Frustration is the hardest thing for me to deal with most days. This is especially true when I look at my own writing. I tend to look at the polished final work of the authors I love, and I come away feeling less than. I keep feeling that my writing is not that. I find it hard in those moments to keep from descending into the downward spiral of despair, and self-loathing.
In those moments, growth for me I find is in reminding myself that comparing my work to others is not fair to me or the other author. It is true that I am not Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, or Mickey Spillane. However I have to keep in mind that I am still trying. I am still making my way to the keyboard and hacking away at it.
I have to remind myself that I am not the writer I want to be. However I am not the writer that I used to be. My writing has improved dramatically from where it was when I began working on it as an adult. I write more regularly. I am able to write a lot cleaner stuff than I used to. I am able to avoid a lot of the pitfalls that used to knock me down.
There are things I struggle with, but that is the essential nature of working with anything that is skill based. I have to give myself the freedom to write outside of my wheelhouse. I have to understand that I will write excellent stuff some days. There will also be days where I will write pure crap. My key is in reminding myself that the key is to continue coming back to my keyboard and keep trying.
I have also discovered that it is important to have good influences to help motivating myself. I have found a few decent podcasts that help with that. The Podcast, 'You Should be Writing' that is hosted by Mur Laufferty is chief among these influences. It can be found at http://murverse.com/. Of course any podcast aggregator ca
In those moments, growth for me I find is in reminding myself that comparing my work to others is not fair to me or the other author. It is true that I am not Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, or Mickey Spillane. However I have to keep in mind that I am still trying. I am still making my way to the keyboard and hacking away at it.
I have to remind myself that I am not the writer I want to be. However I am not the writer that I used to be. My writing has improved dramatically from where it was when I began working on it as an adult. I write more regularly. I am able to write a lot cleaner stuff than I used to. I am able to avoid a lot of the pitfalls that used to knock me down.
There are things I struggle with, but that is the essential nature of working with anything that is skill based. I have to give myself the freedom to write outside of my wheelhouse. I have to understand that I will write excellent stuff some days. There will also be days where I will write pure crap. My key is in reminding myself that the key is to continue coming back to my keyboard and keep trying.
I have also discovered that it is important to have good influences to help motivating myself. I have found a few decent podcasts that help with that. The Podcast, 'You Should be Writing' that is hosted by Mur Laufferty is chief among these influences. It can be found at http://murverse.com/. Of course any podcast aggregator ca
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