Too much in love with your own words

Jamesaritchie said:

Learn to trust your own voice, your own opinion, or everything you write will be like everything everyone else writes, which seems to be the main objective of beta readers and critiquers of all stripes.

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You need to get yourself some better betas, James, if that's what they're doing.*

I find this advice to be a bit of a problem, as well. If a writer doesn't know they're suffering from Golden Word Syndrome, then trusting their own voice and their own opinion leads to major disappointments later down the road when no one else appreciates their Genius. At some point a writer should develop a sense of knowing when what they're being told Really Isn't Working...really isn't working and have the ego strength to listen and to do something about it instead of doing the Drama Queen Hair Toss and dismissing the advice as simply Not Getting It or worse, the advice is trying to Change Their Voice or Change Their Style.

My beta has not ever tried to make me write like she does. She points out problematic, confusing text, places where I'm redundant not only in my prose but word redundancy. She catches my comma murder. She points out those places where, as a reader, she stumbles to follow my train of thought. She catches all kinds of problematic writing but not once, ever, has she tried to change my voice.

But yeah. There are times when I am like 'damn that's a fabulous sentence/paragraph/scene' but if it doesn't fit, it has to go. I don't delete completely. I put it in my Boneyard folder for use on another project.

Funny thing about my Boneyard folder, though. Rarely do I use anything out of it. Months, years down the road, I dip into it and read it and go 'what the hell was I thinking?'





*this is sarcasm because 1) I know how JAR feels about betas; and 2) know that he doesn't use them.

I think that as writers, we are trying to connect with the reader. If a sentence/paragraph doesn't do that, then we are lost. I think that sometimes the concept/idea of the sentence can be great, but how it reads could be better while still getting that idea across to the reader.

I usually have this Golden Word Syndrome with my contemporary writings (i.e. zomg that sentence is BRILLIANT!!111) but not so much with my regency stuff. I have a beta looking in to my WIPs right now. We'll see what she says... *crosses fingers*

Niniva said:

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Don't laugh.... I'm decrepit....

( )

DanielaTorre said:

Don't laugh.... I'm decrepit....

( )

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I'm a pharaoh then.

Personally, I'm as much an editor as I am a writer. At least after the first draft, I hack my own words to pieces. I used to be more protective of individual words or sentences. But I've come to realize that the words and sentences aren't a problem. I keep telling myself, "You can write a damn good sentence. There's no need to hold onto this one."

I tend to cling to scenes or ideas. Once I let those go, I can usually figure out something even better.

ccarver30 said:

I'm a pharaoh then.

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Hi. I'm Methuselah, pleased to meet you.

Stalker mode: your birthday is 4 days before mine, Z.

ccarver30 said:

Stalker mode: your birthday is 4 days before mine, Z.

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I bow to your older wisdom.

Yank your best scene and toss it in the circular file. Has the story been compromised? Can the reader get along without your deathless prose? If no and yes, that narrative is probably just writer narcissism.

Sometimes the best place for golden words is in the tin trash bin.

Colter said:

I will, on occasion, read through some of my WIP and think, "Hey now, not too shabby" and I'm ok with that, but if I catch myself reading my work and thinking "Oh heck yeah, man! You got it going on!" well, that's when I grab one of my well worn novels off the bookshelf, say "The Grapes of Wrath" for example. I'll read a few pages and just like that, I am properly humbled.

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Yeah, I know that feeling. I keep rereading my favorite authors and then comparing their work to what I've written. I haven't decided yet if it's motivating or disheartening.

I fall into the category of being very critical of my writing. The deeper I get into my current WIP, the more I am of the opinion that I suck.

The main thing that keeps me going is other people telling me that it's decent and the thought that when I finally finish the rough draft, I'll be able to pull it apart critically and make it into something that doesn't suck

I'm not of the you-must-not-love-your-work-for-if-you-do-it-is-most-certainly-rubbish party.

Yep, analyze, cut, slash, be critical, objective, ruthless...for sure.

But feel free to kick back every once and a while, a nice glass of pinot noir in hand, and say, "Yep, I wrote that. And it's good."

