(Untitled)

[apiphile]

So far today I've not been able to bring lunch and the train got stuck in a tunnel (so I went on reading The Island of Dr Moreau and ignored it), my insides have fallen out, I've edited a couple of other people's draft posts on Faschionism, and my knees already make me wish I wasn't bipedal

Comments

[coniferous_you]

Yeah, I get these feelings of inadequacy too. All I do to deal with them is read a book or two in my genre. I find that usually helps. When you see that the structure or tone or whatever it is you feel makes you an amateur isn't all that far off from what's out there, it helps. Because it's not like these are rational assertions.

[apiphile]

I think the problem I have is that everyone else seems to be better, or I read them and they're not better and think "well these people are published and no one will publish me, maybe I am a lot worse than I thought".

[coniferous_you]

Yeah, I know what you mean. And there certainly are some books in any given genre that are just objectively better. But a lot are worse too.

The problem is that the books that are published are aggressively commercial. Often, it is the writer who writes for a "market" rather than an "audience" who gets the nibble. Some basic ability to put together sentences is required, but ultimately that seems to be it. In the books that are published (at least in the genres that I read, not counting CanLit where the standards are much different), there's always the sense of singular (some might say myopic) tightness around the hook.

A lot of the fun stuff you might see in first drafts (e.g., plays with perspective) gets shredded and burned until all that's left is the heavily marketable essence.

Some might say you wouldn't be a good writer if you weren't asking this question.

[apiphile]

I think everyone, good or bad, must have doubts about their quality... which means some of our doubts must be valid.

[coniferous_you]

Well, it's good to be aware of what you can and cannot do! I think the key is to turn that into a learning experience, and not generalize those observations.

For example, I am absolutely terrible at description. I will often just leave it out of first drafts. But I do dialogue decently. I am working on getting better at seeing things in my mind's eye, but my editing process involves balancing those two things.

One of my writing teachers once told me, "there are no good writers, only good editors" and I find sticking to that gives me hope.