All right, so last year was rough. Super rough. Early in the year, I finished a novel that I really liked. I seldom like my writing, so this was startling. It was also not, as it turned out, a good thing.
I let it rest, I edited it, I pitched it. Somewhere in this process, I started to hate it. I began to think that it was awful, unsalvageable, and that only major re-writings could fix whatever goodness it had left in it. Eventually, I started to feel bad that I was ever so proud of it in the first place. But writers write, so I kept writing new stuff, I kept pitching the novel, and I kept trying, even though I felt worse and worse about the entire process.
Unsurprisingly, I eventually crashed. It's a new year now, and I have half a year between me and that entire experience. I just a new, full edit from a beta, and it's kind of encouraging because while there's lots to do, none of it is "burn the entire thing to the ground and start over from scratch."
I don't want to give up on it. That feels like quitting, and I already have 5 other novels I finished but never polished to publishable quality. I really need to stop doing that. But I'm still negative about this story. I feel like I could force myself to work through that, but would that be positive? Would that help?
I know the problem is ultimately my self-esteem. But you all who have dealt with this: What are your coping mechanisms? Are there any books that have helped you guys? Self-affirmation? Ways of catching your self-criticism before it gets out of hand?
I let it rest, I edited it, I pitched it. Somewhere in this process, I started to hate it. I began to think that it was awful, unsalvageable, and that only major re-writings could fix whatever goodness it had left in it. Eventually, I started to feel bad that I was ever so proud of it in the first place. But writers write, so I kept writing new stuff, I kept pitching the novel, and I kept trying, even though I felt worse and worse about the entire process.
Unsurprisingly, I eventually crashed. It's a new year now, and I have half a year between me and that entire experience. I just a new, full edit from a beta, and it's kind of encouraging because while there's lots to do, none of it is "burn the entire thing to the ground and start over from scratch."
I don't want to give up on it. That feels like quitting, and I already have 5 other novels I finished but never polished to publishable quality. I really need to stop doing that. But I'm still negative about this story. I feel like I could force myself to work through that, but would that be positive? Would that help?
I know the problem is ultimately my self-esteem. But you all who have dealt with this: What are your coping mechanisms? Are there any books that have helped you guys? Self-affirmation? Ways of catching your self-criticism before it gets out of hand?
