I am here to tell you a fact...
You will ALWAYS wish you wrote better. It doesn't matter at what level of success you are. Award winning. NYT Bestselling. Your childhood sweetheart finds you because of your book and falls madly in love.
You will ALWAYS wish... Damn, I wish I had turned that phrase better. Or I wish my characters had more depth. Or that final battle could have been more dynamic. Or my dialogue in that scene could have been crisper.
I have heard all those concerns from writers at every stage. No one is immune to introspection. And nor should we be. If we do ever get to the point where every word we write is golden... well... you know those authors and how badly their writing declines. #dontbuyyourownhype
My point though is, most writers feel that somehow they will reach a point in their writing where 'everything will be alright.' That somehow a magical moment will occur and everything you write you will be thrilled with (not to be confused with the truly magical moment you cross the 1,000,000 word threshold - check out my blog on that truly special moment).
So why not embrace the journey? Why not relish every moment you get to write? Whether you get to write well, poorly, or absolute crap? Why not just hug your inner writer and say 'job well done!'
Because it was a job well done (even if you delete every single character and then do a wipe of your hard drive to eliminate any trace those words were ever typed). You wrote. And the only way to become award-winning or best-selling is to write (check out my other blog "Writing Through It" for more help if you are struggling).
Every day you get to write is a great day. How about we all start to act like it????? :-) :-) :-) #notetoself
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Great post! Over the past year, I've basically had this: Hi, my name is Amber and I write crap. I started a new WIP, before I typed out the first sentence I told it: Hi, my name is Amber and I'm going to write the hell out of you. It may be all crap or it may be gold, but either way, it's getting done.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post!
ReplyDeleteThis is so true! I love your last line here-- I'm happy just to be writing!
ReplyDeleteI'm on a retreat and catching up on both reading and writing- doing your IBC seminar thing this eve too. I enjoyed this, check out my blog as well:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tobyneal.net/
Read several entries, all good stuff esp. the one about rejection rates. Revising query so important!
I've just discovered you blog and your words resonate with all my "should's" and "shouldn'ts" which keep my from enjoying or at least giving myself completely over to the process of writing rather than the end result. Thank you.
ReplyDelete