To make up for my earlier memesheepish behavior, here is an attempt to be thoughtful and certainly some heartfelt rambling that is *all me
( Read more... )
I'm not a very confident writer, actually. In fact, I'm not really confident when it comes to most of my abilities. For example people keep telling I was more than averagely eloquent when it comes to expressing myself verbally, and that I was the very picture of competence when I do papers at university. Reason tells me that all of this is right, but that doesn't keep my nerves from becoming all frazzled before. It's similar with writing. It may sound ridiculous but checking reviews makes my stomach twist as badly as before important exams, and one nice thing said about my stuff is capable of making me ecstatic for hours.
Funnily enough I always feel like posting my work really soon after I finished it and I've certainly been posting less than perfect stories this way, once or twice, that I simply felt I had to get out of my head. This may sound now, as if I would write mostly for others, which is certainly not the case, but I simply like sharing what I did, sooner or later. But I will only write about something if I find it worth
( ... )
Reason tells me that all of this is right, but that doesn't keep my nerves from becoming all frazzled before.
That's exactly how I feel too. I can pick apart my stories like I would pick apart a story that I was reading for beta and identify the things that I do well: Characters are usually well done, imagery is decent, for example. But there's always that one flaw or that one way in which I think it could be better. I could have ten spot-on metaphors and one that's shaky, and the shaky one would define how I feel about the story. Hence my mixed feelings about the early chapters of AMC: they are less clean than the later chapters, and I was doing some pretty weird metaphorical experiments!
This may sound now, as if I would write mostly for others, which is certainly not the case, but I simply like sharing what I did, sooner or later.I didn't mean to sound disparaging about writing for others versus writing for oneself. Some of my stories--gift fics, for example--are clearly written for others. Other gift fics were inspired by others
( ... )
Hence my mixed feelings about the early chapters of AMC: they are less clean than the later chapters, and I was doing some pretty weird metaphorical experiments!
See, and I in the position of the reader didn't like them any less than the newer ones. It's really a point of view thing. :-)
I didn't mean to sound disparaging about writing for others versus writing for oneself.
Oh, you really didn't! But I thought it sounded a lot like I wrote mainly for the feedback, which isn't really the case. Though of course I'm always happy to get some!!
Yes, I forget what happens in my own stories and have to reread chapters to keep them consistent. :^P
But well, you are so much more productive than I am, so you're perfectly entitled to forget. ;-) I recently re-read my fic "Seductress" and thought "Hey, I don't remember writing that paragraph" more than once...
Me too... once, I read a fic and thought, "hey, this is funny... I wonder who wrote it?" and scrolled down to the bottom of the screen and saw my own name.
I'd say that I'm a confident writer. When I post something on the day that I wrote it, it is because it's something small and amusing that I want to share with other people. I've always written satire, and never really felt the need to get it absolutely perfect
( ... )
I don't tend to write in a linear fashion - I will write a paragraph or two, or a conversation, that I know is part of the story, put it in the approximate place it will go in the story, then write around it, in no particular order.
I envy this. I've tried to do this--I tried it with AMC, actually--but I have a tendency to be seized by a story that won't let go...and then it seems rather silly to skip ahead or back. But this means that I'm sometimes stuck writiing parts that I don't want to write, and I sometimes have even left stories because I didn't want to write a particular scene. Never mind that it led to 100 pages that I did want to write....
I'm also arrogant enough to like re-reading my stories.I don't think it's arrogant. I do reread my stuff quite a bit simply because I tend to forget what I've written. I always reread things before posting them, even if they're "finished," just to be sure. And it is always a wonderful feeling to find myself entertained by a story or to come to a passage and think, "Wow, that's pretty
( ... )
do you bite your nails in anticipation of every comment?Oh yes, this is me!! Seeing "reply to your post" as the subject of emails in my box is a Moment. Excited and also nervous
( ... )
So even while positive feedback makes me grin all day, at the same time I sometimes think "How can you think so?!" I, too, feel like I sound as though I'm fishing for more praise
I failed to address in my rambly post that I also have unnaturally good reactions to positive feedback! And I try to keep this in mind when leaving comments on other people's work, particularly if I know the person is new to the community or to writing. AMC was only posted beyond the first chapter because of a wonderfully kind comment by someone. I was at a point where I pretty much saw nothing much to like about that story and it could rot on two floppy disks for the rest of eternity for all that I cared. But one person's nice words made me look at it with an eye for more than what was wrong with it, and with her encouragement, I posted more. And the rest, as they say, is history
( ... )
I was at a point where I pretty much saw nothing much to like about that story and it could rot on two floppy disks for the rest of eternity for all that I cared.
Gasp! Actually, I feel like this a lot. To quote Secret Window, I feel like saying to myself, "This is just...bad writing. And we said No Bad Writing."
