# How Do You Enjoy the Process of Writing?



## BeastlyBeast (Mar 3, 2015)

Hey, guys. I am just wondering something, as I've seen a few threads here that really seem to emphasize the idea that most writers don't like their own writing. My question is, if you don't like your own writing and when you look back on it, you think it's terrible, then why do you write - How do you find enjoyment working in a process where you don't look at your results with pride, but rather doubts, even dislike? I see this slumps even long time writers on this forum, as just rcently a user from 2006 posted that he had effectively given up fiction writing, and someone else in the same thread posted that when he rereads his own work, he feels it's terrible. I have suffered from this, too. I've written stuff that I thought was pure magic right after I wrote it, but an hour later, I felt like I was reading a three-year old's novel attempt. So, the question stands, how do you find enjoyment in a process as apparently hard-to-enjoy as writing?


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## Riptide (Mar 3, 2015)

Well, I love writing during and it's not until I completely finish do I see the flaws, but I learn from those and move on. Every new idea is a rock ready to chiseled into a gem... which is the fun part of creating and string, chipping away at the idea until is solid and clean. It's not until you step back and look at the whole thing do you see the flaws riddled in its exterior, maybe even cracks down to the core.


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## Sam (Mar 3, 2015)

I enjoy everything I write: bad, good, middling, it doesn't matter. 

The process of taking the ideas in my head and creating from them words, characters, and storylines is all the enjoyment I need.


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## Jeko (Mar 3, 2015)

> if you don't like your own writing and when you look back on it, you think it's terrible, then why do you write - How do you find enjoyment working in a process where you don't look at your results with pride, but rather doubts, even dislike?



Because if I thought like that, I wouldn't be working on making it better.

The trouble with art is that it encourages us to prioritise enjoyment. One cannot do this, however, when creating art; at least not at every stage. If you want your work to be successful - the desire that makes many writers worry about the quality of their work - then you have to, at some point, concentrate on either the characters or your ideal readers  more than you concentrate on yourself. Similarly:



> I've written stuff that I thought was pure magic right after I wrote it, but an hour later, I felt like I was reading a three-year old's novel attempt.



That's because the 'magic' happens in your head; the further you get away from the moment of creation, the more the magic has to happen in the artefact that you're creating in order to replicate it.

Because of all this, I try to focus on doing everything I want to do in the draft; everything that I find fun as I do it. Then, as I go into editing, I focus more and more on trying to capture that fun for the reader and not for myself. The creation of fun is not inherently fun; the reception of it, however, should be.


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## Sc0pe (Mar 3, 2015)

We do so because what we invasion in our heads is something epic, something that you want to express to the world or get out of your system. But putting that feeling into written words is where the dream meets the reality. Most times it falls short, the expression was lost in the transition somewhere. Maybe it's the words used, Maybe there are no words to express the story you hold or maybe you just can’t find them.

Maybe you written it and felt that you've nailed it but like a hung over drunk you look back at the night before with cringe. Maybe some regrets take longer to pop up than others. The sad truth is when you really come down to it there is nothing in the world that can truly capture our imagination perfectly and preserve its importance to you forever. All great ideas will not perfectly meet your expiations in when conjured up into an art, there will always be something you could think would have been done better. I could go one further to say that even your imagination that made these things will soon find imperfections in it, ways to make it better.

I think this ALWAYS happens with all creative work people make whether what be art, film making, anime.
It’s all part of the process, you change every moment, and you evolve. As you put your energy into something your mind expands and sees better ways of doing things. We become more seasoned and our tests become better.
We may never truly make a book that we cannot nit-pick if given the chance but we don’t wright for the sake of making the perfect book. We wright because we want to shear our tests to others, we learn from our nit-picks and mistakes and carry on try and perfect our work and you can only get better if you wright.

Thoes who have given up may have seen too big a gap in there vishion and there wrighting or found othere hobbies I guess. I think i went a bit off of tpoic but That is more or less how i see it.


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## Tettsuo (Mar 3, 2015)

I love my own writing!  All of my stories are stories I like.


