Feeling discouraged

Who is telling you parts don't seem believable of make sense? Are these betas or people on SYW?

If the advice is specific, you should be able to find a way to iron out that component on your story.

On the other hand, I find these things are pretty subjective. I showed a story last year to someone who said it was "unbelievable." Another person recognised that said piece was a satire and therefore wasn't meant to be believable. Different strokes and all that.

First of all, remember all the reasons you enjoy writing, because those are more important than your worst story. Second, are your critiquers fellow writers or friends and family members? Because the latter can sometimes be incredibly bad at getting past their emotional/judgmental connection to a story (because they know you), and the former can (because they don't--they just see the story for the story). Third, remember that every time you sit down to write you grow and learn. You can always make a certain section better. If it's bothering you think about ways to improve it. But if you truly love to write, keep at it.

Welcome...

to the world of the writer. Being discouraged is part of learning to write well, and that process goes on throughout your writing career.

It might help just to write for yourself a bit and stop using anyone to crit your work.

Are you usually a bit of a perfectionist? If so learn to live with dissatisfaction. Put each story away for three months and write some more. Come back to each story after three months and be surprised at how much you can improve it.

Hi Celticroots,

I get discouraged a lot. I'd say keep looking at how stories work. After you've written a story see if you can anticipate the feedback. Previous responses should point the way to some things to watch out for. Sometimes this works for me. Sometimes I just get discouraged...

(hugs)
LN

celticroots said:

Iam feeling discouraged about my writing right now. It seems like a lot of my short stories have some part that doesn't seem believable or doesnt make sense. I am thankful for the critiques on my stuff, but it doesn't feel like iam making any progress.

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in some ways I wonder if substantive "feedback," beyond pointing to glaring plot holes, isn't more harm than good. Like when I was still taking classes I had a story that involves a lawyer. First draft it included some detail of the law. I got several crits that there was way too much detail and it just confused, and I should dumb it down. Another story for another class, I dumbed down the law detail. But this class was heavy with people with law experience. i was told the law detail had to be beefed up to be believable. I don't think the fault was my stories, I just had to ignore that particular piece of advice.

Then I took a class a year ago, just to clear out cobwebs, i thought. My style is very sparse and very devoid of descriptive detail, unless it ties into the plot. The class and teacher as a whole told me I MUST DESCRIBE setting and people, ONE MUST. My early influence is Charles Bukowski (not the drinking but the sparse style). I told the class/teacher that Buk didn't describe, and I was told i was wrong, that he was very describtive. so i added all this description that I would never have put in the story. Meanwhile I was rereading Post Office. In the entire novel Buk put 1 description- his boss (and there is no description of how the boss looked) wore a red shirt- blood red. This was in Chapter 1. There was no other description anywhere.

I kind of think if you are reading a lot, and can see your style of writing as being in the ball park of things you're reading you might be better (and here I am paraphrasing James Ritchie from a week or two ago) off not hearing anything.

Off course some of us may just be poor writers, but that comes out with subbing rather than hearing crits*.

*I do have to admit there were times in those classes where I wanted to simple critique a story, "Dude, you are really really without ability and really should quit."

Hello

I get discouraged too. In fact crits from rather brutal creative writing tutors put me off writing for a few years. I decided I was no good and that was that.

But over time I realised I love words and writing and that's the reason I'm doing it. I think I have a long way to go but there isn't an end point. It's hard slog. Some days I just can't bring myself to write another word because I hate everything I've done. Other days I like a sentence of two and that persuades me to keep trying.

I think if you truly love writing, do if for that. You will still come up against discouragement but it usually doesn't last long because the joy will kick in. If you're only doing it to be 'good' at it, you may struggle long term. At least, that's what I've found. Of course I want to be good but I also like the creative act. It was natural for me as a child even without anyone seeing my stories and that's what I want to get back.

Keep trying if that is what you want.

celticroots said:

Iam feeling discouraged about my writing right now. It seems like a lot of my short stories have some part that doesn't seem believable or doesnt make sense. I am thankful for the critiques on my stuff, but it doesn't feel like iam making any progress. Iam working on a new story but iam worried that problems from my other stories will show up in my new one. Thoughts or advice appreciated.

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Unless this feedback is coming from editors, don't let it get you down. Odds are the critiquers haven't the first clue abut anything except what they like, and what they don't. Neither means anything.

If the feedback is coming from editors, then remember stories are not permanent. When an editor says something is wrong, don't get discouraged, change it.

Too true. I let a friend read a short story and she was mystified, confused..."I don't get it." The the suggestions began. It turned out to be my first professional sale, in absence of her suggestions.

I think everyone has raised some valid points why you should maybe be careful obtaining crits and taking on the feedback. I particularly like the point folk chic made about how crits who know you tend to view your stories through the lens of their connection with you. I have experienced that many times. Even a creative writing teacher might do this. They might not like your shirt, or the way you laugh, or they might think you smell funny. And suddenly everything you write has "this" and "that" wrong with it. People can be very stuck inside their own heads and seriously lack perspective because of inner biases they often aren't even aware of.

They say you only get good after writing a certain amount of words. So stop panicking and start writing more. Who cares if a certain person doesn't like your writing, or even if you sometimes feel overwhelmed? You write because you cannot live without writing, not because you want to please somebody.

Cheers,

Arthur.

I feel discouraged about my writing on a regular basis. Its frustrating wanting to achieve something (conveying a particular emotion or nuance for example), and to feel my attempts to achieve that just haven't worked. But I can see how my writing has already improved from my earliest attempts, and that's encouraging. Also, each story is different. Some come easily, and others feel like being stuck in thick mud. Often I find the best medicine is to move onto the next story, especially if there's an idea in there that I just can't wait to write. And to write it by turning off the critic in my head.

