Walking the Tightrope--How Authors Angst Over Their Work

[a_r_williams]

*note: Partly inspired by rippatton's The Wrong Person to Ask

I know you do it. Hell, I do it. You just finish reading a book and you sit there stunned for a minute, the way a deer is stunned when the lights on your car hits it in the eyes. Then you marvel at how great the author is and go--" I want to write a book like that. "

Or it's the reverse. You fling

Comments

[keireland]

"You just finish reading a book and you sit there stunned for a minute, the way a deer is stunned when the lights on your car hits it in the eyes. Then you marvel at how great the author is"

Yep. Guilty as charged.
Oftentimes, I'm jealous of how "clean" their writing is. Like the words are polished silver set in pristine white marble. It makes me terribly sick and mildly annoyed that even after spending months editing something, I still don't feel like I've gotten it that clean and perfect and I never will. I keep trying, though... because I'm a writer.

I was once asked to Beta read/edit a story for someone. They had chosen to get a beta reader because someone anonymous had reviewed their posted work with a suggestion that they take another look at their story and improve their craft. The writer had said to me that the reviewer was being mean and the writer was considering quitting writing completely. I looked at the review, I looked at the writing. Their writing really WAS terrible and the reviewer wasn't being mean at all, just politely honest.

In the end, I had to tell the writer that I couldn't be their beta/editor because if a mild review like "Please edit this?" sent them to the brink of quitting writing, than anything _I_ would say would destroy them and I didn't want that on my conscience. I did offer that after reading my full review of their work if they were still interested in writing they could ask me again. They never replied.

My point being (I'm on topic, really!): Writing is like a drug. If you're not really a writer, you can quit anytime. If you try to quit and just can't, no matter how many times people tell you it sucks, or how many times you're rejected...

[a_r_williams]

There was a point in time where I wasn't writing. I would think about it every now and then, just wouldn't commit. I have never thought about quitting, but those lulls where you just don't write feel like the same thing.

But I'm back, and commited more than I've ever been before. There comes a point where you have to go for your dreams instead of saying "I'll do it someday!" or "I'll do it tomorrow!"

Those types of thoughts will see years fly by without anything coming from it. If you want to write, you have to commit to it.

Maybe slowly at first. Just don't quit.