I'm too critical.

Reading your email strikes a chord and seeing so many responses to it shows that your feelings are shared by many. I feel the same way which is what lead me to look into a site such as this. I think the secret is to just write. Don't fear criticism so much as the lack of it. By submitting your writings in a forum such as this you will get constructive criticism and can learn by it. I think the opinions of strangers are more valid than those of people that you know personally. Some people will want to hurt you and most (hopefully) would not want to disallusion or disappoint you. When you're ideas are on a forum such as this there are only two issues; it entertains and shows some potentials or your writing is boring and/or stale. Someone on this site or others like it will tell you which and why. I wish you all the best in your efforts and hopefully you will write more and entertain people in the future. Johnno

It's ok to be laughed at/ That's the only way people get work done. When you laugh its good. Don't worry. If you want a story published, Just use an Alias a.k.a something like that.

it looks like your prose sounds ridiculous to you because it is ridiculous in the first place. congratulations! as an artist and a creator, you have accepted the fact that you're not really a good writer because a good writer no matter what will never feel ridiculous about his/her work. Rather that person would want the whole world to read what he/she has written with pride, joy and the highest of self-esteem. Your mind is your greatest friend and also your greatest critic. And now that your mind has accepted the fact that you write ridiculous prose, i would say that it's time to move on. Don't beat around the bush and waste your time writing. You will only fall deeper and deeper into a cesspool of rejection letters and silent derisions. Accept the fact that you do not write well and go ahead and find a vocation that your mind believes that you would truly excel in! There's really no use in wasting precious time of your life writing stuff that will only bend your back and leave you feeling like a fool at the end of your life. Life is too short. Enjoy! ....And forget about writing that book buddy. Rent some dvd's and watch some master directors who have created breathtaking works of art and told some fine stories in the process. sometimes it is more fulfilling to absorb than to create.

hi dear, im new here, so please can you send to my email a different storeis so i can read, really i will be great full best luck for you & thank you

Try. Ask someone else if they like your writing or your idea. Something else that helps is writing a lead or a chapter of your story on your computer one day. Write as much as you want of your story. Wait a little while -- a day, a few days, a week, a month. Whatever. Then read it again. What do you think now? Is it good? Sometimes waiting a while is helpful. I do that a lot. I can write this awesome lead, and not realize it's awesome. I'll save it, thinking it's not worth anything. Then, a month or so later I want to know what that story is. So I open it and BAM. A fabulous lead. I'm not so sure if you understand what I mean, but I hope I helped, even just a little. -Brianna [%sig%]

please can you send me some erotic stories to my email directly if you can really i will be very greatfull i want to read short sexy sotries

Find yourself a group that meets at a local library or something. If you all trade your writing then get back together to share your comments on everybody else's story, you'll learn both how to give and how to take constructive criticism. And, since it will be a group of you, you'll only be the center of attention for part of the time, not the entire time, making it a lot easier to handle. Or, you can take a course at a local university or community college that's a writing workshop. It's basically the same thing. What you have to remember is that every response sombody has to your writing will help you in some way, even if you totally disagree with what they're saying. Sometimes, you have to take their comments and say, "Oooookay, that was unhelpful" or "They said that's the worst part of my story, but I think it's the best!" Sometimes they'll make a good point, and you'll think to yourself, "You know, when I wrote it, I didn't think it would come across like that -- maybe I should revise that part." But no matter what, you get to see firsthand how your writing affected somebody. It's nothing to be embarrassed about -- it's actually quite fascinating. In a group of five people, each will probably find something uniquely wonderful about what you wrote that the others might not have noticed. And when the majority of them say, "Hey, I loved this part" -- you know it's great! And if they all say, "That part needs help" -- then you know, ego aside, that it might be a good place to start rewriting. Also, no matter how much you want to show your writing to friends and family, NEVER ask them to critique your writing. Always ask a writer to critique your writing. Your friends and family exist for your moral support, and they don't necessarily know anything about how to write. Your writer friends are the people who will be able to help you with a piece that's in progress. Good luck, and keep writing! As long as you're writing something, and as long as writing that something is important to you, you can call yourself a writer in my book. -Elaine. [%sig%]

BE too critical... Objectivity is the key. A good technique to use is the 'bottom draw'. Put it away for at least two weeks and then read it again cold - you will have a more objective experience. And don't be afraid to rip it apart and change it or abandon it if its going nowhere. You can always write something else. By all means let your friends and relatives read your work (the more feedback you get from any quarter the better) - it will get you used to the process - but don't take their views (good or bad) too seriously. Also, do not always rely on what other writers tell you but if everyone is telling you the same thing - they might have a point. Try different writing techniques - and read some 'how to' books. These can help clarify how you want to write and at least help point out some of the more common pitfalls. Read other people's work, published and unpublished and try and get a handle on what you think works and doesn't work. If you think something is 'great' analyse why it is working. The first draft of anything written by anybody is pretty damn awful. But keep working at it and it will get better. I would say 'good luck' but its 'hard work' that's the key.

Think of it this way: do you expect yourself to be such a great writer that simply touching pen to paper (or fingers to keys, whatever) is going to produce great work? If you answered yes... well, I hope you answered no. The point is, you'll have to go at it more than once to get good work. Don't give up yet. As for weekend_warrior's advice, I wouldn't follow that unless I were middle aged. If you're still pretty young, you have lots of time to improve. Rarely is anyone under age 15 good at anything except compared to other people their age. If you're age 15-25, you're still going to be figuring out what to do with your life anyway, right?

I've been laughed at quite a lot. It's not great but it's better than being kicked.

i am very interested in starting a group by phone to get feedback on my ideas and to help you with yours.

Sure being laughed at is the start... My freinds thought I was a complete head case, until my first story was published in a womans magazine, followed by a couple of competiton wins. Now they line up to read my latest offering and laugh out loud at my stupidity. They never laugh at me - more rather laugh with me... One guy has a doodling I did at a local writing meet and said when I'm famous he's going to aution it off on e-bay with a personal reference to the 30mins we shared over a digestive biscuit. Never be frightened of being laughed at. I certainly would never laugh at you or anyone else, but I'd give you honest feed back if you want it... E-mail me Jan

I'm introverted and lack self-confidence - like a lot of writers - but I posted on this site and was welcomed and given really positive feedback. Since then I've gone to a writers' group where the feedback's a bit more stringent and have also read aloud at ABCtales events; I now KNOW I can write at least reasonably well which buoys me up when I produce stuff which is below par or doesn't work and people tell me so. Very few writers would deliberately laugh at another writer to humiliate them - we've all been where you're at now!

When I wrote the first real few pages of my novel I was like "eep this pooply junk, noone will read this in a million years" but then in Eng. Lit we were given this task to write the opening for a novel, and only the opening. I really couldn't be bothered *slaps wrist* ...bad Phoenix... with it as I was having a really really bad week, so I just handed in my opening from my novel. I was expecting to get told it was a D at best and that I had to do it again, but to my emmense surprise, I got an A*! I was actually cheered up enough to do my assignment again properly anyway and I handed that in... I finally got an extra-credit for something... :) Moral of story, let others read your work, however useless you think it is. At worst they can say something mean and noone in real life ever died of words (unless they ate a newspaper or something else daft....) and more than likely you'll get constructive criticism or a nice well done...