Ever have those days where you feel like a bad writer? Because you worked all day to produce pages of shit... Or you didn't write at all. Again. And maybe you just question everything... about your story... your abilities... yourself. And maybe all those things you wanted to say just aren't the same things today... That voice you worked so hard to find is drowning. There is a gurgling noice inside you, maybe, but it's easy enough to ignore. Climbing to what's left of your byline, you make new submissions with old stories. But, surely, you can write better stuff today. And you think about doing that for a very long time.
Or you get feedback from your editor and they suggest cutting the scenes that were the most fun to write.
"I am a hack" was a feeling I got pretty often when I was learning to write. There are still plenty of days when I produce work I'm not pleased with, but that doesn't make me a bad writer: it makes me a writer having a bad day.
Honestly, can someone even call themselves a writer if they don't get a little imposter syndrome now and then? You're a good writer, rats; that's a given. You may be in a slump right now, but that doesn't change who you are or what you're capable of. Right now, you're struggling to live up to your potential because what worked in the past isn't working anymore. But there IS a way — you just have to find it (though I realize that's a lot simpler to say than it is to do). Anyway, whenever I feel down about my writing, I like to remind myself that even Nobel Prize winners go through this mental crap. Exhibit A: “When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred pages a sick sense of failure falls on me and I know I can never do it. This happens every time.” - Steinbeck, Travels with Charley Best of luck to you!
Those doubts can either drive you to dig deeper and challenge you to do better. Or you can give in to them and find yourself with more time, since you aren't filling it with writing.
Oh gosh I have sure had those days when it is like pulling teeth. Sometimes I think the most important ingredient in the writing process is hope. Hope that “it”—the scene, the plot twist, the characterization—will eventually come to you. No matter how hazy the horizon seems, never lose hope that something will emerge from your creative power. It’s not here yet, but it’s coming. In the meantime, it’s okay to take a break. Spend some time reading. It might spark something. And if still nothing comes, just put away the projects for the day and write something totally unrelated. Say to yourself, “Tell me all that is inside of you.” And just write whatever you’re feeling.
