Fears and Doubts

[WannabeWriter]

Right now, Im' in the writer's phase where I'm wondering if my novel is going to be good. We all have these feelings, no doubt, but I thought I'd post this thread for us to share such moments of worry about our own work, whether currently or in the past.

In addition, tell us how you dealt with it. :)

[TrishD]

Right now, Im' in the writer's phase where I'm wondering if my novel is going to be good. We all have these feelings, no doubt, but I thought I'd post this thread for us to share such moments of worry about our own work, whether currently or in the past.

In addition, tell us how you dealt with it. :)

I wish I had some tip or trick, other than to just push it out of your mind and keep going.

I have moments when I read a favorite author and think, "I'm totally in over my head. I'll never be that good." But the thing is, I'm not supposed to be that good, I'm supposed to be my own kind of good. So reminding myself of that helps.

[ORION]

And you think it's different after you are published?
Get used to it...

[SherryTex]

First, every writer that takes their craft seriously, has a nagging voice of some kind that will try to interrupt the creative/generative process.

The trick is to decide to hell with that self doubting demon and have a ton of fun punching out the story that you think kicks. If you have a blast writing it, others will probably enjoy the ride too. C.S. Lewis had more fun in Narnia than he told in the stories, and that's with going back six more times. Ditto for Rowling, Tolkein and lest you think only fantasy writers get all the fun, Dickens, Austen and O'Connor lost themselves in the worlds they created and loved every minute of it, and thus so do we.

Worry what other people will think when you have the luxury of being able to say, I'm marketing my book or I've just finished my book or even better, I've just published my book and it's going back for a second reprint, would you like me to sign...

In the grudging sludging part of writing my book, love parts, hate parts, need to write the stinking middle...but it's a cool book...I know it.

[Straka]

I love my writing when I write. I usually realize its crap afterwards. Lately I've been getting better at spotting that rough spots as I go.

Curious enough though, I've calculated that I've nearly written (serious works) a million words. Do I think I have a handle of the English language? A little. Do I think I've got a handle of novel writing? I'm getting there.

[maestrowork]

It's natural. Just take a short break, then get back to it.

Just remember, if you don't love your own writing, how do you expect others to?

[Seif]

I love my writing when I write. I usually realize its crap afterwards.


I think I've found my new sig,

Straka do I have to pay you royalties?

[Use Her Name]

I think that when you are the only boss on project, you always will have some fear that it is not working out. How many novels have you written? Usually you write several before finally figuring out a technique that works. Often these first projects are abandoned somewhere in the middle because they don't work. This is the way the work is. You get stronger and gain in knowledge with maturity. When I say maturity, I don't mean physical age, I mean how many years you have been at writing, and how many projects you have worked on.

[Bruzilla]

I've learned that no matter how well you write, there will always be somebody who complains about it. This is the same for all endeavors. I knew a guy who spent two years and over $50,000 doing a total restoration of a 1971 Plymouth Roadrunner. He made sure the paint was correct, the engine compartment was correct, the interior was correct. He drove me nuts with the way he hyper-checked every part on that car. Then we go to a show, and some weasly POS who didn't even own a collector car walks by, looks up under the trunk lid, and says the washers on the nuts that hold the spoiler on the back aren't the right ones. The car owner went nuts as months of bottled-up frustration broke loose and he grabbed a crowbar and smashed the spoiler.

I learned a lot from seeing that, and I realized that it doesn't matter how great a job you do, there will always be some pinhead who just has to find something wrong with it. When they do, just thank them for their input and move on. If they could do their own writing they would be writing novels instead of critiques.

[Straka]

I think I've found my new sig,

Straka do I have to pay you royalties?

Lol. Sure have at it, I'm send you my address to forward the checks to :-P

Though let's fix my original typo so "its" is now "it's"

[Twizzle]

Oh, man. I've been having a supremely low few weeks-like bottom of the barrel could I suck any more low few weeks. A friend sent me an email yesterday and I have no idea if it's true, but it said "Saul Bellow was rejected by The New Yorker-after he won his Nobel. So you will never ever ever be good enough. Deal with it, get over yourself, and then get writing."

