my writing was utter ****, i wouldn't be caught dead writing such claptrap now. I'd say i'm well above average now.

I still don't think i'm 'professional' level, but i've improved leaps and bounds and even have friends in university writing courses coming to me to have their essays and stories proofread and to give them my opinions on it.

What's the matter with you man? Why so territorial?
 

KarmaSutra

Banned
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
4,821
Reaction score
142
Age
51
Location
Padron Reserve maduro in hand while finishing my b
Aragon034 said:
Lol put the handbag down man.

This isn't a pissing competition Karma, yes you have your script consulting business but that doesn't mean your word is bond when it comes to something creative.

Grammar and spelling can be taught/fixed/use a spell checker... Creativity is a little more complicated than that.

I'll tell you from my own personal experience, when i was in jr high i loved writing, but my writing was utter ****, i wouldn't be caught dead writing such claptrap now. I'd say i'm well above average now.

I still don't think i'm 'professional' level, but i've improved leaps and bounds and even have friends in university writing courses coming to me to have their essays and stories proofread and to give them my opinions on it.

What's the matter with you man? Why so territorial?
There's no excuse for laziness.

Seems you've found a couple.
 

2.0

Don Juan
Joined
Apr 10, 2008
Messages
178
Reaction score
5
Location
United States
i iz da best righter eva u kno its true!!! xx

don 4get u kno i gon be big i don even care enemore
 

2.0

Don Juan
Joined
Apr 10, 2008
Messages
178
Reaction score
5
Location
United States
Oh, and to answer your question, it depends largely on what your native language is, among other things.
 

Peace and Quiet

If you currently have too many women chasing you, calling you, harassing you, knocking on your door at 2 o'clock in the morning... then I have the simple solution for you.

Just read my free ebook 22 Rules for Massive Success With Women and do the opposite of what I recommend.

This will quickly drive all women away from you.

And you will be able to relax and to live your life in peace and quiet.

snowdog

Master Don Juan
Joined
Mar 23, 2007
Messages
1,217
Reaction score
70
KarmaSutra and MisterMcGee. I didn't want to start a discussion here, and I don't ask or care about what you think about my style. All I want to know is if my grammar is good enough, and the way I build sentences.
 

KarmaSutra

Banned
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
4,821
Reaction score
142
Age
51
Location
Padron Reserve maduro in hand while finishing my b
snowdog said:
KarmaSutra and MisterMcGee. I didn't want to start a discussion here, and I don't ask or care about what you think about my style. All I want to know is if my grammar is good enough, and the way I build sentences.
I'm still waiting for you to ante up with something worth reading.
 

snowdog

Master Don Juan
Joined
Mar 23, 2007
Messages
1,217
Reaction score
70
I provided you with the link in my sig buddy, you'll have to do with that. I'm sure you're smart enough to understand I'm not posting anything here that can link me with my personal live in even the slightest bit.
 

The Master Disaster

Master Don Juan
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
512
Reaction score
2
Snowdog,

Your writing isn't terrible. It's fairly average. I deal with people as well-written as you are on a daily basis, and that's a huge compliment because the people I work with are college students working on an English major. I'm an editor at my college's newspaper, and I work with writers to realize their faults.

You would be surprised at how may comma splices a soon-to-be college grad with an English major will make.

Most the time they wouldn't be able to give you a thesis statement or define parallelism. They just know how to produce papers, which are serviceable at best.

But back to your writing, the only thing I keep on seeing is comma splices, which are easily fixed. The main thing is that a period means the sentence contains a subject and verb. Commas are trickier and much longer to explain, but first off "Hi." is more "Hi," introductory stuff like "When blah blah, I do this." or "Because I ran, I felt tired." but you don't put a comma if you reverse those like, "I felt tired because I ran."

Don't regard that paragraph as reference. I bypassed a lot grammar issues to show you the correct punctuation of the quotes, but your writing is littered with those, and that's not a really big deal. That shouldn't halt your writing. It will just add more work for the editors that work on your work.

So overall, I would say go with whatever you want. You seem to be able to convey a correct spectrum of emotion in English. If you think you can write with more passion in English, than I would say go for it.

I would just work on your grammar overall. I'm a grammar nut, so I know more rules for grammar than are actually taught. I'm taking a class this semester called "ENGL 4750: Advanced Grammar," and I already know 90-95% of the course. 5% are just crazy rules no one should commit to memory.

Whoever wrote that comment about spellcheck, I don't know if that's the best idea. Spellcheck gets many things wrong. It struggles with plurals, and the way it corrects passive voice will vastly alter the meaning of the sentence.

I agree with MisterMcGee. Habitual writing usually leads to monotonous writing with a vague direction. Most people write much more intrigueing work when they are actually thrilled about what they are writing.

My main recommendation to anyone who wants to fiction write is never talk your ideas out with people. Write it down first! Don't talk yourself out of passion. While your pumped, put the pen to the paper. If you talk with someone, they already start off unimpressed, and it's an uphill battle from there. Write it down, and then talk to people. Those moments where you have too many things in your head to write down are beautiful moments.

Sorry, I seemed to have rambled, but yea you get my seal of approval for writing in English.
 

KarmaSutra

Banned
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
4,821
Reaction score
142
Age
51
Location
Padron Reserve maduro in hand while finishing my b
The Master Disaster said:
Habitual writing usually leads to monotonous writing with a vague direction.
I don't think you understand context. What I refer to as habitual writing is to follow proper grammatical guidelines while fully expressing your ideas. Habitual writing is programming yourself to write everyday. Usually within a specified time in a particular place.

Free, or right-brain, writing is disassociating oneself from the concious and allowing the subconcious to freely flow.

There is quite a difference between a writer who follows specific habits and a writing robot.

Passionate writers are aware of the differences.

Snowdog, I looked at the link in your sig and I was not impressed by any means.

Come back with something you're proud of and I'll take another look.
 
Top