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## PatriciaLoupee (Mar 3, 2015)

Let me tell you all a little tale: when I was a 13 year old, and that's been long seventeen years back from now, I didn't had a computer, nor a typing machine, so I filled something around two dozen notebooks with what I planned to be my first novel. When I got to end of the third one, I came back to read the first. And that thing was the most cringe worthy piece of s**t I had ever seen. So I re-wrote it. Same for the next two. When I finished the fourth I went back again, and the same process kept on going until my mom somehow lost all notebooks on a cleaning day. 

When the frustration settled, all I could take from the experience was the fact that I would always look down on the things I wrote in the past, because when I go back for them, I am a different person criticizing the work of a different person as my own. Thirteen year old me is not the same person as thirty year old me, just like thirty year old me will be far from different of fourty year old me.

The best we can do is cherish past works from what we learned from it, and realize that they actualy belong to a different version of you, the person you were when that work first came to light.

Now imagine if Neil Gaiman had stoped writing because of his dreadful jornalistic days - we would never have Sandman, Neverwhere, American Gods. If Suzanne Collins looked back to her TV scriptwriting days in such shame, when she wrote stuf for the early 90's version of iCarly, we would never have the Hunger Games.

Writing is a painful process, at least for me. But I can't live without it, and I shall not stop because of what I used to write was bad.


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## SirJohnnyBoy (Mar 3, 2015)

I almost always look back at my writing with some sort of disdain. I've been slowly pushing that mentality out of my mind, realizing I might have something decent, but there's always something to stop me. The process of writing my novel consists of stopping halfway, trashing the draft, and starting again. It's a cycle, and it's been improving ever since, I'll give myself that much. :biggrin:


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## bazz cargo (Mar 3, 2015)

The more you write, the better you get.


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## Lydia14 (Mar 3, 2015)

I think we're all our own worst critics. I put a lot of pressure on myself, even though I probably shouldn't, to get everything right the first time, and I really can't just get something down on paper without agonizing over something. There's very little I've ever wrote that I look back on with pride, but I often find the more critical I am of something, the more others like it. If you've seen any of my other posts -- I'm a notorious overthinker, and I analyze everything. I think it comes down to this -- no matter how critical we are of ourselves or our own work, we just like to write. It's never a chore, and any opportunity to write is a joy. I was the kind of student who loved to write research papers, and all the other programmers I work with think I'm nuts because I love writing documentation. Being critical of the end result doesn't mean we find it hard to stick with or that we feel like we didn't accomplish anything -- it's just that the standards we set for ourselves are nothing short of perfection, and we know it.


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Mar 3, 2015)

Some people enjoy the process naturally, some people don't. If you enjoy what you're writing you'll have fun just doing it. But being a procrastinator like me makes it sometimes seem like work.In that case, you must push forward, motivated by the end result. Gotta think about how nice the end product is going to be.

Kinda like drawing actually. Cramping the hand to sketch in every single little line and every shade is annoying as all get out. But the end result is very nice, and you feel proud to show it to others, knowing that you worked so hard on it!


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## Sc0pe (Mar 3, 2015)

The way i feel about my work... Well I have been currently writing this story for three and a half years. I still remember the amount of passion I had when i first came up with the idea and that for the most part is still there. I for the most part know how this story will end and nothing much about the end goal has changed. But that journey there I can feel the difference in my thinking creeping over my with every sentence. I am not the same person I was one chapter ago and I will be different still one chapter on. My preference is slowly but slowly changing and when i look back I can see that. Some things I will edit a little as to place trust in the old me that sat there and wrote it. Others I will rewrite as to pay respects to my readers who don’t deserve to plow through a poorly executed idea. But overall with all the flaws I ass gems, sparks of immersive text that make me want to read on in anticipation for what's to come next even though I already know what happens. This is what I seek in my writing and if I can do at least that then I’m certain that there will be people who will resonate with it too.

Overall I am happy with what I have left behind and hope that I can keep writing something that this and my younger self would be happy with as well.


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## PatriciaLoupee (Mar 3, 2015)

bazz cargo said:


> The more you write, the better you get.



And I like to think that the more we hate our previous works, the more we progressed.


