Doubts, like louts, are all about.

[Jay Aitch]

When working at editing and reworking your writing, does anyone else become overwhelmed with doubts that it is all tripe, balderdash and piffle, unreadable fluff?

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I sometimes have doubts about why anyone would want to read my novel, but then I remind myself of two things: Life is one long series of stories and we're captivated by reading of the struggles of others as it briefly distracts us from our own situation; also, I forget that a reader doesn't know what's going to happen next in my story, whereas I do, so it's no wonder I find it trite and uninteresting.

What I find more depressing about the editing process is discovering how many repeated phrases and words I've used. Sometimes this is unavoidable, such as in my crime novels where there's only so many ways of saying someone has been murdered. Worse is finding that I've used the same word multiple times. I did this with a 175,000 word novel by using white forty times to describe things that could just have easily been pale, wan, faded, light or even grey for a bit of variety. I didn't beat myself up too much about this, as it took eight months to write the novel, so how could I remember what I'd typed ten weeks before?

There's that old expression about how 'we all make mistakes, which is why pencils have erasers on the end of them.' This is why the word search box exists on your writing programme, so that you can track down all of the repeated words in your precious manuscript.

 

[1408]

Oh, absolutely! I'm also sure that there are times when what I'm writing is absolutely awful. But, all writers go through this. The way I see it is that if my favourite authors can doubt their work then I can doubt mine and still keep that ember of hope alive that hey, maybe someone will like it! After all, a part of me has to like what I write otherwise I wouldn't put myself through the editing process at all! When I become too overwhelmed I just take a step back. I want to know if it really is the writing, or if it's me. If the next day I'm still looking at the same parts in the same horrified eek way then I'll work on them.

Paul also made a fantastic point in saying that we know what's going to happen next, so of course it feels boring to us to be rereading it again.

In the end, despite there being so many articles now telling people how to write, no one knows what the next best seller is going to be. If we did, we'd all be like Scrooge McDuck and rolling in gold and shinies. Even though you feel that your writing is tripe, it might turn out that thousands of people think it's wonderful. Just got to keep going and give them the chance to decide!

 

[Jennifer Stone]

Oh, if I had a penny for every time I thought my work was piffle...
Seriously, I'd be a rich woman. With the notion that, if I did get it published, who would buy it? Anyone? It took a lot of emphasis from other Litopians that I actually had a good story. It just needed a little more work to make it shine. Now I know that when my work is published, I might get around twenty sales; even if some of them are just from other authors, supporting a fellow independent artiste.

 

[Jason Byrne]

When working at editing and reworking your writing, does anyone else become overwhelmed with doubts that it is all tripe, balderdash and piffle, unreadable fluff?

They see me rollin'...
They hatin'...

Sorry. Yes. Every time. I lament that all my previous books were so much better after thirty revisions than the one I'm currently working on is after two. And then I revise it a dozen more times and find out that no, it's just as good if not better; I just needed to give it the same attention as I had the others.

Even so, I think that unrelenting terror is necessary, to ensure that you never actually decline, in your comfort.

 

[Jason Byrne]

Oh, absolutely! I'm also sure that there are times when what I'm writing is absolutely awful. But, all writers go through this. The way I see it is that if my favourite authors can doubt their work then I can doubt mine and still keep that ember of hope alive that hey, maybe someone will like it! After all, a part of me has to like what I write otherwise I wouldn't put myself through the editing process at all! When I become too overwhelmed I just take a step back. I want to know if it really is the writing, or if it's me. If the next day I'm still looking at the same parts in the same horrified eek way then I'll work on them.

Paul also made a fantastic point in saying that we know what's going to happen next, so of course it feels boring to us to be rereading it again.

In the end, despite there being so many articles now telling people how to write, no one knows what the next best seller is going to be. If we did, we'd all be like Scrooge McDuck and rolling in gold and shinies. Even though you feel that your writing is tripe, it might turn out that thousands of people think it's wonderful. Just got to keep going and give them the chance to decide!