So, um, yeah. It helped. In a weird way, it really did. I finally got my revisions done and sent them. I might still suck, but eh. She was right. I'll always suck to somebody. The deal is, I might not suck to one person if I keep going-and hey, if I'm lucky that one might be someone who can cut a check, you know?

-twizzle, working hard on getting over herself.

[Feathers]

Hmm. My problem is that I'm too critical of my own work. There was this one guy I looked up to a lot, and he was always telling me that I didn't have a clue, that I wasn't being serious enough, that i was too caught up in trying to get published. So I got in the habit of mistrusting my work. Now it doesn't trust me... *sniff*

*cough* back on topic...How I deal with this is basically, I try to fall in love with my novel again. I get all into the characters and the plot until I forget all about how much it sucks.



-Feathers

[L.Jones]

And you think it's different after you are published?
Get used to it...


Yep. I am tempted every time I sign a book to write - "I promise my next book will be better"

Writing are hard. Make head hurt.
annie jones

[kg_crow]

There's a terrific maxim that applies here:

"Fake it 'till you make it."

Very few authors get what they write printed exactly as they write it. That's what editors are for. They'll help you out with rough spots...but you gotta have a manuscript for them to look at first.

Go for it and don't let anyone or anything get in the way.

G'luck!

[blacbird]

"Saul Bellow was rejected by The New Yorker-after he won his Nobel.

And Pearl Buck received a rejection the same day she received notification of her own Nobel Prize. There are a lot of similar stories.

Thing is, I'd guess it was a mite easier for Buck and Bellow to deal with those rejections, having won Nobel Prizes, than it is to deal with endless rejections without getting anything accepted for publication. I have to guess about that, of course, knowing only one of those two conditions on a personal basis.

caw

[CDarklock]

Right now, Im' in the writer's phase where I'm wondering if my novel is going to be good.

Look at it this way.

If you write it, it might be good.

If you don't write it, then it will never be good.

Does that give you enough information to make a decision? ;)

[windyrdg]

Expect a shitty first draft and maybe you'll be surprised.It is always easier to revise, rewrite and/or polish than put words on a blank sheet of paper. Tell yourself, "This is just a first draft, it doesn't matter." It isn't in thw riting, it's in the re-writing.

[Annabella863]

I am forcing myself not to revise while writing my first draft. When my inner critic gets really noisy about an awkward paragraph or clunky transition or lame piece of dialogue, I change that segment to a different color ink and promise to get back to it after I've finished the whole thing. For me, talking myself out of finishng is the biggest problem.

[lakotagirl]

I've wanted to be a writer all my life. I have written stories all my life but never had the time to seriously attempt being a published writer. Now I have time and I am giving it all I have.

It's not good enough. I want to chuck it all and go fishing. I really do.

But, I LIKE my stories. Other people like my stories. It's my writing that sucks.

I know how you feel. If you believe in yourself, you will succeed.

Just keep believing.

[TrishD]

You want fears and doubts?

Today I received my chapter-by-chapter breakdown from my editor with red pencil notes in the margins noting everything that is wrong with my manuscript. There is so much red, I wondered why she'd wanted to buy the damn thing in the first place!

Then I reminded myself that she DID buy it and she sees the potential there. So nap first, then write. :)

[blacbird]

We all have fears and doubts. And confidence, too. Otherwise we wouldn't be writers.

For example:

I fear nothing I write will ever be published.

I doubt that anything I write will ever be published.

I have confidence that nothing I write will ever be published.

And I have the track record to back all of them up.

caw

[JJ Cooper]

If you believe you'll never be published, you never will.

