Which Genre Of Writing Do You Think Is The Most Difficult?

JoeMilford Level 1

January 17, 2018, 3:34 pm

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Which Genre Of Writing Do You Think Is The Most Difficult?

In your online writing, which genre of writing, or which subject matter, do you find the most difficult to write about?

Which is harder for you: general blogging? fiction? non-fiction? reviews?

I was wondering if there is a specific type of writing that is harder for you than others, also maybe if you could compare the various types of writing. Such as blogging versus writing short fiction stories.

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Judas2018

Judas2018

Probably reviews. Because you have to inform your readers about your opinion of a film, without coming across as preachy or domineering. They don't want to feel like they're being told to see or not to see a particular movie, but instead want details about the films overall entertainment value. Which they wlil factor into their ultimate decision whether to check it out in theaters, on demand, or on DVD, or not. You also have to critique the film without insulting the talent behind or in front of the camera. Most of the times, it's not that hard but when you see a REALLY bad film, it's extremely difficult at times to pen a constructive review.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

These are really good points. I guess different reviewers have different styles--some are VERY biased and over-the-top aggressive. I think it is also hard to give a review without spoiler alerts and while still informing your audience. Of course, many reviews let you know that, before you read further, there are spoilers, but I also like to read reviews BEFORE I see a movie, and I do not wan them giving up the whole thing to me. You made another great point about critiquing the people behind the film but is a respectable way.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

I don't find it hard to avoid spoilers. Quite the opposite actually. My biggest difficulty with reviews is finding a away to constructively critique a film without seeming too down on it, or seem like I am bashing it to pieces. Basically, if I am penning a review of a bad movie - i need to let people know I didn't like it without running my readers away from their own curiosities about the movie.

7 years ago

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MomoStarr16

MomoStarr16

Yep, I feel you. It is hard to make a simple review article. Some will give negative comments and some will give good. You need to experience that before reviewing a thing. And needs a lot of researching.

7 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

"Because you have to inform your readers about your opinion of a film, without coming across as preachy or domineering."

I think this is probably the most important and difficult part about being a good critic. I'll outright say that I am not a fan of critics. From video game to movie critics, I think that a huge lot of them are either bought out by publishers or are way too bias. If I'm reading a review for something, and I start to feel like the critic is taking too much of a subjective standpoint, I'll most likely completely disregard their opinion and move on. As difficult as it may be for some critics, I think that it is really important to review things from a purely objective standpoint.

7 years ago

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jeffreyjose48

jeffreyjose48

i think its hard to write on genre that you are not familiar about. Its good to write on topics where you have knowledge. But its more challenging if you write about that you know nothing at all.

6 years ago

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Baburra

Baburra

I think I'd have the most difficult time writing something that needs a lot of research. If I were writing about a subject or a story that would necessitate a lot of time researching and cross referencing I'd spend a lot more time on my project than if I were to just make a story where I could just keep writing nonstop without having to pause and check for facts. Any piece that would require me to be completely factual and accurate would be what I consider to be the most difficult.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I feel similar to you here. Of course, good research takes time, and it truly enhances our content; however, sometimes we are so pressed for time that I think that our scholarship about our subjects suffers. I am also more of a creative writer, but having documented sources propping up your words really gives the audience more and more confidence in your content. I also think that this confidence can yield return traffic as your audience will come to trust you as an authority in your niche. However, nobody ever said that would be easy, right?

7 years ago

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Pixie06

Pixie06

I find it very difficult to write poems. I have tried various time but I can't get the right words and ideas. I love poetry and how I wish I had the talent to write some beautiful poems. I have read various poetry books and also tried some tips which I found online and these are not helping either. I think poem writing is not for me and all I can do is appreciate them. lol

7 years ago

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SpookyTango

SpookyTango

I have to agree about the difficulty of poetry. Most forms of writing are pretty clear cut in what their goals and functions are, and you have the space for redundancy to better outline your ideas. Decent poetry requires a confidence and command of the language which is rare to come by. Comparatively, every word in poetry must be weighed way more carefully, not just in meaning, but how it fits with a system of cadence and meter. Poetry is flexible, you ultimately set the rules for each poem you write, but you also have to be aware that you're respecting a historical tradition older than regular prose and fiction.

