Extremes in a Spectrum

Akuma · Apr 6, 2007

Throughout the years, I've never been able to be levelly confident in myself. That is, I'm always at one end of the spectrum.

Half of the time, I'll believe (perhaps wrongly) I suck as a writer, I'll never be fit enough to even lick the dust from the shoes of Decency

The other half of the time, I'll believe (perhaps wrongly) I'm the hottest shit to land on this rock since Jesus, convinced of my own brilliancy.

But I've never truly been at the middle, humble but confident. How often is this middle ground attainable?

Is this just me?

Or does writers suffer from this in general?

Hell, do people suffer from this in general.

Kentuk · Apr 6, 2007

No you are just you.
Me, I'm me and such full time.

Birol · Apr 6, 2007

I think it's part of the roller coaster. It is what it is and we have to learn, intellectually, separate and apart from emotion, to ride it out. We have to find a way to tell ourselves, "I don't really suck; I just feel that way. There's these factors that point to me not sucking." Or, conversely, "Must be careful not to get too swelled of a head. It's a long way back down and you know what comes up, must go down. There's always room for improvement; no one is perfect."

NEGO · Apr 7, 2007

I'm very confident in myself, but my confidence is tempered by the whole "big fish, small pond" idiom-saying-thing

Jamesaritchie · Apr 7, 2007

Confident

I know I can write well, I know I can tell a story well, I know I can put good characters down on paper, and I know I can write very good dialogue. There is no doubt of this.

But I also know there exists a fair number of writers who are better than I am at any and all these things, and three or four or five writers out there who are not only better than I am, but better than I can ever be, even I lived to be a thousand and wrote ten hours a day.

I'm not sure any of this matters. All I can do is be the best I can be, and if this isn't good enough, then it isn't good enough.

Shadow_Ferret · Apr 7, 2007

During the writing process, the whole research, pre-writing, writing, editing phases, I am full of it ... um, confidence, full of confidence. I think I'm the equal of any writer on the planet.

But the moment I begin to submit it, that's when I'm assailed by doubts, crawl into a fetal position, and think, "Who the hell am I kidding? This sucks! I suck!"

Can you tell from recent posts that I'm in the submitting phase?

Birol · Apr 7, 2007

Shadow:

calamity · Apr 7, 2007

It's normal. I know many writers who oscillate between the two poles -- and some of them are well accomplished--have won big awards and fellowships--still they have days when they think everything they've ever written sucks. Kafka was like this. A lot of us are. Someone once told me that it's never as BAD as I think it is and it's never as GOOD as I think it is. So when I'm on one of my suck-coasters or ego trips, I just remember that.

Extremes in a Spectrum

Akuma

Rare Writer Pokemon

Kentuk

I want to write what I want to write

Birol

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NEGO

Jamesaritchie

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

Birol

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calamity