interesting advice on confidence in writing

[eimarra]

Over on Men with Pens, Dave Navarro has written How to Feel Consistently Confident About Your Writing. Among other things, he recommends that you

Think back to every good thing someone has ever said about your writing. Write it down, as if it were a quote on the back of a book. Search your email, your personal letters, your blog comments - anywhere that might hold a nugget waiting to be captured. Write it all down (I recommend doing this by hand, because things you write - rather than type - stick in your mind more deeply).

Go, read the rest. Then help yourself feel better about your writing.

Comments

[cammykitty.livejournal.com]

I liked the second bit of advice.

"Get honest about the times people gave you negative feedback on your writing and you did something about it - honing and improving your writing skills as a result. Make notes to yourself about how you're a better writer than you were back then, and how you're still improving."

My highschool mentor told me what makes or breaks a writer is how they take criticism. Now that I can't remember highschool much, I know what she meant. At times we have to protect ourselves from it to keep our enthusiasm for a project going, but without it, that learning curve gets really steep.

[eimarra]

A codicil might be to be honest about when you've made the corrections in a given piece of writing without transferring that skill to the larger picture. Sure, it won't improve your confidence--but it'll make your writing improve a lot!

[temporus.livejournal.com]

Hmmm....I think this has some merit. Now I just have to go through and track down what people have said about my writing. (Though only after I get some real writing done this week.)

[eimarra]

Well, you can start with my post about your short story. :-D

[temporus.livejournal.com]

That one goes to the top of the list.

[bonniers.livejournal.com]

The trouble is, when I look at the good things people have said, I see either the negative flip side, or the thing they left out. All those people telling me how wonderful my characters are only call attention to the fact that I can't write a friggin' plot to save my life.

[eimarra]

Hugs. But think of them like cover blurbs, which so very often *don't* mention everything. The cover blurb on Carnival is "A talent to watch"--David Brin. Sure, most of the clips *inside* the cover are much longer, but you have to give yourself credit for what's right. Think about your weaknesses--that's part of how we improve--but acknowledge that you have fabulous characters and we want to see how they work out their problems. (Also, so you know, I'm loving the language in the bits you've shown me from Chandler.)

[bonniers.livejournal.com]

All very true, but not much use unless I can figure out how to string them together in something that will pass for a plot in bad light.