reading other people's writing on how to write

At lunch, I googled “writing fan fiction” to find tips that may help me in the process. The first site I found sought to be informative and user-friendly, and the text was broken into chapters that flowed well. I believed the writer’s advice simply because she proved she mastered her craft. Apart from the obvious grammar/punctuation issues, she covered plot lines and characterization, and emphasized the writer’s mindset throughout the process as being of prime importance in writing successfully.

I returned to my Google results page and selected another site which seemed promising. It offered a series of checklists of things to do and things to avoid. Unfortunately, as a web page, it was visually unappealing and harsh to read (with lime green titles on a black background, the white text surrounding them took on a pale shade of pink.) Then, as I read, little mistakes popped up: an “it’s” where an “its” should be, an “effect” where it should read “affect”. There was the occasional apparent contradiction, such as one page suggesting keeping commas to a strict minimum, and the next stating to use them to guide the reader’s eye. Throughout the site, I kept thinking “Physician, heal thyself.” It was distracting from the points the writer was trying to make, some of which were entirely valid. The author had taken great pains to tabulate the use of various words and devices among a number of celebrated authors, but I think the statistic that stood out the most was simply to write one thousand words per day. Dipping below this threshold generated “mental apathy”, I believe it was. That’s something I am inclined to believe, being presently stuck in it midst. Now I just need to fight my way back. Out, out, damned mental apathy!

But seriously, these sites, for all their qualities and faults, did provide some useful insights for the completion of my story. Wish me luck - I gotta go write.

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