Do you ever feel like your writing style becomes inconsistent from one writing day to the next? I've been working on this story of mine for quite some time now and I feel like there is an obvious difference between the sections I wrote on good days and ones I wrote on days where I was less inspired. Does this happen to you? And is editing enough to fix that? Or do you feel like you need to just rewrite those entire sections?
I don't know if it's a style issue as much as it is needing to work harder on the parts you weren't as interested in writing. There are always going to be sections that leave us unsatisfied and need revising for one reason or another. The reason doesn't really matter - they just need reworking.
Some days you'll be on fire. Some days you have to work your ass off to get past tepid. It's just a fact of life. And yes, some sections will require more work to clean up on a proofing and revision pass, unless you're one of those writer who ships the first draft. Personally, I don't see how any of that type will ever get published. All I can say is not to worry too much. It's not a disaster to have bad writing days.
It took me months to revise a piece of writing where I felt comfortable continuing. Some things are instant and some thing need to brew in your brain. I jump between several different stories depending on what I feel is appropriate. Don't stress too much about it. It will take sometime.
I always reread, and usually revise, my previous day's work before I start my new writing session. This keeps my style pretty consistent and reduces the amount of revision I need to do in the next draft.
It took me 5 years of writing and reading for it to click. The 'it' I'm talking about is thinking like the authors on library shelves. To develop a simple formula that works day in and day out, than practicing it over and over to see what is possible. This only happened recently. A few weeks ago I was studying a novel and it literally 'clicked', and in an instant, I became a better writer. Ever since this moment I am outputting more words per day, and think my writing has taken a large step towards being publishable. Practice with short stories, lots of them, and re-read novels that inspire you the most. Read them, two, three, four, five times, and look for patterns.
