: Re: Is it possible to practice the craft of creative writing in isolation? Is it possible to practice the craft of creative writing in isolation? I am not directly affiliated with a writing community,

@Correia211

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This is an interesting question -- kind of the holy grail of "learning to write".
The question is : Is it possible to learn to write better on your own?
I believe it can be.
Learn the Basics From Books
Learn the basics from writing books. My all-time, knock-down, marooned-on-a-deserted-island favorite is: Make Your Words Work by Gary Provost.
Learn the basics from a good book then practice those basics as you write your own stories.
Another great book is On Writing Well, by Zinsser - amazon link. If a person really read these books and practiced what they say a bit his/her writing would get better quickly.
The Improbability of a Writing Mentor
The improbability of obtaining a real mentor is large for many reasons.

most of us will never come in contact with a real & successful published author

even if you come in contact with published author, s/he will probably not have time to actually mentor us.

if someone has to tell you that you're writing is good then maybe you aren't really cut out to be a writer.
A. Consider this, if cannot step outside yourself and determine whether or not your writing works then maybe you aren't really cut out for writing. I don't know.
B. If you cannot determine good writing from bad in other samples then you won't know it in your own either and you wouldn't make a good writer either.

do you think Hemingway, John Grisham or Shakespeare had to have someone tell them that they were great writers? Unlikely. They knew when they were good and when they were bad. Yes, they surely wrote poorly also.

A writing mentor is really just a pipe dream that many people lazily dream because they aren't interested in actually working on their writing. I know, because I've done it. :)
Learn to Write From Published Examples
Finally, I've wondered about this for a long time and I've put together a book on writing fiction called Fiction Writing Gems -- amazon link which takes excerpts from over 25 published books of fiction (great ones and terrible ones) and shows you that you know what great writing and terrible writing is and you can learn from it.
Mastery and Artistry
Can you learn mastery of writing and artistry from books? Not really. But you can learn the basics and practice your way to mastery and artistry. The more you get the basics down the faster you get to mastery / artistry. Good luck.

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