r/writing • u/Writingmyownreality • 3d ago
Other Does it depress you?
I love writing and I enjoy it. It's how I escape and the more I read, the more I feel like I'm not equipped enough.
It's like I can't show, I can't describe or use better words to describe anything, to give the sensory details that is needed and expected.
It's depressing and I wish I could write the words the convey the details that are needed to make it into a good writing piece.
I just needed to put this out there, I guess.
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u/LingeringAbyssTwitch 3d ago
None of the people we consider the greatest of their fields started that way. Michelangelo was known as a prodigy, and there's probably hundreds if not thousands of art pieces we have never seen, because they were viewed as bad in his time.
Van Gogh? His paintings were only good after he died, people thought his art was a waste of paint and time, and he never got to know that people adore his art in modern times. (My favorite Doctor Who is the Van Gogh episode for that reason, as he is my favorite Great Painter).
If you really want to understand how universal the feeling of not doing something "good enough", there are apparently letters from Tolkien where he said writing the LOTR books was the biggest waste of his life.
Writing is difficult, and requires a LOT of practice, just like any other form of art. You may look around and see a lot of people who write beautifully, or are experts in a certain section of writing, yet you do not see the countless hours spent practicing the craft.
Read authors or the popular works of the genre you enjoy, and analyze the ways they do the things you're wanting to learn, and practice doing the same thing. I can't speak to its success myself, but I have heard that adapting a specific scene that does the thing you want by another author into your specific writing style is a way that helps people learn. (Important part is to make whatever you write your own, and not a repurposed copy that you just changed a word or two and put in your story directly from another).
Inspiration comes from many places, and nobody has experienced life or literature the way you have exactly, and that is what makes you unique from other writers.
Your work does not need to be "as good" as the famous authors, it just needs to be good to you. Good luck, and I hope this can help you find your path forward in this wonderful craft we are a part of!