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

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A The psychology of finishing a piece of fiction

I have a psychological oddity when it comes to my own writing (particularly fiction, and particularly longer work). Obviously it may just be a personal problem, but perhaps other people have simil...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:48:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/36109
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Chris Sunami‭ · 2019-12-08T08:48:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
I have a psychological oddity when it comes to my own writing (particularly fiction, and particularly longer work). Obviously it may just be a personal problem, but perhaps other people have similar issues:

When I am working on my (longer) writing, it seems like the most fantastic thing in the world to me. I think every word is brilliant. But as soon as I finish it, it seems like the most horrible, talentless, unreadable trash. Intellectually, I know neither impression is likely to be correct. But even though I know this is my consistent pattern, it is almost impossible for me to not experience it as truth.

The "_brilliant!_" phase is actually kind of helpful, because it makes me happy and excited to write, and keeps me going. But the "_horrible!_" phase sends me into a depression, and makes it hard for me to edit my work, to let other people read it, to respond appropriately to criticism, or to feel good about submitting the work. Does anyone else deal with this, and if so, have they found a way around it?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-05-14T15:32:09Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 20