Everything I Write is CRAP and Other Author Woes

Need a lesson in humility?  Go back and read the first draft of the first  novel you ever tried to write. I promise you will cringe.

If you’re anything like me (and I wouldn’t admit to that if I were you), you’ll find your work full of passive verbs, ridiculous cliches, caricatures, and confusing sentences.  Oh…OH!  And backstory dump like a county landfill. 

I’m blushing just thinking of how my poor writer’s group suffered through this first (and never finished) 55,000 word draft. 

Seriously, it was such CRAP.

But here’s the funny thing:  three years, five manuscripts (only two completed and revised…I know it’s pathetic), and a gazillion writing lessons later, I still think everything I write is crap.

Early on, I was blissfully unaware you didn’t have to tag every bit of dialogue with he/she said and that adverbs, in general, are a big fat no-no.  Now I can identify my personal suckitude and fix/avoid making stupid beginner mistakes.  I know the importance of finishing a story and then revising it to oblivion. 

Does that mean I craft perfect, layered characters and incredible fast-moving, engaging plots?  Nope.  But it’s a learning process.  I hope to look back in three years and see how much I’ve grown. 

AND I BETTER SEE A HUGE, FRICKIN’ IMPROVEMENT! 








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