Hey there! I am happy to add you back. I had heard you were floating around here somewhere.
There is always a place for the fluffier writer--what I've always loved about you as a writer is your unbridled joy and sense of fun. You love to write and it shows. That is super important. I don't' read fluffy stuff generally (lj user="cruentum">'s darker style of writing is what I lean toward, lol, and not just because he is my b/f), don't write fanfic generally, but I do write for an epublisher, and have a small press book out there still (more or less--it is about dead lol). Doesn't make me an expert, but I've been through the gristmill with editors and esp. the small press learned TONS.
I think it is awesome you want to improve. It's those who think they are awesome with no room for that getting better nonsense are the ones I run screaming from. LOL. I've been working all weekend, studying the process and craft of two people--Jim Butcher and Alexandra Sokoloff, both of whom have really awesome, helpful, insightful blogs about writing. Butcher's is old and here on lj, jimbutcher, and Alexandra Sokoloff, who writes the scary stuff (not horror, though) is at http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/2008/10/story-structure-101-index-card-method.html. You can get to her first post on writing craft from there.
I love fanfiction and using that to hone craft because of the immediate response and help if you ask for it...but you just have to be careful to weed out the not-so-good stuff. Reading work like you want to write is important too--I'd highly suggest doing that, grabbing some books where you'd like to be and go from there. If it is m/m fiction, then ebooks are right at your fingertips. Go on Goodreads and search out the m/m reading forum (tee hee they are reviewing my Red right now in the book club, but I am NOT looking...lol) and find books reviewed there that you would like to see your story next to.
You can do it! You are not a primadonna! I think it is awesome.
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There is always a place for the fluffier writer--what I've always loved about you as a writer is your unbridled joy and sense of fun. You love to write and it shows. That is super important. I don't' read fluffy stuff generally (lj user="cruentum">'s darker style of writing is what I lean toward, lol, and not just because he is my b/f), don't write fanfic generally, but I do write for an epublisher, and have a small press book out there still (more or less--it is about dead lol). Doesn't make me an expert, but I've been through the gristmill with editors and esp. the small press learned TONS.
I think it is awesome you want to improve. It's those who think they are awesome with no room for that getting better nonsense are the ones I run screaming from. LOL. I've been working all weekend, studying the process and craft of two people--Jim Butcher and Alexandra Sokoloff, both of whom have really awesome, helpful, insightful blogs about writing. Butcher's is old and here on lj,
I love fanfiction and using that to hone craft because of the immediate response and help if you ask for it...but you just have to be careful to weed out the not-so-good stuff. Reading work like you want to write is important too--I'd highly suggest doing that, grabbing some books where you'd like to be and go from there. If it is m/m fiction, then ebooks are right at your fingertips. Go on Goodreads and search out the m/m reading forum (tee hee they are reviewing my Red right now in the book club, but I am NOT looking...lol) and find books reviewed there that you would like to see your story next to.
You can do it! You are not a primadonna! I think it is awesome.