You know you've written something good when...

'Good' is a matter of opinion. Some people think things like Beowulf and Jabberwocky are 'good'. I think they're incomprehensible drivel.

If a story here goes past about three pages, I'm out.

Beowulf-300x300.jpg


Beowulf? Incomprehensible drivel? OMG! As you say, it's a matter of opinion. :eek:

I love Beowulf. The books, the movies, the artwork, the history. Everything about it. Jabberwocky on the other hand. Incomprehensible drivel. LOL.
 
Beowulf-300x300.jpg


Beowulf? Incomprehensible drivel? OMG! As you say, it's a matter of opinion. :eek:

I love Beowulf. The books, the movies, the artwork, the history. Everything about it. Jabberwocky on the other hand. Incomprehensible drivel. LOL.

If you liked Beowulf (I did too) you should read John Gardner's Grendel, which is a retelling of the story from the monster's point of view.
 
If you liked Beowulf (I did too) you should read John Gardner's Grendel, which is a retelling of the story from the monster's point of view.

I'll track that down. I did enjoy "The 13th Warrior" movie too.
 
Or when people refer to your story a decade after you posted it.

Why, I had one of these emails the other day. The guy was begging me to write more as he loved my style, descriptions and other elements that apparently led to a highly satisfying wank.
 
I usually know a story is good (in my estimation--or, usually, better than expected) when I've blotted the rest of life out while writing it, when I finish it thinking that it turned out a lot better than I had envisioned, and when I want to review/enjoy reading it again right then and there. I usually draft them and let them sit for a few days before reviewing them.
 
Why, I had one of these emails the other day. The guy was begging me to write more as he loved my style, descriptions and other elements that apparently led to a highly satisfying wank.

Well, I just got an in action email report. Apparently my story is leading to some intense reader pleasure and he wanted to share this with me before he finished. Now THAT is satisfying feedback.
 
No idea. I'll let you know if I ever do know it. Typically I tend to argue with the more favorable comments, even if it's in my own head.

On the other hand, I guess maybe if I ever did write something I KNEW was good when it was done rather than good enough, I might have a harder time writing the next and never get anything else done. And that's what it's all about for me. Getting better. Getting closer to that unattainable goal of ... well, for lack of a better term, the perfect tale. (And yes, I know I've got a long way to go and a short time to get there, but I'm east bound and down, loaded up and truckin'. Just watch ol' Bandit run. :D)
 
counterpoint: Patrick White

(no, I'm not bitter about having to read him in English class, why would anybody suggest that?)

What's not to like about a mad fucker in the desert going slowly insane, and Laura in her pretty dress back in Sydney, encouraging him?

1976 NSW Higher School Certificate, am I right? At least we got to do Macbeth and The Tempest...
 
What's not to like about a mad fucker in the desert going slowly insane, and Laura in her pretty dress back in Sydney, encouraging him?

1976 NSW Higher School Certificate, am I right? At least we got to do Macbeth and The Tempest...

Did they ever do Neville Shute. Now he was good.
 
What's not to like about a mad fucker in the desert going slowly insane, and Laura in her pretty dress back in Sydney, encouraging him?

1976 NSW Higher School Certificate, am I right? At least we got to do Macbeth and The Tempest...

Mine was "A Fringe of Leaves". I'm sure it had some literary merit, but it was just so... joyless.
 
I go more for the little blue "W" myself, those E's are very subjective. Nice of course, (she says, never having had an E).

Green E's are nice. A Green E on a poem? That's great. But Blue W's are from the reading public and whatever the sweeps do.
 
It's a tossup on the Green E and Blue W, I think. The Green E is given by the site owner who is the only one processing in all of the stories and the Blue W is given by a far broader set of readers. But the Green E is highly subjective and can be denied entirely on grounds that have nothing to do with the story (as I well know, having received 11 of them before I pissed Laurel off about something entirely unrelated to the stories and having received none since), and a contest win is subject to extraordinary cheating.

Both are very nice. I suppose I value my Blue W a bit more than the Green E simply because of the unlikelihood of my winning in a contest with the trolls have hanging on my account--and still I took a second in a contest.

On the thread question, one of my responses is that I know when I've written something good when it gets a rating in the lower 4s in the contest but makes a couple of hundred dollars from the first week of sales when it's published right after the contest ends.

(By the way, my current avatar here is the book cover from the chaptered novella that began running here at Lit. this morning.)
 
i like how this guy puts it

He knew after,
when it was Good,
when it was Real
by the feeling in his gut.
Sickening, Empty
like when mailing
a Love Letter,

just after,
The Postbox door
clanged shut.

-dbwii
napkin diaries

I attached this image because
he writes about the creative process
and even includes the shape
of the poems as additional consideration
but I like that he writes about creativity
on napkins.
that's where I tend to put a lot of my ideas.
 

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Well, my latest comment says I'm wasted on LIT and wishes me luck. That's so nice.
 
I go more for the little blue "W" myself, those E's are very subjective. Nice of course, (she says, never having had an E).

I don't have a blue "W" and I don't expect to get one. But I look at the "E" as coming from someone who's opinion is credible. The average reader? I don't know their credentials.
 
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