OK, this is weird and random but I have to say it: does anyone else get weirdly unhappy with the quality of their writing at times? Not just that I’m unhappy with my output, or I’m displeased with a particular thing like a chapter or branch didn’t work out, but a random feeling that comes and goes?
Now I know that finding a writer of any kind who frets about their work or worries about feedback etc is not a challenge. I doubt more than a small, tiny minority of authors here don’t struggle with self-doubt at times. But for the last month I’ll write a chapter, not really love it but think it’s ok, then I publish it and it reads like dogshit. Even the stuff I enjoyed (I am strangely proud of a long hidden aspect of my current story and how it worked in the plot) seems annoying somehow, like I know it’s a lesser work and if people say they like it I’m almost suspicious.
Am I just reaching the limit of my talent, such as it is? Maybe my occasionally iffy sense of grammar and actual *craft* is lacking, and now I can see it? I still have endless ideas for characters and plots, but when I write them down I’m not as thrilled as I was a few months ago writing my TAM branch. Huh, maybe it’s because I’m feeling more like I’m repeating myself?
Anyway, feel free to discuss how any sort of creative endeavor is a bad idea and just dooms us to unhappiness and existential despair.


Now I know that finding a writer of any kind who frets about their work or worries about feedback etc is not a challenge. I doubt more than a small, tiny minority of authors here don’t struggle with self-doubt at times. But for the last month I’ll write a chapter, not really love it but think it’s ok, then I publish it and it reads like dogshit. Even the stuff I enjoyed (I am strangely proud of a long hidden aspect of my current story and how it worked in the plot) seems annoying somehow, like I know it’s a lesser work and if people say they like it I’m almost suspicious.
Am I just reaching the limit of my talent, such as it is? Maybe my occasionally iffy sense of grammar and actual *craft* is lacking, and now I can see it? I still have endless ideas for characters and plots, but when I write them down I’m not as thrilled as I was a few months ago writing my TAM branch. Huh, maybe it’s because I’m feeling more like I’m repeating myself?
Anyway, feel free to discuss how any sort of creative endeavor is a bad idea and just dooms us to unhappiness and existential despair.