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The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

How do you resist the urge to just delete everything you have written?

I feel like all the storygames I've been working on are complete crap with ambitious ideas that I will never be able to do justice. It just feels like it is a pile of fecal matter not even worth continuing under the masquerade that one day it might actually be good enough to release for others to read and review. I mean, I'm not a great writer. I'm terrible at scripting. 

 

I feel like this with pretty much everything I write. They just seem like they belong in the garbage heap. 

 

All I can see are examples of greatness, which I can never achieve. 

 

My writing will probably be just as reviled as the typical Warrior cat storygames.

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

Vocab the shit out of it, and fluff it up to make it as spiffy as Mary Antoinette.  You'll save some face and get some actual advice and better inspiration from critics who care.

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

Just get one finished and published.

After one you'll see if you're terrible or not. I'll say that I felt roughly the same way before releasing my first storygame too. We tend to be harsher critics of ourselves than others are of us.

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

I totally feel this all the time. Then again, it's quite possibly true, for me at least. 

Anyhow, Killa's post was basically what I rationalized, so I'd do that.

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

Unless you're actually writing a warrior cat game or something involving diaper wearing furries, your story probably isn't going to be quite THAT reviled.

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

I suggest that you go ahead and play one of those two-star Warrior Cat storygames. It should make you realize that no, your work isn't actually that bad. XD

Besides, you can always improve... as long as you keep writing. ^_^

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

I have played them before. My work just doesn't seem on par with the people considered good writers.

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

You have to finish your stories for them to evolve to greatness over multiple efforts. Just quitting is what normal people do.

"It is the ability to see a project through to the end that separates the best of us from the rest of us." - unknown.

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

Thanks everyone for the advice and stuff. I'll see if I can at least finish the shorter one that I have in the making and see how it does I guess. 

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

That's an affliction a lot of people get. It's an insecurity I have, have always had, and will never master. I don't just think I'm shit, I know I'm shit, and it's true in my case. Everyone knows that I'm shit. But there's something golden in every turd. Plumbers Don't Wear Ties played better than your standard Warrior Cats game, if only because you can't see how bad the spelling is and the sadly pathetic attempts at humor are better than talking cats trying to take themselves so seriously. Randomly Walk the first was vaguely funny. Randomly Walk II was complete shit, but it manages to maintain a 4-5 rating. Randomly Walk III has lost all its roots, but it still manages to maintain the shove-down-your-throat humor that mirrors the subtle, unintentional joke of the first. So many bad indie games, SO MANY. But people play them. People buy 30 page essays about why bubblegum is bad on their  kindles just because it's cheap and they want something to read.

The thing is, if you can't get over that feeling, you should embrace the shit. You should just try your best and just slide it to the audience when you're done. And you'll find out the most amazing thing...  There are people, at every corner of the globe, who like your brand of shit, and there are other people, at all corners of the globe, that believe what you think is good is shit. Everyone writes shit, Nightbird, you just need to find an audience that likes eating yours...

You know, I should have thought that analogy out better....

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

Eh, I digress.  Good enough.

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

I think many writers feel the same way about their work. I certainly feel that way about my work after I set it down and look back over it after two weeks. The best way for me is to work on my project every day until it is done (even if I'm only writing a little bit). It keeps me engaged and immersed in the story. After I'm done, I set the story away for a few days and go back and edit. I find having a complete first draft eliminates the desire to trash the entire manuscript even if I think it is garbage. I think the feeling you have is just your desire to do your best mixed with self-doubt. Everyone experiences that. Just plug away and beat it.

If I'm feeling really down about a project, I take a moment to listen to Eminem's song about his view/experience with/on writer's block, Rabbit Run. It kind of kicks me back into gear and psyches me back up.

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

I feel like that when I look back at my work after having to take a break for other commitments. I read through it with a different perspective I guess. And I conclude it should be better. Then I start re-writing the bloody thing.

 

Best to decide whether to resist that temptation though.

The Feeling that all your work is complete crap

10 years ago

You are your own harshest critic. I think everyone, when looking back on their work, finds it to be complete garbage. I cringe whenever I reread anything I write because I know I'm overly dramatic and prone to purple prose.

Still, the fact that you have something to agonize over means you've already overcome the hardest part about writing: getting the words out. Even complete crap is better than a blank white screen because it gives you something to work with. As the old adage goes:

"Write drunk. Edit sober."

As long as you keep working at it, there's no way you won't have something at least decent, maybe even great!

So don't give up!