If you're writing poetry, you're also working against the reality that it's simply not as popular today as it was in centuries past. With fiction, there are trends and topics that are usually more digestible to the public and have a greater chance of penetrating the marketplace. With poetry you have far less of a public compass and I feel that's because poetry is inherently a more intimate and personal endeavor, but that's also what gives good poetry is sticking power - the translation of profound ideas into a more contained and graspable form.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I could not agree with you more here.
My primary genre IS poetry, and I have been working on getting adept at it for 25 years now. I've had some success in publishing, but the stack of rejection slips it took to get those publications could most likely stack taller than my six foot form. Poetry is the most condensed form of language, and no other genre packs as much of a punch as good poetry can with such few words. I do not pretend to be a master at it, but I am in love with it, and I continue to write it every day.

7 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

Poetry is difficult too. I love reading poems, but I'm really not good at writing them, and I usually just try to write haikus to channel my love for poetry.

7 years ago

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tiffiecute

tiffiecute

Nothing is seriously harder than writing a researched paper. You have to provide factual data. You need to give time and effort to research and really do the math for statistics, etc just so for your article to be considered. If you don't have any idea on a certain topic to research on, then that's another awful issue to encounter. That means the most you can do it to study first about it before you deal with the painful research process. And of course, you need to learn to love it even in your very bones, you hate it much.

7 years ago

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Tronia

Tronia

Yes, that is very true. I remember the big research projects we had at the university... Those were so difficult.

You literally prepared them for over a month. You had to collect data, study all the books, extract the important information and write it into something meaningful. All the statistical data had to be backed up and so on.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I think that I would have to agree with you here. Real scholarship and research takes an unbelievable amount of time, and yo must be careful while choosing the most credible and suitable sources to support your arguments or content. Also, you have to make sure that your research is well-documented and that you have properly credited your sources so that you do not plagiarize or mis-represent anything or anyone. Also, I have found that, when I research, I tend to get lost in the data, so I really have to discipline myself in focusing on the thesis of what I am writing. I find that very detailed outlining helps me a great deal, and as long as I do that, paragraph by paragraph, then i tend to feel more confident about what I am putting together as far as building a paper or article around extensive research. However, like you said--this is a tough process!

7 years ago

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anahbello1206

anahbello1206

This is so true! You have to do a lot of research and surveys with this kind of writing. You should also have the ability to defend it and answer questions that may arise. I can not agree with you more here. I remember back in college how hard it was form me to finish my research and be able to defend it. It took me a couple of weeks finalizing everything.

7 years ago

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jaymish3

jaymish3

@tiffiecute I agree with your sentiments. The hardest writing is when you have to use sources from books or the internet.First you have to do your research then write, it takes you longer to do the work. I also have a problem with the line between original and plagiarized. This thin line normally depends on the person that you're working for and you can never be too sure if you've crossed the line or not.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

The part that involves one doing most of the research about a product or service that is in the market and making a review about it is very difficult for me. I can cope with general blogging in the sense that it is easier to write about an event or a story as long as you have the full information from another site but for review, you need to be really sure of what you're saying in order not to bring bad feedback from those that will go for such product as a result of the review you made on it. So, I think any writer needs to be careful when making reviews of products to be sure that what they are saying is actually true and not deceitful to buyers.

7 years ago

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Adesuwa08

Adesuwa08

Lol that's the same writing project I can't handle to a fault, it is very stressful especially the ones with the product reviews have never taking such reviews before, just the normal book reviews is already headaches for me.

7 years ago

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Tronia

Tronia

Hmm, this is a very good question but I guess it depends on the person. Some people actually find it easy to write things such as poetry but I personally find it extremely hard. The only times that I have tried to write poetry was purely for my soul and myself.

I had a friend that could write poetry every single day with complete ease. I was always so impressed but then I realized that she struggles with writing other things such as more serious topics.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

Tronia,
Good points as usual.
I am sure we all tend to gravitate towards the genre which inspires us the most or gives us the most pleasure while we are creating content in it. I do like to try different genres to challenge myself, but there is definitely friction there, for me as a writer, as I try to adjust to new types of content, research, and voice. I know people who can write amazing fiction, but if they try to write a poem, they get so frustrated they want to throw the laptop against the wall. We are all obviously wired so differently, but that is the beautiful thing about it--all of us are out there creating the content that we are hopefully made for and hopefully, if we are dedicated to the hard work, we get better at it all the time.

