Question for all of you....

[Pale Blue Dot]

I have something I call "Salieri Syndrome", which I named after the character from the film Amadeus who can clearly see Mozart's genius yet can't replicate it (in the film, this drives him crazy and drives him to murder). I want to write, and I feel that I have some good ideas, but I KNOW what good writing should look like - and my writing does not look like good writing. Often I'll start to write something - even a post on DU - but after a few sentences I reread what I've written and realize that it's total crap. Then I get discouraged and stop writing. Complicating the matter is the fact that I'm now an English teacher and I'm constantly worried about being exposed as a fraud.

I know that my assessment of my writing skills is an honest one (please, I'm not fishing for compliments). Yet I also know that I'll never become a better writer without practice. How do I learn to look past my faults and continue to plug away at my writing? How do you, as a writer, get beyond the times that you know what you are writing... well, kind of sucks?

Any honest advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. Several ways:

1) Keep rewriting. I finished the rough draft of my novel a few months ago, and now as I'm typing it, I'm rewriting it at the same time.

Usually, it's just a matter of rephrasing things or rearranging the syntax, but it usually works.

2) Know your limitations. Whenever I read a great book, I'm inspired by it, yet also recognize that I'm not at that level yet.

One method I find helpful is to find a bad or mediocre book and compare it with my own work. If I know that my work trumps a bad book, that gives me more motivation to continue.

3) Probably the most important thing: after going through steps 1 and 2, keep writing until it's done. Obviously, I would love it if my work sells, but if it doesn't, the important thing is that I finished it by myself.

The pride of creating something is most important of all.

I hope this helps.

:hi:

[JTG of the PRB]

2. Just keep writing!

I feel that way a lot. Sometimes I think I've written something that I like, but after rereading it, it never sounds as good as it did the first time. Sometimes it doesn't get the response I was hoping for and it discourages me. The important thing I've learned is that you just have to keep working through it. You can't improve unless you practice.

Going back and re-reading your stuff a couple of times works pretty well too. It helps you cut down on repetitions, and, as Starbucks Anarchist noted, you can rephrase some things to make them tighter and make them sound better. I usually re-read my stuff three times before I submit it anywhere, so it's just a matter of time and patience.

Just keep working at it and you'll get better. It may take a while, but the best writers in the world weren't born that way; they had to write and write and write and write. It takes time, but in the end, if we all just practice we can become better writers bit by bit.

[petgoat]

3. I had exactly that same problem.

I loved to read, but my own work always looked so dumb
it humiliated me.

In college I always wrote papers by staying up all night
the night before they were due, and whatever rolled off
my typewriter in that first draft was my paper. I rarely
went back to pick them up afterward.

I took creative writing classes and I'd do all my rewriting
in the composition stage--scribbling and rescribbling, but
once it was typed it stayed typed.

When I wrote a novel after college the only way I could bear
to read my work-in-progress was to get good and drunk. What
you have to do, as Anne Lamott said, is give yourself permission
to write lousy first drafts. (In my case, I have to give myself
permission to keep working on lousy tenth drafts.)

I've learned a few tricks for tightening and sharpening my
prose, and now editing is my favorite part because I can see
so much improvement as I cut away what's excessive and false
and heighten what's true.

Ken Macrorie's book "Telling Writing" is a classic on improving
your prose.

Steven King's "On Writing" is also very insightful.

Basic hints: cut adjectives and adverbs, prefer specific
nouns ("mustang" not "horse") and verbs ("sprinted" not "went")
to vague ones. Avoid verbs of being and use verbs of action
instead. Avoid the passive voice and the negative construction.
(Say "Avoid the negative construction" rather than "Don't use the
negative construction.")

Watch out for "whiches" and "whoes." Sometimes they're right,
but they're often a symptom of flabby writing. Look for places
where a ten-sentence paragraph of description can be boiled down
to just the most vivid, evocative, precisely right words in
the paragraph. Pretend you're getting paid by the word for
every word you can remove.

[PunkinPi]

4. me too.

It's frustrating. And it pisses me off.

But when it ends....it's sweet! :) promise.

[XOEnterprises]

5. Practice.

You'll naturally fall into a better cadence of language if you work at it every day. When I take forced breaks from writing (as in, I'm writing too many damn papers for class), I feel off when I try to start working creatively again. I sound like a bloody textbook for at least a week.

Also, don't try to emulate another writer completely. Recognize their talent, but don't copy them. If it helps, don't read immediately before writing; I tend to pick up another author's voice if I do that. You have to find your own mode of expression, and sometimes that can be difficult when you have someone else's tone in your head.

I love the suggestion about reading bad writing when you feel down on yourself. It sounds mean, but when I feel like I'm never getting anywhere, I end up reading something and thinking, "...Okay, so I'm doing all right."

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. I think the difference between a good writer, and a great writer is that

the great writer is an authority on whatever he or she is writing about, and so, everything from the tone to the voice come naturally to them.

Sometimes this means rewriting a story so many times that you've had a chance to work out the technical difficulties and the final draft will flow better than the drafts before it.