Thread: How should I feel about my work?

Is it better to be like "yeah this is awesome!" when there is the chance that it is actually quite lame or "well it sounds good but I really don't know how it'll come across to someone else?" and it may be way cool?

You know what I'm getting at? I'm not quite sure how to evaluate the quality of my own stuff.

Ruthlessly - Or someone else will do it for you.

You should be your own best/worst critic. Learn to analyse your own work as if you are a stranger to it, keep asking yourself if it really says what you wanted it to say, have you padded it out in an attempt to say in 100 words what you failed to say in 10; examine all your major word choices, would melody have been a better word than tune in the second line; were they rebels, guerrillas or insurrectionists - there are subtle but important differences between the three. Your biggest enemies will be lazyness and self-deception; work at a line until it says what it means and means what it says, and, contrary to modern teachers and educationalists, spelling and punctuation are very important. But above all this, have fun, if you aren't liking what you are doing it will show.

Very good advice. Thanks. I just struggle with the "reading it like a stranger" part... I have such a solid idea in my mind of what I want to convey that it always just seems to come out that way regardless of how it's written... Any suggestions to break through this little barrier?

But, lemme tell ya, this story has been a fun one to write

All stories should be fun to write. The reason it stops being fun is because you become over-critical and analyse the work too much. There's being critical and there's being pedantic. You need to learn the difference between them.

Personally, I gauge the level of my work by comparing what I'm writing now to what I wrote five years ago. The work I wrote then is rubbish. The work I write now is good. The work I'll write in five years' time . . .

At least that's how I see it.

In addition to all this, you need to have someone read your work who will be completely honest & critique constructively. If you know any friends or family members like that, hand them a copy of your work & tell them to read it at their leisure. I did, & my work was handed back to me with notes, questions, & changes I should make. I followed most of their advice, but stood my ground on things I had a gut feeling about.

If you can't, or would rather not reveal your work to anyone, bloggsworth's advice of being your own worst/best critic is the best advice you can take. Read other stories in your genre by writers you admire & ask yourself - & be honest - if your work is as good as theirs. Not necessarily their writing style, but does yours jump at you the way theirs did when you first read it. Again, you have to be completely honest with yourself in order to be able to do this.

Thanks for all the fantastic input guys. Here's to hoping for the best in the way it all turns out. (There's a few excerpts on my blog if anyone wants to take a look...)