I have a theory with quite a bit of anecdotal support from my writing/editing life: The best writers are those who fall flat on their faces sometimes and have an "OMG this might be the worst piece of fiction ever to trickle onto a page" moment.
I know it absolutely sucks to spend time on something and realize that it is not what you wanted to say or even anything you'd ever want to show in public. I've so been there! But this experience also means that you're 1) good enough to realize what you think is good fiction and 2) self-aware enough to know when you're falling short of the mark.
During my time as an editor (now years ago), the worst writers inevitably believed themselves to be awesome. Something might be terrible, the entire fiction staff might believe it to be terrible, and yet these writers would assert that the fiction staff was just too stupid to "get" the writer's obvious genius.
To the contrary, I've worked with writers who hate their work and have [frequent] moments of believing themselves to be the worst writers in the world or having produced fiction that is not worth the paper it was written on, and these writers have created some of the best stories I've ever read.
So I think this says quite about you as a writer: that you are self-aware, you have high standards, and you will ultimately learn from this rough draft and produce something that is beautiful and worthy of you as a writer. It was a stumble, maybe, but you are good enough to recover from it with grace! :)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-07-30 12:49 am (UTC)I know it absolutely sucks to spend time on something and realize that it is not what you wanted to say or even anything you'd ever want to show in public. I've so been there! But this experience also means that you're 1) good enough to realize what you think is good fiction and 2) self-aware enough to know when you're falling short of the mark.
During my time as an editor (now years ago), the worst writers inevitably believed themselves to be awesome. Something might be terrible, the entire fiction staff might believe it to be terrible, and yet these writers would assert that the fiction staff was just too stupid to "get" the writer's obvious genius.
To the contrary, I've worked with writers who hate their work and have [frequent] moments of believing themselves to be the worst writers in the world or having produced fiction that is not worth the paper it was written on, and these writers have created some of the best stories I've ever read.
So I think this says quite about you as a writer: that you are self-aware, you have high standards, and you will ultimately learn from this rough draft and produce something that is beautiful and worthy of you as a writer. It was a stumble, maybe, but you are good enough to recover from it with grace! :)
Good luck with the second draft! *hugs*