Have you ever lost confidence in writing?

[UnknownSaint171]

Have you ever lost your confidence in writing?

I've been reading a lot of a Webnovels and I've noticed that most of them have Authors that tend destroy their own works.. A good example is TNE or ED.

Recently I started reading a work of a Author I admired (I might be a fake cultivator) but if even he self-destructed up his story, then what can i even accomplish? I took a good mental hit seeing how the story become. As hilarious as it is, after a few hundred chapters I'm like "The f*ck am I even reading?"

I guess I'm just somewhat mentally exhausted by now, if you guys know any well constructed stories please let me know. (Most I know are LNs sadly though I do see some gens in KRs/Cns but they either got dropped or completed by now

 

[GDLiZy]

If you lost it, then simply regained it back.

Reread your story, recall how you plan it, savour in self-confirmation and continue to write more. If you found any mistakes, it's mostly because your writing is better than before and spotted the mistake you would have missed in the past. Edit it!

Either you found yourself enjoying your story and regain your confidence, or your story got better than before, and you still regained your confidence.

 

[NiQuinn]

It might also help not to compare your writing with someone else. Your journey is different from theirs. Just because their writing became bad doesn't mean yours will be.

 

[Friend]

In my own case, I find a "lack of confidence" as you say in only one type of story -- cultivation stuff. Mostly because I think it's "hard" to form a good cultivation system (at least not without borrowing from other authors' premade settings).

 

[Yearafteryear]

Yes!
I wrote many books on Webnovel, but non end up getting more than 6 chapters. There are many reason for it. One of them is that I’m run out of idea. I know what type of story that I want to write. I know the plot. I know what I should put in the book to make it interesting, but when I start to write...everything fuck up.

 

[Yearafteryear]

In my own case, I find a "lack of confidence" as you say in only one type of story -- cultivation stuff. Mostly because I think it's "hard" to form a good cultivation system (at least not without borrowing from other authors' premade settings).

Yes. That’s true. If the author put out cultivation realm that similar to other novel or name or technique, weapons and stuff, some reader start to bitching around. That’s also one of the reason result to “lack of confidence”.

 

[LWFlouisa]

Pretty much every November to December.

 

[tiaf]

I lost my confidence since September _(:з」∠)_
Can you buy confidence somewhere?

 

[clover2218]

I lost my confidence since September _(:з」∠)_
Can you buy confidence somewhere?

I can sell it to you, but it's gonna cost you, let's see, your soul and your ability to bite...

 

[FemmeFatale]

Usually, the reason why I abandon a project is more about time or interest. I worked in writing for work for so many years that I usually only commit to something out of pure self indulgence. That means I need to have time, which is in short supply most days.

Because I write for myself I don't really need to consider my confidence as a writer. If I don't like it, then I don't share it. I will leave one folder on my computer that says "Do Not Read Ever" and let my descendents gasp, faint and guffaw over my 'legacy'.

 

[BenJepheneT]

Every time I lose my confidence in writing, I take a look at the current state of WattPad and regain my self-esteem.

Here's a quick tip: search for this book called After on WattPad. Or Reaper's Creek by some guy named Onision. Have it bookmarked. If you ever feel down, read a chapter or two from them.

Then remind yourself even these poor, garbage excuse of literature can even get some degree of fanbase.

Remember that, and keep on writing.

 

[0xReki]

Recently I started reading a work of a Author I admired (I might be a fake cultivator) but if even he self-destructed up his story, then what can i even accomplish? I took a good mental hit seeing how the story become. As hilarious as it is, after a few hundred chapters I'm like "The f*ck am I even reading?"

Do you mean where they just drift to a completely different kind of story?

 

[TotallyHuman]

Have you ever lost your confidence in writing?

I've been reading a lot of a Webnovels and I've noticed that most of them have Authors that tend destroy their own works.. A good example is TNE or ED.

Recently I started reading a work of a Author I admired (I might be a fake cultivator) but if even he self-destructed up his story, then what can i even accomplish? I took a good mental hit seeing how the story become. As hilarious as it is, after a few hundred chapters I'm like "The f*ck am I even reading?"

