Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-27280438-20160114125758/@comment-4715955-20160125115015

Unholy Lord wrote: Good point. I just thought reading creepypastas would be a very important step in making creepypastas. That's why I kind of winced when you said 'Most importantly, don't read creepypasta'. Like, in my opinion instead of suggesting that, you should rather point out some creepypastas and say 'read these quality creepypastas and ignore the other rubbish ones'.

Jesus, I'm going blind I guess. Didn't see you replied.

Yeah, you can learn a few things from the best pastas: I learned a trick or two from a few, like Daeonaea House. It's just a better idea to learn from a source that tends to have better quality control. Certainly every published book isn't a work of literary accomplishment, but there is a painstaking quality control process: they take one to two years to get published, and are subjected to heavy scrutiny. Creepypasta tends to be posted the moment the author types "the end", without proofreading at all, or with minimal proofreading and editing (an hour or two is not nearly enough, nor is a day or two).

It's also important to read both good and bad writing to get a feel for what to do and what not to do (and admittedly, sometimes the trashy fiction is pretty fun). But the good-to-bad ratio in books is better than on the impulsive internet. I probably shoulda been more specific about this in the first place, but I suppose that's why we have a comments section.