To the couple few whom, it seems, were born pragmatic, kudos. There's nothing wrong with that. Just let me know your addresses. I'd like to visit, have you lie down, and unleash a hundred puppies to crawl all over you, licking and wagging their tales, tugging your hair and nuzzling your necks.

You know, so you can feel. It ain't such a bad thing, now and again.

Lyx

Little Anonymous Me said:

Yes. *sniffles* I'm reminded of this one part I wrote in WIP #2. I thought it was awesome. Fantabulous. My beta told me it was one of my worst parts. I gave it time, went back, and...she was right. I read advice from a renound editor to "Kill your darlings" and I try to stick with it. Anytime I feel particularly smug/pleased about something I just wrote, I am especially critical of it.


Generally, that editor was right.

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Lol at "kill your darlings"

I agree with taking some time off of it. It'll definitely help.

I just recently looked at something I wrote six months ago that I thought was really good at the time; when I looked back on it, Jesus Christ, I bled all over it (as in with a red pen, not real blood. I'm generally not into that.)

Or, also like everyone else has said, get someone else to look at it. SYW is great. So many of my biggest writing flaws (and most of them have been half-fixed because of this) were pointed out there. When I look at my earlier SYW stuff compared to things I've posted (and just written in general) in the last six months or so... wow. Just, like, wow. I find myself thinking "Terrence, how could you not see how much you sucked?!" all the time.

So yeah I hope that helps. Good luck. You'll get there.

I think every writer has a part of their brain that thinks they're a genius and another part of their brain that thinks everything they write is crusty, sun-dried dog crap. The trick is to listen to both those parts; the part that sees the shininess and the part that automatically criticizes everything.

If you think everything you write is genius then you'll never improve, obviously, but if you don't think there's anything good about your work, then why bother writing? You might as well be doing something more lucrative with your time, like...well, anything except writing. Or even if you think the writing itself sucks, you must at least love something about the concept, or there would be no reason to write.

Well, I spend so much time reading and rereading what I'm writing before I'm done I'm kind of so sick of it. I think this is different for every individual.

Also, critiques can be really tricky. Some people just look to be critical or just say a standard set of x criticisms that may or may not be applicable. It's very hard to find a balanced critiquer. I'd distrust an unabashedly negative critique as much a positive one.

andiwrite said:

Whenever this has happened to me I simply keep the piece in a file and use it later for a different story. It of course depends a bit on what the segment is about, but usually anytime I have a scene I love that just doesn't work I can make it work for something else with a few simple tweaks.

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This is exactly what I've done. It doesn't bother me to lose a section I love anymore because I know the section is still alive, it only awaits being included in another party down the road.

tradingdavid said:

Well, I spend so much time reading and rereading what I'm writing before I'm done I'm kind of so sick of it. I think this is different for every individual.

Also, critiques can be really tricky. Some people just look to be critical or just say a standard set of x criticisms that may or may not be applicable. It's very hard to find a balanced critiquer. I'd distrust an unabashedly negative critique as much a positive one.

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Your point is well taken. I think that is why face to face critique writing groups are better for me. I have the ability to hash out what the other person is saying. In doing so, I also hash out the credibility of the critiquer as well. We're only human, for many of us, our biases may creep in. I think the bouncing back and forth is very productive.

I'm never much concerned about the grammar, commas and hyphens aspect of a critique, i always view that as the final draft. I'm more concerned about "is the content interesting and why?"

I see many critiquers jumping right into the micro-grammar stuff which is not going to be productive if the content is so dull the reader will never turn the page.

In one of my writing groups, the leader doesn't even permit the micro stuff, with twelve people in the group we don't have time. Whatever works I guess.

Most certainly the piece has to be grammatically perfect, but first...

The Otter said:

I think every writer has a part of their brain that thinks they're a genius and another part of their brain that thinks everything they write is crusty, sun-dried dog crap.

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I think I love you. LMAO

CelticOtaku said:

Haha! You hit the nail on the head with this!

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My thought exactly.

I don't know why the original quote didn't show up.