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## Thaumiel (Mar 3, 2015)

I generally hate all of my pieces. They're either not a full expression of what I wanted to show to others or re-reading them means reading something that I don't want to think about. I've been stuck on one topic for about a year now, seeing how little progression I've made (not particularly in the writing, perhaps more in respect to emotional progression) can be unsettling. In terms of enjoyment, it's a good way of clearing my head. I generally sleep better if I write something.


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## shadowwalker (Mar 4, 2015)

I love the challenge of getting to the point where, even though I may not love what I've written, I'm satisfied with it. If I weren't satisfied, I'd keep working at it until I was. On the other hand, I rarely read my stuff after it's done because I've been so involved with it, I know it so intimately, that I could practically tell you the exact page and paragraph where a particular sentence appears - so reading the whole thing again is boring as hell. I know where I did it right, I know where I tripped up, and I bear that in mind when I work on the next one. So I wouldn't say I hate what I've written - I just have no more interest in it.


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## Sonata (Mar 4, 2015)

I write for myself, thoughts that appear in my head and I just type out.  I have never really thought whether I enjoy what I am doing - I just do it.  Nothing is written for possible publication and there is no way that I could write fiction because my brain does not think in that way.  I do not think I have sufficient imagination for fiction.

I write verse - of a kind - and I although I used to write short articles for a local magazine, they were just non-fiction articles.

So if I am answering the question, I suppose the answer is yes, I do enjoy the process of what I write.  But then I do not write anything to impress anyone which must make me a very selfish writer.  Writing to please myself, not others.


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## Sc0pe (Mar 4, 2015)

Sonata said:


> So if I am answering the question, I suppose the answer is yes, I do enjoy the process of what I write.  But then I do not write anything to impress anyone which must make me a very selfish writer.  Writing to please myself, not others.



I wont say you are. If you wright for yourself and your happy with it then it could very well mean that oothers would be happy with your work too but it's just you have not though about pleasing others with the work. This can work to your advantage. I means that you wont try and change your standersd just to please others with can in most cases work aginst the creative flow and leave both parties unhappy.


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## Sonata (Mar 4, 2015)

Sc0pe - I write for myself to remember my thoughts and/or what I have done, just like a photograph is a remembrance of things/people seen.  They all mean things to me but are they pertinent to anyone else?  

Who knows
Not I
Of that I'm sure
But what I can say 
Is
I do not know
Why


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## Jeko (Mar 4, 2015)

> I generally hate all of my pieces. They're either not a full expression of what I wanted to show to others or re-reading them means reading something that I don't want to think about.



How many of them are first drafts?

Because hating a first draft, no matter how much you put into it, is like hating a sketch because it's not the finished product. It'll _become_ the finished product after you start writing more of it and stop evaluating how good it is; evaluate _potential. _The more you do that, the more you come to embrace the inferiority of your work in its early stages and the more you'll be able to move that work past its phases of inferiority into the manifestations of your wildest dreams.


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## SirJohnnyBoy (Mar 4, 2015)

Cadence said:


> How many of them are first drafts?
> 
> Because hating a first draft, no matter how much you put into it, is like hating a sketch because it's not the finished product. It'll _become_ the finished product after you start writing more of it and stop evaluating how good it is; evaluate _potential. _The more you do that, the more you come to embrace the inferiority of your work in its early stages and the more you'll be able to move that work past its phases of inferiority into the manifestations of your wildest dreams.



Ah... first drafts... ukel:


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## Jeko (Mar 4, 2015)

> Ah... first drafts... ukel:



If you think that, you have to think ukel: to every book published, because they were all once a first draft too. The first draft is a the most important part of a creative project, because it's where the 'creativity' actually happens. Everything else is just making that creativity work the way you want it to.


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## SirJohnnyBoy (Mar 4, 2015)

Cadence said:


> If you think that, you have to think ukel: to every book published, because they were all once a first draft too. The first draft is a the most important part of a creative project, because it's where the 'creativity' actually happens. Everything else is just making that creativity work the way you want it to.



Indeed. And to also think so many people made that crazy first step toward an actual novel.


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## Lyra Laurant (Mar 4, 2015)

I don't hate my writing at all, even when it sucks. If it sucks (and first drafts always does), I just need to fix it, right?
And I enjoy fixing too. It's funny to see my story becoming less terrible every time I edit it.


