That feeling of inadequacy

A skilled and experienced person - in any field of human endeavour - can make something look effortless. You see them and think "wow! I will never be that good."

This could be an author, a painter, a politician, an athlete, anyone.

What you don't see are the thousands of hours of practice, the drafts they threw away, their rejection letters, their moments of doubt.

Most of all, you don't usually get to see them when they were first starting out. In all likelihood they would have looked at someone that they admired and said "wow! I will never be that good."

Skilled people can make something look ridiculously easy. You look at them and think "hey, I can do that."

Really skilled people can sometimes make things look ridiculously hard. You think "hey, I could never do that."

The reality is that anyone can improve if they approach it right - accept that they have more to learn, get good coaching, be flexible enough to acquire new skills. And not give up.

Let's be honest here. There is only room on the podium for one winner, one gold medal. We can't all be as successful as JK Rowling or Stephen King. But then we don't need to be. We need to find our own niches and our own readers. There are more than 7 billion people out there. They will need something to read after they have finished Harry Potter.

Taylor Harbin said:

It is a very good book. The first half is his life story, which is very nice because it shows you how an author's life will affect their work. It also shows just how hard he had to struggle before he broke in.

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Neat. So part bio. Bios are insightful. Ones I've read have given me a lot of ins into the writing process and some invaluable tips. Will have to check the book out.

Yup - another vote for "On writing". It is that rare thing - a damned useful text book with large slices of personality. An honest out-pouring of emotion and soul-baring.

It's become trendy not to like it. That's okay. It means the rest of us can enjoy it in peace.

Once! said:

It's become trendy not to like it.

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Similar to Elements of Style, that's even inspired a satire.

Maybe it's a rite of passage into the pantheon.

Thnx for the additional rec. Starry too. (Library probably has a copy.)

I have this problem too. I'll go to Barnes & Noble and browse through some of the latest books. The most popular ones always leave me with that massive feeling of inadequency, that I will never be able to write this well. It's the main reason I can't buy anything by Junot Diaz or any other literary author.

Sadly there isn't a cure for it. Just remember that you're not alone!

The feeling of inadequacy is painful, but unavoidable. Just remember what William Faulkner said: "The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself."

And, from a song: "The only failure is to never try."

Do you have something to say that they didn't say? In that case keep going. You might never be as great as them, but that doesn't mean you're nothing. If you just want to rehash what they do, forget it.

I wonder if this is the reason why it's taking me so long to finish mine? Why I keep going back and re-writing scenes, taking out and then adding more?

Don't even get me started with the issue of grammar on top of that. But, I am trying and although it's slow I figured I'll get there eventually, it's just a matter of when.

I get this feeling a lot. Inadequacy. Wanna-be. A hack.

It's discouraging really, and this isn't even because I'm
comparing myself with the 'great writers'. I don't because I
just don't feel even worthy to be compared to them.

I now write because I have stories to write. In a sense, I write
for my own sanity. If, and when I do finish my WIPs, if they
do deserve to be read by others, I'll try to get them published.
If not, at least I've done something that I've been wanting to
do.

From what I gathered here and in #absolutewrite on irc, just keep
plugging at it. Write...Write...and...Write. Despite the inadequacies,
doubts and discouragements. "Do not give up." is what one of my MCs
would say to me if she was standing right next to me.

graygrammar said:

We consume media like we consume food. We always need more and it doesn't have to be gourmet, it just has to be something we can enjoy.

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I was thinking about what you said graygrammar and I realized that you have completely summed up why the world will never run out of books to read. To paraphrase, you may be a gormet chef, but you still duck into McDonalds once in a while because you have a hankering for their cheese burgers.

I am reading a Terry Brooks book right now and he is such a good story teller that I feel completely inadequate in that light. But Terry Brooks is such a great detail oritented writer that I am not sure I would want to write with that much detail, and I am not sure I would want to, but I also really like the way I tell a story so maybe there are people out there in the world that would like the way I tell a stroy too.

So, thank you for your encouraging words!

In every context, I feel exactly the same, but particularly in things I feel passionately about and want to be good in. Writing would be one of them, yes. I'm only human, I'm not perfect.

I'm sailing the good ship Inadequacy right now, too. I think part of it is because I'm 10,000 words into a first draft. After polishing the last one into something I can live with, the new one seems like such a steaming pile of crap. And blistering through a couple of new books that I loved didn't help me feel any better.

But I've found some comfort in this thread. And one thing is certain: my writing will never get better unless I keep writing. So I hereby declare my intention to disembark. Back to writing, back to trying, back to working to become better and better and better.

(And add me to the list of people who enjoyed On Writing.)

It's hard to get past the little editor in your head who is always criticizing, always LOUD about your work.

Just keep writing. Ignore or shut off the internal editor - UNTIL you're finished writing and ready to EDIT.

You can do it!

And I've found most writers are better than they give themselves credit for - just like I'm sure you are.

Hang in there, keep writing and most of all HAVE FUN!

