As writers, we want to ensure the quality of our work. After all, we want people to “buy our books, read our books and like our books.” But that won’t happen if they’re not getting the quality they want.
Is It Ever Good Enough?
I’ve been reviewing applications for students who want to join the scholars program I run at my college. One student we’ve nominated to join us focused his admission essay on NaNoWriMo. He talks about the challenge of writing 50,000 words in a single month with the same enthusiasm many of us have every November. This student completed the challenge as part of a high school writing class. He was incredibly proud of writing 50,000 words in thirty days, and printed it out for his teacher’s review. It was only when he did so, and read select parts of the draft that frowned. He realized his draft was really messy and sloppy, and not of the quality he thought it would be. But he had to turn it in anyway, so he held his nose and did so. He needn’t have worried: his teacher knew that a first draft written in such a short time wouldn’t be great in its current form. The key is to improve that work through editing, rewriting and reconceptualizing.
How to Make it Better
I’ve already addressed the issue of using editing to strengthen our writing. That still applies. But what I’d like to address here is attending and engaging in seminars, workshops and classes to improve such important things as characterization, plot, point of view, etc. These are just a few of the elements writers struggle with and which distinguish good writers from great writers. Over the last few months, I’ve attended workshops on writing pitches, understanding about death and coroners, book marketing, and about developing characters. I’ve also declined to attend workshops of plot, timing, point of view and other topics, because I just didn’t have the time. In short, the number of opportunities I’ve had to learn more about the craft of writing has been immense. Just searching for “ways to improve writing” will send you to several sites, such as those offered by Master Class. It’s also possible to use the same search term to find several online lists, like these from Wordstream.
Part of the increase in online workshops and courses is the pandemic, and the fact that many more workshops can be offered through virtual means than simply face-to-face. My guess is that many of these opportunities will continue post-pandemic because of convenience, and because it costs less for the organizations to offer them. But it’s also clear to me given the larger number of people who have been attending these workshops and seminars that many of us are committed to