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## Thaumiel (Mar 4, 2015)

Cadence said:


> How many of them are first drafts?
> 
> Because hating a first draft, no matter how much you put into it, is like hating a sketch because it's not the finished product. It'll _become_ the finished product after you start writing more of it and stop evaluating how good it is; evaluate _potential. _The more you do that, the more you come to embrace the inferiority of your work in its early stages and the more you'll be able to move that work past its phases of inferiority into the manifestations of your wildest dreams.




Not too many of them. I just always find something is missing from them and can't figure out how to change it. Trying to improve those pieces feels very akin to this...:deadhorse:

I have one piece which I'm happy with my expression in, but I very much dislike the subject.


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## aj47 (Mar 4, 2015)

My writing experience is different in that I mostly write poetry. And computer programs.

The two have a lot in common.

There is no one right way to write a program/poem.
One can have a perfectly syntactical program/poem that doesn't do what you want.
There's always room for one more tweak.
Programs/poems are considered to be "completed" when one stops tinkering with them.


I enjoy the working-out/debugging and revisioning/enhancing part.  Taking something that is merely mediocre and attempting to transform it into verbal art.


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## LeeC (Mar 4, 2015)

^ But there are plenty of wrong ways ;-)


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## aj47 (Mar 4, 2015)

LeeC said:


> ^ But there are plenty of wrong ways ;-)


Exactly!


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## BeastlyBeast (Mar 4, 2015)

Lots of interesting views here. I guess the main point one person brought up is true - a writer feels this way, because they're looking at old drafts, unfinished products. I doubt most accomplished writers who have published material feel this way about their successful, finished works. It;s funny, almost every discussion in this thread group roots to the wise words: Just write. Don't look back, don't think too hard, just write until you have a draft, then polish until it's finished and ready.


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## shadowwalker (Mar 5, 2015)

Lyra Laurant said:


> I don't hate my writing at all, even when it sucks. If it sucks (and first drafts always does)...





BeastlyBeast said:


> Just write. Don't look back, don't think too hard, just write until you have a draft, then polish until it's finished and ready.



Just a note, for those newbies figuring things out - first drafts don't always suck; and while I agree with just write, you don't have to finish the draft before you start cleaning and polishing. :smile2:


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## PatriciaLoupee (Mar 5, 2015)

shadowwalker said:


> Just a note, for those newbies figuring things out - first drafts don't always suck; and while I agree with just write, you don't have to finish the draft before you start cleaning and polishing. :smile2:



Agreed. But it does take a lot longer to finish.


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## shadowwalker (Mar 5, 2015)

PatriciaLoupee said:


> Agreed. But it does take a lot longer to finish.



What makes you say that? I guarantee that I can write a full-length novel faster than one who edits after completing a first draft; I can also guarantee that another writer who finishes the draft and then edits will get done before I do. It depends on the writer, not the method.


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## EmmaSohan (Mar 5, 2015)

剣 斧 血 said:


> Not too many of them. I just always find something is missing from them and can't figure out how to change it. Trying to improve those pieces feels very akin to this...:deadhorse:
> 
> I have one piece which I'm happy with my expression in, but I very much dislike the subject.




Just a suggestion. If you have a part that you can't fix, try rewriting it completely. One of my favorite passages is a complete rewrite when I threw out something I just couldn't fix.

And it's a pain and then sometimes it doesn't work.


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## PatriciaLoupee (Mar 5, 2015)

shadowwalker said:


> What makes you say that? I guarantee that I can write a full-length novel faster than one who edits after completing a first draft; I can also guarantee that another writer who finishes the draft and then edits will get done before I do. It depends on the writer, not the method.



Well, at least for me it takes longer, that's why I try to avoid it, even though sometimes I can't scape it. But I agree: it's really a case by case scenario. Depends on how one writer or another is used to work.


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## Thaumiel (Mar 6, 2015)

EmmaSohan said:


> Just a suggestion. If you have a part that you can't fix, try rewriting it completely. One of my favorite passages is a complete rewrite when I threw out something I just couldn't fix.
> 
> And it's a pain and then sometimes it doesn't work.



That's a better way of going about it I suppose. I'll give it a go next time I get stuck with something and see what happens.


