"Guess I suck at being an author..."

[Deleted member 29316]

Well as the title says, recently, I'm going through some downs of being an author. Like how some things I did a lot of thinking over just didn't work the way I intended it to be, or maybe it's just my writing sucks. It's hard to realize, you just have no skill in doing something you love.

In any case, I'm really in awe of the others who could take such beatings to their self-esteem. I guess I'm really weak-hearted when it comes to such matters, so let it be a cautionary tale to others...

The literary world is no joke. It isn't enough that you do things by heart, or even with proper observation and research. Guess you really need to have in-born talent, or educated in a proper school to write your ideas properly.

Oh well, rant over. Though the urge to quit and delete my works is strong, I'd still continue for those few who read it. Thanks for understanding and I apologize.

 

[ForestDweller]

What happened? Did you just get a bunch of bad reviews or something?

I just did and I'm not too phased by it. Mainly because it's the same complaint I've heard a million times before.

 

[Owl]

I think that's a natural feeling and wanting to rant about it is normal.
There are many cases where I think "why is X rated so well when it's done so badly" or "why does Y have no readers even though it's so good"
I've got many, many more readers now than on my first story, and in fact, my doubts haven't changed at all. I still feel uncertain and insecure. Writing is art, and art is subjective, so it's hard to gauge how well you are doing.
I, personally, just continue on. It's super hard sometimes, but it usually works if I just don't stop, like continuing to drive a bike so you don't fall. Sometimes it's easier, sometimes it's harder, but if you love what you're doing, then that's often worth it

 

[kagurasenpai]

Oohohoh wow, I've never read something that touched my heart like this.. I'm not a writer but I do know how do you feel.
I'm not someone who is good at encouraging people, but I hope you could find something the things you like, but at least dont be discouraged. Everyone has their own time...
Here's a high five!

 

[ForestDweller]

I've got many, many more readers now than on my first story, and in fact, my doubts haven't changed at all. I still feel uncertain and insecure. Writing is art, and art is subjective, so it's hard to gauge how well you are doing.
I, personally, just continue on. It's super hard sometimes, but it usually works if I just don't stop, like continuing to drive a bike so you don't fall. Sometimes it's easier, sometimes it's harder, but if you love what you're doing, then that's often worth it

Honestly, I continue mostly because of my kind readers being active at the comment sections. Makes me feel it's worth it to spend hours of my life writing all those chapters.

Well, that, and I still having something I want to write about. Sometimes, you have to step back and reassess the reason why you're writing, and whether or not you're achieving your goal. Don't be chained by the expectations of your readers. Do whatever the hell you want. It's your story, not theirs. Hell, you can even abandon your current story and start another one if you want.

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

If you feel bad about it, take some time to not write like i have as it can help motivate you to write again. I usually have this cases that i haven't been improving and began to think about things i do to improve myself. Even if your writing is bad, have a bad grammar or hell, can't write a novel, just remember to have fun and be not restrictive of your reader's views. You are a web author not a professional. Just basically write what you can and your readers will follow what you do. Thats what i encourage myself to keep on writing. Just don't do procrastination like me, you can never get away from procrastination....

 

[MasterHiatus]

Writing was never a competition, right? Writing was never used in a political way, right?
What I am trying to say is write, write all the things that are in your mind!

Bad reviews? Have a lot of bashers? Fuck them up then. No, I am not saying that we should ignore them, what I am trying to say is that we show them a reason to shut their mouths and read.

Feeling uninspired? Take a break, no one will complain, after all, we are not robots, we need to take a rest and then write whenever we are ready. Have writer's block? Then break the block! You became a writer for a reason!

I don't know what, I don't know why you became a writer but you've managed to achieve something already! Why give up when you know that you achieve something this big? Take this mindset from me. "If I achieved this thing, then I can achieve more!"

And what if you only managed to achieve uhm, at least a minimum amount of viewers or favorites or something like that? Then keep writing. I
mean, we write because we want to share our ideas and write them in our own way.

And I am thankful that you attended today's TED talk...

 

[placeintime]

Don't worry about it @HansTrondheim, writers will have times where you wouldn't know what to write and how to articulate idea to make it work in their novels. If you really feel that writing is too difficult right now, try taking a break and just calm down. Do what you like and try to clear your head about writing, so you can start over with an open mind.

 

[Saileri]

You can do it! Just take it slow until you find the motivation that allows you to not give a shit about haters and just focus on what you want to write! Find a goal in your writing and just follow it! For me, it's having a lot of fun developing ideas in my head and writing them down in even more detail! People who love your work will come and people who will whine over every little thing too! Write for yourself! Create the story you dream of!

You have no idea how many mistakes I make and how retarded most of my sentences sound! I'm nervous every time I see a notification after posting a chapter and get down when someone dislikes something! Like my latest chapter, it got a lot negative feedback over MC's decision! But life has to go on! For real, find something that can support your life! That's coming from someone who was short of suicide until finding a goal to keep living! Same thing can be applied to every aspect, writing too!

 

[averagewriter]

Well.. I almost did not recieve a single comment on any of my chapters up until now.

And the only review I did recieve was actually from you, and It was kind of discouraging if you were to ask me about it. Though it did not bother me that much since I felt that it did indeed help me out.

And inspite of the lack of comments I can see that there are some people reading my work.
I think that is enough for now.

Life doesn't always go the way we want, so try looking at the bright side of it instead. I think that mindset is one the most important things in life, a little change in how you view things can make a big difference.