JJ

[steveg144]

I've trained myself to just naturally assume that anything I get down on paper is going to be crap. That way, when I get a bit of distance between me and the piece and discover that in fact it is crap, I'm not surprised. But when the piece turns out not to be crap, I get a pleasant surprise out of the deal. One thing I've noticed: the more writing I do, the more "hey, this ain't half bad" moments of pleasant surprise I've gotten to enjoy. ;)

[Straka]

A lot of times times I does feel like we're Sisyphus pushing that boulder up hill just to see it roll back down again.

I can't really complain, since I've only been rejected twice from agents. But as a write a new work I feel it's still no quiet there. I'm not at the peak. So I keep working it. And starting writing more in the meantime. I hope I'll get over that first peak, get an agent someday, but I know that as soon as I do, I got to start rolling that boulder up the next mountain.

[blacbird]

If you believe you'll never be published, you never will.

JJ

For a long time I believed with great confidence that I would get stuff published. It had the same result.

caw

[NeuroFizz]

The only ways to guarantee a story won't be published is to not finish it, or to not submit it once it is finished.

I guess I just don't get all this hand wringing. This is a business that has a very low success rate, where the competition is intense, and where the evaluation is very subjective (except where it comes to elements of the basic craft of writing). Because of this, the only way to get anywhere is to finish what is started and get it out there for evaluation. For any beginning or developing writer, it is important to get the works out for evaluative feedback. Writing is a continual learning process, and the only way to see how to improve one's writing is to subject it to some kind of critique.

Tell me what is better--to agonize about how your writing may not be good enough, or to get confirmation that it isn't good enough? I say the second one is best because it's possible to find out why it isn't good enough and to do something about it. You don't have that critical benefit with the first choice.

[Raphee]

In addition, tell us how you dealt with it. :)

I am now a believer in the therapeutic abilities of taking a break from writing when I feel down in the dumps. It seems to be working.

[Round John Virgin]

I am forcing myself not to revise while writing my first draft. When my inner critic gets really noisy about an awkward paragraph or clunky transition or lame piece of dialogue, I change that segment to a different color ink and promise to get back to it after I've finished the whole thing. For me, talking myself out of finishng is the biggest problem.

Annabella - I wish I could make myself charge on without looking back. But I think I'm a victim of having read too many Hemingway biographies as a young man. He always said that he started each day's writing by revising what he'd done up to that point. I know that approach holds more water when you're writing with pencils on legal pads, instead of whanging away in Word or WordPerfect. But it seems to have wormed its way into my subconscious.

Or it could be an OCD thing (which doesn't just run in my family--it gallops!). In any case, it's a hard habit to break and has been my undoing in the NaNoWriMo funfest. Maybe I'll try your different color approach. Thanks, and good luck.

[David I]

It changes once you're published. Getting published gets rid of the fear that you'll never get published! On the other hand, it gives you a whole new set of fears! Hooray!

The basic fear that your book sucks, though, is one you can count on. Nothing can take that away from you.

Have faith. The human imagination is inexhaustible, especially when it involves bad outcomes. This guarantees that, regardless of what happens--no matter what successes life throws in your path--you can look forward with confidence to a future filled with anxiety and self-doubt.

[a_sharp]

Tell me what is better--to agonize about how your writing may not be good enough, or to get confirmation that it isn't good enough? I say the second one is best because it's possible to find out why it isn't good enough and to do something about it. You don't have that critical benefit with the first choice.

Couldn't agree more, but my problem has been getting critical feedback. Not to be negative, but I'm talking the whole novel, not just sample chapters. Finding a good critic has been a tough job for me until landing here. Now I won't solicit readers on AW until I finish my current WIP.

The problem I have with agent submissions is that there's zero worthwhile feedback on rejections. They are polite, nice people, but too overwhelmed to render more than a comment, if that. What we need are the kinds of critiques we would get from a teacher--or from an editor. But the question's moot if you've made it that far.

[WannabeWriter]

I also told myself recently that it's better to not make it after trying than not trying at all. And everything posted here is really good advice. I will take it to heart.

