So what seemed like a great CW idea a week ago now looks like a perfect candidate for the recycle bin at the Paizo offices. Does anyone else get this? You get what you think is a good idea, you work hard on it, you get to about 85% done, and then you look at it and think "This is crap. Why am I wasting my time on this?" I start to question it's worth, and comparing it in my mind to what's in Dungeon currently, it never seems to stack up. I swear it happens to me all the time. It seems like I run out of steam, and then I instantly get down on the idea, my writing, etc. I just don't have the energy to finish it, and I feel like it will be rejected anyway, so why bother? I don't even wait for the official rejection, I get a head start on it by being super critical of my own work.
It's probably partly my personality, because I am prone to bouts of dark cloud-itis, but I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this, and what you do to overcome it, recharge your batteries, and stay positive to keep writing?
It's probably partly my personality, because I am prone to bouts of dark cloud-itis, but I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this, and what you do to overcome it, recharge your batteries, and stay positive to keep writing?
I dunno. I've had a good long bout of it recently. In the last two months, I moved five blocks, started DMing again, gotten an adventure published (with the accompanying "resting-on-my-laurels" syndrome), got accepted to grad school, and received a big slew of rejections in the last writer's meeting.
I think it's okay if you aren't consistent. After all, if something doesn't come to you, or you have the temporary blahs, just take a couple months off. The magazines will still be there when you get back.
Some people ascribe to the slow, steady churning of work and ideas, and others write in massive bursts of inspiration. As most of us don't do this for a living, and are beholden to none, we're pretty liberated in how we want to approach it, I think.
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Here's something to think about. Steven King's wife rescued the original manuscript of 'Carrie' from the trash can. Anyone who has the courage to attempt this writing thing will go through this. My advice... don't beat yourself up. Take a vacation from the stress; it's all inside you. Read, watch a movie, read some more. Read National Geographic; it's chock full of game inspiration not directly labeled as such. The Muse will return, just don't stress out and scare her off.
It's probably partly my personality, because I am prone to bouts of dark cloud-itis, but I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this, and what you do to overcome it, recharge your batteries, and stay positive to keep writing?
I think anyone who does any kind of writing or project design has these moments. Often, it's just burnout--you need to take two or three days off (or a week), get rested, then reread what you've done and go for a nice long walk. Then you'll either realize it's not half bad and keep going with it, or you'll have inspirations on how to make it even better.
I'm struggling with the conclusion of a dissertation while trying to teach full time, so I know your pain!
You get what you think is a good idea, you work hard on it, you get to about 85% done, and then you look at it and think "This is crap. Why am I wasting my time on this?" I start to question it's worth, and comparing it in my mind to what's in Dungeon currently, it never seems to stack up. I swear it happens to me all the time. It seems like I run out of steam, and then I instantly get down on the idea, my writing, etc. I just don't have the energy to finish it, and I feel like it will be rejected anyway, so why bother? I don't even wait for the official rejection, I get a head start on it by being super critical of my own work.
This happens to me all the time. I'm lucky, though - the person who I ask to do most of my proofreading is dreadfully honest. If something sucks balls, she tells me. More often than not, things I think are lousy only need a little tweak or two. I've already had articles I thought were trash get accepted.
I've been in a rut lately myself. It's not necessarily thinking everything I write is utter crap; it's coming up empty on ideas. *sigh*
This happens to everyone who writes - it's just part of the profession. When I submitted my last batch of submissions I had an absolute sure-fire trilogy that I really thought would get in and it didn't, which for a day or two really made me down, but since then I've just picked myself up and got on with the next batch, which isn't easy but I want to keep writing for Dungeon and the standard seems to be very high at the moment which means we all have to try harder.
Think of young Greg Vaughan who tried for years and years to get in and finally did with Tammeraut's Fate, I'd say Greg (no, don't say it Rich, no I won't, I won't! Argh!) is one of the best writers for Dungeon at the moment from a very good bunch, and it would have been very easy for him to give up but he didn't, and he's now writing great stuff and is admired by all the other contributors except me.:) Arfarfarf...
It is hard work to get published but stick at it, and if it's hard to get in think of how good it feels when you do, young Mr Wissel must be really proud of Wingclipper's Revenge and I'm looking forward to his next outing as I'm sure are many other fine folks. I guess everyone has good days and bad days, just take full advantage of the good ones as much as possible and stick at it.
Rich
As an artist in training, I know exactly what you're going through. For example, this past year I've had to work on a series of illustrations that spanned both semesters. During this time, I've had my work and my project proposal critiqued by more than one instructor and sometimes I felt really turned off by the whole process. It seemed to me for a while that the art directorial process, the editing process, was designed to mangle my ideas and take them from something that I loved and wanted to work on into something that wasn't even really mine anymore. I had felt several times that maybe my dad was right and I should have been a lawyer.
