Mind the Gap

Hello from the depths of self doubt and constant writing! It has been almost 10 years since I have truly tried to write a novel and when I read my draft over it reads like smeg to me.

And it is… but I keep forgetting that this is a result of knowing what I am capable of and that I am out of practice. I need to write more and I feel like I suck more until I feel like I suck less… and so I’m going to work on that this week.

 

In the meantime, I’ll leave you this week with one of my favorite quotes on the subject by Ira Glass of  This American Life:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me.

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap.

For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.

A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have.

We all go through this.

And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.

Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.

And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

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