There is that, as well.

 

[Marc Joan]

When working at editing and reworking your writing, does anyone else become overwhelmed with doubts that it is all tripe, balderdash and piffle, unreadable fluff?

Yes.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

I was going to write a page in answer, but then I kept editing it.... so, put it this way. What Marc said.....

 

[Stephen Drake]

When working at editing and reworking your writing, does anyone else become overwhelmed with doubts that it is all tripe, balderdash and piffle, unreadable fluff?

I get that all the time. If you're writing fiction, then you are writing to entertain. That would probably mean that your work is balderdash (a muddled mixture of liquors.), but I doubt its worthless; someone out there in all the billions may be entertained.

 

[Marc Joan]

I get that all the time. If you're writing fiction, then you are writing to entertain. That would probably mean that your work is balderdash (a muddled mixture of liquors.), but I doubt its worthless; someone out there in all the billions may be entertained.

That's looking on the bright side, of course...

 

[Nicole Wilson]

Ditto to what they said. Absolutely. Even as I'm writing, I'm thinking "crap this stinks."

 

[Stephen Drake]

Ditto to what they said. Absolutely. Even as I'm writing, I'm thinking "crap this stinks."

I doubt that!

 

[Nicole Wilson]

I doubt that!

Thanks Steve But alas, I do frequently have doubts. While writing, editing, the second I'm emailing it to someone lol.

 

[KG Christopher]

Rejection and doubt are the companions that walk with us on our journey to recognition and demand.

Fiction is the glue that binds your characters to someone elses need to escape.

My bullshit knows no ending.

Keep breathing, keep moving.

 

[Stephen Drake]

Thanks Steve But alas, I do frequently have doubts. While writing, editing, the second I'm emailing it to someone lol.

I know, I know! Me too! But I happen to know you're a good writer.

 

[James Marinero]

When working at editing and reworking your writing, does anyone else become overwhelmed with doubts that it is all tripe, balderdash and piffle, unreadable fluff?

I started seriously writing my first thriller in 2004. I gave up after 3 months. A dear friend persuaded my to try again in 2010. I liked what I had written in 2004 and took it through to completion. To answer the question, I don't think that I write piffle. I believe that my ideas are good, but recognise that I may fall short in the execution.

As Jack Nicklaus said - 'the more I practice, the better I seem to get' (with help from Litopians of course).

 

[Jay Aitch]

Thank you everyone. Thought I was going a bit do-lalley there. I am not suggesting it's great that everyone doubts too, but it is reassuring that so many of us still can work through them.

I wonder if the greats ever doubted.

 

[KG Christopher]

yes, I do, thanks for wondering

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I came across a quote last night, which features at the head of a chapter of Noah Lukeman's excellent The First Five Pages. I've previously recommended this writer's guide to staying out of the rejection pile on The Colony, and it's well worth a look.

The quote comes from Francis Ford Coppola, in one of his Letters To The Reader in Zoetrope, the literary magazine that he co-founded in 1997:

To make things worse, there's a hormone secreted into the bloodstream of most writers that makes them hate their own work while they are doing it, or immediately after. This, coupled with the chorus of critical reaction from those privileged to take a first look, is almost enough to discourage further work entirely.

The whole article is here: http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=41

 

[KG Christopher]

I came across a quote last night, which features at the head of a chapter of Noah Lukeman's excellent The First Five Pages. I've previously recommended this writer's guide to staying out of the rejection pile on The Colony, and it's well worth a look.

The quote comes from Francis Ford Coppola, in one of his Letters To The Reader in Zoetrope, the literary magazine that he co-founded in 1997:

To make things worse, there's a hormone secreted into the bloodstream of most writers that makes them hate their own work while they are doing it, or immediately after. This, coupled with the chorus of critical reaction from those privileged to take a first look, is almost enough to discourage further work entirely.