I have been feeling this way too. Not necessarily in the same way--I can remember feeling jealous of another author's writing but it doesn't normally happen to me anymore. Self doubt and inadequacy, though, has really been creeping up on me lately. Language is not going the way I want it to, to say what I want to say, or the saying is way overboard of what the saying needs to create. And then why try to say such a thing? Why create what I say in such a mundane way? And who wants to hear what I or any author has to say anyway? And the worst... what if somebody hears the saying of what I am saying and finds the merit of it lacking, lacking to the point that they think I should employ better censorship or even sink my black soul to the bottom of the ocean.

I was sitting in a craft talk with an author I admire and this author told me the biggest thing he learned in writing was to get over his self-doubt, that self-doubt was the biggest hurdle in hindsight and was still an issue for him. So I try to remind myself of that since it was a personal answer from somebody I admire.

I think everybody feels this from time to time, or even all the time. Thanks for posting this thread, and those who posted. It was a good read, and timely for me

I think it's the word "inadequate" that's the problem. Realistically, there are writers out there whose first effort was better than anything I write after thirty-five years. There are writers out there who have far more talent than I have, and whose skill level is also much, much higher because of that talent level.

Any writer who thinks some other writers aren't better than they will ever be is either loaded with more talent than any one person should have, or they have an ego the the size of Australia. We can't all be the as good as those who really do have a boatload of talent. That's just how it is.

But this does not in any way make us inadequate. It makes us normal. Some of us can still write good novel, good short stories, good anything, that please millions of readers, even if we aren't as good as those we worship.

Perhaps the truest part of King's book On Writing is when he says:

I am approaching the heart of this book with two theses, both simple. The first is that good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level of your toolbox with the right instruments. The second is that while it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while it is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, it is possible, with lots of hard work, dedication, and timely help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one.

Unfortunately, the sad reality is that not everyone can write well, no matter how long and hard they practice, and some people write extremely well right from the start. That's just life. This still doesn't mean we need to feel inadequate, it just means we need to find a different niche to fill, find an area where we have more talent.

I flunked out of painting in a most royal manner. I simply did not have teh talent, and some who picked up a pencil for their first sketch were better than I was after years of practice. It happens, and it's nothing to be ashamed of.

I shrugged, and looked for something else to do. I found writing, and here I have much more talent than I ever did for painting. I'm never, ever going to be a Ray Bradbury, I'm never going to move up to being Great, but I am good enough, and that's more than Good Enough for me..

I thought this was funny

Any writer who thinks some other writers aren't better than they will ever be is either loaded with more talent than any one person should have, or they have an ego the the size of Australia.

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As I see it, one of the goods that comes of writing is humility. There are a lot of benefits of writing and reading that have little to do with what is perceived by King to be good, bad or great writing. If a person has something to say and finds benefit from writing, they should do it regardless of the perception of their work (or perhaps ever working toward a more precise perception). Anyway, they will, at the very least, be able to speak with better grammar and perhaps perform more impressively in a job interview one day. I think some of your post, James, was needlessly discouraging to us toiling writers, but maybe I will try painting tomorrow.

Mostly, I just came back to revise my own post of its "black soul" as it seemed so dramatic... self-doubt creeping in, lol

Granada said:

I thought this was funny

As I see it, one of the goods that comes of writing is humility. There are a lot of benefits of writing and reading that have little to do with what is perceived by King to be good, bad or great writing. If a person has something to say and finds benefit from writing, they should do it regardless of the perception of their work (or perhaps ever working toward a more precise perception). l

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Well, King is talking about "good' in the sense of being publishable, of having readers read your writing with pleasure, and in this, he'd dead right.

Anyone who wants to write should write away, but the simple fact is that most simply lack the talent to write well enough to be published, or to be read for pure pleasure. There are many other reasons to write, but when people feel inadequate, or depressed, about writing, it's usually because they don't think they're good enough to be published, or to be read for pleasure. They're usually right, but so what?

If our weaknesses and our failures defined us, we wouldn't have many great men and women who made history in one way or another. Anyone who tries enough things is going to fail often. What separates most successful people from the rest of us is that they kept trying new things until they found something they were great at.

I think we disagree on what talent and success means. Also, I am not so taken with Stephen King--I find his prose overblown and his stories shallow. So that right there is an obvious hole in my logic of success. But I always appreciate reading your advice while lurking around the forums Here, though, it seems to me like you are implying that an individual's perception of their own inadequacy will somehow gauge their future success. There must be millions of examples in writing, art, athletics, business of exactly the opposite.

My humble thoughts on the matter. This feeling of inadequacy hits pretty much everyone in any artistic endeavour from time to time. Some things are measurable and concrete - vocabulary, use of grammar, etc. It is in these areas we can make quantifiable progress.

Other areas, not so much. Usually I would guess it is these indefinable bits that cause us the most concern.

However, aren't those the subjective elements? How can we control what others think of anything we produce, once it has left us and gone out into the world. It is up to the reader to decide then, so we should concentrate on making our own work the best we can and damn the "competition".

