Why does that feeling fade?

I usually determine a short story "sucks" while it's in the planning/outline stage, at which point I set it aside and don't work on it unless I come up with a brilliant plan sometime to fix it. After the story's finished, I'm too busy writing the next story to worry about it.

I have never thought any of my stories 'sucked.' (So I sort of find this whole thread odd, well from my way of thinking.)

I sometimes go back and read an old story and think, well why did I use the word 'saw' so much, or okay, really, couldn't I have phrased that better?

So I don't think I'm a perfect writer by any means. But I still love all my stories and all the characters. Perhaps I am in the minority on this.

jaksen said:

I have never thought any of my stories 'sucked.' (So I sort of find this whole thread odd, well from my way of thinking.)

I sometimes go back and read an old story and think, well why did I use the word 'saw' so much, or okay, really, couldn't I have phrased that better?

So I don't think I'm a perfect writer by any means. But I still love all my stories and all the characters. Perhaps I am in the minority on this.

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I'm with you on this one. I think I can improve and likely will in time. I don't like to see writers put themselves down so much. Keep working at it and if you have passion you'll get there. And if you don't at least you tried and now you have some idea what it takes to learn any skill. I guess I speak from experience. I tried to be an illustrator for years until I realized I just wasn't cut out for it nor did I enjoy it as much. I'm hoping writing will be different and I'm going to keep trying as long as I can enjoy it.

To use a cliche: It's about the journey, not the destination.

jaksen said:

I have never thought any of my stories 'sucked.' (So I sort of find this whole thread odd, well from my way of thinking.)

I sometimes go back and read an old story and think, well why did I use the word 'saw' so much, or okay, really, couldn't I have phrased that better?

So I don't think I'm a perfect writer by any means. But I still love all my stories and all the characters. Perhaps I am in the minority on this.

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I not only think some of my stories suck, I've written a few where every editor out there agreed with me fully, and sometimes in rather blunt language.

I not only don't love everything I write, I know some of it is pure garbage.

Now, granted, many of these pure suck stories are experimental, come when I'm trying something that's not only new to me, but would probably be new to any writer. Now and then, however, a suck story is just like my good stories, except that it sucks front to back because I didn't do my job.

"Suck" I suppose, is a relative thing, which is why many of these stories sell quickly, but I'm convinced they do suck when compare dto otehr things I've written, and especially where they fall short of how they should have read had I done my job properly.

phantasy said:

I'm with you on this one. I think I can improve and likely will in time. I don't like to see writers put themselves down so much. Keep working at it and if you have passion you'll get there. And if you don't at least you tried and now you have some idea what it takes to learn any skill. I guess I speak from experience. I tried to be an illustrator for years until I realized I just wasn't cut out for it nor did I enjoy it as much. I'm hoping writing will be different and I'm going to keep trying as long as I can enjoy it.

To use a cliche: It's about the journey, not the destination.

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I don't put myself down, I put bad stories I've written down, and some of them are horrible.

I never have liked the "It's about the journey, not the destination" philosophy. It always struck me as a way of saying, "Sorry, kid, the plane's been hijacked, and you are not going to reach your destination, no matter how much you wanted to go there."

Destination matters, or there's no point in trying to reach it. It's no coincidence that the word "ravel" is derived from the word "travail".

A lot of this comes down to emotional investment I suspect. When you're wrapped up in a story you become attached to it. Days later after finishing you're not nearly as much so allowing you to evaluate it critically.

What's funny is the last story I wrote, I wasn't convinced it was worth the pixels used on the computer screen. Handed it off to my first reader, who declared it the best thing she's ever read that I've written.

So, the feeling I'm hoping for from here on out is, "Is this crap? Probably"

Jamesaritchie said:

I never have liked the "It's about the journey, not the destination" philosophy. It always struck me as a way of saying, "Sorry, kid, the plane's been hijacked, and you are not going to reach your destination, no matter how much you wanted to go there."

Destination matters, or there's no point in trying to reach it. It's no coincidence that the word "ravel" is derived from the word "travail".

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But sometimes the plane does get hijacked. Like is unfair.
Any skill or venture will take a lot of time out of our lives. The journey can span decades. Even if you don't get to where you want to go, maybe the goal was never the point, maybe it was the learning you did, the stuff that made you a better person. When a person fails, they shouldn't think the time was wasted. That time they took to learning or failing is important. Not all of us will succeed and that's life.

Maybe I'm just fed up with this overly goal-oriented culture.

I have some stories that I think are okay and then I have some that I don't bother with anymore. I tend to get other people's eyes on them after the first revision. That really helps to put it into perspective.