100 Things Challenge (#3): Confidence and the Wimpy Writer

[dawn_felagund]

Today, I received good news about a paper I'd written for my recent grad school class, but for the first time in a long while, I'd been very nervous about something I'd written. It's that comfortable old dread, that sudden realization of the possibility that one has labored hard and still produced a dud. As I clicked through the university's

Comments

[engarian]

I fully admit that I am a writing wimp and that I am deathly afraid of crit because I have such a hard time putting my work "out there" to begin with. It may seem odd - after all I blog 6-days a week, constantly work on writing fanfic and my O-fic, and I have almost 100 stories posted on Fairie alone. But it took, and still takes, a lot of effort for me to put my work out there because I don't have a support mechanism at all. My DH despises my writing and actively discourages me from working at it, and my friends who I trust for the occasional cheer leading and back patting that I sometimes need don't live close to me, certainly not close enough to contact "off the cuff

[huinare]

iMy DH despises my writing and actively discourages me from working at it

?! =(

[engarian]

Yeah. He's really great in other areas, but when it comes to supporting my creative endeavors, I'm left on my own to sink or swim. Or I only get negative feedback. By now I'm used to it, but I don't have to like it :-) I think that's one reason why my f-list friends are so important to me.

- Erulisse (one L)

[dawn_felagund]

For me, a piece has to be ready for critique. I never request critique on my Tolkien pieces--at least, I have not to this point--simply because I rarely want to spend any significant time on revising them and it isn't fair to request critique and then not use what I'm given. (I do revise my Tolkien pieces occasionally, but it's a spur-of-the-moment thing, when I feel like rereading or working on a particular piece, whereas betas/critiquers would be perfectly in line to expect something more expedient from me

[engarian]

I really envy all of the support that Bobby gives to you. As for crit, I think that's one reason why I've gone back to the basics and started taking some classes in writing again. A lot of the time I just don't understand what people tell me for crit, or don't really see what they are pointing out. It is my hope that by working on things in a more structured setting by working through a class I might be able to improve my basic skills enough that crit will be more plot-oriented than skills oriented.

- Erulisse (one L)