How did you become a better writer? Best method?

8letters said:

Similarly, I get some of my story ideas from good-but-not-great stories, where I felt like the author had a good premise or hook, but didn't take full advantage of it.

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I would say this is what prompted me to become a writer here in the first place. I had been reading stories on Literotica for at least 12 years before writing and publishing my first one in December 2016. I enjoyed the range of creative ideas but kept thinking that if I did it I'd do it a bit differently. That nagging voice finally made me actually write something.

8letters said:

What do you consider experimenting? I picture writing a story in the style of Gertrude Stein.

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Just spotted this.

By experimenting I mean in terms of my own content, my own approach.

For example, my first stories here were all first person narratives, so I became familiar with "I" as the narrator. Then I started using dialogue more, and learned techniques around that. After that, I wandered off into third person narratives, both omniscient narrators and close narrators, learned how to use both. Then tried third person narrator, but shifting the protagonists pov. My latest long thing uses both first person and third person narration, mainly because I wanted a version of me in the story in a more unusual persona.

So not experimental in the sense of novel writing techniques or textual experiments, but writing to stretch my own comfort zone.

I do have several pieces where commenters have said, "this is unusual erotica, not the norm around here, cudos for trying something different..." that kind of thing, so I guess some pieces are experimental in that I'm doing something atypical.

Another example - my current work in progress is a writer's contemplation on the process of writing, creating; so it's different. It merges several approaches and weaves two story narratives together. Those who like a linear plot all full of context and logic won't like it at all, others who get intrigued by psychology and thought processes might like it. At this point, I don't have a clue what category it will go in.

Besides just writing a lot (as others have said), have experiences. Absorb everything. Take it all in. Be fully involved.

Also, a refresher class never hurt anybody. Community centers, churches, etc. often have writing groups you can join. or free and low-cost creative writing workshops.

I don't know that I have gotten better as a writer. I do know that I've gotten better as an editor.

I don't even know what it means to become a better writer: More personally satisfying? More able to express my own ideas? More popular with my audience?

What is a better writer?

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I think writing in persona is the most under rated skill. Some of the very best books have been written in persona. " Catcher in the Rye", "To Kill a Mocking Bird" are only two. I think it transports readers into magic. I always loved reading Caroline Slaughter, particularly "Columba" and "Story of the Weasel". Writing in persona transports readers into other ways of thinking that are so compelling. It contributes to showing rather than telling. It elicits poignancy and empathic responses more, I think, than any other way of writing. It captures emotion. It's what I try to do, not always successfully though. I do find it difficult but when it succeeds it is very rewarding. I have an innocent, adventurous boy (not for erotica ). An old military man from the era of the Raj who is a buffoon, there's the man who can't write and his wife tells of his life as though it was him telling the story, the cunning difficult farmer who listens more than he talks and understands , I have so many of them, some a little different while others are very different. In a crazy way they are my family. Some have left home and are now memories. I think it is so important to writing. I know I'm not good at describing it because for me it is so innate and more important than any other single thing. I've tried writing without it and consistently come up with dry horrors that lack emotion and relatability.

HeyAll said:

1. Reading a lot

2. Writing a lot

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100%. I'd also add, experimenting a lot, until you find a style/technique that works.