Not liking own writing?

Discussion in 'Revision and Editing' started by colorthemap, Mar 20, 2011.

  1. colorthemap

    colorthemap New Member

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    All good points.

    To answer the question, I'm secretive because I don't want to have to explain everything to someone or I'm afraid of comments.

    Which is why if I ever got published, I would use an alias.
     
  2. Elgaisma

    Elgaisma Contributor Contributor

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    That may be part of your problem. For me a story I have written never truly comes alive until other people read it. When I posted a thread about Do Men Flounce - the best thing was when Mallory knew exactly which character I was talking about despite me never mentioning him lol That has energised me to go back and write more or edit more when I hear my characters spoken about by others as real people.
     
  3. Paris_Love

    Paris_Love New Member

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    Since I write to amuse myself and my friends, I rarely find that my own writing is boring. If it (my writing) does get a little dry, I make a jump into absurdity for a sentence or two. That usually does the trick. Remember, you can always edit out the absurd parts.
     
  4. Yoshiko

    Yoshiko Contributor Contributor

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    I have to agree with this. When people start talking about your characters, being able to differentiate between them and acknowledging them as more than just random names on the page, that's when you really start to feel good about them.

    Right now I'm feeling incredibly good about my characters. My friend in Australia told me she mentioned my characters in her English presentation today when she needed two name's off the top of her head - apparently their names sparked interest with her classmates, only receiving more questions when she explained, "They're the two main characters in Yoshiko's novel... <snip> " I guess normal folk aren't used to meeting men named Kitten, ne~? :rolleyes:
     
  5. Tesoro

    Tesoro Contributor Contributor

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    Could someone please explain the meaning of the word "flounce"? Or at least in this context...? Because I had never heard it before so I looked it up and the translator gave me a noun... So now i'm more confused than before.. :confused:
     
  6. colorthemap

    colorthemap New Member

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    I don't know, guess I'm afraid of ridicule, my writing(I think) has a dark flavor to it.

    Insane people at the end of the world go on a journey to cure a virus :) and the virus didn't make them insane. Was just one of my ideas.
     
  7. Allegro Van Kiddo

    Allegro Van Kiddo New Member

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    Hey!

    I like that idea. If you wrote that well it would be quite a story. I like how they just insane, because they are. There's some kind of deep comment on life there, but I'm not sure what.
     
  8. colorthemap

    colorthemap New Member

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    I was going for the will to live, in a crisis situation someone like who is insane to us now, might be considered some prophet who talks to sprits or something.

    But in the end, I believe humans would set aside their differences and get over the crisis as a whole race.
     
  9. Forkfoot

    Forkfoot Caitlin's ex is a lying, abusive rapist. Contributor

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    This. I love what I write and wish there were more writers like me. Now if I can just figure out how to get OTHER people to like it...
     
  10. Elgaisma

    Elgaisma Contributor Contributor

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    Given the darkness in my writing - I have one scene that I suspect you would have a hard time beating. My book explores the idea that great evil can achieve the greatest good, and someone on the surface doing good can actually be trying to achieve the ultimate evil. I have written at the edge of epic lol

    On top of that last week I imprisoned a pensioner accused of murdering a woman her husband was being nice to.

    My book my may contain humour but I have a nasty streak to me, vicious and gory sometimes psychological in a way that gets to a lot of people. I have managed to make one RAF personnel member cry on duty :) I did warn him.

    I guess I don't understand writing and not wanting someone to read it unless it is a journal or personal piece of writing.
     
  11. colorthemap

    colorthemap New Member

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    I thought you wrote children's tales?


    I think I may have found a key to liking my writing more though:

    CHARACTER NAMES!!!!! THANK YOU BEHIND THE NAME!!!!!
     
  12. Vamp_fan22

    Vamp_fan22 New Member

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    I know exactly what you mean! After I've written something I'll read over it and I always wind up throwing it away. But I guess it's true that we are our own worst critics.
     
  13. colorthemap

    colorthemap New Member

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    Better then thinking nothing is wrong with it I guess.
     
  14. Elgaisma

    Elgaisma Contributor Contributor

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    I write them for my kids lol Spend about an hour max on a Sunday.

    My real stuff is fantasy, crime, fairy stories for grown-ups, some humour sketches, paranormal, and an epistolary (Mad Reverend and a Mad Sea-Captain get stuck on a desert island together) and one undecided. I have a nasty streak lol Even my comedy has a habit of turning dark.

    Yes characters need names - and form then you can have fun with them.
     
  15. colorthemap

    colorthemap New Member

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    No I meant I had bad names, I went from Arwan to Radclif.
     
  16. Allegro Van Kiddo

    Allegro Van Kiddo New Member

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    I'd write it if I were you.

    Being bashful is a waste of time and in a sense it wastes the time of others. People should be enjoying your ideas and you should being enjoying them.
     
  17. zilly

    zilly New Member

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    I felt this way before. Then, I read something that I wrote a long time ago -- that I'd forgotten that I'd written -- and thought it was great. And, as soon as I remembered that I'd actually written it, I remembered thinking that it wasn't any good at one point.

    I think the problem is that, as a writer, you can always see where you could do better. You're always going to be your toughest critic. Where you read mistakes by other writers and it doesn't bother you much, it does when they are your own.
     
  18. HorusEye

    HorusEye Contributor Contributor

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    Self-criticism can be turned into a good thing if you change your critical statements into critical questions.

    Instead of "This dialogue sucks."

    You'll have "Why does this dialogue suck?"

    Does it lack conflict? Is it too direct? Does the character sound out of character? Is it too off topic for the story? Does it contradict earlier information? etc... Your self-criticism will eventually become your greatest strength.
     
  19. colorthemap

    colorthemap New Member

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    Thanks for all the help.
     
  20. Frostcat

    Frostcat New Member

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    This happens to me every time I write. As Harold Acton says, "So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it."

    Often going back and reading things I'd completely forgotten I'd written, I find I greatly enjoy the trip through the plot. Unfortunately, I can't just wait six months and then time machine back to finish it.

    I've found that putting it away for a day or so, and then reading it from start to finish is helpful. Avoid thinking about what you should change or what isn't right. Readers don't do this unless they're critiquing. This will give you a readers point instead of a writers point.
     

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