I wouldn't presume to know anyone else but myself, but I also do know that sometimes this feeling is an excuse to not try. That inner voice that says "You'll never be any good. Why bother? Why punish yourself like this?" It gives a nice cop-out, guilt free, almost practical.

Remember though, it is often at these moments of lowest confidence that, if we push on, we sometimes produce our best because we overcame ourselves. Another small victory. I think the key is to not compare, to not worry, to not look for excuses, and to merely write.

ps. Anybody who can do this easily and regularly, please let me know how you do it.

King's stories aren't shallow. Certainly not the one's I've read. They have many layers.

gingerwoman said:

King's stories aren't shallow. Certainly not the one's I've read. They have many layers.

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I agree, there have been a couple I haven't liked due to subject matter but still the ones I have read have had many layers.

Granada said:

I think we disagree on what talent and success means. Also, I am not so taken with Stephen King--I find his prose overblown and his stories shallow. So that right there is an obvious hole in my logic of success. But I always appreciate reading your advice while lurking around the forums Here, though, it seems to me like you are implying that an individual's perception of their own inadequacy will somehow gauge their future success. There must be millions of examples in writing, art, athletics, business of exactly the opposite.

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Honestly, how you or I view King is completely meaningless. The simple fact is that his writing pleases millions of readers, and even millions of movie goers. There no writer one earth who pleases everyone, but that's just personal taste, though I will say I think King's stories are deeper than pretty much any writer around. Especially his shorter work. There's a reason it not only pleases more genre readers, but literary readers, as well. The only two tests of writing that matter is how many readers you please, and the test of time, which is even more important. King has passed both with flying colors. There are readers who hate Shakespeare, but using this is to say he isn't one of teh greatest writers who ever lived just doesn't cut it.

Whatever any individual thinks about a writer, when a writer please this many people for this long, that writer is good, and will still be read long, long down the road. So there is no hole in his opinion. For that matter, it isn't just his opinion, it's born out in the real world over and over.

It's true that success comes in many forms, but it's also true that a lot of people fail miserably, and try to come up with some way of saying they didn't fail. "Well, I self-published, and nine people loved my book. That someone liked it is all that matters to me, so I'm a success."

That's fine, but you're still a crappy writer. Good is subjective, at least in comparison. King is good. Period. He doesn't please everyone, you may like this or that writer more, or hate this or that writer, but King is good, despite who hates him. He's proven this beyond doubt.

Bad is not subjective. No matter how much a writer would like to think it's all subjective, bad is purely objective. Where good can be difficult to recognize, it is bad only subjectively, when comparing one good writer to another, and on an individual taste level.

But everyone except the writer, and sometimes other writers who can't write well, recognizes bad. When you read through a slush pile, no one can sanely argue that the bottom forty percent or so is anything like good. There is no standard, not even personal taste, that makes it good, and these writers almost never move up in the slush. They simply can't write well, or at all, in any meaningful way, and they often get worse with time, rather than better.

I doubt there are millions of examples of anything, and I know being able to honestly assess your own talent level, the quality of your own work, is dramatically important if every field. If you can't do this, chances are you'll end up on your death bed, wishing you had found something else to do.

I really don't try to gauge the quality of my own work. I let others do this for me because this is the test that matters. Too many refuse to do this, and go on year after year, decade after decade, thinking that whatever they do is fine, is good, is great, when all evidence says otherwise. You can gauge success however you like, but if you're trying to sell your writing, and no one is buying, something is seriously wrong. If this keeps up long enough, you need to take the hint. You either need to change what you're doing, and how you're doing it, dramatically, or you need to find something else to do.

We can't all be good at something just because we want to be, or just because we try really hard for years. Life simply doesn't work this way. There is such a thing as bad, there are things we simply can't do well at all, and desire never makes up for lack of talent.

Maybe it's because I'm primarily left-brained, if you buy into this, or maybe it's because I never had a burning desire to be a writer, but I can't think of anything sadder than going through life doing something you have no talent for when there almost certainly is something else out there you're good at. I never wanted my life to end with the words, "Well, at least I tried." I'd prefer it end with, "I did it."

That's why I walked away from the art world. It didn't take long to realize not only that I wasn't very good, but that I would never be capable of doing anything great because I simply lacked the talent.

Sometimes a feeling of inadequacy is uncalled for, and is just fear. Sometimes it's completely called for, and means you're in the wrong field.

Jamesaritchie said:

Sometimes a feeling of inadequacy is uncalled for, and is just fear. Sometimes it's completely called for, and means you're in the wrong field.

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So my feelings of inadequacy might be because I actually do suck? Oof. I´m turning around and walking away from this thread as fast as I can.

MasterZinja said:

It's hard to get past the little editor in your head who is always criticizing, always LOUD about your work.

Just keep writing. Ignore or shut off the internal editor - UNTIL you're finished writing and ready to EDIT.

You can do it!

And I've found most writers are better than they give themselves credit for - just like I'm sure you are.

Hang in there, keep writing and most of all HAVE FUN!

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Excellent advice!