Discussion

[wook77]

I know I said fic today and, err, it needs quite a bit of work so it's not happening. It's looking good for this weekend, however.

Now, on to my discussion question -

Lately, I've been writing things and being disappointed in them. They're well-received (at least according to the commenters) but I'm disappointed. I've found that the stories I'm most disappointed in are the ones that I had every intention of writing something else but time ran out so I had to tweak. Thus - when I see the story, I see what it could have been and not what it is and am disappointed.

On the other hand - I have one story that I was terribly disappointed in at the time of submittal and now that I've had some distance, I actually enjoyed reading it.

I've also seen a variety of people on my flist saying that they are finally getting to write what they want and not what they have to do.

So here it is - why do we post works that don't make us happy, that don't reflect our visions/skills? Why do we write stuff that simply isn't up to par (as far as we're concerned) and hope that it's good enough for the challenge/prompt/fest/giftee/person? What point do you say "this is good enough"? How do you determine "good enough"? Is it ever "good enough"? Do you eventually like the work?

Comments

[football-girl.livejournal.com]

Hm.. Interesting question. What I do when I write for a challenge is I write non-stop. I don't think, I don't plan, I don't out-line. I can't do that. Whatever comes out initially out of me is as good as it gets - if I go tweaking with it, I ruin it.

How do I stop myself from tweaking with it? The moment I am done with the fic that I am writing for someone else or for a challenge, I post it straight away. I always have doubts as I write. I always think it's not good enough as I post (this could also be because I procrastinate a lot and don't have a lot of time to do it in the end), but I also know that, given a few days, I always like the outcome once I've distaned myself a couple of days.

To answer the question "is it ever good enough", I would say it always is. That's the way I look at it. I may not think that at first, but good enough is the best you can do. Something that isn't forced because I have to do it, but something that started coming out the moment fingers hit the keyboard.

:)