How Do You Know If You're a Bad Writer?
If you’ve just started writing, you might wonder if you’re actually bad at it. Do you sometimes read your own work and think, “This is awful. No one will ever read it.” If you do, you’re definitely a writer. But are you a good or bad writer?
A few years ago, I heard about shifter novels and did some research. Come to find out, shifter novels are basically werewolf romances, but sometimes you can have different animals. Like, the main love interest can “shift” into a wolf or a bear or a squirrel or whatever. Usually, shifter males are hunky hot dudes with insatiable sexual appetites. Growl! Believe it or not, shifter novels are very popular. They generally fall under the supernatural/erotica category; although the ones I read were nasty! And I mean NAAAAASTY. If you get my drift. The author I found claimed to be a USA Today bestselling author so I downloaded one of her books and dug in.
It was literally the worst thing I’ve ever read in my life. Not just bad plot-wise, but the grammar, egregious spelling mistakes, plus horrendous descriptions of body parts and bodily functions. I mean, come on. Slick channel? Bulbous head? No and no. How the heck did this author become a best-selling author in any capacity? She has hundreds of reviews and a decent following on social media. Did she pay for reviews? I digress. After reading this novel I had an epiphany.
You learn more from the bad than the good.
This contradicts all the writing advice you’ll ever get. We’re often told to read works in our genre and learn from the greats. However, brilliant novels like, for example, To Kill a Mockingbird, are otherworldly. You read them and try to figure out exactly how Harper Lee did it. Is there a formula? How did she use dialog? Can you reverse engineer it? Where does she introduce conflict? I’m sure people have studied the structure of Mockingbird to death, but as an average reader, it is unknown to us what incantation they used to cast this spell. We read those words and are transported. We can hear Scout clearly, we know exactly what Boo Radley looks like, but how did Lee do it? The answer is simple: Magic.
On the other hand, read a horrible book and it’s like driving head-on into the setting sun. When it’s so awful, you can’t help but compare your own work, especially when you cringe at a mistake you’ve made yourself. The mistakes are front and center, which makes them easy to avoid and dissect. In fact, I learned more about writing by reading this shifter novel than any how-to book or workshop I’ve attended. What not to do is just as important as what to do.
In order to learn the cold, hard truth, you have to put your work out there. Even then, like Shifter Writer, who despite being one of the worst writers I’ve read has a following. She has plenty of good reviews even with appalling spelling mistakes. We, as authors, are unable to judge the good or bad of our own work. Good and bad are subjective anyway. What’s good to you is bad to someone else. Shifter Writer probably thinks she’s a genius. She certainly offers something to her readers. But let me be clear. It’s not just her lack of talent, it’s the overall presentation, the absurd story, the cringeworthy dialog. It’s everything. This isn’t to say she doesn’t work hard. I bet she does. In the end, all that really matters is you enjoy yourself.
Thanks to the homogenization of the publishing industry, bad writers get just as much access as good writers. You might be the worst writer in the world, but you could still have a following just like Shifter Writer. Good, bad. What does it matter as long as you love it?
We all worry we’re not good at things. We all put our hearts and souls into our work, re-read and wonder: Will people hate it? They might, but there is an audience for everyone. If you look at the world as one of abundance, you’ll see that even bad writers have fans. I don’t like Dan Brown, but apparently people love his work. What I’m saying is, do it because you love it and don’t worry if you’re bad or good. Just create.
That said, if you really want to know, you must hold your work up to the light. Join critique groups, submit to friends and other writers. Hire beta readers. Rejections from publishers are not a good indication of talent. Plenty of great books get rejected. I once emailed a fairly well-known author after one of his short stories was published in The New Yorker - which is notoriously difficult to get into. I asked him how long it took him to get in and he said it took “hundreds” of submissions. And he’s been writing for over forty years and has numerous books under his belt.
Good and bad are subjective. Remember that. Continue to work on your craft and be the best you can be. You’re going to be rejected, but it doesn’t mean you’re bad. However, there are some key indicators you might be a bad writer if…
You aren’t able to capture the unique voices of your characters - making them all sound the same
You’re unable to properly create high-stakes situations with subtly. Don’t worry. This is a skill you learn over time
You over-explain. Exposition has its place, but far too many new writers spell it out for their readers and do too many flashbacks. Assume your readers are intelligent and will be able to figure it out with as little information as possible to keep the story going
You don’t fully understand “show, don’t tell.” Don’t panic. Show don’t tell isn’t the easiest concept to understand when you’re just starting out. Buy a book called Understanding Show Don’t Tell (and Really Getting It) by Janice Hardy. It’s the only book I’ve ever read on the subject that really explains it well.
Bad writers assume they’re geniuses who do everything right. There is always room for improvement and any writer will tell you that. I think it’s safe to say most writers always believe something is missing from the final manuscript - or it could’ve been better. Anthony Burgess, who wrote A Clockwork Orange, reportedly felt his book was misunderstood.
You assume your first draft has to be a work of art. First drafts are never good. It comes with the territory. The first draft of one of my work-in-progress novels started out as 40,000 words. It’s now somewhere in the territory of 200,000 words. Lord help me. I know. That’s not good. I haven’t been able to cut it down for a year. Does it make me a bad writer? It means I’m stuck and it happens to everyone. Let yourself off the hook. No one’s first draft is amazing.
Bad writers feel like the tried and true dialog tags “said” and “asked” are passé. Instead, they use words like “breathed” or “retorted.” I personally hate the word retort. There really is no need to spice up dialog tags. Just get on with the story.
Bad writers care more about themselves than the reader
What are you thoughts? What makes someone a bad or good writer? Post in the comments.