Wednesday, April 1, 2015

IWSG: You'll Get Better.

I was going to do an April Fool's Day entry and say I was quitting writing forever, but I didn't think anyone would believe it.

The truth is, things have been going really well for me in the writing world.  I have two plots as close to done as they can get, and I'm more than a little happy to say that, considering how many things I've tried to plot that just haven't worked out.  The third plot is something I once thought might be too damn strange to actually write.  To my utter surprise, sitting down and just writing what I saw happening without worrying about whether or not it made sense worked, and when I went back to the finished plot a few days later, I found that it made as much sense as it needed to.

What?  It's a story based in dream logic.  That's what I was aiming for.

To say the absolute least, I'm glad to be able to say all this.  I don't think there's a writer out there who doesn't know the struggle and self-doubt that comes with the job.  It's far, far too easy to look at everything you've done, summarize it all with "I suck at this", select everything and hit the delete button.

Don't.

Good stories seem like magic and wonder when we're reading, so we tend to forget how much work goes into making them.  Most people don't talk about that when you first start writing, do they?  I wish someone had told me.  If someone had said, when I hammered out my first book after working on it for three years back in college, that nothing would ever come of that story and it would take many more years until I actually had something that was worth publishing...

Okay, I wouldn't have believed them.  I was twenty-one and still young enough to think I knew everything and was destined for awesomeness.  But at least I'd be able to look back, see that person was right, and adjust my dreams accordingly.

I've been writing regularly since I was thirteen.  I have a baker's dozen of trunked novels.  And now, four months away from turning thirty-six, I feel like I'm finally getting good at this writing thing.  It seems like a long time.  I've always thought I was good, and often been told I was good.  But maybe I needed all that time to actually get good.

This is why I say, don't stop.  Don't delete everything.  Hell, don't delete anything, even if it means shoving all your old stories into a folder labeled "THE HORROR, THE HORROR" and never looking at them again.  Because that's another thing most people don't tell you: writing is, in fact, like any other skill.  There's magic in what we do, yes, but there's blood and sweat and hard work in it too.  And like any other skill, the only way to get better at it is to keep doing it.

So no matter where you are, no matter how you feel about what you're doing, keep going.  Keep practicing.  Keep writing.

You'll get better.

20 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh. I'm hugging this post. Seriously, Mason, I think we're cut from the same cloth. The way you phrase words and the way your passion comes off the page and the way you think and the way your express yourself is SO ME. I love it. I love everything about this, because the reality is here, but so is the hope. We know the nature of the beast… the agony and torture that can come from subjecting ourselves to this, but at the same time, you're right. There is magic in what we do. There IS. And it's worth it for those magic moments… when you know you've tapped into something unique and wonderful.

    It's a beautiful thing, being able to look back on our journeys and see what we've accomplished, even though we were so naive back then and had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. :) And what's also fabulous about this is you're still a baby. So young!!!!! So much time ahead for greatness and I'm so excited to watch you succeed, because you will.

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    1. I saw your tweet saying "We sort of get better at this writing thing when we keep going", so I knew you'd understand this post. ^_^ But thank you. This is all stuff I'm learning along the way, and it helps so much to know others feel the same way.

      ...and I'm not that young. :P

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  2. Aww...*tear* That was awesome to read.

    I'm turning 30 in a couple months and all I keep thinking is "you're running out of time! You're running out of time!" My post centers around the same thing: self doubt and reminding myself not to give up, that it takes time and work to get there. Writing is a hard thing, but you're right, it's magical and so, so worth it.

    I really did enjoy this post. You nailed it.

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    1. Thank you. ^_^ I sometimes feel like I'm repeating myself with the IWSG posts, but it's great to know that what I'm saying still helps people.

      And I've been there too - I have to keep reminding myself that a lot of writers don't even get published until they're in their late 30s, and many start later than that. Here's hoping we all continue to get better with age.

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  3. The Horror - funny!
    No, don't delete them. Maybe one day you'll go back and discover there is a nugget of a great idea there, and that after all that time, you'll be in a better position to write that story. I know I did...

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    1. I don't delete anything either, even the stories I hated as soon as I was done with them. Like you said, there's always the chance that there's something good in there. I also don't delete old notes for stories I've never written, as some of those are the only places I've written down notes for worlds I'm still working with. O_o

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  4. I need to get one of those "THE HORROR!" folders. I have lots of stuff to put in it.

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  5. I've broken the "don't delete anything rule". A couple stories I did in middle/high school are probably lurking around, but I'm not in a hurry to go find them. But there are some more recent things that I need to work on. The idea are worth using, they just need a little more love and labor.

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    1. Fair point; I'm pretty sure my old stories from junior high and high school are either long gone or buried somewhere in a folder I haven't opened since 1998. But that was long enough ago that it doesn't matter. ^_^ And yeah, part of why I keep everything nowadays is that I never know when I'll get the idea that brings an abandoned story back to life.

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  6. This is such a good post for IWSG today - and for me, since I'm having one of those lovely 'everything I write is junk' days. I KNOW that's not true, but it's how it feels some days. So I'll just keep going.

    Oh, and I must create a file called "THE HORROR, THE HORROR" and put my cut bits in there, so that I can laugh every time I see it!

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    1. I know that feeling. >_< At least the results of those days are often better than I remember them, so it's not too bad. Hope your results are the same.

      And I don't often get to make classic literature references, but I figured that was an appropriate title. ^_^

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  7. I guess the best thing anyone could say is to keep writing.It might not be there today, tomorrow, or a decade, but what if it IS there in two decades? What is the incubation time on a writer?

    C'est la vie. And also, Where the words go, the craft will follow (that's what editing is for!)

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    1. I like the idea of calling it "incubation time". ^_^ And the trouble is, we always hear about the writers whose incubation time is so short - the people whose careers start in their early 20s and they've been writing bestsellers since before they hit 30. So it's easy to think that's common, when those people are both lucky and incredibly rare. It's really easy to get frustrated.

      But for the rest of us, all we can do is keep going. (Since we're all too crazy to stop.)

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  8. What a wonderful -- and very accurate -- pep talk! One a lot of people need to hear, I think. And I'm so glad you will keep writing!

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    1. Thank you! I've learned that there are a lot of things people don't tell us about the writing process, so those things always seem like good IWSG fodder. ^_^

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  9. I'm laughing at a folder labeled "the horror, the horror." I need a few of those! But you're right: it takes time and the only way to get better is to just keep writing.

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    1. I think we all need that folder. O_o I've heard bestselling authors talk about how nobody will ever read their earliest stories, and that's oddly comforting.

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  10. "I've always thought I was good, and often been told I was good. But maybe I needed all that time to actually get good." <---- That was me! I've been told that I was a talented writer since I was in fourth grade.

    But my first published book didn't happen until I was over 40.

    So to authorcgcoppola above, who is about to turn 30, re-laaaxxx. :D

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    1. I think I've mentioned it before - we always hear about the authors who start young, so it's easy to think that's normal. It's not. We've all got plenty of time to get better, as this isn't a career that requires youth. Heh.

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