I found a journal full of story snippets over winter break...*shudder* I don't even want to think about their awfulness!
Funnily enough, my first fanfic - written at age 6 - is one of my favorites (of my own stuff)!!! It's so simple and pointless and innocent that it's just beautimous!! Hehe :P
I posted more
And we're very glad you did!!!!!! :)
tend to forget that a new writer's skin isn't very thick.
I need to write more stuff so that I can get a thicker skin! :P
That's another thing me & my RL friend have in common. Maybe you to? The Itch. We whine about it to each other, about how we NEED to write something, but it's just not coming out!
Gasp! Actually, I feel like this a lot. To quote Secret Window, I feel like saying to myself, "This is just...bad writing. And we said No Bad Writing."
And here I never thought I'd see that movie quoted in a conversation.... ;^P
But do you think that you're too hard on yourself? Even as I recognize that my older stuff is not as good as my newer stuff, to the point sometimes where it is almost painful to read, I also recognize that there are certain ways that I observe my own writing that contribute to that.
For example (and I said this also to tehta in a comment below, so if this is repetition, feel free to skip it!): If I work and rework a passage, it sounds terrible no matter what I do. It is never quite right, even if it is writing that I would accept or even applaud from someone else. Why? I sometimes think that the knowledge alone that the writing has given me trouble and the memory of dealing with that trouble color my perceptions of it. Or if I want a word/metaphor/description to say something and can't get it perfect, no matter
( ... )
Hey, look how long it took me to get to answer your question about how people came to write! I never seem to find answers to these things, so new thoughts are always welcome! :)
And please don't worry about AMC. You have a lot going on, and I only want you to work on it if you want to work on it and have the time for it. And it's never going to be "finished," either, so again, you have as long as you want!
Is posting/sharing your work routine for you or do you bite your nails in anticipation of every comment?
It depends on who I am asking. I quit sharing my raw material after someone else took a run with ideas just a bit too often and thought that was perfectly normal. I do learn from those mistakes.
And do you like your stories?
Yes
Do you like to reread your old stuff or do you hide from it?
I re-read and see growth. We all grow, if you deny yourself to see that, then you really have to ask yourself why you want to write to begin with. Every writer, professional (like Neil Gaiman) or not will say this.
And honestly: Do you write for yourself? Or do you write for others?
I got paid for it, does that count as an answer as well? But for stories, I need to get things out of my system, 95% never makes it online, but yet it is out of my system. Once a while I do go back and see what I can use.
We all grow, if you deny yourself to see that, then you really have to ask yourself why you want to write to begin with.
I have asked this...not of myself, per se--because I recognize that my writing does grow noticeably by the week, even, sometimes!--but of authors whom I get to have the "pleasure" of dealing with as an editor. These are the people who believe that their story puts all the classic authors to shame with its sheer magnificence, and if *I*--a measly fiction editor for a small-bits magazine--don't like it, then that is my myopia and certainly not a lack of ability on their part. :^P
I suppose that the worst thing, for me, about rereading my stuff and finding that it's pretty terrible is the knowledge that I once thought it was really good. And that makes me question how, in a year's time, I will view the stuff that I think is really good now. And then, is it worth spending hours, days, weeks on something that will eventually shame me?
But one does not grow as a writer without writing, so I stick with it. :)
Comments 72
Funnily enough I always feel like posting my work really soon after I finished it and I've certainly been posting less than perfect stories this way, once or twice, that I simply felt I had to get out of my head. This may sound now, as if I would write mostly for others, which is certainly not the case, but I simply like sharing what I did, sooner or later. But I will only write about something if I find it worth ( ... )
Reply
That's exactly how I feel too. I can pick apart my stories like I would pick apart a story that I was reading for beta and identify the things that I do well: Characters are usually well done, imagery is decent, for example. But there's always that one flaw or that one way in which I think it could be better. I could have ten spot-on metaphors and one that's shaky, and the shaky one would define how I feel about the story. Hence my mixed feelings about the early chapters of AMC: they are less clean than the later chapters, and I was doing some pretty weird metaphorical experiments!
This may sound now, as if I would write mostly for others, which is certainly not the case, but I simply like sharing what I did, sooner or later.I didn't mean to sound disparaging about writing for others versus writing for oneself. Some of my stories--gift fics, for example--are clearly written for others. Other gift fics were inspired by others ( ... )
Reply
See, and I in the position of the reader didn't like them any less than the newer ones. It's really a point of view thing. :-)
I didn't mean to sound disparaging about writing for others versus writing for oneself.
Oh, you really didn't! But I thought it sounded a lot like I wrote mainly for the feedback, which isn't really the case. Though of course I'm always happy to get some!!
