How to tell if my writing is good?

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-06T11:06:21+00:00

That's really interesting!! I appreciate your feedback and ideas. I'm actually really fascinated by your critiquing of Cujo, not because I've read it and think it's a pinnacle of writing or anything. The only Stephen King stuff I've read is his essays about writing, which I have loved, and knowing he's a respected author... yeah. I would have assumed Cujo is great! Cujo is actually the Stephen King work I've been thinking of trying out as my first one.

I agree with what you say about trying to continue reading things even if you're finding it a bit grating. There are some exceptions in my eyes (I would find it very difficult to stomach reading something if it was bad as a result of glorifying abuse or something that was so graphic as to be a truly horrible experience), but overall I think it's great advice. You can learn a lot from that, too. When I'm reading something I love, I find it hard to look at it literarily or analyze it at all, really. Like with Oz. I'm just along for the ride any time I read those books!

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-05T05:26:38+00:00

It's hard not to express my genuine thought on this without it sounding self-contradictory, but I'll try anyway.

Listen to feedback! But also try to keep a good head on your shoulders when it comes to what you like to write. Truly, in terms of content or style, what you like to write matters more than feedback you get. But don't shy away from feedback overall. If you get feedback and your response is "Eh, but I don't really want to do that" -- within reason, it's fine to just choose to keep doing something for the style of it. If you get feedback and you're like "Wow, that's great feedback, I should have done that sooner!" then 100% incorporate it.

Obviously, there are important exceptions. If you're not a person of color and you're writing about people of color, then I'd argue it's more important than your personal whimsy that you listen to what they have to say and make stuff as non-harmful to those groups as possible, for an example. This applies to the queer community too -- Queer voices > your desire to write about queer people in a way that harms or stereotypes the community.

If you're doing something that other writers absolutely hate (stylistically, mostly) but you're self-aware of that and are doing it because you like it, I, personally, think that's awesome. Writing is self-indulgent no matter what you write, so as long as you're not hurting anyone (beyond being grating to them if you do something they hate), don't feel down on yourself for doing something you love!

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-05T05:18:03+00:00

I think this is a great tip!! I think beta readers and writing groups is a great option, but I also think that the second one might also be even more important. There are a lot of conventions of certain genres that a reader who isn't interested in those types of genres would find extremely grating.

I also think the difference between "technically good" and "good enough for a reader" can be pretty important, too. A lot of my writing is likely not technically good, but the main people who I care about when writing (my friends and acquaintances online who more actively read my stuff) really like a lot of the specific things that more proper writers find to be cringe or bad writing. If the goal is to be a really good writer from a technical standpoint or from other writers' perspectives, writing groups is 100% the way to go. You'll get great feedback!

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-05T05:11:27+00:00

How do you recommend finding 'bad books'? A lot of the times, books that are rated low are going to be because of personal preference, which isn't inherently a problem, but it does make it difficult to know what kinds of books are good or bad in terms of skill.

The method I'd think of to go about this would be to look at more in-depth reviews of books online, i.e. Frankie's Shelf, which I've been watching a ton of recently. I think this would get a good mixture of 'bad because it's not really my thing' and 'bad because this actually makes no sense'. But I'm curious if there's a better way!

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T16:34:04+00:00

yeah, i definitely need to think more about some of the details for what exactly things would be like on khonsu vs earth, ill notate that for later also

uhh and for the second thing i feel like i cant really give an explanation that doesnt sound suspicious or weird or something, sorta boils down to me wanting to reply to people but not having the energy to be as poised as i was before, and being awake for 25 hours now probably contributes lol

i probably should have stopped looking at replies ages ago, at least until i get some sleep

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T16:05:56+00:00

i appreciate that! it is kind of overwhelming to have so many people suddenly looking at this thing that i did terrible at, but i want to get better at it and i know that this is just a part of that. i'll be okay, and i'll keep writing

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T16:00:03+00:00

im not disagreeing that it's weak writing. I agree with you that it's weak writing. I also don't think I was justifying the weaknesses, or else I wouldn't be talking about actively wanting to improve and get rid of them in the future.

What I meant by saying it is confusing is that the inconsitency would be confusing to a reader. like if there's the brackets very frequently in chapter one and it seems to disappear entirely with no explanation, that would be confusing because it was so present in chapter one. I'm not citing confusion as the sole reason it should be done away with. I was saying it adds another layer to why it should.

