Quote:
Originally Posted by quaker oats
as far as specific skills, no, I don't think much transfers over from writing rhymes into any other medium, because it's a restriction that is specific to this format. for me personally, I can say that topical writing has helped me develop a couple bad habits, though I don't know if that's native to the form or just the nature of writing for voters. probably somewhere in the middle. I also think topical storytelling fucks with my concept of proper pacing. maybe if you're writing flash fiction, or short stories less than 1000 words, the pace of the story will be somewhat similar, but in any standard fiction writing, it doesn't apply.
the benefit of it in my mind, is that it's fun for me. probably the most purely fun way to write. the enjoyment of it, and the way that the restriction of rhyming (and complex rhyming, at that) can funnel your creativity into original descriptiveness, is pretty unique. and transferable.
more so than writing and experimenting a lot, which is also important, writing improves by reading good writing. instead of just enjoying a good novel/short story/essay/article, reading it to understand why it's successful will you help you maneuver ideas into print more effectively.
or, as Faulkner said: "Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it."
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I agree with this, heavy. Especially the first paragraph, more specifically the voter and storytelling points. As someone who does character sketches in topicals, I find the rhyming aspect especially restricting. There's really no way to create a three dimensional character in 30-40 "lines" while rhyming. I've had some success with it, in terms of this site, but that's more due to the fact I'm simply dope.
As for the voter thing, I think taking criticism from most voters/feeders on this site is pretty bad if you're looking to write normal prose in the future. It's all engineered to a predetermined simple baseline set by OG's of topical writing who stopped this hobby years ago. Real, true, innovative topical writing isn't a thing. That's the reason why I really enjoy brokenhalo open mics, it's different and still good. And the dull boy/bb/bwhaha/etc. group.
I still think it can help wording and thinking of different types of phrases, but overall it's a bad habit.