oldsidelinghill:
I don’t really know the answers to these questions - i’m not really satisfied with anything i’ve ever written. Even when I’m proud of something, i’m not really… satisfied with it. You know? I’m often proud of accomplishing something, but still hate my work and wish it was better.
But maybe this’ll help:
Go get a stop watch right now (or use one on your computer) and set it for 10 minutes. Now write a complete story with an ending before those 10 minutes are up. If you don’t finish your story, start the stopwatch over again and write a new story. Do it until you finish a story. Now you’ve finished a story! Then do it again. Write a different story.
Do this once a day for a week. Now you have at LEAST 7 stories finished. You may hate them and not want anyone to ever read them. But now you’ve begun learning a process. You’ve started learning a little tiny lesson in the types of stories you’re drawn to tell. If you’re not actually a fan of those types of stories you’re writing, then try writing something else the next time.
If you feel confined by having to finish your stories in 10 minutes, it’s ok to break the rules sometimes and keep going on a tangent and see where it leads. Just be conscious that you are breaking the rules. It’s like cheating at a single-player game. It’s ok to cheat sometimes, but it really stops being fun if you’re always cheating. It’s better to change the rules to accommodate the way you like to play.
You can, and should, start setting up your own rules in order to try out new avenues of writing. Each 10-minute story you write has to be about a new character with a stupid name. Each story is about the SAME character in a different situation. Write a slightly longer story in 2 hours. Write 10 cat poems this week. Write a novel in 1 month (a chapter every few days). You may fail in the quality department, but finishing things is the way to learn. If none of these rules sound fun, then come up with a different set of rules.
Another thing you can do is get together with some friends and give each other challenges. This’ll cause you to write about stuff you wouldn’t normally think of, and may give you a new perspective on your own work.