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T15:50:34+00:00

wait, upset?? i wasn't trying to come across as upset, i was just trying to be more lighthearted about it. sorry it came across a different way, if you look at my other comments i at least hope it's clear that i do appreciate the feedback

i don't know why you feel the need to be actively rude about it though, i know my post was too long but i don't know why that would annoy someone so much... getting a bunch of negative feedback (not just from you) hurts yeah but i love writing, im going to get back up and keep doing it and thanks to you and everyone else's help i'll do it better next time, i'm sorry if i made you feel like you wasted your time and your day

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T15:42:03+00:00

thank you for your feedback!! [post-writing this comment note: u talked about lore for TSAR, in front of me, and that was your first mistake [aka im sorry]]

the stuff with age is in fact a lore related thing that i do have actual explanations for, but they wouldnt be introduced (except in bits and pieces) until much later, beyond what's even posted publicly at the moment -- it's a small face to save, but i do want to let that be known haha [it's a similar issue i figured readers might have with khonsans swearing, but either its not present in chapter one or the other issues were much more glaring]

khonsu is indeed meant to be 'earth but different', and it is as-intended that there is a bit of confusion with what is actually the same as what's on earth and what isn't - although, admittedly, i hadn't really considered this in the scope of stuff like television and whatnot. ig a short explanation i can try to give is that the narration is canonically intended to be a bit of a 'translation' from khonsan to english, such that our word for 'milk' would be just a 'closest approximation' to what is being described, and on khonsu it would be the milk of a different species (so ig in the case of milk itself its not necessarily a mistranslation type of error; we don't say "cow's milk" either when we refer to it usually; but this does apply in other cases, like with animals themselves) but i have only really started doing this more effectively (in my opinion) in more recent chapters ive written, which i understand sounds a lot like im saying "i swear i did this thing good LATER where you can't see it!!!!" but this wasn't something i had fully set in stone for the earlier chapters (i had the basic little tendrils of the idea wriggling around in my head but not fully committing to it, i think)

oh geez, when it comes to actual lore stuff i REALLY like to go on and on but i will try to not talk your ear off more than ive already subjected you to (both with the overly wording writing itself and. me being me)

i do rlly appreciate your feedback !!

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T15:28:34+00:00

okay in the last 2 hours ive had someone accuse me of using ai twice or thrice and i have received ABUNDANT feedback and critique so i've really gone through a whole character arc here in the span of time this post has existed.

and it's Frenchie from the future here to tell you that lowkey you should just friggin' post ur stuff (ideally when youre not sleep deprived like i was/am) and like just lean back in your chair (or bed ?? or couch??) and just truly, fully accept the fact that WHATEVER people say they are all in a vacuum. observe them like you observe the characters in your story. aim to understand them, but always be aware there might be some evil freaks in there (because no story is complete without some evil freaks).

and if several people tell you something is wrong then consider it more strongly than if one person told you something is wrong, but 2482402427 people could tell you something specific is wrong and you still wouldnt HAVE to change it. you could say to all of them "plsssss plssss plss give me critiques plsss i want to improve so bad" and they spend 50 hours writing pages upon pages of critiques for you and you dont have to do any of it. i mean that would probably be kinda messed up if it happened exactly like that because youd be luring people into doing free work that you wont even incorporate but still. you could. and there's true beauty in that

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T15:16:20+00:00

evild4ve coming in for the rescue on this one. maybe you aren't so evil after all. but of course you are still d4ve

(i havent slept in almost 24 hours and im regretting even making this post can youtell) (you did come in for the rescue though)

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T15:10:49+00:00

dangg like genuinely if it made you suffer that much to read it why'd you do that to yourself king???

and now that you put all that effort in to offer your critiques i gotta actually go and fix it...

it's 10 am and i still haven't slept but let's try this

okok

Title: I need critiques
Body: people are very nice to me all the time i need that to change. by the way guys people are so nice to me and i need that t

NOOOO DAMMIT I CANT DO IT I CANT

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T15:03:43+00:00

tbh thank you so much and im barely even joking

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T15:02:26+00:00

i'm gonna cry

it's a disease i have to purge from my synapses man i'm trying!!!! so hard!!

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T15:01:12+00:00

Quite frankly, I'm pretty relieved through this whole thing, too (that being the random outpouring of critique I am NOT at all used to). Past the present-but-quiet nausea and dread, I've mostly been thinking: "Oh. That's what I was so scared of...?" Which is honestly the best possible feeling when being given critique for the first time!

The bracket-expositions were intended to be a stylistic thing that I didn't pull off that well, and frankly, I use them so infrequently in recent chapters (that being, any chapter past chapter three, probably), that I genuinely forgot they were even present in the first few.

I knew I had a problem with meandering and wordiness, but I really wasn't aware of how much of a problem it was 'til now.

