txshusker
June 17th, 2010, 12:36 PM
A hobbyist writer since HS, I stopped reading and writing for a while. The birth of my daughter and her continuing better health motivated me start up a little again. Then I joined SFF World and started participating in the FF contests. I still have not finished or gone back to works I was working on previously, but I did start reading them recently. And man (or woman, don't want to discriminate), I cannot tell you how the 8 or 9 FF months have helped notice flaws in those works. Superfluous words and phrases, info dumping of backstory, weak verbs and over usage of adverbs.... I was reading a story that was 18000 words, and after only reading the first third, I can tell the whole can be streamlined to 60-70% of what it was and be more interesting without losing plot details or character development - on a first pass. (that also might tell you my lack of direction).
Anyway, I just wanted to thank all those involved (and SFFworld in general). It's not only the practice of the writing and the returned critiques, but it's reading other's works, their approaches/styles, their likes and dislikes, that help learn me some better approaches for myself. (that's Texan, for those who don't speak it). So thanks for the sharing and the continuous enthusiasm. I have always love my SFF, and now I have a renewed verve in it.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank all those involved (and SFFworld in general). It's not only the practice of the writing and the returned critiques, but it's reading other's works, their approaches/styles, their likes and dislikes, that help learn me some better approaches for myself. (that's Texan, for those who don't speak it). So thanks for the sharing and the continuous enthusiasm. I have always love my SFF, and now I have a renewed verve in it.