How do you feel about your work when writing it?

[Brian G Turner]

Joe Abercrombie's mentioned a few times how he thinks his writing is crap while he's writing it, for example: Joe Abercrombie on Twitter

I'm the opposite - I've always seen the brilliant potential of my work while writing it, which causes the problem of not seeing short-comings which prevent that potential being reached.

How does everyone else feel when writing their own? Are you like me and think you're writing a work of genius, until it's pointed out otherwise? Or are you all too aware of the flaws that you'll need to come back and work on?

 

[crystal haven]

I nearly always feel my writing is bad, although that thought varies during the day. In the morning, when I'm not tired, it seems to read better. If I read my writing late at night it has deteriorated into a total mess which, somehow, reads a lot better again by morning. But I always have doubts. When I'm writing I never feel it is as good as I'd like to produce. One thing I do know is my writing is a lot better now that it was when I started.

 

[millymollymo]

I know a good plan when I see one. I know that first drafts are a long way off any form of 'working plan', and hard work fills the ground in the middle.
Which I think is the same as your 'potential'. The important bit, to me, is knowing whats potential worthy of polish seeing that, and owning up to the "Jeez more work? For Realz?" feeling.

I can't see beyond the potential if I am too close, which is why I now have the Ultimate Drawer of Potential, which is located directly above the Monsterous Blackhole of Garbage.*
Unless time pressure requires otherwise, first drafts sit in the Drawer, every now and again they are held up to some rigorous testing and should they fail someone pulls a massive lever and contents drop magically into the bin below


For me, and this is a personal observation I'm sure not all agree with, but I believe only one person can grant the lofty status "Genius" and that's the reader.

In our genre, awesome work is more subjective than others. It certainly seems that way.

*Far more exciting than "If I re-read it a couple of months down the line and don't like it, I throw it in the bin."

 

[Nick B]

I have to say, I'm with Mr Abercrombie on this for the most part. I visualise a good scene, thinking, wow, this is pretty good, then I write it. Halfway through writing, I usually get to the point where I'm thinking 'this isn't how it worked out in my mind, this is total pants.' I mostly get through that, though some scenes have been binned at this point too, ignore the voice in my head chanting 'in the bin, in the bin, in the bin...' work with what I've got and wrestle it into a semblance of what I originally envisioned.
So, yeah, while I like the scenes I plan, in the middle of writing, I am usually at the 'who would want to read this crap?' stage.
Luckily, I have the willpower to just keep going. Or possibly it's just stubbornness.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I never think about this when I'm writing, I'm far too caught up in the whole thing to take a step back. That's why - for me - everything has to be right and ready to go before I begin a new novel - by which I mean the structure (not the details), and the general feel that the project is something worth writing. Admittedly this technique isn't for everybody, especially new writers, but it does have the advantage of being good when it works. When it doesn't work… those are the novels that never get published. I do have a few of those on my Mac.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Depends what stage i'm at but à good dose of self doubt is inevitable at some point in the process, although i have to feel good about it to sub it.

 

[crystal haven]

I agree with that, Jo, it does depend on which stage of the process.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Yes - self-doubt is way down the line when you read the opening page of something and "know" without thinking that it's not a runner.

 

[Scarfy]

I tend to feel better about it as I rewrite. I always find the first draft the hardest, and tend to find it becomes easier after that.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

To be honest I enjoy the writing bit so much that I tend not to consider if it's good - I know it's fun.

My danger point is the one I'm at now and if I'm going to make a go of this writing and publishing lark I need to discipline myself and stop thinking that needs rewriting from scratch. Because actually it doesn't. Chapters do need rewriting, chapters need adding and taking out, elements need bringing out (like Blue Rinse Brigade and Pink Crayon) but there are equally a good number chapters that just need an edit and a line or two adding. I don't need to bin the draft and start again.

If I can get over this month then I think I'm on the way to conquering that.

 

[Ragandar]

I hate my own work whenever I write it, and it's not even that I find specific flaws with it that have to be fixed. I just flat out feel like it's complete crap. It got to the point where I refused to write anything down, since it was all bad anyway, for about four years or so. Writing was making me genuinely unhappy, so I decided not to do it anymore.

I eventually got back into writing because, during those four years, I felt a constant yearning to continue writing. There were always ideas for characters, settings or plotlines that weaved through my mind. Eventually I realised that I would always feel compelled to tell stories, whereas I could maybe learn to appreciate my own work if I practised hard enough and got my writing to a level that was satisfying. I still don't like what I write, but I know that it's the only way of moving forward. That, and it's better than the alternative of not writing at all.

 

[HareBrain]

A lot of my writing feels like stumbling around in the dark, but I need to go through that to find the light-switch.

 

[Juliana]

I (almost) always love my first drafts. It's the whole heady rush of charging through and to the end. Afterwards, I get critical, and the self-doubt starts up. But I think that, for me, falling in love with a first draft is a necessary part of the process.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I suppose it also depends on your perspectives- from a getting-published, or just a getting-finished intention.

Personally I don't have much of a sense of my writing other than it is unremarkable. I always feel it's unremarkable whether it's the first draft or proof. Perhaps that is down to our emotional self being difficult to distill into words, no matter how accomplished a writer you are. For example, that feeling of bittersweet nostalgia you get when you hear an old song or smell or taste something linked to a particularly old - esp childhood - memory. You can write it, report it, describe it, but it's very difficult to make the reader feel a response as profound as the memory stirs in you. Using the term 'deja vu' gets across the mechanics of feeling you've experienced something already but it can't replicate the feeling. In that regard I think my writing is unremarkable.

It's funny - if not encouraging - to hear HB talk about fumbling in the dark. If there was someone I could muse-snatch it'd be him. Your style is -as I've said before- pristine.

pH

 

[Andrew Lambert]

My brain doesn't really switch on until I start writing and then I find myself heading in all sorts of directions. I'm only at 42k of my first novel, but I've changed the main plot twice.

 

[HareBrain]

Personally I don't have much of a sense of my writing other than it is unremarkable.

At the risk of instigating some kind of hideous mutual back-slapping society: pshaw, sir! But it's true that it's very difficult to get a proper distanced perspective on one's own writing. And probably the most universally true answer to "How do you feel about your work when writing it?" is "Not the same as its other readers will".

 

[Stephen Palmer]

But I think that, for me, falling in love with a first draft is a necessary part of the process.

A perfect summary.

 

[Cathbad]

I always think it's great... 'til i re-read it. Then, I'm like, "My gods! What was I thinking?? REWRITE! REWRITE!"

 

[Phyrebrat]

I wonder if there'd be similar responses in a fine artist's, musician's, choreographer's, mason's etc forum.

Do we, artists all, battle our self-doubt?

My confidence comes from the concept or idea of my story, which I invariably would walk over hot coals to preserve and birth, and I'm usually pleased with my idea.

I just make sure I don't edit as I go along (as in the next day; I do edit as I write). I need the opening to set the tone and be as perfect as it can though, so I will sweat over the front premise for months (er... Years) until it's right, then steam through the rest. Luckily it's the opening that is usually the easiest and truest to my vision so I'm lucky there, but if I'm writing something that is outside of my knowledge base, it's more challenging.

pH

 

[The Big Peat]

I think, yes, with varying responses for how lonely the creation process is. I think artists would be on a similar level to ourselves; musicians spend more time collaborating with their peers and performing, so there should be more of a buttress. It would be fascinating to get a group response from the horse's mouth though.