FAQ: How do you know if you're good at writing?

How do you know if your writing's any good?
 

The first step to answering this question is to determine what 'writing' we're talking about.

Writing processes?
Your writing style (prose/words on the page) or your ability to put together a coherent story (plot/reader excitement)?
The Ability to obtain an Agent and a Publisher?

In this case we'll be talking mainly about two things:

1. your ability to write well (prose/words on page)
2. your ability to tell a story (plot/reader excitement)

Let's briefly go back to the question.

How do you know if your writing's any good?

I don't know. It's hard to tell. I've been writing stories since age 9 (although perhaps not as seriously then as now). This means about twenty (frequently) interrupted years of experience (= perhaps five consecutive 'serious' years all in all if it comes down to it). And I still struggle.

Proposition! Writing can often not be quantified. You can read a book and immediately know it's well written (prose) or not. Or you can get 70% into an exciting new read only to be let down by the ending and realize how much the author squandered their story's potential in order to keep their darlings protected (plot) and have a happy ending.

(Case in point! The horror novel 'Into the Drowning Deep' by Mira Grant. It started out with a really cool horror premise including aquatic beings ripping apart people and then progressively became worse because the author wanted a happy ending and none of the main characters could die because then the happy ending would have failed. It's simply not realistic when the alien horde is ripping off every other characters' faces but all six main characters are left alone BECAUSE.)

Let's try another author:

Is Stephen King good at writing (prose)? I don't know. His style isn't something I'd usually read and neither is his content. This doesn't mean it's good or bad. It's simply not something for me personally. BUT I can tell you one thing for sure: He's an incredibly strong story-teller. If he weren't then people wouldn't buy his books.

Another:

Is Stephenie Meyer a good writer (prose)? Is the Twilight series well written? I want to say HELL NO! The first chapter had my eyelids drooping and the second actually made me doze off. Twilight was the first book I couldn't even force myself to finish (a common practice when you want to read widely and even read crap sometimes to know what to avoid) and had to put aside! BUT! At the same time there are a lot of people who enjoy her style and with several millions books sold you can't fault her storytelling towards her audience. It's impossible to deny her ability to tell a story people want to read.

What follows out of these examples is perhaps that one must ask oneself not if one is good at the writing process - at putting words on the page - but perhaps whether one has the ability to tell a good story. Don't get me wrong here either. I say a good story and I mean a good story (such as the most of The Drowning Deep and all of The Swarm by Frank Schätzing) and not just 'a story'. Anyone can write a story. That doesn't mean it'll be any good.

(Case in point! My own first stories - and probably everyone's first stories - written at 9-14 years old were messy and usually went unfinished. The next batch of stories 14-21 years old steadily improved in content/ideas/prose if not in the finishing part. At the age of 21 then I finally finished my first novel-length work. It is a good book but of course has some flaws. These days? I like to write short fiction and fiction that makes people think more than the simple - often YA - adventures stories that were my focus during the ages of 21-25. But with the goal of 'making people think' comes another challenge. You can't get by any more with a good story. You need a superb story. And that requires a totally different skillset than a good story.)

So.

How do you know if you're good at writing at all? There are two rules:

1. You're bound to get better if you practice a lot. This means if you've written 100 short stories in your life and you try to practice whenever you can you're already much better than the shmuck who hasn't written a single story or even ten (including your former self). There is no way you can write 100 stories and not get better.

2. If you like it and it makes sense then it's usually good. I know. This goes against most of the advice you hear around the writer's water cooler. That's usually more like: 'if you think it's good then it sucks'. But I don't buy into that theory. I believe everyone has their own compass within themselves that'll tell them 'This sucks' or 'This is great'. Writing - like any art - comes down to personal preference. If you like what you've written then there are bound to be other people who will like it as well.

Does this last part mean your prose or story structure is objectively good? It might be or it might not. The only relevant question you should ask yourself is: Does this story tell what I wanted it to tell? If the answer is no (and believe me you'll spend the magical 10.000 hours and write the magical 1.000.000 words and still say no occasionally) then there's only one thing to do to get better: Back to the drawing board.

WriteBot.

PS: If you'd like to chat with me about this aspect (or any other) of the writing craft please write a comment in the section below! If you want more of this kind of content follow me on Twitter (@Jasmingelinck) and subscribe to my e-mail list through the short form on the right!