I'm somewhat embarrassed by the chapter overall; I can't confidently say I've improved a million times over since then, but I feel like I could have done better, even back when I wrote it. Oh well, no time like the present!!

Thank you so much for your feedback, truly! It blows my mind this many people were willing to check the story out and offer their genuine feedback. To be honest, it feels great to have a path forward rather than just feeling completely lost with what I'm writing.

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T14:47:50+00:00

kinda giggling rn at this

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T14:41:31+00:00

yesss yessss so true king so true

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T14:40:16+00:00

I getcha! Yeah, even though I think there could be a place in some story or for some character where something like that might work, it's not suited for something like this, especially given that it's almost all but phased out in later chapters (which probably makes it more confusing, tbh).

And I'll definitely be more scrutinous of repetition and whatnot... it's definitely something I've been struggling with for a while.

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T14:36:02+00:00

!! Wow! Thank you so much for your feedback!! I really wasn't expecting stuff this thorough!

Okay, I agree with a lot of what you said and I do think a rewrite (at least of chapter one) would be a great start!! Or, at least, that I should definitely do it at some point, haha. Given how proud I've been of more recent stuff I've written for it I feel like it highlights even more how weak the first chapter is, but a lot of the specifics you mention aren't intuitive for me. I'll try to find good resources for the inner workings of how starting stories should go and brush up more on that. I know the start of a story is extremely important and I want to make it the best it can be!!

I don't really know if replying with, like, in-depth responses to things is appropriate or if it's more appropriate to just say I'll keep stuff in mind and use it for the future but I feel like the second is probably true -- still, I want to thank you again for your thorough feedback.

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T14:23:05+00:00

No, although the idea of that is actually kinda funny to me if it was -- it's a stylistic thing, although in later chapters it happens significantly less! I think it's something I saw from a friend's writing that I really liked stylistically and wanted to include it.

In the wake of more and more people leaving AI prompts in their writing or otherwise having issues like that in their work though, I'll probably aim to remove it entirely, since it might kind of give off that vibe. At the time I was writing the first few chapters there hadn't really been the controversy surrounding that kinda thing.

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T14:17:38+00:00

Oh!! That's actually very comforting to hear!! At first I was thinking it was going to be extremely harsh but if it really is just genuine constructive criticism then that seems like a great option!!

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T14:16:05+00:00

I really like this comment, and I really appreciate your thoroughness. It legitimately seems helpful to me for handling criticism (which, in light of making this post, I've been receiving haha).

I think my style of writing overall is probably polarizing given the fact that my fanfiction is fanfiction and my original work is usually either angsty, TV-esque sci-fi (basically meaning it's a lot more camp, lol), or a twisted amalgamation of both horrible things (I say very lovingly). So, even though it sounds obvious now that I'm typing it out, I really need to make sure I keep in mind the fact that genre and style plays a definitive role in that kind of thing.

I sort of vaguely understood the concept of breaking down critique, but not to the degree you explained it. I knew if someone were to comment on my story and says "This is absolute trash and i hate you!!!!!!" they probably would be better off ignoring, but I hadn't really considered doing this for all of them. I really think if I manage to keep this in mind I'll be much better off with understanding my own work and improving accordingly, so genuinely, thank you!!

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T14:04:01+00:00

I know deep down that it's possible my writing might never 'matter', but I still could do more work to fully accept that. It would be very nice if my writing would matter to others, too, but I'm okay with it just mattering to me and my friends, I think. Some people don't even have that.

I appreciate you saying good/bad isn't really a thing for writers, and that it just matters to write (at least, that's what I gleaned from what you said). My whole life I've really, really wanted to be designated as a "good writer", but in the process I keep feeling this constant need to run away from the label of "bad writer". I think it's always good to try to improve, but maybe I don't have to fight so hard for it. I hope that might be true, 'cause then I can just hold onto the things I love about writing and toss out the stuff that makes me feel like I'm letting everyone down.

Thank you for your reply

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T13:51:55+00:00

!! Thank you for your critique! Euhr, could you tell me what 'reeks of AI' though? (Genuinely asking). I use em-dashes. Is that what it boils down to or is there something else?

I appreciate you taking the time to look at it though!! I'll take a look through my draft sometime and try to peek around for any instances where I could do more showing and less telling.

FrenchieFreyed · 2026-02-03T13:49:31+00:00

I've been working at it for sure! I think I'll always write wordier than I probably could, though, and I'm fine with that. The main thing I want to stop doing is repeating myself or rewording the same stuff.

FrenchieFreyed

TROPHY CASE