|
Post by Stacy on May 4, 2010 22:02:16 GMT -5
Like so much, omg.
The couple hundred words I have for non-Sims Valley so far suck. Part of the problem there might be that I'm starting at the wrong place, though. After all, when I wrote Morning and Meeting I had no real clue about the rest of the story. I need to think, deeply and profoundly and for a long time, about the structure of non-Sims Valley.
So then I looked at the draft of the serious first person Sarah POV zombie story. Suck! Went all the way back to 10.02, the few words I had for the second chapter of 10. SUCK!
Why do I have these delusions that writing is like what I'm meant to do with my life and is the one thing in the world that I love and want to do more than anything else, when I am so horribly incredibly bad at it?
I am really tired and should probably go to bed now. And hey, next week I'm on vacation. Time enough for Gunky and maybe a bit of dabbling on the other projects.
So that this isn't totally self-involved whining - how do you get through the bad times? Are you also having a bad time? Have you ever gotten a horrible feeling in your stomach as you reread stuff and realized how much it sucked and how your dreams were stupid and wrong?
|
|
|
Post by thelunarfox on May 4, 2010 23:16:49 GMT -5
Why do I have these delusions that writing is like what I'm meant to do with my life and is the one thing in the world that I love and want to do more than anything else, when I am so horribly incredibly bad at it? That's, like, the catch 22 to being a writer I think. Or maybe that's just me? But it seems like most of the people I know who really love writing and are actually good at it berate themselves a lot and hold themselves to a standard I don't think they hold other people to. This is also probably where our story door way affects us. Being a language person can't make it easy to be a writer. Ugh... those bad times are rough. Everything I look at that I've done gives me that horrible feeling in my stomach and everything is proof to me that I am horrible and not nearly as good as I'd love to think I am. But since I don't dream to be a writer anymore, and since I write to escape, I usually just write to work through it. Or I put it down completely and do something like play Phantom Hourglass on the DS (beat that thing so fast, my boyfriend just raised his brows at me) or read another book.
|
|
|
Post by mdpthatsme on May 4, 2010 23:23:55 GMT -5
Your dreams aren't stupid. They are just lacking the usual inspiration. I have rewritten my main non-Sim related story ten times...or is it more than that now...so I know what it is like to reread something and think it sucks. Of course, I know that isn't the same as completing a project and moving onto something new. Then again...I really don't think I've completed a "writing" project. However, I do understand the frustration as I have extreme writer's block too often for my and my creation's good. It makes me wonder if I'm good enough to be a full-time writer, but then again writing is my foremost passion...It's the best way I can express myself. I suggest you find a good book to read or a TV series to watch and get back some inspiration. Or maybe your vacation with relaxation and a clear mind would help better? That is up to you. Of course, you could just keep writing, even if there's no clear character, plot, or setting, just write something, maybe even something that doesn't make sense. I do that alot. My old teachers said I would just write an essay to write one. Of course, they were essays about nothing and never stayed on any one point. I've got theme prompts if you would rather have a point to discuss. Hope some of my suggestions will help.
|
|
|
Post by laura on May 5, 2010 17:08:23 GMT -5
Ha, that's why I don't reread old projects, lol! Because yes, they SUCKED! You just write, and write some more, and every new thing you write gets better and better. Just the fact that you can look at an old writing and recognize that it sucked means that you must have improved as a writer. Isn't that a nicer way of thinking of it? I was shocked when my professors first told me that the first 20 short stories or first novel I wrote would just be for practice. I thought, OMG, what a waste! I didn't want to believe it and I thought for sure I'd be different. But you know what? I wasn't different, lol! I have at least 20 crappy short stories in a shoe box in my closet, topped off with one failed novel. Just like everybody else. Sure, there's that one-in-a-million writer who publishes the first thing they ever wrote for a fortune. But I bet even they write another story and think their first one was crap. But we keep writing more, and we keep getting better. We never reach a point of having "arrived". There's always more to learn, you get to know your own process better, and it gets easier. Whenever I get down on myself (all the time), or get a rejection (just two weeks ago), or a rough critique (last week), I just try to keep in mind that it's a chance to grow more. And honestly, the hardest part of being a "real" (as in paid professional) writer is sticking to it. You do the hard work, you grow a thicker skin, you read and read and read good stuff, you learn some more, you do better and keep going. Because the only way you won't ever be a "real" writer is if you quit. It's the truth.
|
|
|
Post by laura on May 5, 2010 22:00:31 GMT -5
On another note, since just after I posted that response, I proceeded to open up the set of chapters I'm working on right now, and say, "Ugh, what the crap is this MESS??? Who would ever want to read this stupid drabble???" In the big picture, I know it's not stupid, but when I take a couple chapters out of it and look at them closely and nitpicky and try to get them to the point of readable, it sometimes just feels so stupid and petty. So here's what I did. (A while ago I did this, and it still helps me.) Write your pitch. In one page, write the synopsis of your project. I have mine, which nobody's seen yet, but it's one page, my concise and perfect vision of what I want this novel to become. And one page is easy enough to get right. So I have this one page of perfectness, which is everything I want this little fledgling novel to grow up to be. So whenever I'm feeling like this thing is so, SO stupid (like tonight), I just read that one page, and think, "Oh, that's what I'm trying to do." And I drink a cosmopolitan - that helps too
|
|
|
Post by applevalley on May 6, 2010 22:42:12 GMT -5
Ugh, let's not talk about our earlier works and how much they suck. I'm debating if I actually want to continue to type up my prior shambles of a novel and try to salvage the few pieces of potential or simply let it sit for another five years in the bottom of the closet until the pages get so yellow that you can't read them.
At least it gets better...right?
|
|
|
Post by mdpthatsme on May 7, 2010 12:59:35 GMT -5
REWRITE...a word that haunts me
|
|