When your writing turns bad?

ShannonC_77 · Feb 16, 2007

I'm just wondering how others deal with this.

Right now I set a goal for myself to try and produce 1000 words of both non-fiction and fiction a day.

There are some days when I sit down and everything is flowing really great; my ideas are creative and I have problems. Other days though it feels like it's pulling teeth to get the words down. It seems boring and just doesn't work.

When you have that type of day do you keep pushing yourself to write? I'm not sure if it's best to just leave it be and go read or something or keep going until I reach my goal and then maybe revise it later on.

PeeDee · Feb 16, 2007

Write anyway. Even if it feels like crap.

Doesn't mean it IS crap. I bet if you wrote 2,000 words over two days, 1,000 good and easy, 1,000 hard and crappy....and then came back to it in a year and reread the whole thing, you would be hard pressed to tell the good from the bad accurately.

AbsintheFiend · Feb 16, 2007

I'd agree that slogging through and hitting your goal is important, that's an opinion that's been voiced by tons of writers - you want to be a writer, then write even if its difficult etc etc...
However I'd say that often (for me anyway) the scenes that feel like pulling teeth are the aspects of the piece that I find boring... or they're scenes where I feel like I'm getting away from the main thrust of the story.. or, or, or... in other words there spots where I don't like what I'm writing about for one reason or another. Spotting when you're doing this can be hard (there'd be way less revision if you could do it on the fly) ... but I think the reader can tell when either you're bored with what you're writing or if you've gone off on a tangent - the reader will probably share your opinion on whatever it is about the scene you don't like. And if that's the case, I'd say stop. You'll probably end up chucking the scene anyway when it comes time to revise...
I'd rather take a break and listen to some music and come back and write 500 words that are going to stay in the final draft, than push on through and write 1000 words that are going to be cut.

Toothpaste · Feb 16, 2007

I see what you mean Absinthe, but I also think it can be complete opposite. I procrastinated for weeks writing the end of my novel, I just couldn't do it, had the worst writer's block. And then I got a call from an agent requesting the full MS, and so in 3 days I had to finish the darn thing. It wasn't easy, and I had to force myself to do it. But in the end those last 40 pages turned out to be the best in the book. And whenever I get my edits from my editor, they become less and less frequent by the end of the novel.

Sometimes even though it feels hard and painful to do, when you re-read what you've written, you'll be surprised at how effortless it can sound.

Just my two cents.

RG570 · Feb 16, 2007

Michael Moorcock wrote 15k a day and did no major revisions. It's possible to do a decent job under pressure if you have the right discipline.

TheIT · Feb 16, 2007

I'm getting close to the end of my WIP (yay!). I'm also getting to the point where I can't tell whether the writing is good or not, and I'm all right with the uncertainty. Focusing on the trees is making looking at the forest pretty difficult. Right now, all I'm concerned about is getting the words on the page in some sort of coherent order which keeps the story moving. In revision, I will smooth out the prose and the flow of the story.

PeeDee · Feb 16, 2007

There are reasons for stopping and either starting over, or taking a break to re-asses. I don't believe that "because I don't feel like I'm writing well" is one of those. Sometimes, you're not even remotely the best judge.

And even if you windup writing the scene badly...well, you've told some story. Maybe it can be used later. Maybe you've found something useful in there anyway.

TheIT · Feb 16, 2007

PeeDee said:
There are reasons for stopping and either starting over, or taking a break to re-asses. I don't believe that "because I don't feel like I'm writing well" is one of those. Sometimes, you're not even remotely the best judge.

And even if you windup writing the scene badly...well, you've told some story. Maybe it can be used later. Maybe you've found something useful in there anyway.

Let me second this. I've found a lot of times when I'm cringeing while writing down a scene, it's not quite so terrible later on when I go back and reread it. Once you've got something down on the page, you can work with it. If you get the scene correct the first time through, wonderful, but if not you've got something you can mold into shape.

scribbler1382 · Feb 16, 2007

There's no such thing as wasted writing, IMO. It may very well be true that the first 1,000 words of a writing session is crap and will be tossed later. But if you hadn't slogged through those little turds, you wouldn't have gotten to the remainder of the writing session, which may turn out to be gold. Or maybe you'll have three completely crap sessions, but again you wouldn't have gotten to the sessions after that without them.

