Hating what you have written

Discussion in 'Revision and Editing' started by mashers, Jul 12, 2017.

  1. birdspoon

    birdspoon Member

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    I wouldnt say I hate what I've written in the past but I do look back on it and cringe sometimes, haha. Fanfiction does that to a person though, hopefully I've moved beyond that.
     
  2. Moon

    Moon Contributor Contributor

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    Seems I'm not the only one. Wrote up eight hundred plus words this weekend, all the while not feeling it. Ended up deleting them all without a second thought. Suppose that counts for disliking what one writes, eh?
     
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  3. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    Currently I have 423 words that have not been deleted. And they're not good - they're just not that bad. I'm waiting it out.
     
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  4. Seven Crowns

    Seven Crowns Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    Okay, well . . . I like what I do. It's the whole reason I write, because nobody else will put it on paper just the way I want. I like weird, violent, sexy, fun mayhem that's colorful and tries to say something new. I've never hated any of it. (Sorry!)

    I spend more time editing than writing, so the end result is pretty clean. One of my skills is to edit with malice. I don't kill darlings, I cut their throats and leave cryptic clues for law enforcement (grammar police? CSG?). They're just words and I have no loyalty to them. It's passionate dispassion, does that make sense? Probably not.

    I think that's what a lot of this thread's confessions really are. You're seeing the mistakes that should have been caught in revision. The corrections weren't deep enough. Or maybe you were so elated with the act of creation that you never pulled out the long knives. That leaves your voice, lean at the core, buried under a flab of prose. When you reread and don't hear what you meant to say, it's depressing.

    I have dozens of techniques for fixing such issues, but I've typed too much again! It's not like I could fit them into a forum post anyway.

    Well, just take what you have and give it another draft. Work in small sections. See if you can fix a paragraph.
     
  5. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    It probably depends on how you write. For me, I edit as I go - I almost never leave a scene without rereading it at least once, more usually 2-3 or even 4 times. So it's rare that I would come back to something I used to like just to find I hate it now - no, usually I quite enjoy it and there are moments when I would think to myself, "Now this is good."

    But there was once when I wrote an entire 80k draft without once looking back - I wanted to give the whole "just keep writing" thing a try. No editing as I go. When I actually came to edit it for real because the draft was done, I just couldn't. I hated it. I would read it and think, "Gah I still have... shit. Another 50k words to go." It was of such poor quality I just couldn't be bothered with it. I never did manage to edit the whole thing.

    So that's why I said it depends on how you write. If you just wrote without looking back, then yes, it's called a rough draft and it's supposed to be rough, which means, naturally, the quality probably isn't great. You have the bare bones ideas that you wanted to get down and it's nowhere near the finishing stage.

    But if you edit as you went and still you come back hating what you've written - then maybe it's just a confidence issue? If this is the case, I'd get beta readers and see if their reactions are in line with your own, to see if it's just you being too much of a perfectionist or if there's really cause for concern.

    Usually if it's a piece of writing I dislike, then I probably disliked it from the beginning. It's rare I'd change my mind about a piece in a short space of time - like, after a few years, sure, stuff I thought was excellent may now seem in need of a bit of editing but it's still never so bad like I'd "hate" it. I usually know in my gut if something's good or bad - and my readers usually confirm this. Scenes I struggled to write usually come back with negative feedback, and scenes I adore also usually come back with positive feedback. My favourite scenes tend to also be my readers' favourite scenes, and the problematic ones always come back with loads of critique lol.
     
  6. TheNineMagi

    TheNineMagi take a moment to vote

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    yep, been there too many times to count, write something the night before, read it in the morning, and the mind just goes .... oh no, this must never be seen, burn it, destroy every copy, and never mention this ... this thing again.

    @mashers it's perfectly normal, I feel it is part of the creative process, sort of like a painter learning when to stop painting and knowing it should not be touched up further. For that matter looking back at older drawings and seeing how amateurish it really was. writing is a bit harder to pin down, and know when it can be considered professional. Like any art though, it is mostly practice, and the various tips and advice you pick up along the way. It is very rare to go back and look at art from years ago and not be critical about it. The tacit knowledge gained over the years will make it look like the picture you brought home from first grade and proudly displayed on the refrigerator door.
     
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  7. John Calligan

    John Calligan Contributor Contributor

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    Sounds like you're getting better.
     

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