What does your literary frustration sound like?

Nateskate · Dec 10, 2008

When my edits are smooth, I get kind of gleeful. That doesn't happen alot.

I'm literally startled at how bad I can write. I come to these places and I find myself saying, "I can't believe I wrote this (insert curse) thing!"

Now, you'd think I'd finally believe that I'm capable of writing horrid trash. But I can't believe that I was so deluded during the first write or first edit to think I wrote something great.

My other literary frustration isn't the sheer garbage, it's any chapter that requires repeated surgeries to make it work. Then I say, "When am I ever going to get this right?"

It's an improvement. At first I figured it was a fatal flaw, that I'd never get through. Now I do believe I'll get it, but it's frustrating whenever I have to wrestle with a story I thought was pure gold.

How do you vent?

joyce · Dec 10, 2008

I feel your pain! My first novel I now look at and laugh. It was suppose to be serious and now when I occasionally pick it up and read it, I'm laughing my butt off. Somehow my seriousness turned into a comedy. My second one.....I just hate it. It's not me or my voice. It depressed me so much I've put it aside and haven't looked at it in months. Sometimes I wonder how I ever thought I could be a writer.

NeuroFizz · Dec 10, 2008

When my writing/editing is working, I fart* in glee. When it's slow and difficult, I just fart. In either case, Mrs. Fizzy plugs her nose and scowls. Now I do all my writing/editing in another room--where as long as I'm raising a stink, I know I'm making progress.

*metaphorically speaking

Jerry B. Flory · Dec 10, 2008

ADHD requires almost daily venting and sitting at the keyboard fingers flying through muck like sixteen chainsaws ripping through a sixteen meter by sixteen meter chocolate mousse with sixteen scantily clad strippers hidden in the middle that none bothered to tell the sixteen chainsaw operator about.
Rant rave scream squeal whine beg stomp your feet until even God tells you to shut the **** up and try to put two words together that don't sound like a baby seal getting clubbed in the open tundra or some kid with no eyelashes and seven fingers trying desperately to shove that octagonal block through the triangular hole between Barbie's legs. STOP IT! STOOOOPPP! IT! Would you please freaking sit down and stop counting the tiles in the floor or the dark lines in the grain of the desk. No! No more freaking cigarettes! Outside! I need air! No! Sit down! Write the freaking thing!
What's on TV? Forget TV. It's all commercials. If some dork showed up at the door with a puppy flashing bright lights in your eyes and trying to seel you a razor or car insurance would you stand there and take it or would you slam the door? Slam the door! Turn off the TV. Write! Quit it! Quit playing with the cat! Pay attention! Write the thing! Write the thing! Write the thing! Write the thing!

NeuroFizz · Dec 10, 2008

Can I come write at your place?

Jerry B. Flory · Dec 10, 2008

Wear a helmet. I throw things and sometimes they're still alive.

Noah Body · Dec 10, 2008

So long as you're throwing the strippers, that's something I'd be willing to tolerate.

Stew21 · Dec 10, 2008

my frustration sounds like a freight train running between my ears, and ernest hemingway in the distance laughing his ass off that I thought I could put words in his mouth.

Feidb · Dec 10, 2008

My frustration is a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, where I go "Geez, I f***ing suck at this!" Then after a few nauseated minutes, I go back to writing as if nothing ever happened.

KTC · Dec 10, 2008

I don't sweat creative pleasures. When my plumbing is not working, I lose it. When my dishwasher is broken, I lose it. When the car breaks down, I lose it. A bad day of writing is better than almost anything. Who cares. Creativity is bliss. It doesn't frustrate me.

Fresie · Dec 10, 2008

You know what? I'm so used to it by now that I know in the end it's going to be okay. Sometimes I hate every word I write but my experience has taught me I'll be able to make it right. So whenever I feel frustrated I just think, "I know I'm going to fix this mess in the end" and just keep working.

Feeling useless is a necessary part of the process. It's when you're always happy with your work that you should start worrying.

Feiss · Dec 10, 2008

My literary frustration sounds like:

whump whump schlip piddly wink tiddle plop blub blub whoooooom....bzt

KTC · Dec 10, 2008

Feiss said:
My literary frustration sounds like:

whump whump schlip piddly wink tiddle plop blub blub whoooooom....bzt

Spoken like a true poet.

Stunted · Dec 10, 2008

Whenever I get frustrated, there's always an internal assumption that I'll keep working and eventually get it.

Aschenbach · Dec 10, 2008

My literary frustration sounds like;

hhhhhnnfffggf! Who is that old one creeping?
Through the trees!

No!

Oh!

He fARTs in my FAce......THE HORROR!

