Very nice. I also have never shared my writing with anyone who knows me, except recently, when (after a lengthy anxiety attack) I gave the first book in my fantasy series to my brother to beta read. I've actually not had a negative comment yet (I've had some very sweet ones though), but I have anxiety every time I post something new anyway.

Then I tell myself exactly this - I am writing for myself, to get what is in my head out, and then I share in case someone else out there has similar things in their head or just might enjoy my stories. Like all forms of art, not everyone will understand you or how you express yourself. And like any skill, it requires practice and feedback to get better. If you're writing for fun, great. If you're writing for a future, take the criticism and constructive feedback and learn. And if you get meaningless, negative spam, ignore it. That person clearly has their own insecurities and isn't worth your time.

Things like this, just saying "don't listen to those haters," doesn't usually overpower anxiety and self-doubt, but it's still nice to hear and a reminder to keep pushing forward when you're struggling.

Happy writing y'all.

This is excellent to share and people do need to see this. thank you.

This is so sweet and kind to share. I'm really glad you shared your point of view on this as I'm sure it will help many who have faced and will face non constructive criticism. I'm glad you ignored the comment and have continued writing!

If somebody said it to me because jokes on them because I am. We are all bad writers at the core, good writers are better at covering their shittiness and/or being praised by more people.

Although I am curious: if that reader had not commented, if you had not read that comment, would you still come to a same conclusion?

This is very well-said. Novels, ideas, artwork, the mediums we choose and the ideas we put to paper or pixel don't spread because they're "good", they spread because people like them. They resonate with others. They're a sign of our humanity. I think we all get too absorbed in the feedback, the comments, the little nitpicks over language and word choice, when what matters is the heart of the story. Where is the love? Who is the person on the other side of that monitor? Stories are how we connect to other people, and people aren't interested in just "the good".

"You are not a good writer.....you are an AWESOME one!"

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!

Real talk:
If you ever doubt your writing skills, you can always learn more. Sometimes it means learning some conventions, others, it means doing more experimentation and "breaking" the rules you learned.

Taste is subjective, not even the best writer in the world's work will be liked by everyone. When you make the distinction, you can let yourself free from unneccesary pressure.

Unless your intention is to be traditionally published, it really doesn't matter if you're a good writer or not. You're writing for yourself, creating, sharing stories with whomever may be interested, and that's a beautiful use of your time.

Also, just going by the way you wrote this post, it's rather apparent that you are a good writer.

Agreed. Bullying in all forms is just someone projecting their own insecurities and inadequacies onto someone else, as if that will ever really make them feel better about themselves. It's pitiful, honestly. It takes so much effort to hate someone and you get nothing valuable in return.

And I have opened plenty of traditionally published, sometimes well-known and highly rated novels, read a chapter or two, thought "meh," and never picked it up again. To each their own.

I've personally never understood this kind of criticism, so like.. Okay, let's say a person is a bad writer.

Wouldn't it make more sense to let them continue writing so they can develop their skills??? It's almost like no ones good at it right from the get-go!

If you care that much to let 'em know, that would imply that you want to read from a good writer, right? Theoretically, this writer you're bashing could be one of those good ones in the making! What are you hoping to accomplish here???

Chad approach is just ask them how to fix it. 9/10 they can't answer and you win the argument

I find all of my old writing to be cringe-worthy. One of my stories was recently featured in the same group of writers that I greatly admired in a group where I felt I was the weakest writer. I was even embarrassed about its short length (I think it’s some 38,000 words long. It never hit 40,000). So long as you write about what matters to you (be it inclusivity, romance, or struggling to move past trauma...), that’s what’s important. The more you work on your writing and the more you continue to write, the better it becomes. You’ll know what your readers enjoy or are anxious about and you are able to provide better thrills for them (or completely torture them, it depends on what you’re going for). So, I say to take all of the negativity with a grain of salt or use it all to get to higher levels.

If I'm not given any specific feedback(And especially if I think the feedback given—when present—is stupid), my usual response is...

Sounds to me like you're not a good reader.

And yes, I have said something to this effect to a review swapper whose work I dropped partway through under penalty of being boring(to be clear, I dropped my review first and told him to not bother reviewing my work. He persisted, going so far as to read far more of my work than I did his.). He apparently talked about it in passing in the forums after, even though he admitted English isn't even his first language. I'm not naming names; it didn't even happen on Tapas(and thank god for that!).

I'll touch on a different track than most of the people here(actually, two!): How does one decide they are good or not if they can't trust review swappers to give them an honest assessment? Multiple-choice, coming up!

• Post it on an online website, get review swaps with literally anyone who'll listen, and hope you don't end up saddled with a bad reviewer who's going to sandbag your ratings unfairly.

• Recruit friends you trust as beta readers to have a look for you, just read through and tell you what they think and what they think could be done better

• Go read a few works from published authors(Preferably physically published books), and compare your work against theirs(and maybe take notes of cool prose tricks you'd like to try and emulate).

Option one is for the naive and the incredibly hopeful. Option 2 is excellent, if you have the right friends on board (but it can be really, really slow). Since I'm something of a foolish bastard, though, I've recently taken to door number 3.

For those who took door number 3, please stop thinking that comparing yourself to Rowling or King is even remotely a fair right. Published authors have had probably at least half a dozen different revisions on their work, AND had professional editors buckle their work's grammatical shoes for them, AND had the same editing house people telling them NOOOO on certain things that they didn't catch on to as being foolish.

That being said, there is a pretty good benchmark out there in the far reaches of door number 3: compare yourself to the usual gang of clowns on authortube that actually published, and figure out if you think you're confident that you can outdo some of them, because if you are, you're actually probably fine. As for your first opponent to go up against, I recommend looking at this review of a book written by Jenna Moreci:

If you're still not sure, though, keep in mind that there's downright hot garbage on Wattpad that somehow manages to get famous there(as well as some pretty subpar stories in their premium selection). If you want to make it as an author, you can probably get away with not being so hot at writing if your marketing's strong enough(or, alternatively, if your editor is a literal god)

Short of it is, maybe you are, maybe you aren't. Don't worry about it too much.

A good writer is one that can evoke strong emotions and/or ideas through their written words.

A great writer is one that can do that and also have a strong grasp for punctuation, grammar, and literary technique.

A amazing writer is all of that and is also very creative, and innovative. Perhaps even at times questionable, or controversial.

But if I had to choose, I would rather be a bad writer than a crappy human telling someone "You're not a good writer", without any constructive criticism. Most likely that person doesn't have much going for themselves and just feeds off the tormenting of those that are vulnerable.

I feel self conscious about my novels when I compare it to others and that's why I hardly share it with people I know in real life but it's great to read that. I write because I enjoy it and it allows me to put down the ideas that I have in my head. And how can people improve if they don't write anything?

I'm not the best writer either but also I try to get the best book cover possible but I don't always get it the way I imagined, I see lot's of other people having AMAZING book covers but I just can't get to that point, I almost have 700 total views but not a lot of subscribers. If anyone wants to check out my book it's linked down below.

A Girl's Diary On A Spaceship

I might sound like a optimistic child, but i don't believe in bad writers, no human is born perfect, everyone needs to polish their talent or if they don't have raw talent they just need to work harder. Also, art ( writing is type of art) is subjective

"Subjectivity in art is the word we use to explain how different people can respond to a work of art in different ways. Subjectivity is based on personal opinions and feelings rather than on agreed facts. A painting might be “beautiful” to one person and “ugly” to another, but the material object remains unchanged."

Sure pal, anyway look at this farmer guy haha

E_22RUeVEAgmdMw.jpg710x741 59.2 KB