7 years ago

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coolavender

coolavender

I am not a creative writer so I find fiction the most difficult of all. I am more of a technical writer and I thrive on research. I love taking writing assignments that require in-depth research and I usually do well on those projects regardless of my stock knowledge of the subject. If I have to write fiction like a novel or a short story, it will probably require much longer time to complete the writing project. I just don't have the patience and talent for stuff like plot or character development.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

Sometimes you can base character development off of the people you meet or have met in life. You'd be surprised how many characters in film, movies and t.v. are based off of someone the writer has met in their life who has fascinated them - or in some cases drawn their ire. In the case of a villain or antagonist character.

7 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

I agree. Fiction has to be the hardest to write.

It's because fiction relies on so many factors. You have the target audience, the writing style, the plot, the characters, and etc. You'll need talent if you want to write fiction. But if you're not naturally a born a writer, you can adapt by developing the necessary skills required to be great at it.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

coolavendar,
I find this interesting because I am just the opposite. I find that creative writing projects come naturally to me, but technical writing has always felt constraining and difficult to me. I know this is largely just probably due to my own personal conditioning as a writer, and due to my general life experiences and education in terms of language, but I get frustrated with myself because I should be smart enough to be better at this, right? In any case, your post is yet another testament to how different we all are as writers and to how their is room for all of our own special and individual talents out there.

7 years ago

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Jaycel

Jaycel

It doesn't matter which Genre of writing is most difficult because the very definition of difficulty lies on the level of the knowledge, understanding and intelligence of the one who's writing. The less knowledgeable we are of the topic, the more we find difficulty writing it. There are no limitation as to the extent of knowledge that we can get. It may be difficult for a moment to write reviews, technical writing or anything but as we continues to learn and practice, soon enough it'll become easy.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

peachpurple

I can write reviews and general blog articles but I totally cannot write any fiction or non fiction articles. I am not a creative or imaginative person. Hardly able to convince my readers of my stories.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

It would have to be reviews for me. Because the thing with reviews is that they need to be extremely detailed to ensure that your readers understand exactly how you feel about the product and can work out whether or not they want to buy the actual product/service that you are reviewing. At first, I thought that reviews were easy but when I actually started to write one for my site it was just so difficult.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

DarthHazard,
I've never really written many of these. I can see, though, from your ideas and post above that these could become difficult quite quickly. I would try to present my ideas, in a review, in the most clear way and in a basically un-biased and logical way, if possible. It would depend upon what kind of review I was writing, what I was reviewing, and who I was writing it for, but I can see that these really could be tough to do if you were really taking the task seriously.

7 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

Blogging is easy for me but seriously I have strong difficulty in writing both fiction and non fiction stories. Most times, it's probably as a result of how lengthy these stories are that gets me lose my bearings and go off topic that is challenging to me. Although I have tried putting in a small short drama, say about 10 pages of scripts but I know very well that it's not enough to get me the fame professional fiction and non fiction writers have.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I find blogging to be much easier than trying to write original works of fiction and poetry. Trying to create a real work of literature is pretty intense, time-consuming, and difficult if you are really taking what you are doing seriously, and you are working in a tradition on a particular craft. I have always wanted to write a novel, as well, but I just don't know where to start upon that sort of venture. I have tons of ideas, but I am not quite sure how to structure them! I am sure I should take some classes on this to prepare.

7 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

For me Technical Writing is the hardest because you just can't write based on research, if you do that it won't be effective.

For technical writing you need first hand knowledge or experience with the subject.
An established connection between the Subject and the Writer is a must for a convincing and effective output.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I have a manual at home, actually, regarding Technical Writing, and it is a trickier venture than most people realize, I think. I also find this to be a challenging form in which to write, and it is a very rigid and formal genre to create content in. Of course, you must always be familiar or well-versed in your subject, but even if you are, when it comes to technical writing, if your tactic of delivery is not solid and correct, then that will hurt your content overall.

7 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

Technical topics like technology or medicine is one of the hardest topics for me. With technology, I cannot post any speculation because there might be a rebuttal and that is a big embarrassment. Likewise with medicine, you have to be accurate in your opinion otherwise you might be posting a big mistake that can be risky to a patient. I had read an article about herbal treatment that showed the ignorance of the writer because the names of the herbs were interchanged. I don’t want to make that shameful mistake.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I think that these selfsame topics would be very rough for me too. I would have to do a great deal of research to write effectively about these topics, but even if I did do a lot of research, I would still worry, because of my inexperience in these fields, whether or not my sources of research and scholarship are the best ones or not. I would be be afraid that I do not know enough about the cutting-edge technology in these areas in order to write about them on the cusp of the most recent research or techniques which the experts in the field are currently using--so, obviously, I would definitely be putting myself at risk for some pretty tough scrutiny and criticism!