I guess I'm just somewhat mentally exhausted by now, if you guys know any well constructed stories please let me know. (Most I know are LNs sadly though I do see some gens in KRs/Cns but they either got dropped or completed by now

Overlord is probably the only story with consistent quality that has lasted as long as it has that I have read. In the first place, in order to write a good story that keeps its quality one has to either make it short or plan the heck out of it. And usually webnovels are written like this (I believe) : 1.gets a cool Idea 2.writes it. 3.runs out of ideas but doesn't want to stop or has written themselves into a corner. 4.quality down.
That's why we get either repetitive arcs, obvious character archetypes whose entire depth can be explored with only the name of the archetype or/and cliches that are almost everywhere.
How many stories have you read where the mc has a school arc, the mc has a tournament arc, there's a tsundere, there're rapey bandits, arrogant young masters that seem too retarded to have been given prestige education, magic that has been described willy-nilly, poor villagers who add absolutely nothing to the MC's or the coast's character development and have nothing more than the status of a villager to their character, overly-perfect characters who seem to be able to do almost anything and are competent and they are amiable towards the mc so it would be even more obvious that the mc is so awesome that even awesomeness itself isn't as awesome, etc?
It's not like the writers love writing these things (if they do, I am afraid I can't understand them). They just don't know where to start and where to end.
Sometimes they rush too much instead tho. I'm too tired to describe the flaws of various stories (that I'm also faulty of having made) but you get the idea.
Basically, if you wanna write, write. You will find someone who will appreciate your efforts. But if you wanna write good, think, plan and only then write. But then again, there really is no point in writing a well thought out story with a very complex plot etc if you do it for fun (like we all do I think). It takes too much time and energy and it takes the fun out of it(I think so at least). Just try to make your story more unique and interesting and that'd plenty enough

 

[AliceShiki]

Have you ever lost your confidence in writing?

I've been reading a lot of a Webnovels and I've noticed that most of them have Authors that tend destroy their own works.. A good example is TNE or ED.

Recently I started reading a work of a Author I admired (I might be a fake cultivator) but if even he self-destructed up his story, then what can i even accomplish? I took a good mental hit seeing how the story become. As hilarious as it is, after a few hundred chapters I'm like "The f*ck am I even reading?"

I guess I'm just somewhat mentally exhausted by now, if you guys know any well constructed stories please let me know. (Most I know are LNs sadly though I do see some gens in KRs/Cns but they either got dropped or completed by now

I didn't ever lose confidence in my writing, but there were times I was hating what I was writing.

What did I do? Easy, delete it all and start again from scratch with a new premise. You can return to your old premise later if you want, but not now.

If I'm hating what I'm writing, then I need to write something else, as simple as that~

Can I suggest this is one of the uh, main poisons to webnovels? I mean, have you ever watched a TV series and thought "this started off good but I wish it ended after like season 4"?

[clears my throat and drags over a soapbox to stand on] The problem with serialised fiction is I think a) a lot of authors jump in without any real outline figured out, and just kind of figure they'll "follow their inspiration" (don't) and b) they end up kind of "trapped" in a novel due to it's popularity. Like if you're writing 2 novels, and one is doing REALLY well, and you're even making money off of it, but you know you need to wrap it up in like 8 more chapters, but your other novel is going ignored, wouldn't you feel kind of like... well I should keep working on the one that actually has a following (also don't)?

These stories don't make me lose confidence in my writing. If anything, because I am a spiteful green tea bitch, they make me feel way more ballsy and arrogant because I'm like "well this is popular even though it's awful, if I could do way better without even trying then why shouldn't I write?"

Ladies and gentleman, take my advice. Pull down your pants and slide on the ice.

I agree with most of what Flucket said. If your novel has hundreds of chapters, then it's probably doing something wrong. Like... You need to have a really good reason to write more than 3 books' worth of a story IMHO, and some of those webnovels reach enough material to write over a hundred books from it... That ought to be filled with garbage.

That said, I don't think you need to have a proper outline to write your novel. Using my own experience as an example, I tend to hate my novel if I have it well-planned in advance, because it never lives up to what I have in my head and I have to follow that specific outline when things don't seem to need that anymore, but that will be needed later and... *pukes blood*

So well, I kinda hate planning ahead and usually just wing most of what I write... I do however, have a few basic ideas of the details of the setting, a few scenes that I want to reach in my head, and I try to have an idea of when and how the story will end. That's the most important part of planning IMO, if you know when and how it will end, your entire story has a direction to move towards and it won't feel like you're wasting time when you're steadily moving where you want.

 

[tiaf]

I can sell it to you, but it's gonna cost you, let's see, your soul and your ability to bite...

Too bad, my soul already belongs to my loli master.

