Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A What kinds of skill does writing require?

Even bad writing requires skills. I read my earlier efforts and think how badly I suck, so I edit and move on. Often, I return to revise my revisions only to wonder why I had changed my initial dra...

posted 8y ago by Richard Stanzak‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:49:51Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25703
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Richard Stanzak‭ · 2019-12-08T05:49:51Z (almost 5 years ago)
Even bad writing requires skills. I read my earlier efforts and think how badly I suck, so I edit and move on. Often, I return to revise my revisions only to wonder why I had changed my initial draft because my revision sucked worse than the original. I finally decided writing is like a bucket of sand. You hand the bucket to an agent and they pour out mainly grit. But, just as they were going to toss the bucket back at you, a small precious stone is spotted amidst the silicon grains. The agent pours another handful of sand and spots a small emerald. And again, now a ruby. He looks you in the eye as he hands you back your bucket and says, "You are right, you do generally suck; but not always. Your problem isn't that you are a bad writer, it is that you are inconsistently a bad writer, occasionally you produce a gem. So, go through that bucket and get rid as much sand as you can and work hard to add a few more precious stones and we can talk again." Writing is like prospecting in your mind; and prospecting is back breaking tedious work that produces damn little for hours of effort. But, occasionally a few miners stumble onto the mother lode. That is what keeps most of us digging through sand.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-12-29T12:57:36Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 0