# How do you judge the quality of your writing?



## Conker (May 30, 2011)

My senior thesis was the first time I really put a lot of effort into a creative writing piece. I've always liked to write, but that was the first BIG project I did. What I came out of school with was a 58 page "short" science fiction story that I'm quite proud of.

But it took a god damn lot of effort to get it to the point where I have some pride in the work. Most of this came from my professors who read and graded it and helped me move it along until I had a finished product. They were very helpful in looking at my story from all kinds of angels, and now they are gone. 

So, I tried to start another story idea and ended up scrapping it after a page and a half. It just didn't feel right.

So, my title question. How do you judge the qualify of your writing? I can inherently know if something isn't very good, but it really helps to have that outside viewer's opinion. I tend to assume a lot of my readers. I'd have a passage, my professor would say "this doesn't make sense" and I'd explain it to him figuring what I wanted the reader to understand was obvious. It wasn't. Now I have to do most of that work by myself. Scary. 

So, yeah I'm done typing now.


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## TakeWalker (May 30, 2011)

You really do need the input of others to be able to judge something like that. Otherwise, all you can really say is whether something you've done is better than something else you've done. I mean, I know when my writing is crap (the artist is always his own harshest critic, after all), but it's really hard to know when it's good.


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## Radiohead (May 30, 2011)

By what other (more experienced) people say. I don't trust my own judgement unless it comes to obvious spelling and grammar mistakes.


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## Conker (May 30, 2011)

TakeWalker said:


> You really do need the input of others to be able to judge something like that. Otherwise, all you can really say is whether something you've done is better than something else you've done. I mean, I know when my writing is crap (the artist is always his own harshest critic, after all), but it's really hard to know when it's good.


 


Radiohead said:


> By what other (more experienced) people say. I don't trust my own judgement unless it comes to obvious spelling and grammar mistakes.


 Yup. I guess I"ll have to find me some anal proofreaders in the near future.


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## ScottyDM (Jun 1, 2011)

*These people can help.*

S~


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## Valdin (Jun 1, 2011)

I have my... mom read a chapter I just finished before continueing to the next. She took a course on the subject of writing for reasons only she would know and is a pretty good critic.

I generally know when my writing sucks. I also have a problem knowing when it doesn't. That's where proff-readers (such as my mom) come in.


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## Altamont (Jun 1, 2011)

I try not to let others read anything until I have a solid draft done, just so I can get it done without worrying too much about quality. When I finish a draft I usually let it sit for awhile before coming back to it, and that's when I decide whether or not what I'm doing is effective, thematically, grammatically, conceptually, et cetera.


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## reian (Jun 4, 2011)

Lots and lots of outlining...then lots and lots of drafts...then lots and lots of handing it to other people and telling them to red line it...then more drafts and more red lining and so on and so forth until it is a piece I am happy with and feel that others are happy with.  Then, to me, it is quality once I can be confident in both my mechanics, thoughts, and plot/theory depending on if I'm doing fictional or research writing.   This is with major stuff though @_@


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