Why don't I like my writing?

You must trust in your instinct. And never in what do you friends and family think about your writhing. Is that i do.

Also read this man piece!

This book can help one in his journey into they writer’s souls.

4 Likes

You’re asking the wrong question IMO. The question isn’t “is my writing good?” The question is more “how can I improve?” Nobody is just magically good at writing. You get good at writing. So, however good your writing is at the present moment doesn’t matter, because if you keep practicing and evaluating yourself and improving then in the future you will have evolved. Being a “good writer” is a craft, a skill, not an inborn attribute (although some people do seem to innately “get” it more than others). Keep studying, keep practicing, keep writing. The worst thing you can do is to not write or to write less.

You should not be afraid of imperfection. Rather, embrace imperfection. Accept that imperfection exists. Start seeing writing as a process with many stages. There are the early drafts of your work where you throw out all doubts about “quality” and simply write whatever your messy creativity yearns for. Then, there are the later drafts where you go back with a more critical eye and edit the work. Editing is as important as writing. Hell, editing is a skill that needs to be honed and practiced as frequently as writing. A lot of very good, polished writing doesn’t come about until the editing process, not in the initial ‘draft’ stages.

At no point should you concentrate on how good of a writer you yourself are because that’s not relevant. Instead, examine your writing on a case by case basis. Examine it as a work in and of itself that needs editing, and not as a test of how “good” or “bad” a writer you are. This reduces the entire process of writing into a stagnant trait you either have or don’t have. If you think like this, then you may even avoid criticism because you may see criticism as reflecting on you as a person, or author, rather than merely as comments about a specific piece or pieces that can be changed and improved.

No single piece of writing will ever be a measure of how “good” of a writer you are because writing should be a constantly evolving process. You improve with each piece you create.

When you stop worrying about the present quality of your work and instead focus on improving your writing with an eye to the future then you may write with more ease.

My ability to simply write without doubt has only come about recently. I’m not sure what “clicked” for me, but I’ve genuinely stopped caring if my writing is good. I’ve realized that’s the least helpful question I could ask.

3 Likes

My writing is never good enough, because it’s never PERFECT. Every time I’m about to show someone my work, it suddenly looks terrible and amateurish and unworthy to me. At these times I try to remember that I always feel this way, even though most of the time it’s well-received and people enjoy reading it.

I don’t think this is universal, but it’s at least a common hang-up for artists. I’ve heard painters, actors, all kinds of creative types talking about exactly the same thing. And it’s useful, as far as it motivates us to keep practicing and getting better. The rewards of creating and sharing something are worth the terror of unveiling it.

1 Like

One thing that I find helpful is to write or perform (I’m a professional pianist) with the idea that other people will at some point enjoy my writing or music or what have you…

Perhaps it’s different with a performing art, but in music, if a performer is tense or is expecting people to dislike, or worse, ignore, the work presented, that tension so often seems to communicate itself to the audience. Then, you just get a tense, anxious audience. Ugh.

I certainly don’t always reach my goal here, but I try to write or perform with the idea, ‘Hey, I really enjoyed writing/playing/composing this, and so I want to share it with you! I hope you’ll enjoy it too!’ It’s made it easier to share things with others.

I was shaking so badly the first time I had to play a complex Bach piece for my more upper-crust fellows that I muffed it horribly. Two years later, I started developing my ‘enjoy it’ theory, and I think both my performance and audience reactions improved drastically. I see it with my writing, too. (And then there’s always practice.)

In the process of thinking through my approach to performing, I came across a quote that has gotten me through many a sticky spot while writing, even though the quote was originally about music. It’s from Jascha Heifetz, a violinist:

“A violinist should always be happy when he is playing. If he is playing well, he should be happy that he is playing well. If he is not playing well, then he should be happy because it will soon be over.”

1 Like