Interesting process link

[msagara]

jpsorrow posts about the evolution of process, or what each novel has taught him about his own writing so far. It's interesting, and I winced at the one book in which everything fell into place because I knew that the subsequent book would be so heart-breaking. It's always harder when you think you've finally arrived, that you know what you're doing -- because of course you start the next novel and nothing works properly or that smoothly again.

ETA: the actual link. Coffee infusion needed.

Comments

[battle-of-one.livejournal.com]

I always find other writers' processes to be interesting. I think I hear what you're saying and in a way it's comforting to know I'm not the only one that suffers pervasive insecurity about my writing. Even now I tend to want to think that far more experienced writers than me somehow find a 'system' that excludes them from certain insecurities. But I don't tend to compare myself beyond that because...there's no point. Off-point but I'm just letting my brain run.

To me that constant fight to think that the work is more than absolute shit is an important part of my process. I need to believe that it's shit so I constantly look at it with a critical eye toward improvement. But at the same time part of becoming a better writer for me is also acknowledging what's being done well. Always that balance, right? Trying to achieve a balanced perspective at the appropriate time is the real challenge for me and not one that I think will ever be 'accomplished'...and I like that. But I might be weird. I need to be unsettled in what I'm doing when I love it this much otherwise I run the risk of becoming complacent. I think I achieve a certain contentment with my fiction and my process by knowing that being unsettled is a necessary part of my becoming a better writer.

I have no idea if that drivel made sense.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Even now I tend to want to think that far more experienced writers than me somehow find a 'system' that excludes them from certain insecurities.

For me, it's gotten worse with time -- possibly because the internal editor is so much smarter than it used to be. But I've become resigned to the insecurity as part of the process -- I don't think I value it in quite the same way you do, but I think I'd be a lot happier if I could. I'll have to squash it down into the loam of my subconscious and see if it grows roots there.