We’ve all been there - you had a great idea, you have a night of amazing writing, the words pour out of you onto the page, and you go to sleep content, only to find the next morning that everything you’ve written is...not up to your standards, to put it mildly. Here’s why you should still keep going. Time for some tough love.
Ideas Are Cheap
One of the hardest things I personally have had to learn as a writer is that your ideas are one of the least important parts of your process. You’ll come across many writers in your career who have their big break idea all mapped out, but they often don’t get any further than that. Writers become too precious with their ideas, and when it comes time to execute, they become disappointed when their writing doesn’t match their grandiose ideas.
For that reason, finishing your work - even when you’re not in love with it - will help shift your focus to the most important part of your writing, which is...doing the writing.
Writing Isn’t Always Fun
If you’re a creator of any discipline, and you find that there are times in which you hate the thing you have designated as your passion, you are far from alone. In fact, even famous writers like Kurt Vonnegut and Virginia Woolf have famously been quoted as not enjoying the process of writing.
It’s normal for you to have peaks and valleys in the inspiration of your creative process, but the demand for more content from your audience is going to stay relatively consistent, and hopefully grow! As a creative, you’re constantly working on expanding your oeuvre - your body of work - and as your moments of inspiration come and go during this time, you must develop the discipline to work on a project you may not be in love with.
You Are Not the Arbiter of Everything That is Good
Imagine a music artist releasing a new album. They’ve got 12 songs, 3 or 4 may be produced and marketed into singles by the label, another 1 or 2 songs that might be sleeper hits, and the other half of the album that people don’t obtain nearly the notoriety of those individual tracks. Now think further about one of your favorite albums. Can you even name every single track on that album? You are probably most familiar with your favorite tracks, and the others blend together, albeit pleasantly.
So too with your creative projects. There is a difference between your product and your taste. You may curate an album of songs, or a book of short stories and think that it all flows together naturally, and then when your audience consumes it, they enjoy certain aspects more than others, to your dismay. However, the inverse situation can work to your advantage, even if something isn’t your personal favorite, you may find that it is a smash hit with your audience.
The creative process is rife with hills and valleys of inspiration and creativity. Having the discipline to create during those valleys will smooth out your operation and help you to finish work more reliably. Even if your audience connects with different aspects of your work than you do, try to connect with your community and build that bond. Bridging the aspects of your work that you enjoy with the parts your audience enjoy can only lead to a more symbiotic relationship.