Is my writing getting any better?

Writing is an art. For me, and I imagine for you if you’re reading this, writing is a passion. Writing is also how I pay (some of) the bills. And, like any passion/art/obsession, we want to be good at it. Hell, I want to be the best writer. I want to be a better writer now than I was a year ago, and an even better writer a year from now. But that leads me to a miserable question.

How do I tell if my writing is getting any better? For that matter, how do I tell if my writing is any good at all? 

Writing is subjective.

Writing is not like speaking a second language, baking bread or running. You cannot measure improvement in how many full sentences you can speak, the texture or flavor of the end product, or how far you can sprint before you run out of breath. Writing, like any art, is subjective. You can learn everything about the MICE quotient. You can understand the structure of the hero’s journey. You can read Save The Cat seventeen times over, and who’s to say you’re a better writer? And a fan base isn’t a good measurement. Some amazing writers are putting work out to an audience of zero, while some truly awful drek is hitting Amazon best seller lists. 

So if you’re doing all the things, how can you tell if you’re getting better? Well, again keep in mind that everything is subjective. But here are some ways you can spot improvement in your writing. 

How do you feel when you’re writing?

If you’ve been writing a while, you start to get a feel for when it’s good. When the words are coming alive on the page, instead of laying flat and dead. This is something that cannot be taught any other way but practice. In the words of Stephen King, you’ve got to read a lot and write a lot. 

Oh darn. 

Freewriting will help with this. You start to get familiar with the shape of your words outside of the structure of a story. It allows you to notice your word usage without judgement. Your sentence structure, naming habits, all the things that make up your style. Freewriting is how you figure out if that’s working.

How does your writing feel when you come back to it?

Anytime you write something, it’s best to let it sit for a time before editing or publishing.

Nothing should go out without some editing!

But the distance from the piece allows you to read it as though you didn’t write it. And this is a great time to consider how you’re doing. 

Over time, you learn where your weak points are. I’m bad at writing fight scenes, and physical descriptions. I also have this bad habit of writing dialog in one specific way that’s fine if I don’t overdo it. But I then, of course, overdo it. 

Over time, I find that I’m doing these things less and less. Instead I find new fun things to do that irritate me, but that’s part of growth! 

Reading your own writing as though it’s someone else’s will give you a better understanding of how you’re doing as a writer. 

What kind of feedback are you getting from your beta readers?

I want you to read that question very, very carefully. I did not ask you to consider the feedback of people on the internet. I did not ask you to consider the feedback of your favorite auntie. I want you to think about what your fellow working writers are telling you. 

And even then, keep in mind that art is subjective. 

All that being said, consider the feedback you’re getting. Are you getting the same comments every time? Or, are you getting new comments? 

This is how you know you’re growing as a writer. Not because your fellow writers say your work is perfect. But because you learn from the feedback and fix that part of your writing. 

Now, all of that being said, I do have one word of caution for you. Don’t worry too much about whether your writing is getting better. 

I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to get better. But don’t stress over it. If you’re reading and writing, you’re going to get better. In this way, writing is like learning a language, baking bread or running. If you commit to doing it, and you practice, you can’t help but get better. 

If you’d like to support Paper Beats World, you can do so on Ko-fi

AA season two is coming on August 15th. If you love aliens stuck on Earth, found families, and monsters that go bump in coffee shops, you can catch up on season one now on Haunted MTL.