Writing getting worse?

[Kia Zi Shiru]

I've been going over my old chapters with Nephy, editing and polishing them to get published at Codey's corner.

And somehow the quality of my story was way better back then, eventhough my English has improved, my story has somehow gotten worse. It's as bas as that I read something and wonder if I actually wrote that myself....

 

Am I just crazy or are others feeling the same way?

Edited May 9, 2010 by Kia Zi Shiru

[Nephylim]

I think it's paranoia hun. I think that Chapter 14 is one of the best you've written.

 

I often get the feeling you are mentioning... reading over an old story or an old chapter and thinking... WOW I haven't written anything as good as that for ages... but then when I read over what I've just written it's like... welll okay.. maybe I have.

 

The trick is not to dwell over what you've done in the past but focus on what you are doing now. The beginning of a story is never as good as the middle and end because it's setting the scene and doesn't usually have too much action which builds up as the story progressed. Black Sheep certainly does that and there's a lot of mystery that has you on the edge of your seat.

 

I think you've got things the wrong way around. The story needs editing but the framework, the story, is more than sound and it's getting stronger by the chapter.

 

It's all a matter of perspective Just keep going as you are, I for one am loving it.

[Kia Zi Shiru]

It's not just Black Sheep but other stories too. But then again, you just checked my fav chapter ( chap 5) and I have worked hoooouuuurs on it to make it just right

[Nephylim]

And every minute well worth it. I loved that chapter.

[C James]

I've been going over my old chapters with Nephy, editing and polishing them to get published at Codey's corner.

And somehow the quality of my story was way better back then, eventhough my English has improved, my story has somehow gotten worse. It's as bas as that I read something and wonder if I actually wrote that myself....

 

Am I just crazy or are others feeling the same way?

 

I can say for sure that I feel the same way about my own writing, a lot.

 

I look back on old chapters or stories, comparing them to whatever I'm working on, and the old work always seems to have a better turn of phrase, or wording, or pacing, etc. This happens every time. Also, my writing, when new, never looks good to me, ever. It never has. My old work on the other hand, sometimes does appear okay to me.

 

Insecurity in my writing? Probably. Insanity? Probably that too, but then I've never claimed to be sane.

 

So, the best advice I can give here is listen to others, like Nephy, because if you're like me, your recent writing will never look as good to you as your past writing, regardless of whether it is or not. If so, my sincere commiserations, because it can be quite disheartening at times.

[Krista]

I'm the other way around, I think my old stuff sucked.. lol. But I think also when you're first writing you think its better, because it was more fun? Its a great challenge for me to start a story and get it going... I like doing it *(seeing how I have started tons of stories, and haven't finished hardly any of them)..

 

Getting into the meat of the story, can be awkward at times.. as you're trying to figure out what you want to do with it... where you want to go.. start thinking about possible endings scenarios and such.. to the point where you think you're not doing your best work anymore, but I think - since your Beta is giving you compliments especially, that its a perception thing.

 

You just need to be confident that you really are improving.

 

And everyone will have scenes that pop into their memory and they think.. "why can't I return to that kind of writer.." I know of a handful of scenes that I thought were really well put together, and wondered after if that was a fluke. You wrote it though, so you are capable of doing it over and over again.

 

Moods are terribly important to writing as well, I can't write if I'm in an overly cheerful happy mood... or I get corny as hell.. lol. I also can't write when I'm in a terribly bad mood either, because I can't really concentrate on the story, I'm off thinking about what has me in such a shitty mood. So, writing to try and make yourself happy or to forget some things for a little while doesn't really work for me.

 

So you may just be in a critical mood, where you're criticizing yourself at the moment and your writing is just part of it.

[Guest The Nature Nut]

I've noticed that about my own writing, too. I think that the more I learn about writing: grammar, syntax, scene building, etc, the less I focus on letting my creativity out. Sometimes ignorance is indeed bliss. When I knew less about writing rules, I wrote more confidantly. So maybe you're just in transition. Are you learning more about writing rules now? Maybe your writing-skills foundation is buiilding up and so your creativity is temporarily suffering. Or maybe... you're just at a different place in your life right now--in a phase. Keep writing, and doing healthy things for yourself. I bet you're on a learning curve and you'll soon be over the hump.

--JD

[John Doe]

I get the feeling that it's not the quality of writing that is better but the idea and relationship and how you feel about your older work that makes it seem like better writing. (did that make sense?) For me I like my old stuff because they were my first steps into writing and I loved them and I was very protective of them thinking they were awesome but six years later I realized the stories were written very poorly and I don't know why I thought they were golden for so many years. My writing and prose still needs a lot of improvement but I think compared to my egotiscal early years when I thought my writing was the word of writing gods, my writing now is a lot better.