Hello friend. It seems like you want to have the best story straight away. Unfortunately, that will not happen. That means you will need a good time in front of your computer and write all your ideas. That is what you should do. So my advice to not discourage you to give up, write all our ideas. Even if you don't like them, but at least you are working in your project, and getting better with your story, characters, dialogue etc. Don't even bother asking if it is good or not, write and when it's finished come back and rewrite again. No ideas? Look around you. Watch something. Listen to music. Read a book. Grab anything you can to get ideas. And while you do all this below, cover your ears, block with your mind, whatever is necessary to ignore Rick. It's only disturbing you from your dream, and if you are genuinely passionate about writing, Rick will disappear. Not from day to night, but gradually. I'm afraid this part has to be only you who have to conquer and find ways to overcome your fears. The only thing I can say is don't be scared. And see from your favourite writers what they had been through for you understand how successful they become. I hope this helps. Keep on good work and don't give up.
Trust me, I'm writing the first draft of my first ever novel, and I switch between days of writing bliss, and complete doubtful failure. If I wrote as often as I doubted myself, I'm certain my first draft would've been completed months ago. You're not alone in your feelings! As a piece of advice from me to you, there is a YouTube video titled: Are You a Good Writer? How to tell... that features some really great advice by YouTuber/author, Alexa Donne. In the video she says that if a writer is super confident in their work and knows it'll be a bestseller, etc., then they're most likely very bad writers with little experience. She said that no matter what skill level you are at writing, doubting yourself is a healthy thing: it means you recognize you're not quite there yet, but are still open to improving your skills. And therefor in a much better position to become a talented writer than those who are unshakably confident.
Of course you doubt your abilities as a writer. Every writer does this. Every writer gets rejected. Every writer has big dreams ad attempts that fail. It's all part of the process. But there are things that are in are control to make us better. I don't suggest how-to books, but rather think time is better spent reading great books . I think anyone can write a how-to book whether they are a successful writer or not. Reading great works makes such a difference when it comes to writing great works. It does seem like you are getting ahead of yourself thinking about selling to a big publisher and making big money. Not that it can't happen, but it's not going to happen without a lot of writing and a lot of rejection. I think writing is something a lot of people give up on quickly because progress is slow. Are you spending more time doubting yourself more than you are writing? I've written for more things that were never published than I have publishing credits. And I think that's pretty normal. How quickly your ability and confidence improve all depends on how much you put into this. I am a big fan of writing classes and think they make a difference. I know they're not for everyone, but it is a way to improve quicker. Otherwise Read. Read. Read. Things sink in without us even realizing it. Even the best writers scrap things. And sometimes what we don't think is our best work gets picked up big time. This isn't easy and it's not supposed to be easy. Just keep at it and if things aren't working rethink your strategy and the way you approach writing.
If you haven’t done this, try to find and join a writer’s group. It will not only give you an opportunity to rub elbows with other writers, but you will get honest feedback on your writing, and you’ll be able to judge yourself against peers in your community. I’ve learned a lot from my writer’s group, and I feel fortunate to be a part of it. One thing it has taught me: There are many highly talented unpublished writers out there. I think a “good writer” can take just about any prompt and, given enough time, weave a story around it. This is primarily a matter of discipline and practice, like becoming accomplished at any art form.
Hello my name is Jack and I'm trying to write a novel but I've run into something of a problem you see I don't really know if I'm a good writer or not and I can't seem to shake this feeling off its like all I'm doing is just making a big mess with words
Writer's block, however hard it may seem to get back into writing, is all just temporary and can be overcome. It's not permanent and all you need to do is force yourself to write, no matter how crappy the writing is, it's like relieving the bad writing from your system. After a while of that, you'll get back into writing, trust me.
I remember having slumps when playing soccer. I remember having such a bad slump playing baseball that I quit the sport entirely. It's for that reason that I refuse to quit because of a writing slump. Being a quitter is one of the greatest regrets I have. I'd rather be a failure.
That is one analogy & technique which seems to work with many: Write the bad text away so that it can't block coming of good text. But remember: it must be bad text you write.
Is this tongue-in-cheek? The language issues make it hard to tell, but if this is meant literally - I can't imagine how it would work. You're supposed to sit down and deliberately write poorly? Just how bad does the writing have to be? No... this couldn't work. Apologies if it meant to be a joke.
I don't know about deliberately, but I do tend to send out a lot of bad stuff before I get to any moderately okay stuff.