 

[LWFlouisa]

The biggest reason was my MC was heading toward anarcho-communism, but it's turning out more and more anarcho-communism isn't what I thought it was, and mostly filled with old armchair theorists that have nothing better to do to spend their time, the berate people for purchasing Aquafina bottles. Oh, did I just mention a brand-name? My bad.

And they wont stop berating you for it.

 

[gaylolis]

Spoiler: pretty long

When I was starting out, I don't really understand that it's all about preferences and that's also when I still viewed everyone's work with the same standard.

I once entered a writing contest in a forum, and I did my best in it, but I just couldn't accept that the winning entry was something empty that's just filled with fancy words.

While my work was bashed left and right since at that time, I had terrible grammar. I was like, where did I do wrong? It became more like native speaker bullying non-natives to prove their superiority, than actually trying to teach you to do better. I don't think grammar is everything to a story. If the story sucks to me, I wouldn't read it even if the writing's top notch. I just find their worship for empty, fancy writings with no soul pretty disgusting.

At that point, I entered a lot of these events and I never really won. From that point on, I started to lose confidence in my writings, but fortunately, it just didn't stop me from writing what I like, even though no one would care about it.

It would save my sanity in these past few years, if I just thought that the work just matched the judges' preference. They're entitled to their opinion, and so am I. Everyone's good in their own way.

If I couldn't win in contests, it's fine. At this point, I don't think writing should be a competition for me, because I care 'bout writing for myself the most.

I don't really care who's the better Author nowadays. It's all about whether the story appeals to me or not. Even if they're big names with lots of following, if I didn't like it, I wouldn't waste my time reading it.

What gives my confidence back--writing itself added something in my life by just doing so. It's not about the number of follows, and favorites, but how each chapter gave that 'healing' effect that brightened my day. People may won competitions or awards, but I could be confident, since it made me able to keep my spirits and hope alive.

I think that's important, since I think, before I'm an Author, I am myself.

Well I guess that's all.

 

[GhostyZ]

Naw. I am too overconfident.

 

[BenJepheneT]

Naw. I am too overconfident.

This man gets pussy.

 

[AliceShiki]

Spoiler: pretty long

When I was starting out, I don't really understand that it's all about preferences and that's also when I still viewed everyone's work with the same standard.

I once entered a writing contest in a forum, and I did my best in it, but I just couldn't accept that the winning entry was something empty that's just filled with fancy words.

While my work was bashed left and right since at that time, I had terrible grammar. I was like, where did I do wrong? It became more like native speaker bullying non-natives to prove their superiority, than actually trying to teach you to do better. I don't think grammar is everything to a story. If the story sucks to me, I wouldn't read it even if the writing's top notch. I just find their worship for empty, fancy writings with no soul pretty disgusting.

At that point, I entered a lot of these events and I never really won. From that point on, I started to lose confidence in my writings, but fortunately, it just didn't stop me from writing what I like, even though no one would care about it.

It would save my sanity in these past few years, if I just thought that the work just matched the judges' preference. They're entitled to their opinion, and so am I. Everyone's good in their own way.

If I couldn't win in contests, it's fine. At this point, I don't think writing should be a competition for me, because I care 'bout writing for myself the most.

I don't really care who's the better Author nowadays. It's all about whether the story appeals to me or not. Even if they're big names with lots of following, if I didn't like it, I wouldn't waste my time reading it.

What gives my confidence back--writing itself added something in my life by just doing so. It's not about the number of follows, and favorites, but how each chapter gave that 'healing' effect that brightened my day. People may won competitions or awards, but I could be confident, since it made me able to keep my spirits and hope alive.

I think that's important, since I think, before I'm an Author, I am myself.

Well I guess that's all.

On the matter of contests, I actually remember getting pretty salty in one.

I was writing for a contest whose theme was Halloween... It was honestly pretty broad and we weren't given many specific directives, so I just played in the genre I'm most comfortable with... Love Stories. I made a Halloween-themed love story between two children and was pretty happy with the outcome. (In retrospect, the story wasn't that great, but I still liked it myself)

When one of the judges rated my story, they gave me a low grade because I didn't write on-theme... I was like... "WTF!? It's totally on Halloween theme! >.<"

Apparently they wanted only scary/creepy stories or whatever, yet never specified anything... I mean, if you make a theme as broad as Halloween, why can't I make a story that plays on the fact its basically a festival in which children like asking for candy!? That's what it actually is nowadays anyways! >.<

So... Ranting aside, what I wanted to say was that sometimes you might lose contests for reasons totally outside of your control and that sometimes the judges weren't that great in the first place. So don't let that get to you~