Yes, I forget what happens in my own stories and have to reread chapters to keep them consistent. :^P
But well, you are so much more productive than I am, so you're perfectly entitled to forget. ;-) I recently re-read my fic "Seductress" and thought "Hey, I don't remember writing that paragraph" more than once...
Reply
Big d'oh moment...
Reply
Reply
I envy this. I've tried to do this--I tried it with AMC, actually--but I have a tendency to be seized by a story that won't let go...and then it seems rather silly to skip ahead or back. But this means that I'm sometimes stuck writiing parts that I don't want to write, and I sometimes have even left stories because I didn't want to write a particular scene. Never mind that it led to 100 pages that I did want to write....
I'm also arrogant enough to like re-reading my stories.I don't think it's arrogant. I do reread my stuff quite a bit simply because I tend to forget what I've written. I always reread things before posting them, even if they're "finished," just to be sure. And it is always a wonderful feeling to find myself entertained by a story or to come to a passage and think, "Wow, that's pretty ( ... )
Reply
Reply
I failed to address in my rambly post that I also have unnaturally good reactions to positive feedback! And I try to keep this in mind when leaving comments on other people's work, particularly if I know the person is new to the community or to writing. AMC was only posted beyond the first chapter because of a wonderfully kind comment by someone. I was at a point where I pretty much saw nothing much to like about that story and it could rot on two floppy disks for the rest of eternity for all that I cared. But one person's nice words made me look at it with an eye for more than what was wrong with it, and with her encouragement, I posted more. And the rest, as they say, is history ( ... )
Reply
Gasp! Actually, I feel like this a lot. To quote Secret Window, I feel like saying to myself, "This is just...bad writing. And we said No Bad Writing."
I found a journal full of story snippets over winter break...*shudder* I don't even want to think about their awfulness!
Funnily enough, my first fanfic - written at age 6 - is one of my favorites (of my own stuff)!!! It's so simple and pointless and innocent that it's just beautimous!! Hehe :P
I posted more
And we're very glad you did!!!!!! :)
tend to forget that a new writer's skin isn't very thick.
I need to write more stuff so that I can get a thicker skin! :P
That's another thing me & my RL friend have in common. Maybe you to? The Itch. We whine about it to each other, about how we NEED to write something, but it's just not coming out!
So, this is me whining. ;P
Reply
And here I never thought I'd see that movie quoted in a conversation.... ;^P
But do you think that you're too hard on yourself? Even as I recognize that my older stuff is not as good as my newer stuff, to the point sometimes where it is almost painful to read, I also recognize that there are certain ways that I observe my own writing that contribute to that.
For example (and I said this also to tehta in a comment below, so if this is repetition, feel free to skip it!): If I work and rework a passage, it sounds terrible no matter what I do. It is never quite right, even if it is writing that I would accept or even applaud from someone else. Why? I sometimes think that the knowledge alone that the writing has given me trouble and the memory of dealing with that trouble color my perceptions of it. Or if I want a word/metaphor/description to say something and can't get it perfect, no matter ( ... )
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
And please don't worry about AMC. You have a lot going on, and I only want you to work on it if you want to work on it and have the time for it. And it's never going to be "finished," either, so again, you have as long as you want!
Reply
I am a published writer non-fiction wise, so yes.
Is posting/sharing your work routine for you or do you bite your nails in anticipation of every comment?
It depends on who I am asking. I quit sharing my raw material after someone else took a run with ideas just a bit too often and thought that was perfectly normal. I do learn from those mistakes.
And do you like your stories?
Yes
Do you like to reread your old stuff or do you hide from it?
I re-read and see growth. We all grow, if you deny yourself to see that, then you really have to ask yourself why you want to write to begin with. Every writer, professional (like Neil Gaiman) or not will say this.
And honestly: Do you write for yourself? Or do you write for others?
I got paid for it, does that count as an answer as well? But for stories, I need to get things out of my system, 95% never makes it online, but yet it is out of my system. Once a while I do go back and see what I can use.
If you were to finish a story tomorrow ( ... )
Reply
I have asked this...not of myself, per se--because I recognize that my writing does grow noticeably by the week, even, sometimes!--but of authors whom I get to have the "pleasure" of dealing with as an editor. These are the people who believe that their story puts all the classic authors to shame with its sheer magnificence, and if *I*--a measly fiction editor for a small-bits magazine--don't like it, then that is my myopia and certainly not a lack of ability on their part. :^P
I suppose that the worst thing, for me, about rereading my stuff and finding that it's pretty terrible is the knowledge that I once thought it was really good. And that makes me question how, in a year's time, I will view the stuff that I think is really good now. And then, is it worth spending hours, days, weeks on something that will eventually shame me?
But one does not grow as a writer without writing, so I stick with it. :)
Reply
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