 

[Jemini]

The literary world is no joke. It isn't enough that you do things by heart, or even with proper observation and research. Guess you really need to have in-born talent, or educated in a proper school to write your ideas properly.

Agree with the first 2 sentences (if you mean research as in researching the subject you are writing about,) not so much the latter 2. The key issue, I think, is that you just don't know the medium and haven't been talking to the right people. You need to heavily research marketing and take cues from what the most popular authors do.

I started off taking cues from some of the most successful people on Youtube. They all say that what you do is you start with something you love, and then you learn how to make it appeal to people. You've got the first part down, having heart and doing research (on the writing subject.) However, if you are missing the second part, you are going to go nowhere.

As for myself, my journey has been around 8 years of self practice just for fun personal writing. It mostly consisted of doing RPs on various forum sites, which got me REALLY good at characterization. I also looked at the great sci-fi writers of the 70s and 80s and figured out what made their writing good in terms of how they discovered the universal subjects of psychology and cultureal anthropology and how those things can improve ALL writing of almost every genre.

I decided to write a fan-fic that got fairly well recieved one day, and from that it gave me the confidence to finally start writing project and put it out there on the web. I also got bad reviews like you, and I also realized as I was in the middle of writing and posting that a LOT of things I was doing were going very wrong.

You know what I've been doing these past few months in response? I dug into researching how it is that some of the VERY best writers out there in the web novel community, the ones who are earning 6 figures off their patreons, managed to do as well as they do. I have since taken what I have learned from them and I am now in the middle of a reboot to apply that stuff.

So, that's one more thing you need. Tenacity, an ability to accept your failure and learn from it, and the ability to find what you did wrong and a way to improve on it. I am already getting fairly good results with this change in direction just from the announcement. (But, I absolutely know I need a strong follow-up after these promises and I am working to execute on that.)

That's how you do it. Watch my SubscribeStar page. It's at about $100/month right now. If it grows, that will be the proof in the pudding of what I'm saying. You need to put in a lot more leg work than just having good research behind your story. (I plan to make a thread based on my findings of the formula that works if my SubscribeStar grows significantly. I could say it now, but I need a little more authority in the form of results before I can start preaching about exact methods beyond the kind of research and effort you need to put in.)

 

[ForestDweller]

That's how you do it. Watch my SubscribeStar page. It's at about $100/month right now.

Thinking about it, I don't know how much people would be willing to give me money for my story since I never set up that stuff.

Well, my currency is recognition instead, I suppose. I want people to talk about my story. Preferably in a positive way.

 

[AliceShiki]

It's hard to realize, you just have no skill in doing something you love.

I don't think you should worry too much about it tbh. Practice makes perfect, nobody was born a good writer nor did they become one in a day~

Keep trying your best, we all have our dark pasts that we look at like "God, I can't believe I used to write like that!"

Do your best and you'll definitely improve! ^^)/

 

[averagewriter]

?

 

[NotYourTypicalMan]

It's hard to realize, you just have no skill in doing something you love.

 

[Deleted member 1244]

@HansTrondheim

“Every writer I know has trouble writing.”
~ Joseph Heller

its unfortunately true..

"A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people."
~Thomas Mann

but

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
~ Maya Angelou

so

"Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly."
~ Franz Kafka

because

“There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly: sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.”
~ Ernest Hemingway

and that

“There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
~ W. Somerset Maugham

the truth is

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”
~ Steven King

so don't worry about that,

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.”
~ Ernest Hemingway

and remember

“Long patience and application saturated with your heart’s blood—you will either write or you will not—and the only way to find out whether you will or not is to try.”
~ Jim Tully

 

[BenJepheneT]

The literary world is no joke. It isn't enough that you do things by heart, or even with proper observation and research.

I don't have quotes of paragraphs' worth of encouragement, but I do have experience to tell you this: Once you take this fact with apathy, you can pretty much do anything.

 

[Maple-Leaf]

This is a ship that has long sailed within my self comprehension. I don’t have much talent for the things I like to do, or at least it feels that way.

As someone who is strongly affected by other people’s opinions about me, I just try to convince myself this is all just practice. I don’t have to be great a writing now, but with experience I’ll get better. And this is that experience. Or just keep the mindset like: at the end of the day, this is for me. I want to write this.

And then I’m like, great I’ve cheered up, back to procrastinating.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Well as the title says, recently, I'm going through some downs of being an author. Like how some things I did a lot of thinking over just didn't work the way I intended it to be, or maybe it's just my writing sucks. It's hard to realize, you just have no skill in doing something you love.

In any case, I'm really in awe of the others who could take such beatings to their self-esteem. I guess I'm really weak-hearted when it comes to such matters, so let it be a cautionary tale to others...

The literary world is no joke. It isn't enough that you do things by heart, or even with proper observation and research. Guess you really need to have in-born talent, or educated in a proper school to write your ideas properly.

Oh well, rant over. Though the urge to quit and delete my works is strong, I'd still continue for those few who read it. Thanks for understanding and I apologize.

Always keep in mind that success is much more dependent on luck that most people realise. Just being at the right place at the right time with the right story and being favoured by the algorithms is worth a lot. Success is only in part a matter of actual skill.

 

[Sosseres]

Always keep in mind that success is much more depended on luck that most people realise. Just being at the right place at the right time witht he right and being favoured by the algorithms is worth a lot. Success is only in part a matter of actual skill.

Brandon Sanderson also said that. He was very proud of one of his books prior to getting published. It later on turned out to be a best seller, he just needed to get another book published first to get it out the door.