On the other hand, you do need to develop a shitball barometer. You need to be able to tell when a story has gone off the rails and sometimes you need to get away from the keyboard to fill up the well again, but I don't think that's what we're talking about here.

(Waves to Brian!)

Jamesaritchie · Feb 16, 2007

Bad

A week later, those bad scenes and teeth-pulling words will nearly always read just as well as any other scenes and words. Sometimes better.

DeadlyAccurate · Feb 16, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
A week later, those bad scenes and teeth-pulling words will nearly always read just as well as any other scenes and words. Sometimes better.

And alternately, those effortless, awesome scenes sometimes end up being tossed, because either your story moved in a different direction or you realized in retrospect that the scene didn't really have a place in the story.

engmajor2005 · Feb 16, 2007

You can't. Edit. A blank page.

I'ts impossible.

Pagey's_Girl · Feb 16, 2007

Just remind yourself that you can go back and edit it later. Most times, it's really not anywhere near as bad as you think.

And yes, I have to forcibly tell myself this, many times. "Just WRITE it, girl!"

AceTachyon · Feb 16, 2007

As Stephen King put it in On Writing (paraphrased), sometimes it feels like you're shoveling sh*t from a sitting position.

On days like those I just keep plugging away. Might be crap.

Or I could just be getting warmed up.

scarletpeaches · Feb 16, 2007

Keep writing. Good day or bad day, you keep writing. It's the only way to get the book done.

PeeDee · Feb 16, 2007

The alternative is not writing, and that doesn't do anything for me.

scarletpeaches · Feb 16, 2007

Not write a fiction novel? *dies of shock*

Jamesaritchie · Feb 16, 2007

Scenes

DeadlyAccurate said:
And alternately, those effortless, awesome scenes sometimes end up being tossed, because either your story moved in a different direction or you realized in retrospect that the scene didn't really have a place in the story.

Too true. Easy, effortless scenes sometimes worry me more than teeth-pulling scenes.

Azure Skye · Feb 16, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
Too true. Easy, effortless scenes sometimes worry me more than teeth-pulling scenes.

I'm beginning to agree with that.

bunnygirl · Feb 16, 2007

When I took on my fictional blog project, I committed to daily posting, not realizing just what I was getting into. It's been exhausting, but it's also been one of the best things I've ever done for my writing, right after learning my letters and learning to type.

Go on and push your comfort zone. After all, you can't edit what you haven't written.

jonereb · Feb 16, 2007

Some days I try to work through it. Some days I walk away until my mind is clear. Right now, I'm in one of those funks. I have a real paying job, actually two, requiring my attention right now. For two months, I've been looking forward to writing a particular section. Now, my mind is too jumbled to write it. I feel like I'm rushing. Since I'm in no hurry to finish and because I'm ahead of my goal anyway, I decided to let it rest for a week or two while I earn some cash. Besides, my client deserves my undivided attention.

ShannonC_77 · Feb 16, 2007

Thanks for everyone's input, it helps to see what others do. I think I need to just try and keep pushing, I mean 1000 words isn't too terribly much anyway, the next day I can always revise it if I'm still feeling like it's not working.

Back in the summer I was mass producing at 5000-9000 words a day (writing for a start-up website) so lately it just feels like I've been so slack at 2000 words, and even getting that out has been a challenge. It could be the type of writing though too, I'm not as strong at fiction as I am at non-fiction right now.

Saundra Julian · Feb 16, 2007

AceTachyon said:
As Stephen King put it in On Writing (paraphrased), sometimes it feels like you're shoveling sh*t from a sitting position.

Love it and can relate!

Raphee · Feb 16, 2007

I would say write on. Though I am beginning to disagree with the word count target. What does it mean if A writes 500 words of good literature and B write 2000 words of bad literature.
Guess we have to pull it both ways.

My-Immortal · Feb 16, 2007

What do you mean...when your writing turns bad? It usually starts out bad (for me)! 400 or so pages of steaming poo is what I lovingly call my first draft. Its sole purpose is to get the story out of my head and onto paper where I can actually work on it. Yes, it does get discouraging from time to time spending months desecrating so many pages with written excrement, but the joy, for me at least, is taking all that muck and marking it up with a bright red pen. Rewriting is where the magic happens.

At least, I hope some magic happens....

Good luck with your writing. Keep at it.

When your writing turns bad?

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