Your Writing is Not as Bad as You Think
Your Writing is Not as Bad as You Think
Reread it, you’ll see that I’m right
Reread it, you’ll see that I’m right
This stinks.
That’s what I tell myself as I write, more often than not.
It’s so awful. You call yourself a writer? Nobody is going to want to read this.
So the voices in my head tell me. Sometimes I even write the commentary down, in all caps, because it makes me feel better. If I acknowledge out loud or on the page that the writing is bad, it makes it okay to keep laying down words.
But the important thing is that I’m getting words down on the page. Writing something. Because then I have something to go back to. Words to shape and mold into something that is really good.
I know this, and so I keep writing. I know that some words, any words, even awful words, are better than no words at all.
Here’s the funny part.
When I go back to reread what I’ve written, I’m nearly always surprised by how much better it is than I originally thought.
I’m not saying it doesn’t need work, because it does. Rare is the first draft that doesn’t need shaping, or plumping up in some parts and trimming in others.
But there’s an essence there on the page. A voice. A spirit.
The moral of the story?
Don’t let those negative voices stop you. Keep writing! It’s way better than you think.
Charlotte Rains Dixon is the author of the novel Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior (Vagabondage Press, February 2013), and articles published in magazines such as Vogue Knitting, The Oregonian and Pology, to name only a few, and her short fiction has been published in Somerset Studios, The Trunk and the Santa Fe Writer’s Project. She earned her MFA in creative writing at Spalding University in 2003, and has been teaching and coaching writers ever since, both privately and as an adjunct professor at Middle Tennessee State University’s Write program. She’s been blogging about writing, creativity, and motivation at charlotterainsdixon.com since 2007. She is repped by Erin Niumata at FolioLiterary. Visit her website at charlotterainsdixon.com and her travel site at letsgowrite.com.