Often the stories I find other people like best are the ones I had the most fun writing, where I worried least about what anyone else might think.

Sometimes only people who enjoy the genre I write in will like a particular story. Its probably a good idea not to share work that you might be sensitive about with people who don't normally read that kind of story. They won't get it. They'll probably think you're weird. Maybe they are right. But you don't need to hear about it from them.

I've had friends read stories and say, I didn't know you were like that. They think you must share characteristics with the people you write about. There are some stories you might not want to share for that reason - they'll think you're a deviant because you wrote about one.

A lot of people have found books by Anne Lamotte (Bird by Bird), or Julie Cameron (The Artists Way) very encouraging when they are feeling depressed about their writing. I'd recommend one of these before giving it away!

Deizelcore said:

You write because you cannot live without writing, not because you want to please somebody.

Cheers,

Arthur.

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Well, I think telling yourself you can't live without writing is the worst thing you can possibly do. Of course you can live without writing. If not, you need serious psychiatric help, and sooner rather than later.

Anyone can live perfectly well without writing, and a great many would be better off doing so. Dreams are great, but when you wrap a dream aroudn something you're lousy at, your life will not have a happy ending.

There's nothing mystical about writing, anymore than there is with playing video games, putting together puzzles, building model airplanes, or, for that matter, pumping gas.

It's just something we try to do. Some are wonderful writers, some are horrible, most fall in the middle. But it's just another activity, and if you tell yourself you can't live without it, you'd better be wonderful, or you'll have a life filled with failure.

"I can't live without writing" doesn't mean "I make my living with my writing." It means that the feeling to create is so great that one would go mad if they were not to heed that call.

I don't see how anybody could be better off without writing unless it's getting them nowhere and it's all they're relying on. Which is too specific of a situation to say "You're better off without writing, or at least better off without feeling the need to write."

Mad Rabbits said:

I think everyone has raised some valid points why you should maybe be careful obtaining crits and taking on the feedback. I particularly like the point folk chic made about how crits who know you tend to view your stories through the lens of their connection with you. I have experienced that many times. Even a creative writing teacher might do this. They might not like your shirt, or the way you laugh, or they might think you smell funny. And suddenly everything you write has "this" and "that" wrong with it. People can be very stuck inside their own heads and seriously lack perspective because of inner biases they often aren't even aware of.

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Amen. You are so right. I'd give you 100 rep points if I could.

I taught science. (Am now retired.) And though my closest teacher friends and colleagues liked my stories and always asked about them, it was the English staff which made snide comments behind my back. (How do I know? Because some were snide enough to tell me that others were making snide comments.)

I am pretty sure most saw me as that 'little science teacher' and what does she think she can do - be a writer?

I later learned that many of them had tried and failed where I succeeded.

Green eyes, much?

And to the op, keep going, don't give up and get some critical feedback from writers. Real writers. Many writing groups are made up of a lot of wannabees who are never gonna be.

Jamesaritchie said:

There's nothing mystical about writing, anymore than there is with playing video games, putting together puzzles, building model airplanes, or, for that matter, pumping gas.

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I'm wondering how these comparisons make sense. When you pump gas or build a model aeroplane, there is a set of instructions. When you play video games you are reacting to programmed stimuli in a controlled environment. When you put together a puzzle the color and shape of the pieces guide you. They all require little or no independent thought or self-direction.

I can't promise you that you won't encounter frustration; all of us do. I just read another two rejection notices.

It's life; or rather, the writing life.

What I can promise you is that you will improve if you keep at it, and you won't if you give up.

I can also promise you -- at least this has been the case for me -- if you're looking for some rubber stamp that says you are officially a good writer, then you won't find it.

Honestly, I bet even some Hugo winners still wonder if they're really any good.

celticroots said:

Iam feeling discouraged about my writing right now. It seems like a lot of my short stories have some part that doesn't seem believable or doesnt make sense. I am thankful for the critiques on my stuff, but it doesn't feel like iam making any progress. Iam working on a new story but iam worried that problems from my other stories will show up in my new one. Thoughts or advice appreciated.

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First off, do you agree with these critiques? When you look in on your stories, does your gut grumble that, yes, your stories are having some issues with believability or making sense? And is it a problem or is it simply the nature of the particular stories you are writing? (I just sold a short story last week that I would characterize as one of my much weirder pieces--a lot of it doesn't make logical sense, but it isn't about those logical issues, but more allegorical in nature)(or perhaps more "new weird" in nature)(sure drove my crit group crazy, though!)

Secondly, if you feel these critiques are correct and they have helped you to identify a problem you want to fix, then you need to look at what the cause of the problem is. Your critiquers can make tons of suggestions as to what the actual problem is (as opposed to the symptoms, which you have identified above), but chances are only you will be able to identify the real issue because only you know what your intent is with every line of the story and can thus see where the intent is failing to come through.

So start evaluating. Rip one of your stories into tiny little shreds and try to figure out what might be causing the problem. Then in your next story, take what you've learned and try to fix it.

You may succeed, you may fail--heck you may find what you think the problem is isn't the problem at all and have to start the whole process over--but THAT is a lot of what being a writer is about.




-Michelle

Sometimes the holes will fill themselves. I work on multiple pieces at a time so I can let one sit when I have difficulty or I go through all of my old work and the answer is right there...written before hand and cast aside as a maybe type of thing. Keep your head up. No one becomes a great writer with ease...you have to write until your fingers bleed and your eyes pop out...heal, and do it all over again. You can do it!