That's kind of what I imagine knitting is like. But not writing. Not at all. And, what about somebody who's a good writer and knows it? Or do those people not exist according to you?
This doesn't make any sense at all to me. Are you saying we're supposed to hate writing and hate what we've written? That's not much motivation to write, is it? It is possible to write well, and it's possible to know you're writing well. And it's possible to be happy with what you've written, and it's possible to have done a good job at it. So it's possible to be happy with a job well done, and to have done it right. I guess I'd say that anyone who is unhappy with what they've written and didn't enjoy writing it has done it wrong.
At some point and time, everyone thinks they're a crappy writer. It's happened to the best of authors, including Steven King (sorry he's the only one that came to my mind right away). Remember Carrie? Steven King's one work? He seriously believed the story was crap and that it was a patch of his "crappy writer", but comes to find out it actually wasn't that bad, and it ended up becoming one of this greatest hits. My point is this. 1. You may think you're a crappy writer when really your not, it might just be that you're being too hard on yourself. 2. Everyone was a "crappy writer" at some point, but then again, no one is a "crappy writer". I've already explained point 1 with the Steven King example, so let me explain point 2. At some point and time, everyone will look at what they wrote and think "this is crappy as hell" or "this is a real piece of crap!" and it'll cause them to think that they are a bad writer and therefore want to give up because they can't write well. Well, that's not exactly true. Like Cogito said, instead of saying "I'm a crappy writer" say "I could use improvement" or even say something like "this didn't work out, so how can I fix it?" Getting yourself in a rut and giving up on writing completely definitely ain't going to help any, if anything it'll just make it worse if you ask me. Everyone has to learn the skill at sometime, remember in kindergarden/preschool when they spent hours and hours trying to get you to write the letter A? It's just like that all over again. When we first started trying it didn't come out so well, and we hated on it thinking we were the worst in the world, but then we kept trying and trying until at last we got a very good looking A. I'm sure even now there are some people who try to improve the way they write the letters of the alphabet because they don't like the way they look. So how do you fix it? Writing is definitely a way to do it. So is reading. Here's the thing though, if you're writing to try and fix your rut DO NOT GO BACK TO THE STORY!!! Don't make that mistake because it's just going to make matters worse. So what do you do instead? Well, one of the things I do when I feel like I'm a crappy writer is work on something else. There has been times when I've taken a notebook and a pen, and gone someplace with a lot of people or a lot of things. There I've sat down with my pen and paper and I've worked on so many things. I'll write down conversations people are having, describe things I'm seeing, tasting, hearing and smelling, and I've even wasted plenty of paper just writing down random thoughts about that place. And believe it or not, while doing that my mind will take something and be like "Oh I bet I could make that work for this part of the story" or "I'd like this character to act more like this!" or even "I wonder what how something like that would affect the story line and its characters". Doing things like that have proven to be very affective for me, so I recommend trying it out sometime. Also one other thing I've noticed, is that sometimes, your moods can greatly affect how you feel about your writing. So sometimes its best to just walk away from your writing when you feel a certain way and return to it later. There have been times when I've been depressed and looked at my writing and just wanted to tear it up because I thought it was so bad, then when I feel a little better I'll return to it later and see where it isn't working out. There has been those few occasions where I've looked at the writing and seriously asked "What the hell was I thinking? Was I high or something when I wrote that line?" Seriously, go ahead, make a joke out of your mistakes, it'll make you feel better about messing up. And congrats on admitting that you have a problem with your writing. It means that you are willing to improve your skills and your not stuck in this belief that you're perfect and don't need anything more.
People who think they’re improving at whatever are not apt to say: ‘I’m crap at this.’ The feeling that they are improving discourages negative talk. Some improvers might, indeed, perhaps, say ‘I’m crap at this’ but the negative evaluation will not be a hindrance, will not cause them too much pain, since they suspect that tomorrow they might not be crap. Which is to say that folk who are troubled by ‘I am shit’ thoughts are usually animated by the feeling that they are not improving, and not by the thought that they are shit. Some think learning curves look like this: Others are pretty sure they actually look like this: If you’re in the midst of one of those plateaus and you are a fundamentally competent person and demand high things of yourself (and high things of yourself, like, now!), you just might get very pissed off indeed. BTW I recall your Nazi/artist efforts. You are not shit.
You know what they say: If you think you're crazy you're probably not. Same goes here. But do beware of the possibility of a destructive inner voice, as Cogito calls it. In fact, let's just listen to him again: This is perfectly put. I quit writing for years because of this voice. Such a waste. Of course, I still have to fight the demons--I probably always will--but at least now that I've identified them their power over me has greatly diminished. Read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. She addresses the feeling of shittiness beautifully.
Hiatus is the wrong path to take, for a skill like writing it is important to push through these periods of depression. Just take it low key for awhile and focus on new short stories, works of art that interest you rather than the old hats that frustrate you. Have some fun with it and try to remember why you enjoy this craft.
As long as you take the time to learn more about the craft of writing by taking classes or reading books, you will improve. I don't agree that simply writing more will make you a better writer. Playing golf every day won't turn me into Tiger Woods. You have to identify and change weaknesses, usually with the help of more experienced writers. Just search for "creative writing" on Amazon. Cheers!