7 years ago

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Soulwatcher

Soulwatcher

I think politics is the worst genre to write in because you have to walk a fine line between being honest and making people mad. I made a political post on one of my websites before and a guy got so mad at me he threatened to come kill me and my family. it scared me so bad that I never made another political post in my life. The only way I got him to stop is I told him I had his IP address and if he didn't stop I was going to the police.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

Yes, I agree with you here. I avoid writing about politics, personally. I am sure that my personal politics do become evident in the way that I write and in my general opinions about things, but in blogs and online writing tasks as a freelancer, I avoid saying anything or producing any content which is biased towards any particular political personality or leader or incident. I have heard horror stories about threatening trolls and dangerous online "psychos" who can take their political views too far and to a violent level. It's just crazy. One has to be careful.

7 years ago

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Adesuwa08

Adesuwa08

Doing the job of online reviewing is the most difficult for me so far, it requires brutal honesty and time management while reading to meet up with the deadline, then you get to notice those errors and the story concepts sometimes you don't want to be truthful because you just want them to feel happy about their work efforts. When you are a reviewer online there are just so many stress involved in it.

7 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

I would say that reviews are probably among the more difficult forms of writing. Maybe not the most difficult, but certainly up there. However, I make that statement under the assumption that the writer is putting a respectable amount of effort into the review. Anyone can write a half-effort review based on their own biased opinion, but it takes dedication, time, and effort to write an objective review which deeply analyzes the technicalities of a subject matter. It's one reason I don't think I'd ever want to be a reviewer/critic; way too much analysis if you're trying to be honest and unbiased.

7 years ago

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TheArticulate

TheArticulate

I've always been a very visual person, and I love telling stories through the lens of my camera. I learned pretty early on that writing plays a huge role in creating visual stories, and I found myself falling in love with the scriptwriting process for filmmaking. I loved creating a story, putting into script format. There's something about the narrative becoming intertwined with the technical side of things (it's the like the characters and plot are colliding with the stage directions and the notes on camera movements) that fascinates me.

What my friends and I have learned from our time doing scriptwriting is that we are not very good writers. We can make things look good on screen and we can script a movie but by God, we have a rough time telling compelling stories. Because of this, I think my vote would have to go to fiction writing.

I'm taking a graduate level storytelling course this semester and I'm writing short stories based on different themes each week of the class, and I find it really difficult for me. I keep second guessing myself on the things I write. "Is this the right time to reveal this particular plot device?" "Is this what the character should say?" "Do I really even need this plot device?", etc.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

TheArticulate,
You have really touched on a sore spot for me here, but I am glad you did. I have always wanted to learn how to write a good screenplay, but I am pretty sure I am terrible at it! It's funny, because I can tell a story--no problem. I even write short stories, but I have a difficult time developing the needed tension and dynamic of a good play. I could use a good graduate level screenwriting course myself--I actually know a lot of people in the film industry, and some of them would be willing to read a script from me if i could just come up with a decent one, so this is pretty frustrating, lol!

7 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

Blogging and non-fiction is easy since you're essentially talking about something that has happened about your life or about things that can be researched. Fiction is easy as well since you can draw inspiration from other stories and you have your imagination to rely on. Reviews, however, is more time and money consuming (you need to actually watch or read something or buy a product when making a review), form an opinion, give critique which everyone will see, including the creators of the product you reviewed, and be able to explain your opinion in a manner that is easily relatable. You also have to create your own criteria for different products each time you make a review.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

treecko142,
I recently had a friend who is very familiar with my poetry say that she did not like my blogs because the tone there is so much different. I thought about that, at length, because I am always working on "developing my voice". It is funny how our voices change, and also appropriate I think, for them to change, based upon the genre in which we are writing. Like you said, we do always need to be "relate-able" to our audiences, but I do not think we should do so in such a way that we compromise the quality of the work, either. We need to find that balance between writing challenging pieces and accessible pieces, I think. Your post just got me thinking about all of these things.

