I just looked through all of the writing on my computer and was tempted to delete the whole folder.

WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:16 PM
Original message

I just looked through all of the writing on my computer and was tempted to delete the whole folder.

Fucking dammit, it all sucks--hard. Even stuff I wrote 2 months ago is steeped in suckage. It doesn't seem to get any better, either.

:grr:

*gags*

Dang, that killed my creativity buzz. C'est stupide!

:banghead::banghead:

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Left Is Write

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:17 PM
Response to Original message

1. Don't. Please don't.

You will regret it at some point.

Please? Don't.

All writing - even what we consider bad - helps writers grow. Don't sell yourself short.

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:19 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. I'm not going to, mostly because I'm not sure how to do it.

:D

But it still sucks, and I don't know why, and I don't know how to make it any better.

*seethes*

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Left Is Write

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:20 PM
Response to Reply #2

4. Leave it alone for a while, write new stuff, and if the urge strikes...

go back and rework some of your older stuff another time.

I still have things I wrote when I was your age, and there were times I was tempted to trash it all too. I'm glad I didn't, and you will be also.

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:21 PM
Response to Reply #4

6. I haven't written anything serious in 11 months now.

Bored and lazy. Bad poetry doesn't count as serious, either.

:eyes:

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Left Is Write

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:23 PM
Response to Reply #6

8. I know. I'm there too.

My blog has been stagnating, and I haven't written a decent piece of fiction in probably a year.

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:27 PM
Response to Reply #8

11. I doubt I've ever written a decent piece of fiction, really.

What teachers call "decent" or even "excellent" rarely is, I've realized.

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RetroLounge

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:20 PM
Response to Reply #2

5. Just keep writing. It is a learned skill.

The more you do it, the better you get...

and read, read, read...

RL

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:26 PM
Response to Reply #5

10. I've rather lost my wonder for it.

(Temporarily misplaced it, I should say. Though some days it feels like it's gone forever and shouldn't come back, that I faked it all in the first place and am unworthy of my moniker.)

Tried to pick up music. That hasn't worked, either. I suck at piano and clarinet, and suck especially hard at saxophone. The trouble is that I love it so much--or at least, I used to love it. It's hard to like something but be awful at it, so that after a while you don't even like it anymore.

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Whoa_Nelly

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:20 PM
Response to Original message

3. We are always our own worst critics

Edited on Fri Feb-09-07 11:28 PM by Whoa_Nelly

Take the lines, the parts you do like, from any and all. Put those in a folder. Put the rest into a re-work folder, or take another path with the parts you do like. Step back...am sure you have the talent you feel within yourself, or else you wouldn't spend so much personal time dedicating yourself to it.

Take the good with the what you call "bad" and keep going.

Keep following your passion...keep living your dream :hug:

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:29 PM
Response to Reply #3

12. But I don't even know what is good and what isn't.

I have no idea how to revise anything. Whenever I try, I don't know if I'm actually getting somewhere. Feels like I'm playing Russian Roulette in the dark with a keyboard.

:(

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Whoa_Nelly

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:43 PM
Response to Reply #12

25. You must have liked, even enjoyed, parts of what you have written when you wrote it

Sometimes when I write, I take on the "persona" of an author am currently enjoying. I let the words flow along the lines of that author's style. And then, later, I re-read it, and find that there's a sentence, or phrase, or word that speaks to me...and I play with it...

Writing, like anything else we want to accomplish, comes from the heart....hope take something from what you have written and allow yourself the freedom of play.

Many :hug:

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:46 PM
Response to Reply #25

26. Weird lines just stuck out at me:

I will burn you anew, will sacrifice you
To Aphrodite with my elastic heart

:wtf:

What was I smoking?

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RevolutionaryActs

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:22 PM
Response to Original message

7. If you want to see some crap writing

you should read my "book" :rofl:

:P

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:29 PM
Response to Reply #7

13. I'm sure it is.

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RevolutionaryActs

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:30 PM
Response to Reply #13

15. See, you know the truth! And you haven't even read it!

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:31 PM
Response to Reply #15

16. I'm psychic that way.

:cry:

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RevolutionaryActs

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:31 PM
Response to Reply #16

17. Or psycho?

:silly:

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:32 PM
Response to Reply #17

18. Either one.

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RevolutionaryActs

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:33 PM
Response to Reply #18

19. Works for me.

:bounce:

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Ekirh

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:23 PM
Response to Original message

9. Don't please. .

Back in High School when I went through a huge depression I got rid of EVERYTHING!!!

Nothing I wrote in high school survived . . . and only one thing from community college did . . .

Of course I gave up writing so it doesn't matter too much anymore . .

Of course. . I also went through the everything I'm writing suck phase. .

The thing is I let it do me in . . Don't you do it also.

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:30 PM
Response to Reply #9

14. I'm sentimentally attached to stupid shit like this, so I can't get rid of it.

I'd cry and cry and cry and make such a fuss. :cry:

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Ekirh

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:33 PM
Response to Reply #14

20. I just realized that . . .

A few bits of my writing might of exist due to I'm pretty sure some sentimental class mates out there probably kept their copies of the school newspaper..

that and my final Editorial got thrown into the time capsule...So it figures.. long after I'm gone.. the damn writing I tried to get rid of will probably out last me . . .

I hear it laughing right now.

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:34 PM
Response to Reply #20

21. It will always laugh at you.

That's what it does. :)

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Ekirh

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:36 PM
Response to Reply #21

24. Yah unfortunatetly . .

It has to deal with sub par sports writing for the next nintey-seven years.. at least I take comfort in that. . . ;)

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Mojambo

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:34 PM
Response to Original message

22. At least you're getting something written

Crap or not. It's there.