But then I started working on it more, making it my own again, and I hit on what I feel is one of my smartest ideas. And now it's hanging in the school gallery with the best of my peers. I still feel like some of my ideas are stupid while I'm working on them, but I get fairly positive receptions when they're finished. So don't give up, success is just around the corner. Every day's a new deal, right? Just keep digging and something will come up. Everybody has a different way of doing things, and you're only competing with yourself, in the long run.
I'm glad you added the artist angle, James. There have been and still are many half-completed ideas and concepts scattered around my art table and my computer's hard drive. I'll go "oooh!! neat!" for a while and lose all my enthusiasm for the project. Or I'll get depressed and hate my work. Or any number of things.
But as has been stated - the Muse will return. Sometimes you have to bribe her back, so try doing things that are a change of pace from your normal routine. Get away for the weekend, read some new books. go to a restaurant you haven't been to before. You never know when the Muse will smack you (don't you know she's a 20th-level rogue with a killer sneak attack??) upside the head and you must write/draw something. Keeping a pocket notebook or sketchbook is handy for when inspiration hits.
...success is just around the corner. Every day's a new deal, right?
This is far too optimistic for my tastes!
:P :P :P
I find that with any lengthy project I go through cyclical phases. Admittedly, too often, there's the short lived "This-is-pure-genious-I-am-a-generic-diety-who-deserves-his-own-planar layer-phase", which is shortly followed by a "Nobody-will-read-this-crap-I-should-voluntarily-fail-my-stabilization-chec k-phase."
Sometimes I alternate a few times before falling somewhere in the middle.
I think that the reality is that at some point you start to get too close to an idea and it becomes difficult to appraise it critically.
Holding perspective is particularly challenging with the fantasy genre when the line between 'something innovative' and 'painfully over the top' can blur deceptively quick in-between sips of a Dr. Pepper.
One thing you might try, rather than hitting the delete key irrevocably, is to just save your work for another day. An idea which stymies one day, might fire up another time, especially if it suddenly finds itself ready to be combined with another concept.
Just my pensive musings on a Friday. . . Have a good weekend all.
-MiKe
I find that with any lengthy project I go through cyclical phases. Admittedly, too often, there's the short lived "This-is-pure-genious-I-am-a-generic-diety-who-deserves-his-own-planar layer-phase", which is shortly followed by a "Nobody-will-read-this-crap-I-should-voluntarily-fail-my-stabilization-chec k-phase."
Sometimes I alternate a few times before falling somewhere in the middle.
I think that the reality is that at some point you start to get too close to an idea and it becomes difficult to appraise it critically.
Holding perspective is particularly challenging with the fantasy genre when the line between 'something innovative' and 'painfully over the top' can blur deceptively quick in-between sips of a Dr. Pepper.
One thing you might try, rather than hitting the delete key irrevocably, is to just save your work for another day. An idea which stymies one day, might fire up another time, especially if it suddenly finds itself ready to be combined with another concept.
Just my pensive musings on a Friday. . . Have a good weekend all.
-MiKe
Another option, besides saving your work and looking at it another day, is to print it out, hand it to one of your fellow gamers, and then get it back from them the next session, hopefully with some feedback.
That way, you have let the project rest for a week or so (depending on your gaming cycle), so you will be looking at it with relatively fresh eyes. And you should also have some feedback from a fellow gamer as well.
I agree with Talion09 above. We're too close to our own ideas to really see them from a neutral perspective, so sometimes we need someone else's perspective on it.
I run out of inspiration all the time, and then when I least expect it I have a flurry of ideas. I once vaguely remember waking up at 4am and writing all over my wall in pencil, and when I examined it the next morning it was full of ideas for D&D magic items.
I do it all the time. I was actually writting a book, which I managed to lose the floppy it was saved on, and had that problem alot. I've done it with each querry I've written up so far, which comes out to three. But I've finished them, the first one was sent in, rejected, the next will be sent in next week and prolly be rejected. Doesn't help any when they're rejected to... Oh well, just gotta keep writing.
My advice:
-consume other media
-*yoink*
-modify to fit your needs
I call this "making rice". Keep this up and sooner or later - you'll make a killer entree to go with it.
Thanks for all the excellent advice!
I took a couple of days of from writing anything, didn't really even think about it, and now I feel pretty much refreshed and refocused. It also helped to go back and read some stuff that's been published, and check it against my own work, which didn't fare too badly.
To touch on the inspiration angle, where does everyone get their moments of "Oh wow this would make an awesome adventure/article?" Aside from the obvious ones, like existing fantasy literature/films, what other places do you get your inspiration from?
I get this all the time. I'm also heavily prone to the "I need 200 more words to make this query fully convey my point" syndrome as well.
I've got hundreds of ideas, just not the time to write them up to a standard that I felt was worth sending in.