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## am_hammy (Mar 6, 2015)

I never know what nuggets I can find in my writing. I don't always like what I write, but it's because at the time I struggle to convey what's in my head on paper, and sometimes it's fruitless.

I do want to try and write down everything that pops in my head that's an idea for something. You never know when you can go back to it and pick out a simple line and it can turn into pure gold.


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## Phil Istine (Mar 6, 2015)

My own writing is very enjoyable, brilliant and perfect - then I spoil everything by transferring it from my mind onto a page :cheese: .  I believe that I need to be one of those people who carries pen and pad around in order to capture those mind floods as they actually happen, rather than waiting a few hours and attempting to get back into those moments.  So, from tomorrow, I have resolved to always have a writing implement and paper with me.  I believe that it will be even more enjoyable this way.  Fortunately, I don't have an employer to consider as I'm self-employed and I travel around each day.
Note to self:  Stop van before writing.


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## New2writing (Mar 9, 2015)

I enjoy the process of writing and this is why I write. I have been experimenting with writing in different places (cafés, parks, waiting rooms etc.) which helps me with inspiration and opens my mind more. When the words aren't flowing, I listen to music while writing. This has a huge impact on how I write. I've noticed that music plays a part in determining which way the story will go. I'm currently experimenting quite a lot with my surroundings.


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## MJ Preston (Mar 10, 2015)

Here is my process.



First draft: Oh my god! This is brilliant. Epic! How do I come up with this stuff! 
Second draft: Holy crap! How did I miss that. Look at this mess. Groan. 
Third draft: Oh for *#%$ sake! This is to #@*%ing garbage! Why? Why do I bother? 
Beta read: Okay, okay not so bad. Yeah, that makes sense. 
Submission for publication: I don't even know what the damn book is about anymore. Screw it! In for a pound in for  penny. 
Publication: Well glad that's over. What a frickin gong show! I am never doing that again. 
Aftermath: (Flipping through the book) Hey, this isn't so bad. Wow! I wrote this? I am brilliant! 

And after that:  A new adventure begins.

Tongue and cheek, yes, but it is my process and it can be exhaustive. But until someone talks some sense into me, I am going to keep at it.


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## midnightpoet (Mar 10, 2015)

Looking back on fifty-odd years of writing, I remember my happiest times were when i was writing regularly, and it was the times that I wasn't that I experienced my deepest depression.  I discovered that the process was the magic that propelled my enlightenment, and although getting published was a great experience, I couldn't wait to start my next project.


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## bookmasta (Mar 10, 2015)

Writing is writing. Love it, hate it, or somewhere in between. Highs and lows come with working on any project. I think its the process as a whole from start to finish that really makes it worth it.


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## New2writing (Mar 12, 2015)

MJ Preston said:


> Here is my process.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thank you MJ Preston! Points 1 to 3 were a reassuring pleasure to read! I am in the midst of my first short story and actually thought that I was going slightly crazy until I read your post!


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## BurntMason84 (Mar 17, 2015)

I'm with MJ on this, in a sense that if you're not your own worst critic, well, you may not care for writing as much as you think.

It's like a drug, awesome highs, horrible lows, and a constant void of consumption that you can never feed it enough.  Once it's finally done and run it's course though, it's a good reflection as a whole and it's onto the next high.

PS: Drugs are bad.:crushed:


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## Meteli (Mar 17, 2015)

I actually do enjoy reading what I wrote when I was younger and wish that I had not been so hard on myself and had finished first drafts before trying to edit what I had started, because now I only have beginnings and cannot remember the rest. From some plot turns there are only character pictures left with the only bonus being their names written faintly below them.

Reading things that are more recent do occasionally make me cringe, but the parts where I had fun writing still feel funny (even when they can make me cringe at the same time) and so what I have there is not so bad either I guess.


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## The Green Shield (Mar 17, 2015)

I was too hard on myself during my youth. I was expecting, no, _demanding_ that my first drafts read like a published Stephen King novel. Only now am I getting used to being OK with the fact that my first drafts can suck as hard as I want them to, being that the focus point is to get the story down period. Suffice to say, I've a long way to go to forgiving myself for my previous asshattery toward myself. :/ Whenever I open a manuscript, I have a brief flash of the old stress I used to impose on myself.


