Lets See You Do Better...Can you really do better than the next writer

Just as the title says, I don't really know if I can do bettter than the next author. There so many ideas I had in mind yet I cannot fathom actually doing better than half the writers here on this site. I am not sure if I really can do better than the next although I don't know if I tried. Can you really do better than the last author?

...Huh?

Should any writer really care if they're a better writer than a specific person?

I seriously hope you don't honestly think this.

edited 18th Feb '12 9:29:40 PM by CrystalGlacia

I am sorry but i don't think this is a good idea...

You've lost me, Coop. Is this a contest or a troll post?

Please clarify the referents of the following: next author, writers here on this site, last author.

I can say with absolute honesty that I care whether I'm considered a better writer then Christopher Paolini.

edited 18th Feb '12 9:35:06 PM by nrjxll

Well... there's that, but the context that I'm thinking the OP was trying to convey is definitely not healthy.

I would certainly like to be a better author than Christopher Paolini.

Assessments of my writing have been rather varied, but I haven't produced any complete story as substantial as his books, so I wouldn't like to make any claim of superior ability at present.

If you have any idea what "context the OP was trying to convey", please don't hesitate to share it with us. I really have no idea what this thread is supposed to be.

From what I've seen of your writing, you probably are a better author. Being published doesn't really mean anything in terms of quality.

edited 18th Feb '12 9:39:56 PM by nrjxll

What I'm thinking the OP is trying to convey concerns the practice of measuring one's worth in a competitive fashion, as in comparing it to other writers, presumably ones who are not of the Christopher Paolini/Stephanie Meyer/Tara Gilesbie/other infamously poor writer variety; and the assumption that at least part of this forum believes this to be a viable practice.

At least that's what I gathered.

Whether if the OP considers it to be a good or bad practice remains to be seen.

Bobby G, working slowly towards a good completed work rather than crapping out a, well, crappy completed work makes you a better author already.

@ Crystal Glacia: I wasn't sure whether the OP meant "compared to troper authors" or "compared to published authors".

Not that either is necessarily a measure of auctorial worth since that presumes an objective standard by which this kind of thing may be measured, when in reality there are numerous different genres and modes you can write in where different qualities are valued, but the latter seemed less flame-baity and more worthwhile than the former.

@ nrjxll, jewelleddragon: Well, thanks. I won't count my chickens, though, is what I'm saying.

I don't know that, either.

And here I thought this was gonna be a forum game where we all write short stories and try to one-up the last guy...

Since no one seems to be able to tell what this thread is actually supposed to be about, can we do that anyway?

And here I thought this was gonna be a forum game where we all write short stories and try to one-up the last guy

Me too that's why I got here initially

Hmmm let's see me do better. Well all that matters to me is I do better than Stephanie Meyer qualitatively speaking. Not a very high standard I know but I don't have no ego thinking I'm the next Asimov, Heinlein, or Tolkien. (Not yet anyways...)

Corny alert:

The only person I truly care to be better than is myself three years ago, nine months ago, or even last night, when I wrote two horrendous paragraphs.

Honestly, all of this "I'm better than other tropers, I'm better than Generic Fantasy Writer A or Erotic Fiction Author B" is an unhealthy attitude. I've tried to stop comparing myself to other writers; I used to do that, and it kept the quality of my work frozen in an odd place. Even when I have the most hubris or the most insecurity, the only work I care about impressing or surpassing is my own.

-applauds- My thoughts exactly.

Well, I was trying to ask if you have an idea but someone has already executed a similar idea, can you write the story and do better than the other author?

Still pretty vague. What author? Better how?

(Not sure I agree with this stuff about not comparing yourself to other authors. To a point, sure, but insularity is not laudable.)

Wow, I was off.

Can't say I particularly mind misunderstanding.

Well, I was really only speaking personally, and I agree it isn't laudable, but what I (and I believe Crystal Glacia) am saying is that okay, you find out that you write better than authors that have been critically panned by people with even the most basic understanding of literature, and you are worse than everyone else...so, now what? What do I do with this information?

I don't model or base my writing off of the quality of others. Reading a great story will make me marvel at the author, but I'm not going to weep over my own work. I used to do that, it lead nowhere, so I stopped. That's not to say I don't recognize good and bad writing. I want to be a good writer, but I don't care about being better than a bad one, if that makes any sense. Comparison might help others, that's fine, but it does nothing for me.

edited 19th Feb '12 12:45:49 PM by BetsyandtheFiveAvengers