With that, I'm going back to my second draft tonight. :)

[blacbird]

I also told myself recently that it's better to not make it after trying than not trying at all.


I used to believe this, too. Now I'm less sure.

caw

[blacbird]

It changes once you're published. Getting published gets rid of the fear that you'll never get published!

Well, sure. And the converse is . . . ?

caw

[LaceWing]

If I ever really get going, the first draft will not be actually crappy, but it will stink. It'll have major structural flaws and the characters will have morphed so as to be unrecognizable. I won't have a clue how to fix it or the motivation to start again and write the story it was meant to be all along.

[arkady]

First, every writer that takes their craft seriously, has a nagging voice of some kind that will try to interrupt the creative/generative process.

Yes, and that voice generally speaks in the shape of a form rejection slip.

[Charlie Horse]

Okay, all this talk about fear of your work sucking, and fear of never getting published, yada yada yada, these are questions you ask only if you don't absolutely love the act of writing because, honestly, if you don't then you should find some other way to occupy your time.

If I got a glimpse into the future and saw that I was never going to be published you know what? I would still drag my scrawny ass out of bed every morning and work on my writing because for me that's the best thing I do every day. There is a tired old saying that states "it's the journey, not the destination that you should embrace." As trite and simplistic as that saying may be, it's also true. And don't think for a minute that not getting published has anything to do with whether or not you're a writer. If you are dilligent about writing and it's something you consider an integral part of your existence then you are a writer and no agent, editor, publisher, or reader can take that away from you.

So there.

[WannabeWriter]

Good way to put it, Charlie. :)

[Straka]

I'll tell you one of my fears is full time work. Since I've been on unemployment I've gotten a taste of being a full time writer (while looking for jobs) and I don't want to go back! For the first time in my life I've been able to dedicate hours and hours to my work.

[wayndom]

And you think it's different after you are published?
Get used to it...

A-friggin'-men!

[wayndom]

If I ever really get going, the first draft will not be actually crappy, but it will stink. It'll have major structural flaws and the characters will have morphed so as to be unrecognizable. I won't have a clue how to fix it or the motivation to start again and write the story it was meant to be all along.

Then why bother?

[wayndom]

I also told myself recently that it's better to not make it after trying than not trying at all.

Absolutely. If you don't try, you go to your grave wondering what might have been, if only you'd tried. If you try and fail, there are plenty of other things in the world that make life worth living, so at least you got one monkey off your back so you can enjoy the other things.

[Use Her Name]

I already posted, but I had this thought.

You have to be a fan of your own novel, and in fact, a fan of your writing (without being blind to problems). You are your first fan, and the enthusiasm about your own work invites other people to feel enthusiasm too. If you say: I'm scared, nervous, or whatever negative you can apply, dont you lable yourself and give yourself permission to fail? When you fail, you can say, "I was nervous, scared..." It's a predestined excuse. Instead, say something like, "this is a phase, my project is just in an early stage. Lets see what I can do about it." Rejections are a part of the biz.

Confidence building is very important to a new writer. I disagree with people who tend to think it is totally a natural thing, and that you are born doing it. When I first started college, I nearly flunked the first English classes. When I started my English degree, the teacher of a literature class told me I should seriously re-consider my carrier choice. I was that bad. I kept studying my heart out, and by the end of it, graduated cum laude, had been invited to attend graduate level writing seminars, and basically did great.

Each little feather in your cap should be carefully preserved. I feel that victories are the midwives to victories. The more good stuff that happens to you, the less chance of being depressed when the bad stuff happens. To expose yourself to the maximum success is about constantly publishing, trying to publish-- but you have to walk in there with a MS you love yourself.

[LaceWing]

Then why bother?


Oh, but that's only the fear part, the subject of this thread. You know, acknowledging that those creeping thoughts are there.

The other part is about how cool the characters are. They have a lot to say and wonderful adventures to live through.