writer's gloom

[jazzfish]

Writer's gloom: The absolute unshakeable conviction that your work is horrid, that the piece you've been slaving over is fit only for birdcage liner / a waste of perfectly good electrons, that you've been deluding yourself about any ability you might have to string three words together in an entertaining or insightful or even coherent fashion, and that you'd be much better off chucking the MS / computer off the nearest cliff and getting a job scrubbing toilets, because then at least the crap you'd be exposed to every day wouldn't be your own.

Which is to say, last night was rough, and I'm grateful that I have people who are willing to say "no, really, it's pretty decent. especially this thing you did here, i liked that a lot."

Have very nearly hit a brick wall on Junkyard Dog. I know how this scene ends and I know in general terms how the story wraps up (unless it doesn't), but everything after this scene is a big blank. Oh well. I'll finish the scene tonight (and post a wordcount), and then I'll type a few lines of dialog, and then a bit more, and then I'll know what the next scene is. The only way out is through.

Comments

[pictsy.livejournal.com]

I recommend reading some truly awful and yet prolifically published writers, like say, de Lint. You will feel like a frakkin genius.

[ancientsong.livejournal.com]

Ack! I hate writer's gloom. It doesn't happen to me often but then I haven't had much time to write. And with FGD, I've taken a write-no-matter-what attitude so I can finish the first draft. I could easily agonize over every word (I'm pretty good at that) but then I'd never finish a thing.

Glad you got some support last night.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

*cough* also posted this morning

This is why I found NaNo a good experience; you prove to yourself that you can just KEEP TYPING, because you have to, and somehow the story goes on.

[sir-alf.livejournal.com]

Excerpted from a NaNoWriMo Pep talk written from Neil Gaiman:

The last novel I wrote (it was ANANSI BOYS, in case you were wondering) when I got three-quarters of the way through I called my agent. I told her how stupid I felt writing something no-one would ever want to read, how thin the characters were, how pointless the plot. I strongly suggested that I was ready to abandon this book and write something else instead, or perhaps I could abandon the book and take up a new life as a landscape gardener, bank-robber, short-order cook or marine biologist. And instead of sympathising or agreeing with me, or blasting me forward with a wave of enthusiasm---or even arguing with me---she simply said, suspiciously cheerfully, "Oh, you're at that part of the book, are you?"

I was shocked. "You mean I've done this before?"

"You don't remember?"

"Not really."

"Oh yes," she said. "You do this every time you write a novel. But so do all my other clients."

I didn't even get to feel unique in my despair.

So I put down the phone and drove down to the coffee house in which I was writing the book, filled my pen and carried on writing.

One word after another.

[nixve.livejournal.com]

Having scrubbed toilets for a summer I can say that it's really not worth the hype. ew.

[salzara-tirwen.livejournal.com]

I usually get to that point only after I've put it out there for someone to read it - if it won't come out right while it's writing I blame the muse, but then after I ask people to read it I get second thoughts about it being horrible/crappy/melodramatic/too porny, whichever it happens to be.

[rbandrews]

I do this pretty much every time I try to write a game. Often before I even start making code for the game. In fact, I've worked really hard to make a bunch of rapid prototyping tools so that I can get something written before this stage of the project hits me.

The only kinds of games I've ever finished are clones of ones other people made.

[lilac-breeze.livejournal.com]

Ahh yes, I know all about Writer's gloom. We're very good friends, in fact. *sigh*

I'm sure your writing is wonderful, if not flat out amazing. Just judging from what I know of you and how you write your entries here, I feel I'm justified in this assessment. Good luck and don't give up, okay?