I really like to write...?

Question:

I really like to write...?

Over the past couple of years I have written intermittenly on this "book". I've given it a title and I've written nearly 22 pages on the computer and I really want to finish it, but am I really that good at it? I mean I get good grades in my English class and I have some grammer skills, but how do I know when I've put enough detail into my writing and when I've put too much? Can you help me? I'm not looking to publish anything at the moment I just want to get the basics down.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: There are several things you can do. If you are still in school, ask your English teacher about forming a writers group. Or, if you'd rather not do that, check with your local library to find a writers group that you can join. What they do is meet at intervals and everyone brings whatever they have been working on. In the case of a poem, they will read the whole thing. In the case of a book, they will just read a couple of pages. Then the group comments on it, asks questions about it, and helps the author smooth out the material, fill in any gaps, and general polish the work.

If you can't find a writers group, or if they meet at an inconvenient time for you, and your story is in shape to be presented for reading, you could ask your school librarian or your English teacher to read it for you and give you a critique - whether they think you should continue on with it, or what it needs to bring it up to presentation level.

When you are writing, it's important to put everything down as you think of it. The first draft is rough. Really rough. It often bears almost no resemblance to the finished work. But as long as you capture the ideas, and the descriptions, the action and the motivations, the characteristics and the personality quirks of the people in your book, all these can be polished in later revisions. And you will do a number of revisions before you are satisfied with your book. So at this point, don't worry about too much or too little detail. Make sure you put in authentic details and given the reader enough information to help him or her understand what is happening.

If you read science fiction stories, you'll see how this is done. The author imagines a world, or a technology, or a method of space travel and manages to impart enough information to the reader so they can follow along - but doesn't swamp them with all the technological information because that would be boring. It's enough to know that when the little robot is about to do something, he makes a low, melodic humming sound.
You don't have to explain how the sound is produced. Do you see what I'm getting at? You want your reader to feel comfortable with the world you have created -- and whether it's science fiction or a modern romance or adventure novel -- you are in effect creating a world. You may decide to have your story take place in a real city, in which case you can use real landmarks and real streets, but your characters are still your creations, and they have to react appropriately and interestingly.

Hope this has been of some help.