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## Bishop (Mar 17, 2015)

Oh man, my writing's terrible. But I love it. 

When I'm writing it, I'm all like "F--- yeah! And then the alien chick rips out his heart and... GAAAH! THIS IS AWESOME!" Then, I read it a week later and go... "Wow, that's horribly written... BUT WHAT AN AWESOME SCENE! Let's make it read aweomely too!" (Oh, yeah, I'm a 'we' in my own head.)

You gotta love the story, not necessarily the prose to keep going. That's my experience anyway... Look at pop fiction these days. Story trumps the prose in so many ways, even when--if you ask me--the story's awful. People want what they want, and can forgive a split infinitive here or there. But if there's real passion and enough polish, you can finish a novel, make it decent, and there's that. Then, do it again and again until it comes out and it's half good. Then, the next one might just be all good. That's how it works with any art. Passion comes before skill.


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## denmark423 (Mar 18, 2015)

I enjoyed the most in the process of writing is thinking of what would I add into the content and how would I finish it that could make a reader satisfied after finishing reading it.


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## Kuro (Mar 19, 2015)

Honestly, I don't enjoy the process of writing. I enjoy creating stories in my head, which I wish I could project onto my computer and receive my own unique, perfectly structured novel.

Unfortunately, it's not so easy. I've found that writing a story is a little bit of fun(creating it in your head) and a lot of work(actually writing the darn thing). I'll even admit there are hundreds of stories that have played through my head that I'll never even attempt to write.

That said, nothing is more satisfying than that moment when someone truly enjoys your work. Even if it's just one person, it feels absolutely wonderful... and that is why I write. I want to create stories that people will love.

Perhaps that's also why us writers tend to be such harsh critics of our own works. None of us want to be "good", we want to be great.


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## Zeynith (Mar 20, 2015)

Creating stories, characters, and worlds is something that I have done for as long as I can remember. I often wonder what people who aren't interested in that sort of thing think about when they are stuck in line at the DMV, or waiting for their food at a restaurant. Putting words to paper is often more challenging for me. It never comes out as well as I hope. But edit after edit, rewrite after rewrite it gets better, and seeing how it has grown I find enjoyable. Which is kind of a problem for me, cause I get stuck editing the beginning over and over and never finish the novel.  It makes me proud to see how I have improved as a writer, even if I feel my old work needs to be fixed whenever I read it.


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## tmason (Mar 22, 2015)

BeastlyBeast said:


> Hey, guys. I am just wondering something, as I've seen a few threads here that really seem to emphasize the idea that most writers don't like their own writing. My question is, if you don't like your own writing and when you look back on it, you think it's terrible, then why do you write - How do you find enjoyment working in a process where you don't look at your results with pride, but rather doubts, even dislike? I see this slumps even long time writers on this forum, as just rcently a user from 2006 posted that he had effectively given up fiction writing, and someone else in the same thread posted that when he rereads his own work, he feels it's terrible. I have suffered from this, too. I've written stuff that I thought was pure magic right after I wrote it, but an hour later, I felt like I was reading a three-year old's novel attempt. So, the question stands, how do you find enjoyment in a process as apparently hard-to-enjoy as writing?



I find enjoyment in the fact that every time I look back I see ways in which I can make a statement more clear.

For me, it's the joy of knowing that my _next _piece will be just a little better.


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## LOLeah (Mar 23, 2015)

I used to love writing. Now that I am so out of practice I know it's going to be really challenging and probably discouraging for me to jump back into it. But for me, someone who wants to write fiction novels, I'm in love with my idea. I'm sure I will be super critical of my words when the time comes and I hope to not be one of those with a pile of "rough drafts" and not a single finished product. But I have passion for my subject and my characters and I want more than anything to bring them to life in a way that does them justice. I think managing that will give me immense enjoyment.


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## KellInkston (Mar 23, 2015)

Truly, when I look back on my writing I did as a youngling, I often cringe- I love the stories I wrote, but loathe the style, grammar, and even spelling. So, I suppose it's worth saying I don't hate my writing, but as I develop I start to hate parts of what I've put down.

For enjoyment's sake. I adore dialogue and description the most, I feel- though almost every part of it is a joy, even editing at times.


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