Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Comments on How do I distinguish between self-doubt and objective recognition of fault?

Post

How do I distinguish between self-doubt and objective recognition of fault?

+12
−0

I start writing a short story, I'm loving it. If I didn't love it, if I didn't want to tell it, I wouldn't be writing it.

I finish the first draft, I still love it, and am so proud of completing it. But by the time I'm in my third or fourth draft, I begin to feel that the core idea of the story is unoriginal and beaten to death, that I'm not saying anything new, and additionally that I'm not even telling it very well.

Now to some extent, any artist experiences self-doubt, and if I've been working at an idea for a while, it's reasonable that it would appear stale and worked to death to me - because of the very fact that I've been working on it for a while. But on the other hand, I might be right. It might be that over the course of writing and editing I came to know more than I did when I started the project, and the idea is indeed not as fresh as I initially thought.

How do I distinguish the two - how do I know if the self-criticism is correct, or if it's just usual self-doubt that should be ignored?

(I suppose beta readers are going to come up. But is anyone really going to tell me "listen dear, this thing is stale"?)

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

1 comment thread

General comments (1 comment)
General comments
Evil Sparrow‭ wrote almost 5 years ago

If your schedule allows, you could try setting your story aside and not looking at it for a few weeks/months. That usually works for me...