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Do you consider yourself a good writer? (part II)
To everyone who missed my first post: Do you consider yourself a good writer? (part I). I'd still love to hear your opinions about this. :)
If I had to judge my own writing skills, I'd say this: I know how to coordinate words. I know how to put them into an order that sounds like decent German (or sometimes even English) and that cannot be overly criticized through its stylistic standards. Truth be told, however: anyone with a proper education and who reads a book from time to time is able to get a feel for it. It's not that hard.
The real trick is to put some meaning, wit and feelings into those words, to make them come alive and let the reader be able to really feel what's happening. Not anyone can do that. In my opinion, there's a difference between being a technically good writer and being a writer who creates a good story.
I always thought the metaphor of the "Orm" is a very nice way to describe things in this context. It's a term that is frequently used in Walter Moers' "Stadt der träumenden Bücher"*. In Moers' book, the Orm stands for some sort of force that is every aspiring writer's goal of life to find. Not everyone finds it, but those who do will be able to write the most fantastic, most brilliant things imaginable. So if you want to put it like that: the Orm is the source of ultimate creativity and inspiration.
I have days/phases when I have a good connection to that source. It's just a feeling that I have when I sit in front of my PC and am driven by a rather persistent plotbunny or a certain feeling (mostly anger - hello there, catharsis). Mostly, those stories belong to the better ones I have written in my life. I also have my phases when I don't seem to be able to focus my creativity, when every sentence feels wrong and completely senseless. And last but not least, I have my phases when I feel neither creative nor uncreative, but simply average.
People who are able to fall back upon the Orm, this source of inspiration whenever they want, people who don't need to be angry or in a good phase to write something meaningful, those have something that is called talent.
I do not count myself to that sort of people. I'm good average when it comes to creativity with some outliers among my fics: stories like Ikarus or Mindscreen that I'm rather proud of, but still could have been done better in my opinion. I have a lot of weak spots, though, and if anyone chose to attack my fics with those aspects in mind, I had nothing to reply and would be so utterly crushed that I would stop writing altogether. Simply because they would be right and there's not much I can do about it. I am only able to post my stuff, because I know about my weaknesses, but am not constantly aware of them.
Why do I post? Don't laugh, but my motivation to post is quite a simple and childish one: whenever I have finished a story, I just want to show someone that I have created something new. (If I were a little child, it probably would sound a lot like this: "Mommy, mommy, look! I've written a story about two guys getting it on! *beams*" XD) It's not so much about what I've created nor about the praise, but about the feeling of concluding something.
I love reviews, of course, and there's always a little nagging feeling when the response to a new fic is not that big. But then I try to be rational and tell myself all the reasons why it's quite natural that you won't get 1238923892 comments for a fanfiction in Footballfandom, for a KSC-story about Maik Franz and whoever-I-slash-him-with-these-days.
*Aka: The City of Dreaming Books which is a wonderful, fantastic, slightly crazy, charming and witty story about the power of words and books. If you don't know it: GO AND READ.
If I had to judge my own writing skills, I'd say this: I know how to coordinate words. I know how to put them into an order that sounds like decent German (or sometimes even English) and that cannot be overly criticized through its stylistic standards. Truth be told, however: anyone with a proper education and who reads a book from time to time is able to get a feel for it. It's not that hard.
The real trick is to put some meaning, wit and feelings into those words, to make them come alive and let the reader be able to really feel what's happening. Not anyone can do that. In my opinion, there's a difference between being a technically good writer and being a writer who creates a good story.
I always thought the metaphor of the "Orm" is a very nice way to describe things in this context. It's a term that is frequently used in Walter Moers' "Stadt der träumenden Bücher"*. In Moers' book, the Orm stands for some sort of force that is every aspiring writer's goal of life to find. Not everyone finds it, but those who do will be able to write the most fantastic, most brilliant things imaginable. So if you want to put it like that: the Orm is the source of ultimate creativity and inspiration.
I have days/phases when I have a good connection to that source. It's just a feeling that I have when I sit in front of my PC and am driven by a rather persistent plotbunny or a certain feeling (mostly anger - hello there, catharsis). Mostly, those stories belong to the better ones I have written in my life. I also have my phases when I don't seem to be able to focus my creativity, when every sentence feels wrong and completely senseless. And last but not least, I have my phases when I feel neither creative nor uncreative, but simply average.
People who are able to fall back upon the Orm, this source of inspiration whenever they want, people who don't need to be angry or in a good phase to write something meaningful, those have something that is called talent.
I do not count myself to that sort of people. I'm good average when it comes to creativity with some outliers among my fics: stories like Ikarus or Mindscreen that I'm rather proud of, but still could have been done better in my opinion. I have a lot of weak spots, though, and if anyone chose to attack my fics with those aspects in mind, I had nothing to reply and would be so utterly crushed that I would stop writing altogether. Simply because they would be right and there's not much I can do about it. I am only able to post my stuff, because I know about my weaknesses, but am not constantly aware of them.
Why do I post? Don't laugh, but my motivation to post is quite a simple and childish one: whenever I have finished a story, I just want to show someone that I have created something new. (If I were a little child, it probably would sound a lot like this: "Mommy, mommy, look! I've written a story about two guys getting it on! *beams*" XD) It's not so much about what I've created nor about the praise, but about the feeling of concluding something.
I love reviews, of course, and there's always a little nagging feeling when the response to a new fic is not that big. But then I try to be rational and tell myself all the reasons why it's quite natural that you won't get 1238923892 comments for a fanfiction in Footballfandom, for a KSC-story about Maik Franz and whoever-I-slash-him-with-these-days.
*Aka: The City of Dreaming Books which is a wonderful, fantastic, slightly crazy, charming and witty story about the power of words and books. If you don't know it: GO AND READ.
no subject
zur erklärung: ich war heute im Brokenhaus, mal wieder kurz durch die Bücherabteilung schauen und da Stand dann Walter Moers "Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher" :D
Ich wusste das ich das Titelblatt schon irgendwo gesehen hatte und der Name des Autors sowie der Titel kamen mir auch noch bekannt vor. Ich wusste noch, dass das irgendwann auf meiner Flist vorkam. Im Verdacht hatte ich Lou und Dich ^^ und ich hab mich nicht getäuscht.
Also musste ich das natürlich trotz weiterer 3 noch nicht fertig gelesenen Büchern gleich mal kaufen (wer kann da bei 3.- Fr. schon nein sagen!). Und jetzt freu ich mich auf's Lesen, mal sehen ob ich es vor oder nach "Interview with the Vampire" lese XD
Ich wollte nur kurz danke sagen für den Tipp, schon die erste Seite hat mich sehr neugierig gemacht.
liebs grüessli und *knuddel*
swizzley
no subject
Also ich fand das Buch ganz wundervoll, verrückt und liebenswert und eine sehr schöne Ode an Bücher selbst. Bin schon gespannt, wie du es finden wirst!
Und Bücher kann man nie genug haben! Ich habe selbst fast 20 ungelesene Bücher bei mir rumliegen, haber aber neulich trotzdem wieder welche gekauft. (Das Witzige: Darunter war auch die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher! Hatte das zuvor nur aus der Bücherei ausgeliehen und wollte endlich ein eigenes Exemplar.)