Writing is personal, fun, private. Writing is professional, demanding, public. Above all writing is something that comes from inside us. Sometimes it’s shit, sometime’s is spot on, and most times it’s nothing overly special.
I’ve written shit, shit that hopefully will never see an audience. And in the future I’ll produce some tip-top stuff, but now most of it is nothing special. And it will be the same for you.
But don’t go and cry the afternoon away in you bed, contemplating your wasted existence. Most often nothing special is perfectly fine and accepted. Think of some writing/books that you think are shit, but people around you like. Not everyone can write a critically acclaimed piece, some settle for the average reading level and that is what gets published. Broadly speaking you only need to write well enough for the reader to understand your idea.
There is an article that asks people to take themselves out of their business idea(s) so that they can be able to objectively see if what they imagined is worth anything. And so should every person writing.
Yes that story you wrote is your baby and maybe it’s going to be your life’s work. But some babies turn into shit people and you your life’s work might never be of value to other people. The point of this comparison is that not every idea is good and if you took out your subjective and personal self from it then you’ll be able to see that. Some stories aren’t worth being told because, well they’re shit. They don’t have all the things that makes a good story. Things like;
- character development,
- reader engagement,
- actual plot arc,
- conflict,
- other stuff that makes a story worthwhile.
Heard the phrase kill your darlings?
Do it!
Look at you work and cut all that useless or boring shit out of it. If you have to re-write the entire thing, do it or ditch it. That novel you’re writing, has only enough content for a novella? Publish it as a novella. That one idea of yours doesn’t fit into that book your writing, well guess what? It doesn’t fit. Set it aside for something else. Think someone won’t understand that sentence, paragraph or idea written in front of you? Ditch it. Now you have no shit writing in front of you.
You can now proceed 🙂 Good Luck.
Stephanie Haggarty 