katecavanaugh
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Your writing concerns??
🕑 Added 2023-04-23 19:38:38 +0000 UTCHey y'all!
Coming to you today with what could be a bit of a downer? I don't mean it to be! I'm hoping that, by sharing our concerns and internal battles, we'll feel less alone.
(Do I have a mini list going for a chatty Coffee with Kate video? Yes, yes I do. And I figured it'd be MUCH more interesting with other people's input!)
So I guess my question for you: what's your biggest writing concern right now?
Do you feel stuck trying to figure out how to finish your first draft?
Have you taken a step to start publishing or editing other people's work and now don't have time for your own?
Are you dabbling in a new genre and feeling old writing insecurities again that you thought you had conquered?
Have you been in a writing rut for longer than ever before and don't know how to get out?
Are you trying to decide whether to pursue writing to make money or keep it as your favorite non-monetary activity?
Has all the chatter surrounding AI-produced stories made you concerned about the future of publishing?
I'm personally in this weird state of, the better I get, the more I write, the farther it still feels like I have to go. (Is this ALWAYS my problem when deep within revisions? YES! Bahaha.)
To flip it on a more positive note, I always like to pause in these moments and remind myself of how far I've come. (Sometimes that means dredging up old, otherwise forgotten fan fiction and giving it a read through bahaha.)
So if you'd ALSO like to share how you address these concerns (or others you've "defeated" in the past), I would love to hear that too! Does journaling about the problem help you get the words and negative energy out? Does meeting with a writer friend for virtual coffee and a complain session help? Let me know!
And before I head out! I have our last Patreon stream of the month tentatively scheduled for the evening of Thursday, April 27th and morning of Friday, April 28th (CDT). I'll post up later this week with the finalized times!
Thanks y'all and happy writing!!
Comments
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
OMG YES. You put this so well!! I feel the exact same way. Revision is when I really allow myself to analyze my work vs. how I imagined it in my head and it makes it SO obvious that it still has miles to go. (But also, can anything ever be as perfect as we've envisioned?? I'm not sure.) We need a name for what you've described. Revision Pressure? Initial Revision Pressure? (As we all know, I'm terrible with names.) But it feels like a very real phenomenon!
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
Uuuugh yes! :( I know this feeling well too! And it's so unfair how our own freaking selves can be SO mean. Like what gives??? What did I ever do to you?? Lolol. I wish I had good advice for this, especially because I've found myself in that echo chamber SO many times. (Also with the career change! That self-doubt can be so loud.) Half the time I don't even realize I've gotten through the worst of those thoughts until it's been weeks or months, and then I don't even know what helped. Time, I guess? Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'd never talk to a friend the way I talk to myself and I need to be kinder. That sorta works? Mostly I think I just chug along, keep writing, keeping working, and try to distract myself from those thoughts with other things -- like books! Then I can tell myself it's "research" and helpful lolol. But also -- shout out to you for being able to FINISH. That's such a huge thing and something I still struggle with half the time lolol. Being able to finish your novel, and make it objectively good, is HUGE. Way to go on all the work you've put in to get to that point!!
Naarii
My current struggle is fighting imposter syndrome. I know that I can finish a novel, and I know that I can make it objectively "good". Even so, my heart is telling me that I'm TRASH, and that no one will ever like my work, and I might as well give up on this career path otherwise I'll end up broke and living with my parents my whole life. The thing is I know that this isn't true, but this damn voice is MEAN TwT. It's all mixed up with my insecurities that I should be farther along in life. Add in the looming debt my college degree is gaining me, as well as the pressure of making this career WORK after my last two didn't and...yeah I think I suck right now lol.
Matthias Grosser
I find that I get the most insecure when I'm revising a first draft. I'm in the process of revising a manuscript I wrote last year for the second time, because the first time it made me so insecure it made me doubt every aspect of myself and my stories and made me want to stop writing. But since then I've discovered that that's just... kind of how I react to revising ANY manuscript of mine, even when I'm initially really happy with it as a first draft. I guess when I start revising, I start to feel the pressure of what it COULD be, and that it's closer to getting into a reader's hands than the first draft (which I would never let anyone read even if it killed me). I think I just feel a lot of pressure to prove myself -- to myself, my family, and anyone who would pick up my book, because I've been writing for most of my life at this point, and I'm finally at a point where I'm GETTING THERE.
