How have you grown as a writer?

[Moai_Spammer]

I've been thinking about this topic a bit after giving ChineseWarlord some tips on his first story. I realized at this point that "Holy crap I've been here for 3 years", even though it felt like just yesterday that I joined the subforum. This thought spurred me to reread my first story, as well as other stories (before my first Hiatus) that I can remember off the top of my head (I use to run like 10+ stories at a time so yeah). I decided to review the stories themselves and to see how I've improved. Three years is a long time, lets how I've come so far.

Siddhartha of India: The Civ 4 Buddhist challenge made Jul 24, 2013, at age 12
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=503610

This sucks. This one really really sucks. Most of the "story" is just little blurbs about what's happening, sometimes attempted in narrative format. The comedy is Lack luster, to say the least. Most of it is just references to other things (typically MLP:FIM). So I wouldn't really call it comedy, it's more of an informal citation that was attempted as a joke. This story really is pitiful, with at the beginning the only poster being me creating ungodly 6+ posts at a time. Many things here are wrong hisorically, for example I constantly use the Bhagavad Gita as a Buddhist holy book, when in reality it is a Hindu holy book. Really, don't check this one out unless your a masochist. Though if you are a masochist, I'd up the ante and say read it while playing E.T. on the Atari 2600. Sounds like a whole lot of frickin fun, right?

Justinian's Conquests: The Tale of Byzantium and other iterations made Jul 28, 2013, at age 12
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=504355

Let's get the first problem outta the way with this one. It restarts. Like all the f-ing time. I never got more than like 3 updates out until something happened that made me restart or I wanted to restart. I knew this was a problem with the story then, but it's only more painfully evident now, in retrospect.

While the story is still portrayed through short blurbs, it's actually story this time and not just information about the picture or a reference to MLP:FIM (though trust me, this one still has a cringe worthy amount) The comedy has improved ever so slightly, but it's still more of an informal citation. Overall, it's not awful, it's just not very good either. What really kills it though is all the restarts. I wouldn't recommend it, unless you wanna have a laugh about my prepubescent incarnation.

From Tsars to Stars:The tale of Russia made Sep 07, 2013 at age 12
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=509032

Now this is what I'm talking about, this is something GOOD. References take a backseat comedic role, ponies don't reach cringe worthy level of overuse. It sticks good enough with history considering I was like 12 when I wrote it. There's an actual story this time around, and it's not that too god damned shabby. The only sad part about this one was at came around the time I did my first Hiatus. So I never got to finish it. I still have the save for it actually, but I don't have the same version of DoC anymore on my good laptop. Definitely recommend this one, as one can really tell it's my first major stepping stone to my much greater works such as City between the Rivers and The Sapphire of Gaul. Despite my more recent stories being better, this one still holds a warm place in my heart as the first time I really felt like my story was GOOD, before that it was more about how many ponies I could shove into it, and this story marks me being more mature as a writer. Check it out if you want a Moai_Spammer classic!

so, what do you think of your first stories? how has your time on civ4 s&t improved your writing? make sure to tell, as it's always intesting (at least, I think so) to get a creator's opinion on their own works.

edit: also, notice a trend with the titles? yup, they were always the same format, [Eye catching text] [colon] [subtitle telling what the story is]. Just a little quirk of early Moai I suppose.

 

[trexeric]

I started my first story at the age of 11. I was 12, like, a month later, but still. I sucked as a writer. My updates consisted consistently of single paragraphs next to a single picture, making for slow updates. I think I only finished a couple (?) before computer troubles caused things to stop. An interesting thing to note is, however, that I would pull updates out relatively often.

Sometime between then and now my writing skill has improved greatly from writing here and there in my free time. The issue is that now I don't have any passion to write for Civ stories, so those that I try to start never get past the first update anymore, because I lose interest. So I suppose, in a way, that cancels out. What I gained in writing ability I lost in drive.

 

[Tycho]

I haven't changed at all. I'm still bad at writing but pretend I'm good so I can act like I've got a creative outlet.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

I've been here over a year and a half, holy crap. I have definitely grown. My first, pictureless, story was god awful. It was just bad. I have grown I think, and I hope that I keep growing and posting.

 

[TheNoob]

I started writing here about two years ago (gosh), and my writing, as others have told me, has certainly improved.

Just compare my Egypt story to my USSR story.

I haven't written since about May, and I know I need to, but I don't know if I will or not; I have other things to focus on in my life right now.

 

[Niccolo Edwards]

I've only written a tiny part of my story but I've been here nearly seven months.

At the beginning it was horrible. (Future readers should probably just skip the first page and most of the second.)

Now... when I (eventually) start writing the late medieval era readers should probably skip over the entire ancient era. But I'm starting to remember all my years of learning to write... so that's a plus. And I'm getting better with scheduling.