Writing hiatuses

[Djmac1031]

The voice hasn’t stopped, I’ve just decided to ignore it .

I know that voice. And I'm working on ignoring it myself.

But as your editor / proofreader who's read every word of your work in progress so far, I can state with confidence that it is far from "crap."

I think more of us here than we'd think go through imposter syndrome in one way or another. It's really whether we can quiet those negative voices in our heads that tell us we'll never be good enough.

 

[SkyBubble]

Yeah - I wrote other stuff

Taht' a good thing to do. I try always to have a couple of projects going, usually in different subject areas, so I can keep writing when I can't do this anymore.

 

[NaughteeDragon]

But it’s also stupid imposter syndrome saying, “It’s all crap, what the hell were you thinking? You can’t do this?”

The voice hasn’t stopped, I’ve just decided to ignore it .

Any of this sound familliar?

My favorite response to that is to keep writing until I hit a scene, or even a single line, that hits the mark. Then I tell it to Fuck Off and go clean up what I’ve written so it’s actually cohesive.

 

[stickygirl]

I'm well into a novel but have been stalled since mid-August. Initially I could excuse the stoppage because I needed to do more research, but finally I realised I'd written myself into a plot corner. It's taken this length of time to allow some objectivity and understand whaty went wrong. I've made a couple of simple plot changes, I think I'm out of the dead end and hopefully I can now make progress. I was also able to ease my ease my stoppage-despair when I read that Patricia Highsmith often suffered agonies in pushing her pen over the line. Gotta say too that reading this thread gives me some confidence too, so thanks

Another key point about any writing is that it should be fun - in fact it has to be. I love editing and tweaking what I've already done, but I have an abiding fear that anything else I write is going to be crap... "Be brave, have fun, edit later."

 

[onehitwanda]

Another key point about any writing is that it should be fun - in fact it has to be. I love editing and tweaking what I've already done, but I have an abiding fear that anything else I write is going to be crap... "Be brave, have fun, edit later."

Be scared, but do it anyway. There's nothing worse than what-ifs when it's far too late to fix them.

 

[StillStunned]

Another key point about any writing is that it should be fun - in fact it has to be. I love editing and tweaking what I've already done, but I have an abiding fear that anything else I write is going to be crap... "Be brave, have fun, edit later."

Everything we write is crap by someone's standards. By someone else's standards it's the best thing ever. The only opinion that should matter is your own: do you think it was worth writing, and would you read it if it wasn't your own story?

 

[stickygirl]

Everything we write is crap by someone's standards. By someone else's standards it's the best thing ever. The only opinion that should matter is your own: do you think it was worth writing, and would you read it if it wasn't your own story?

That's interesting, because that's not my take on it - opinions I mean. If I considered other people's opinions as I wrote I'd fill the page with doodles. It's not the fear of other people's opinions that stalls me from writing - it's much more internalised. Besides, other people can't express an opinion until we've finished.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I'm well into a novel but have been stalled since mid-August. Initially I could excuse the stoppage because I needed to do more research, but finally I realised I'd written myself into a plot corner. It's taken this length of time to allow some objectivity and understand whaty went wrong. I've made a couple of simple plot changes, I think I'm out of the dead end and hopefully I can now make progress. I was also able to ease my ease my stoppage-despair when I read that Patricia Highsmith often suffered agonies in pushing her pen over the line. Gotta say too that reading this thread gives me some confidence too, so thanks

Another key point about any writing is that it should be fun - in fact it has to be. I love editing and tweaking what I've already done, but I have an abiding fear that anything else I write is going to be crap... "Be brave, have fun, edit later."

Sounds familiar