Some of us struggle to even get that far.

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:35 PM
Response to Reply #22

23. Most of it is old.

I haven't sat down and written anything in at least 2 months. Every time I think I will, the urge...wilts.

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Mojambo

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:48 PM
Response to Reply #23

27. Hang in there

Sounds like a crisis of faith for WritingIsMyReligion.

Believe me. I know how you feel.

Maybe try writing something in a completely foreign genre.

I was able to spark some creative fiction juices once by trying to write a super-hero comic book script. Just the act of forcing myself down a strange path opened me up. Of course a few months later I closed up again, but it's an ongoing battle.

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Oeditpus Rex

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:53 PM
Response to Original message

28. Kid, I'm re-writing a short story

that I wrote 24 years ago. I dug it out the other day because a friend wanted to see it. Looked at the first few grafs and went, "This is crap!"

So I decided to make it not-crap.

I know how you feel. When it's crap, it sits there and goes, "You SUCK!" But when you fix it, you get to :P at it.

Give yourself a chance. :hug:

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WritingIsMyReligion

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:54 PM
Response to Reply #28

29. It's like it grew a vocal box.

"You suck! You suck! You suck!"

:crazy:

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Oeditpus Rex

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:56 PM
Response to Reply #29

30. I know

But you can shut it the hell up because you're better than it.

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BikeWriter

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:57 PM
Response to Original message

31. Uh, don't do that! I have read some of your scribblins,...

and you're good! :hug:

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Writer

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:59 PM
Response to Original message

32. If you are as young as I think you are and write as well as you do...

then I certainly would not worry. Your writing (how you present yourself here) seems mature. Don't stop writing. Be glad that you have the chance to do so and the supportive environment you need to do it in. It is a blessing. Trust me.

Sincerely,

Writer the Lurker and formah Mainah.

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Drum

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Fri Feb-09-07 11:59 PM
Response to Original message

33. Don't lose your religion!

Nothing's harmed by keeping your writings, and remember: we creative types are always the unfairest judges of our own work.

:)

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deadparrot

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Sat Feb-10-07 01:23 AM
Response to Original message

34. Keep it there!

Even if it's crap, it's still full of ideas that you can go and revise at some point. Don't risk losing that! :)

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Starbucks Anarchist

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Sat Feb-10-07 01:24 AM
Response to Original message

35. Don't do it!

I still have copies of crap I wrote 15 years ago, and it's nice to see how much I've improved since then. :hi:

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crim son

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Sun Feb-11-07 01:19 PM
Response to Original message

36. From high school onward, I always threw out anything I'd written

or drawn acting on the theory that keeping the stuff, especially if it was good, was a form of vanity and/or weakness. I regret it. Keep the stuff. Even something that you find puerile right now might surprise you by being pretty good in years to come. Or not. Either way, give yourself the opportunity to check it out in years to come.

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Chan790

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Sun Feb-11-07 02:06 PM
Response to Original message

37. I did that once...

you'll regret it.

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skygazer

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Sun Feb-11-07 02:11 PM
Response to Original message

38. Now, you're not going to do that, are you?

I wish I had stuff I wrote back when I was a teenager - even if it WAS crap, I'd like to have it. And I'll bet what you've got isn't as crappy as you think.

I find that I get to a point with my own writing where it's really difficult to evaluate it because I've read it so many times and because I'm so closely invested in it.

It's hard to find people to read your stuff who will be honest critics but it's a great thing to have (though quite painful at times).

Put it all aside, take a breather, go back to it when refreshed.

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thefool_wa

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Sun Feb-11-07 02:14 PM
Response to Original message

39. Don't do that

I had the urge to do that a thousand times as a teenager and you should fight the urge.

Editing is always better than purging, but keep the stuff since it will at least provide inspiration later when compared to how much better you have become.

And don't be so hard on yourself - it takes writing thousands if not hundreds of thousands of words before you even begin to be consitently comfortable with what you write - so just keep going :)

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hfojvt

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Sun Feb-11-07 02:16 PM
Response to Original message

40. SACRILEGE!!

Wait till you read this thread next week.

Is there good stuff in your journal?

Fortunately these days you can delete stuff and it will be in your computer trash can until you empty that. And even then Abby from NCIS can still get it back if it is incriminating :hide:

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ContraBass Black

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Sun Feb-11-07 02:23 PM
Response to Original message

41. If you do that, you'll have nothing to laugh at in High School.

Keep it as a development record.

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nickgutierrez

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Sun Feb-11-07 02:46 PM
Response to Original message

42. Remember the ten percent rule.

Ninety percent of what you write is going to be total crap, and the same is true for anybody that ever picked up a pen.

Just keep writing, and the good stuff will filter itself out.

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pitohui

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Sun Feb-11-07 05:58 PM
Response to Reply #42

44. they call it sturgeon's law in science fiction

but the good stuff won't filter itself out by chance, it's incumbent on the writer to brutally "kill your darlings"

the poster's instinct to delete the suckage is the right instinct, but alas too many of us lack the follow-through!

these days, editors don't have time to edit, the writer has got to be brutal and move ahead with only her very very best

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pitohui

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Sun Feb-11-07 05:57 PM
Response to Original message

43. courage

writing is editing, and the best writers discard/delete the most garbage

delete the crap and move forward, the people i feel sorry for are the ones who never let go and spend the next ten years re-writing the same suckage that wasn't any good to begin with

you have learned, you have grown, and you're ready to move forward

it's all part of the process

i do not know if you have personal access to a published writer that you respect but if you do, ask her, she'll tell you the same thing

the only way out is forward

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