7 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

Sometimes it's very hard to write about the political situation of another country.
I guess this is because you have to research and read a lot of its political history and connect it to the present political situations. And reaserching a lot of past and present politicians ia a lot of work.

7 years ago

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Jral14

Jral14

It really depends on the writer. Some writers are good in writing fictions. Some writers are good in poetry. It all vary depending on the person. Just like me, I can write horror stories but I find it hard to write sci-fi / fictions. I haven't tried writing one but I think it is not my personal interest. I rather choose to write a script for a sci-fi or fiction movies than to write a story all about it. With a lot of practice and expertise, we will be able to further improve our skills in a certain field. I've always dreamed to become an author one day, but currently, I do not take English courses because I am into Healthcare professional which is ironic. English has been my passion but my workflow is all about patients in a hospital.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

I am the same in terms of genre. I can do horror EASY. But sci-fi or sci-fi horror, drama horror, or horror thriller is a bit tougher. What makes it easier for me sometimes, is starting off a piece with characters and events trending more towards the former, and not the latter. So for example, if I am writing drama horror? I will start off the story with strong dramatic elements, and then that helps me be able to ease or transition into the horror bits later on. Eventually meshing the two together seamlessly later on.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I agree--every writer has his or her own proclivity. I also think that some writers are better than others at certain genres, even when they are talented, obviously in several genres at the same time. it is as if some of us were just MADE to create a certain kind of content because of our unique intellects and how we filter our life experiences. The human mind, especially when it comes to language, is such a fascinating machine. I often wish I would have studied linguistics, or even speech pathology, because I am fascinated with how people use language and configure their ideas with it.

7 years ago

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aeon

aeon

I think about the politics, It's really hard to write about that genre, although we know that it's very easy to find some details and information, and there're a lot of topic about them. but in return, they can sue you for something that you know it's true.

7 years ago

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edencaga

edencaga

For me the most difficult genre to write is the reviews. You really need to be careful on the topic your going to review as people is very particular on some things and with that you really have to research a lot. Writers should also be careful for the words they used since some readers don't want an insult or see a negative thoughts from the reviews made by writers especially if they are a fan of that film, movies, artist or anything you review.

7 years ago

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Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

For me, writing a fantasy is much likely the difficult genre above all because of it's complex structure is a time consuming and needs a lot of brainstorming just to make a draft. However, I know that it would really paid out well if I manage to pull this kind of thing into my pen.

6 years ago

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jaymish3

jaymish3

Normally I can write about any topic. All I need to do is go onto google. However recently I was given a technical article to write. It was about art. This is the first article I have been unable to write. It was art and architecture actually and this topic blew me away and no matter how much research I did, I just could not understand the topic and I just gave up. It is better then saying you can write something and end up not being able to do it or do it in a mediocre fashion, so I would argue that technical things are harder to write.

6 years ago

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beerthooyah

beerthooyah

News articles are difficult to write. Because there is responsibility that is attached onto it. If you have decided to write a news article, it is your moral responsibility to verify all the information that you will put in your article. Nevertheless news article is also one of the most rewarding for it is one of thecommonly used in the mainstream media.

6 years ago

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Aeolos

Aeolos

I think writing fiction is really a hard one. You have so many things to consider and it must be something different to the previous ones that are already published. You had to make an interesting plot, complex characters and made up settings which must be intriguing to your readers. You also have to make a lot of research if your story is related to adventure fantasy which I think is really a lot of work to do.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

I would have to agree that writing fiction specifically spy / espionage type of novels are very hard for a normal writer because one needs detailed information or actual experiences to write a decent novel on this subject.

6 years ago

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stormbreaker10

stormbreaker10

Formal critiscism is one of the hardest because you need to be a knowledgeble to the topic, the author biography to get idea of how the real importance of his story, delivered your critiscism being on point.

6 years ago

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sonnyisabeast

sonnyisabeast

Fiction is the hardest in online writing. With the rest, I can research the heck out of the things that I know little about. If it's fiction, it will all be based on my own creativity, and I have not dealt with that, not yet. I won't even know where to start if that happens to me. But I am as excited as I am scared about the whole thing.

6 years ago

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cmoneyspinner

cmoneyspinner

Poetry is the most difficult form of writing for me. Especially haiku and limericks. When it comes to writing poems all of my fingers turn into thumbs and my brain turns into mush!

6 years ago

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nickyjames

nickyjames

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4 years ago

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