Share the joy of writing with newcomers.

For writers today—be they role-players or storywriters, or both—I believe examples are very important. You read a book you think is extremely interesting. You like it. You imagine all sorts of things. You want to put them into words, be like the authors you so love. For writers, having a good perception of what is good writing and what is good writing—and the mechanisms of what makes this so, the essential parts—is an irreplaceable skill. It is not some innate trait. It can be learned. Moreover, having an experienced writer that can give you tips, hints, and tricks to improve is an incredibly valuable resource, and one you should plunder as much as you possibly can.

So many people are so longer interested in literature, no longer interested in pursuing it as a career. I am here today to create this topic so that we can show the newcomers, or those sincerely interested, what is good or bad writing. I hope that I can gain enough of a following willing to donate just a little of their time to share their experience with the rest of us. I hope that we can really help here.

I am going to start us off with an example of ‘bad writing’ (crap, actually), what not to do. Expunged from an incomplete application on some Hellsing forum, this is a work by someone named Harold, a personality, who does not care if his work is posted here. All aside, Harold is a username of mine. >.>;

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One question could never be accurately answered to the extent where it might satisfy scrutiny completely: if one were born in darkness, raised in darkness, and if they lived in darkness, too, did that make them a part of the darkness? Would that person ever truly have a chance to be anything but as shadowy and damaged as that from which they derived? Could they rise above their dim upbringing and persevere, all the while keeping a tight grasp on the fundamental characteristics that make a person acceptable to society, the values that make them morally true, and the sense of right and wrong that makes them wholesome and human? Some would debate that the life in which one is born into is not an inescapably dominating factor in how they develop as a person, and that being born within a certain situation would not give birth to an individual of the same nature as that situation. This is untrue to a certain point. While being born to a complicated and troubled life does not necessarily mean that a person will become as disturbed as the lifestyle in which they are forced to endure, being raised by a monster is bound to create another monster, and if a person is doomed to persist in such a tormenting existence, it is sure to have dramatic and truly lamentable consequences. For one such individual, this does not ring true. Harold has escaped his upbringing and, no doubt, ghoulish fate, given a second chance and a purpose by the Iscariot organization.

The notion that our world is an indifferent, blind, Godless universe is a belief embraced by more than a handful of souls to articulate just how they consider that the universe and all it lodges within its inexplicable corners could not possibly be constructs forged by Divine hands. A view that Harold, a man who tenaciously believes that all things happen for a reason (regardless of whether or not that reason was conveniently created by some manipulative soul to put all-too-cryptic affairs into motion), guided by the invisible hand of the all-knowing God, happily rebels against… through his unbending, undiluted Faith in the Lord. Fanatically loyal to his Faith, Father Harold has always shown rather remarkably that the bond he has to his Faith is an unbreakable one. Perhaps displayed most fervently in his frequent, almost obsessive, prayers for the living and the dead, and the painful show of Faith portrayed by the tremendous scar seared across the length of his back, the Father is more than willing to endure unbearable pain or exercise agonizing patience as a sign of his undying devotion. To prove that this man is a heathen or heretic would require more insight and deception than an average person could muster, for Harold is a man prepared to withstand any hardship mortal hands can conjure to demonstrate the legitimacy of his faithfulness.

In a world where men and women had once persevered in their Faith, revering their God and venerating him above all others, now the flocks of sheep have scattered. Deceived by Satan’s clever ruse, the evil in this world, the disbelievers have abandoned their belief in God, and, along with it, their Faith. Evil undeniably walks upon the surface of this world, smug and arrogant in its delusional dominance. These creatures think themselves superior to man and woman alike, but the freaks and demons and vampires and werewolves are nothing but abominations on an unavoidable trip to Hell, corrupted souls that have fallen far and distant. They are nothing but stains to be wiped clean from all that is, when compared to the Divine Will of the Lord God. The Father takes great comfort in the fact that the monsters of the world are not left to their own devices to do as they please upon the Earth, the world filled with God’s grace, where humanity, made in His image, live. He takes great responsibility in the idea that the agents of Iscariot act as the Sword of Heaven itself, slaying the monstrosities where they stand to breed evil, and ceasing the flow of heresy generated from the heathens.

Some might argue vehemently against the fact that God is love. For what Father who loves His children would tolerate them living in such a soiled, corrupted existence? The answer, for Harold, is simply: we do not live in paradise, and evil still exists, no matter how much people want to pretend it is not there. We are all being tested, every day of our lives, and our choices and what we do with our lives will decide on which path we walk. Whether we follow the Devil and his creations into the bowels of Hell and rot there for eternity, or whether will we walk the path of righteousness, the path of the Lord, all depends on what choices we make, what actions we take. And no one is predisposed to either side. There are no excuses…

Harold is a man of astute judgment that comprehends the extent to which corruption has infested the hearts of men and women alike. The heathens and heretics were bad enough, not factoring the monsters, Demons, and vampires into the equation. The good Father maintains a firm desire to, methodically, cleanse the world of its taint, one monster at a time, one evil at a time. Something that remains consistent in him, a fixed want, a craving. He craves to give back to his Faith, to God, to Iscariot, to the Church, to the fellow Passengers with which he marches ever-forward on the path to being the instruments of God’s Will, as much as they have given to him, which is… a home, a place to belong, and, as peculiar as it may seem to some, a family. These are irreplaceable things to him, to which no material good could compare.

