Thanks for the information—now I feel less stupid. :D
When I write, my mood goes through waves. Sometimes I feel skilled and full of energy, sometimes I feel tired and unable to do anything good. I guess everyone starts writing book at their best point,but this will not last long enough. Later it feels like I started something that I am unable to finish, but I must go on anyway, and I feel like I am doing something totally worthless. Also I guess many people underestimate the time it will take them. So in addition to feeling incompetent there is a feeling “this was supposed to be finished already; am I going to write this forever?” Also I gradually change opinion on what is the best way to write; but I cannot start rewriting already finished parts, because then I would really never finish the book.
When I wrote short stories, I always started with a good idea and I thought “this will be my best story ever”. I wrote it in one day (when I stopped, I was usually unable to finish the story later). Next day the story seemed completely stupid. So I just put it away, and a week later when I read it again, I concluded that it is actually not bad. With short stories these mood swings don’t matter, because when they come, the story is already finished. With book these mood swings relate to the previous chapters. It is like “the first part of the book is great, but this chapter I wrote yesterday is completely horrible, I really should rewrite it, but I can’t, because I am already too far behind the schedule, I just hope today I will write something less horrible, but I don’t really believe it.”
I suggest spending some time in the internetspace inhabited by writers and either asking or just absorbing answers. There are a lot of articles on hollylisle.com, which is geared toward fiction, but if you don’t know where to start...
Thanks for the information—now I feel less stupid. :D
When I write, my mood goes through waves. Sometimes I feel skilled and full of energy, sometimes I feel tired and unable to do anything good. I guess everyone starts writing book at their best point,but this will not last long enough. Later it feels like I started something that I am unable to finish, but I must go on anyway, and I feel like I am doing something totally worthless. Also I guess many people underestimate the time it will take them. So in addition to feeling incompetent there is a feeling “this was supposed to be finished already; am I going to write this forever?” Also I gradually change opinion on what is the best way to write; but I cannot start rewriting already finished parts, because then I would really never finish the book.
When I wrote short stories, I always started with a good idea and I thought “this will be my best story ever”. I wrote it in one day (when I stopped, I was usually unable to finish the story later). Next day the story seemed completely stupid. So I just put it away, and a week later when I read it again, I concluded that it is actually not bad. With short stories these mood swings don’t matter, because when they come, the story is already finished. With book these mood swings relate to the previous chapters. It is like “the first part of the book is great, but this chapter I wrote yesterday is completely horrible, I really should rewrite it, but I can’t, because I am already too far behind the schedule, I just hope today I will write something less horrible, but I don’t really believe it.”
I suggest spending some time in the internetspace inhabited by writers and either asking or just absorbing answers. There are a lot of articles on hollylisle.com, which is geared toward fiction, but if you don’t know where to start...