Oh good gracious, writing right now is not making me happy.
On one hand, I’ve got a new byline in a magazine. Whoo for the Mountaineers! On the other hand, upon re-reading it I don’t like the article at all. They printed it as is, and as is kind of sucks. So, while I can add it to my list of published work, I don’t really want to send it as a clip to anyone. Which kind of stinks, because I’ve got some query letters in the works and could use a recent clip.
Also, my NaNo work is flowing like a faucet with air in the pipes. It sputters and pauses in its flow and what’s coming out is questionable in quality. I’m already several thousand words behind and, while the point of NaNo is just to spit it out without editing, I’ve already got several lines of red ink lurking at the edges (mostly along the lines of Melodramatic Claptrap! This sucks! Good god…).
Now, I know the cure to this. It’s simple: write more, read and analyze quality writing, give yourself time to edit properly before submitting, write more, take classes, write more. Did I mention write more? Essentially the idea is that practice, even if it doesn’t make perfect, can supply you with enough quality rough material to make something near-perfect upon editing. You can edit crap. You can’t edit nothing.
Writing crap is painful though. It’s a horrible feeling to look at your stuff and realize that, were you to see this on its own, you would make fun of it. It’s a feeling that sucks at the bottom of the soul and makes it incredibly difficult to actually continue writing.
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| It’s as if this guy is sitting on my shoulder making snide comments the entire time and encouraging me to check Facebook instead. Copyright: John Sansom |
So how do you soldier through? I’m not sure how the rest of the world deals with the crushing doubt and feeling of suckitude, but I’m going to try a couple new things:
>Sprints: this is mostly for word count for NaNo, but the essence of sprints can be used for anything. Take a block of time and try to keep the word count constant for the entire period. Don’t look at anything else, don’t tab over to research something, don’t stare blankly out the window until the time period is up. But most of all, don’t self-edit until the alarm sounds. Just get the stuff out on paper.
>Writing class: There are classes over at Hugo House that I’ve been meaning to take anyway and there’s a big writers conference that happens up here every year. Professional advice is always a plus, and there’s no reason not to hone your craft as much as possible.
>Editing time: I just need to budget as much editing time as I currently budget writing time, and I need to make sure that I do it with a hard copy of the work after sleeping on it for a bit. There’s nothing quite like the high that comes with finishing a piece and in the midst of that euphoria is not the best time to try to get a final edit in. Besides, it kills the buzz and you might as well enjoy that while you can.
Any other suggestions out there?