The whole article is here: http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=41

@Paul Whybrow , you are right on the first five pages, its not just for submissions, but a good guide, I read it quite recently. Now, everything is a piece of cake

 

[Carol Rose]

I hate everything I write. The fact that others seem to love it is always a surprise.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Creating anything artistic takes tremendous courage. We should be friends to ourselves, at the very least, as everyone is a critic even if they don't have the moxie to attempt writing a story themselves.

As George W. Pacaud observed: 'Why inflict pain on oneself, when so many others are ready to save us the trouble?'

 

[KG Christopher]

I don't really do a lot of poetry, but I can imagine that breaks so many rules?

Or for that matter, something like Johnathan Livingstone Seagul, probably would not of passed a lot of agents or publishers.

 

[Chase Gamwell]

I can basically agree with everything everyone has said here (I'll spare the fifty billion quotations! ). I constantly worry that my work isn't good enough for general consumption. It helps that I'm writing it because I like the story I'm telling, but I want other people to be able to read and enjoy it too. Sometimes it can be paralyzing thinking about other people looking at your work and thinking it's not that great. Being a relatively new writer, I'll understand if I have a long way to go before I'm ready for others to see what I'm putting on paper, but the struggle is real...

 

[KG Christopher]

I can basically agree with everything everyone has said here (I'll spare the fifty billion quotations! ). I constantly worry that my work isn't good enough for general consumption. It helps that I'm writing it because I like the story I'm telling, but I want other people to be able to read and enjoy it too. Sometimes it can be paralyzing thinking about other people looking at your work and thinking it's not that great. Being a relatively new writer, I'll understand if I have a long way to go before I'm ready for others to see what I'm putting on paper, but the struggle is real...

I am 100% with you on that. I am pretty much new to this, and when I was just writing for myself, it was all about the *story* and now, it seems to be shifting to a more technical analysis of what I am writing.

 

[Chase Gamwell]

I am 100% with you on that. I am pretty much new to this, and when I was just writing for myself, it was all about the *story* and now, it seems to be shifting to a more technical analysis of what I am writing.

Since I currently write technically, I'm very interested to see how that translates to fictional writing. I'm assuming that there will be too much fluff in my writing, but not the literary kind...

 

[Jason Byrne]

I never liked my writing. Even as I transitioned from a small child pounding at the keys of an old typewriter to a youth known as the weirdo always scrawling illegible notes in a worn journal, I described everything I did as "stupid crap written for my own amusement."

Eventually, the chorus of support from friends, family, co-workers, college professors, et al. led me to think that I just might be able to write something an editor would actually want to take.

It...didn't go well. Still, I appear to be a textbook case of this self-doubt so common in the creative sorts that express themselves through the written word.

I hate everything I write. The fact that others seem to love it is always a surprise.

I'm not sure whether it would be awesome... or heartbreaking... to learn that your work — which you spend so much time crapping on, Lex — turned out to be, like, the greatest thing ever written. Like,
"Well, damn. I wish I knew that earlier; I wouldn't have spent so much time crapping on it."

 

[Chase Gamwell]

I'm not sure whether it would be awesome... or heartbreaking... to learn that your work — which you spend so much time crapping on, Lex — turned out to be, like, the greatest thing ever written. Like,
"Well, damn. I wish I knew that earlier; I wouldn't have spent so much time crapping on it."

Seconded. I'll limit myself to feeling ambivalent about everything I write...it's just easier to deal with that way. If I let myself hate it, I'll never want to finish anything I start writing...

 

[Carol Rose]

I'm not sure whether it would be awesome... or heartbreaking... to learn that your work — which you spend so much time crapping on, Lex — turned out to be, like, the greatest thing ever written. Like,
"Well, damn. I wish I knew that earlier; I wouldn't have spent so much time crapping on it."

Huh? You addressed the post to Lex but quoted me… confused...

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Actually he quoted both you and Lex, so maybe be doubly confusilated ?? (Copyright that new word me does...) lol