Has anyone else ever reached a point where life seems just too hard to give a shit about writing? I wouldn't call it writers block. It's more like what's the point? And it's not about publishing or trying to publish. I'm having a hard time holding onto my identity as a writer. I'm not sure what to do about that. I'm turning into a big crybaby. It's hard to care about fiction, almost seems foolish, when I can't even hold it together. I know everyone has gone through hard times. I feel like I'm breaking. Can life prevent us from being writers? I imagine some people will recommend taking a break, but this is a time where what I write is getting noticed and good things are happening. I'm probably going to blow it because I can't even function. And this is not about depression or mental health issues. This is about the fact that every aspect of my life is so hard right now. And maybe writing doesn't matter. I've just worked so hard for this and I wish it did matter.
Its not something I do - but i have heard of the deliberately writing poorly technique ... the idea being that those who can write well find it challenging to deliberately wrote poorly and eventually better stuff will come out in spite of the intent. personally i'd rather just try to write well, but horses for courses
That's the unavoidable result for whom holds to write as a way of identity. People changes, so it's just natural that identity changes too. Now, is a writer's objective to identify himself through writing? I don't think so. If you have a story to tell and you write it, you're a writer. Good, bad, adequate or not, it's upon you to define it. The point of writing is to get adequate prose to communicate what you want to tell. To hold upon a 'writer's identity' as target of the craft it's a lost cause from the beginning. You'll write if you have something to, not because you're someone able to do it.
From someone that has experience with depression, that sounds an awful lot like depression, probably mixed with some burnout. So might be a good idea to take some time, go to a spa, get your nails done, drink some mimosas, talk to a professional, hang out with friends. You know, make some time for yourself and unwind.
Do not stop writing. It matters even if you aren't getting noticed. And the fact that you are getting noticed is specifically why you, in particular, have to continue.
But I am a writer. It's what I do for a living. So just as being a doctor is part of a doctor's identity, writing is part of my identity. This isn't a hobby for me. It's a vocation.
Thank you. You know more about what's going on with me than other people do here. I appreciate you taking the time to say this. And I think you're a great writer too.
I hear what you're saying. Unfortunately, it's not. that easy for me. I don't have depression. Unfortunately, I also don't have money or many friends. I just have very unlucky life circumstances for which there are no easy fixes.
I sort of feel like I'm going to blow it anyway. A've given writing all I've got, but it doesn't seem to matter all that much in the big picture. If I can't deliver the goods, someone else will get noticed who can. Even success can have bad timing.
You may not have clinical depression, but even these sentences are kind of an indicator that you would be prone to situational depression. I get that a professional may not be an option if don't have a lot of money and don't live somewhere with socialist healthcare, but taking some time for yourself doesn't have to cost a lot of money. Just find some way that you can drop whatever baggage you're carrying for 10-20 minutes and get some energy to get back out there. Walk on a beach, listen to some waves, go for a hike, stop and listen to busker for a couple of minutes, strike up a conversation with a random person, do your nails at home, wake up early to watch the sunrise, call in sick and sleep in. I dunno, I'm not you, but I'm sure you'll figure it out, you're a smart guy. It's just something that happens when you put so much into the world and the world never give you back enough. Some times you just got to go out and take it.
Okay enough - this here is a thread for discussing writers block and the way to combat it If you (anyone) want to discuss the problems in your life take it to the not happy thread (so long as its not mental health related), or to the blogs If you want to discuss how your mental health is affecting your writing and ways to combat that, we have a thread for that right here https://www.writingforums.org/threads/mental-health-for-writers.162318/ As we said when we closed the mental health discussion thread, no one here is vetted as qualified to diagnose/treat etc any kind of mental (or for that matter physical) health conditions - there are numerous places on the internet which will give you advice with varying levels of accuracy, but this here isn't one of them. With that kind of thing bad advice can be worse than no advice and its not fair to put any member in the position of giving or taking it. If you feel you need help with that kind of thing you should get advice from health care professionals not a writing forum
Sorry for breaking the rules. I thought it was about writing since it was supposed to be about feeling like I'm losing my winter identity and I'm just in a place where writing feels harder than it should. And since this is my job, I'm not really in a place to take a break. I just feel like I'm going to blow some real chances because I can't get it together. I just wanted to know how other people may have refocused to pull through. I wasn't after anything outside of writing advice, but it's clear you saw it differently and I'm sorry.
I think its important that we are clear that the post above does not apply soley to you but also to the way in which people were responding to your posts. For reasons that should be obvious we cannot have members diagnosing each other with depression and so forth. However well intentioned that advice may be On the question of asking others how they have managed to refocus and pull through these feelings - the best place for that is probably the mental health for writers thread.