Few things can plunge this young man into fright, no matter how bellicose or distressing the matter at hand may be. Even if faced by all the demons of Hell put together before him, this man would not be seized of his resolve. He respects the authority of his betters, the superiors, both authoritatively and literally, of the Church. Out of anything that can be said, Harold is more comparable to a soldier than he is anything else, a quiet warrior of the Iscariot organization that says very little to anyone, even when among his associates. Despite this, he has a strong sense of camaraderie toward his fellow members of Iscariot, having developed a type of “brotherly” outlook toward them. This is occasionally apparent, since he will compulsively take measures to defend the “honor” of his colleagues, should he deem such as sullied by another, during which being some of the few moments he is certain to speak. When he does speak, Harold is a soft-spoken individual that speaks words others could find difficult to consider harsh, even if he were to speak in a severe sort of way, due to the calm, light tone of his voice.

Perceptive by nature, Harold is a naturally talented warrior, being calculative and highly observant in all aspects of daily life, with innate instincts seemingly tailor-made for combat; from combating the unclean to merely sitting back and listening to those around him converse about something or another, he usually notices things most do not. While some individuals may possess the kind of presence that stands out in a crowd, causing others to notice them more easily, Harold is the exact opposite. He is the type that fades into the background so completely that it is very easy to lose track of him, forgetting that he is even there, because his entire existence is so noiseless, so vague; even his mannerisms are subtle.

The Father is a hard worker; he is probably more dedicated to his job as a priest and as an agent of the Vatican than most can claim to be. He understands perfectly that he is a priest and a soldier of Iscariot, first, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year, and a person, second. And he is constantly prepared to do his work, or be called in to do it, and even does it without being asked to. He is far from being lazy. He IS a workaholic.

On one hand, he is quite generous and good-natured to those who truly deserve such pleasantries, such as comrades and the average man, woman, and child. Harold does not discriminate unless he has good reason to, and as such, he is very easy to approach, if you can get beyond the silence around and from him, and the various other aspects of his personality that might not be typical. The Father is generally formal in attitude, but this does not mean that he will refrain from stating his opinion on a subject, or doing something he ought to do, because it might not be exactly “formal” to do so. The man is particularly gentle and kind to certain people, most notably those he spends the most time with, or those in Iscariot. On the other hand, Harold can be quite callous and apathetic at times, especially when facing the “evils of the world.” His attitude will switch almost instantly, and during such times, he becomes a cold, calculating killing machine, with a mindset eerily similar to some supercomputer without human feeling. It is a learned trait, more or less, and perhaps a result of something not mentally healthy. Well, much of Iscariot’s members have some screw or another loose; so it is not particularly noticeable.

Harold wields just enough intellect to be one cut above the average populous of the world; he is wise enough to know his limitations well, know how to get around them effectively by compensating with other means available to him, and wise enough to know when it is proper to do so. He is clever enough to be capable of spotting weaknesses and flaws either in himself or in allies or enemies, and to know how to use them best to his or his comrade’s advantage. He is quite capable in using his brainpower to his advantage in battle, being able to concentrate thoroughly, and shut out the outside noise and commotion around him through intense focus, in order to concentrate fully on the task. He is a quick thinker and even swifter at taking action. Caution is an integral part of his design, an aspect that aids him well on the righteous path he has chosen to tread across so resolutely. When combating evil that is inhuman and unpredictably powerful in nature, entities able to endure much more physical damage than the average man or woman, one must move carefully and always plan in advance, never letting any movement be wasted. The Father prefers to have at least three backup strategies—along with a detailed assessment of possible escape routes and objects in the surrounding that could be utilized for defensive, offensive purposes, or for cover—thought out ahead of any possibly violent situation before actually engaging the enemy, and usually produces them with ease.

Aside from being excellent soldier material, he embraces some interests atypical of his work, but of which are also not average for the majority of ordinary people within his general age group. The Father has a fervent love of the Violin, and consequent of this passion, he is quite skilled in playing the musical instrument. He also has a fascination in firearms and weaponry, thus leading to him being quite well versed and knowledgeable in their use and of them in general, including being capable of deconstructing and sequentially reconstructing a pistol, cleaning them, and so on. Additionally, and perhaps a sign of his abnormal intelligence, he has an enthusiastic interest in languages, being fluent in a number of different languages, including Latin, German, Italian, English, Japanese, and limited ability in speaking Chinese (truly, lower than mediocre, at best).

One could say that he has the patience of a Saint, which, although most certainly not true to such an extent, he does, in a way (the man can put up with all sorts of noise and nonsense and still not be irritated, even things that would drive others mad, completely bonkers). He is almost always calm and composed, in full possession of his facilities, which, more often than not, makes him seem a distant and stoic individual, but this is not so.

Father Harold teeters on the edge of a moral event horizon… at the crossroads of morally decent, and morally wrong. This means that he is, for all intents and purposes, morally grey. This does not mean that he is evil or morally corrupt, or even poor in ethics; in fact, it means quite the opposite. Harold is indeed capable of making morally ambiguous choices, decisions that would be, to the average person, amoral and possible even abhorrent. Nevertheless, in the Iscariot organization, such decisions would perhaps be typical: the taking of life for the greater good, to destroy the inhuman monsters roaming the ends of the Earth, using violent, questionable, and even destructive means to do so. The Father is willing to employ whatever tactics he can conjure up to bring the Lord victory, so long as it does not exceed a certain personal moral barrier and the boundaries of which, the edge of the horizon, and the ethic and moralistic body of the Vatican itself, of course. As a matter of fact, the Father employs a specific process when dealing with situations that call for ambiguous choices. No children should be killed, and no innocents, unless such are inhuman monstrosities or turned into beasts by such. Special consideration must be taken to discern the innocence of innocents and children who side with the enemy, or otherwise obstruct the judgment of evil, monsters, and heathens by an Officer of the Vatican, and a decision must be made thereafter of how to proceed.