Aug
21st
2019
Feeling Bad About Your Writing · 7:03pm Aug 21st, 2019
(Sorry for the blog re-post; Fimifction burped.)
Let's be honest. Most of these blogs are me rambling about somewhat-interesting topics for over a thousand words.
How about a switch?
Every writer stumbles into a period of clunky words, hollow characters, expositional dialogue and hatred of one's wit and fingertips. During which, not only are you unable to write well—you've doubt you ever had in the past. So you go back. Reading your older works like they decide your worth as a writer.
The question I pose to the jury is this? How do you get yourself over such times?
Let's discuss it in the comment section.
I usually watch something light and happy, or entertaining and informing. Other times I listen to music.
I just stop being a pussy, mostly.
I go over all the things that inspire me. It's rather broad, so I'll name a few and what about them that inspire me.
Undertale: Meta humor and quirky characters that find themselves in absurd situations, but deep down has an emotional core a lot of people can get behind.
Youtubers like Scott the Woz, and Alpharad: Their use of irony and snappy jokes inspires my sense of humor.
Skirt's: His older, more surreal and emotionally deep works like Background Pony and The Last Tears In Tartarus are stories I can't help but channel when I want to get real emotional, and display a sense of isolation.
Besides going over what inspires me, I remind myself of the satisfaction of work, and the endorphins released when I finish something. I might not like what I have created, but I can say I am fulfilled with finishing whatever it was I was working on. Guilt builds in me for not committing and finishing what I start.
Those last few words, after days, weeks, months, years of work is so worth it.
There's also music to set the tone of what I want to capture. I usually play some EDM of multiple genres: House, techno, hardcore rave, whatever I think fits what I'm working on. If nothing is done, at least I am content with some nice tunes.
5109571
Never change
When you think you are writing poorly, write something worse on purpose. And then you can appreciate your own normally good writing more.
5109594
I do the opposite. I do my absolute best with my next story to spite past me. Fuck past Zaid. That complacent bum... I'll show him!
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I'm really into the storytelling of writing, so I like to watch/read others work for inspiration. There are a few times I've based something I've written off a movie's dialogue pros. I know for sure I did it with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and most of Quentin Tarantino's stuff. He writes dialogue in ways that are so fluent, it rubs off on me. This stuff usually gives me the confidence to write.
I keep working until I hit my stride. I'd argue that most of my stories are incredibly mediocre up until the point that I began writing Nightmare, and I only really began enjoying writing once I saw people enjoying my work.
Any time I start to doubt myself, I look back at every story I've wrote until now and see how far I've come as an author, and I feel better about myself.
Alcoholism and the secure knowledge that I'm still an echelon above most of the site in terms of writing ability.
I go through the comments and find people who talk about what's wrong with the story, ask how I could make it better, write it down, and down a couple shots of bourbon before writing the next chapter.
Even if I wrote the worst thing ever, nobody is really going to give a shit. It probably won't be the worst thing ever either so fuck it.
Plus, when you write you just never know. Ever have a term paper or an essay you wrote, that you thought was going to be hot garbage? Only to receive said paper a week later with an A on it? And you just wonder "What the f***, how!?
The gamble in it all, is what makes it fun. To think what you submit is going to be a hit, is foolish. Now if you've set a standard, people have come to expect, or if it's a squeal to something. Then yes, it should be a hit or decently successful.
Maybe it's a sign of overdoing things? It seems (read: seems) like you're able to spend a solid amount of time writing each week. That's awesome and I envy it! But if you find there's no water left in the well, maybe the rate you're drawing from it is faster than the rate at which it refills? Or at least that it's being refilled?
I've been in something of a dry spell myself for several months. What it's led me to discover is that sometimes I use writing as a way of distracting myself from focusing on deeper issues that bear more serious engagement. The flip-side is that I also use writing as a way of engaging those things, processing them, and integrating them into my life. So it wasn't obvious at first that I'd substituted the act of processing and engagement for actual processing and engagement. For once my writing wasn't helping me solve those problems; it was exacerbating them.
Since realizing that and dedicating more time to trying to tackle those things head-on, I've started to find some movement with my writing as well. The irony is that spending time working on those things doesn't decrease my writing time; it increases it, because I'm able to bring significantly greater focus to the bits of time that I have.