Jerry B. Flory · Dec 10, 2008

I don't know what to make of these folks who say they never get frustrated. Sometimes that frustration works for me and finds its own voice. That nervous energy can be put to good use.
It isn't a great thing but it comes in handy.

maestrowork · Dec 10, 2008

I take long drives. When I'm in creative bliss, I cry in joy and drive with an euphoria that is almost drug-induced. When I'm in creative pain I just drive and drive and drive while mentally constipated.

C.bronco · Dec 10, 2008

I just switch gears. Writing only brings me joy. When I'm stuck, I paint another room in the house, make cookies, or paint a picture.

foonting · Dec 11, 2008

Like a desert wind blowing tumbleweeds through the uninhabited ruins between my ears.

C A Winters · Dec 11, 2008

Initially, I stare at my glaring stupid blunder that I missed during all the rewrites and edits, then I yell, I can't believe I did that (in a frustrated voice) and then I wonder how I ever thought I could be a writer, then I write something brilliant.

tehuti88 · Dec 11, 2008

I guess I don't really get that feeling since I try to write things the best I can. I can usually look on something I wrote a few days/weeks/months ago and it seems good to me. (I'm not saying it is, just that I myself am content with it.) It usually takes a few years at least before I look back on something and

"Oh ew..." *giggles in embarrassment* "Oh my God I can't believe people might have read this!"

I guess I tend to laugh more at my horrid earlier writing than to curse it or anything. And then feel extreme embarrassment. And then hurry up and go post disclaimers on it, if it's posted anywhere online, to beg any readers to understand that I DO NOT WRITE LIKE THAT ANYMORE.

My true "literary frustration" is more along the lines of getting people interested (and keeping them interested) in my work. I know that if I write something lousy I can always fix it. Getting others interested in it is my true trouble.

Though I must admit, untangling a long story and trying to figure out where it's going to end up, without leaving anything dangling or mussing up a long-ago plot point, is truly frustrating too. Then my frustration probably sounds like the high-pitched noise I just let out the window to scare away the squirrels raiding the bird feeder.

Phaeal · Dec 11, 2008

OMFG, the computer ATE the penultimate chapter of my latest novel, and it was SO HARD, and I'm SO TIRED, and now I'm going to have to stay up ALL NIGHT to reconstruct it from memory, no nooo NOOOOOOO-OO-oo-oh, whimper.

An exact transcription of last frustrated moment. These days it's always some computer's fault. Otherwise I can shrug and go on.

Nateskate · Dec 11, 2008

Phaeal said:
OMFG, the computer ATE the penultimate chapter of my latest novel, and it was SO HARD, and I'm SO TIRED, and now I'm going to have to stay up ALL NIGHT to reconstruct it from memory, no nooo NOOOOOOO-OO-oo-oh, whimper.

An exact transcription of last frustrated moment. These days it's always some computer's fault. Otherwise I can shrug and go on.

That is so discouraging. Ouch. We who have lost a beloved chapter do share your pain.

Shweta · Dec 11, 2008

Starting next year, mine is going to sound like this:
"500 words of dissertation before I'm allowed to open the novel? )(*$)(%)(* I don't wanna!"

Nateskate · Dec 12, 2008

tehuti88 said:
I guess I don't really get that feeling since I try to write things the best I can. I can usually look on something I wrote a few days/weeks/months ago and it seems good to me. (I'm not saying it is, just that I myself am content with it.) It usually takes a few years at least before I look back on something and

"Oh ew..." *giggles in embarrassment* "Oh my God I can't believe people might have read this!"

I guess I tend to laugh more at my horrid earlier writing than to curse it or anything. And then feel extreme embarrassment. And then hurry up and go post disclaimers on it, if it's posted anywhere online, to beg any readers to understand that I DO NOT WRITE LIKE THAT ANYMORE.

My true "literary frustration" is more along the lines of getting people interested (and keeping them interested) in my work. I know that if I write something lousy I can always fix it. Getting others interested in it is my true trouble.

Though I must admit, untangling a long story and trying to figure out where it's going to end up, without leaving anything dangling or mussing up a long-ago plot point, is truly frustrating too. Then my frustration probably sounds like the high-pitched noise I just let out the window to scare away the squirrels raiding the bird feeder.

I can write something and come back in fifteen minutes and want to gag. That doesn't apply to the entire story. But it can take me weeks to perfect some chapters. Normally, I'll go over what I wrote (or edited) the day before and then pick up from where I left off. But sometimes I'm not satisfied, and will rewrite, restructure, whatever it takes. Then I reread it the next day until it flows like I'm reading another book.

I'm not using Beta Readers at the moment. That might be a mistake. I've been sending straight to the publisher, so I won't know unless they put coal in my stocking.

I'm not trying to write garbage. My mind thinks very quickly, and so I write things on the fly, which is likely why I'll make careless edits. The creative ideas are mostly decent. The writing itself is what lags.

What does your literary frustration sound like?

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