Writing and Shit

Writing is an art. You can take that as the "hurr durr I'm a spehsul artist" proclamation that it (admittedly) is, but it also means that it's subjective. You make shit and someone critiques it. If it's crap most people will hate it. If it's not crap most people won't hate it. You know how popularity works.

When you write, you have a voice. Or rather, you have to develop one because most people don't have voices when they first start writing. They just write words - actions and descriptions across a piece of paper or text file. People in school don't tell you to develop a voice for yourself in your writing until you're a bit older, but most kids don't quite grasp what that truly implies. Instead they simply learn to phrase what they learn in their own words and this passes for having a "voice."

Voice is synonymous with style in this case- and finding your voice is just a matter of developing your style. "But I really like how I write at the moment." Yeah, but it seems that the audience you're feeding it to (the real audience - the people that don't lap everything up and call it solid gold) doesn't find it to be as good as it could be. Or maybe it's downright awful.

Newsflash: your style sucks. Work on a new one and change your voice. "B-but m-muh voice." Tough luck faggot, you're going to write in a new voice or your work will go unnoticed except by vindictive assholes and people that want to see you improve and no one else.

So now ask yourself - does your style suck? If so, fix it. Did you fix it? Okay, you say you did, but now ask your self a question that's going to make all that work finding a style seem moot: Are you happy?

Does writing this style bring you joy? Does it flow from mind to pen or key easily?

What's that? It doesn't. Tough luck asshole - start modifying your style. Read shit. Read a lot of shit. Take cues from other writers, ask why you are compelled to drink their language and why your own makes you retch. Pratchett, Rowling, Tolkien. Instantly recognizable names whether you hate them or not (and you faggot contrarians are going to say I have no taste for liking any of them and that's just dandy) because of their styles. Their prose commands an image of them when you read it. Did you read Harry Potter? I mean really read it, where you can say that you know quite a bit more than the average person does about it? Then I could read you a passage and you'd know it was Rowling even if I took out all the names and mentions of wizards and scars and shit, wouldn't you? Same goes for Pratchett, and Tolkien, and Danielewski and all the other authors that have spoken to some part of your spirit that drives you to write.

They've got a style. And they're probably happy with it given the kind of output they've had.

You're gonna get a style just like that - no, not a copy, but a style that makes you want to write but pleases the palettes of others. You'll write something you're proud of and that other people will say, "Yeah I enjoyed that." And when you do, you'll know you've found your style. And it'll change. A bit. Piece by piece. You'll notice immediately - other people will notice over time. Maybe it won't change for a long while, or the changes are basically imperceptible - or maybe you'll completely flip, but you'll be happy, and if you developed a good style, so will the reader.

"I don't care what other people think about my writing though, I'm just doing it for myself."
Then I ain't got shit to say to you hipster. Go shit on a typewriter and turn it into a modern art museum so I can chuckle at the audacity of the artist, but don't shove your tripe under my nose and act like I have to enjoy it because you do.