A Bit of Advice For My Fellow Writers ~
So I was recently doing some self-eval over my drawing.
Why am I so self-conscious? Why do I always feel like my art is so sloppy and childish? Why do I dislike my art style?
And I came to a conclusion that I think will help many writers out there.
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Art is meant to be enjoyed, right? Well, you have a delectable piece of cake in front of you, you don't just devour the whole thing in one bite, you eat it slowly, bite by bite, and enjoy its flavor.
But for some reason writers don't treat their WIPs this way. We stuff the whole dang cake in our mouths and wonder why we don't taste the delectable flavors we could smell on the cake.
In other words, we speed through our stories, feeling like it's about speed and not about enjoying the process of creating The Thing.
And we lose the flavors that made us intrigued by our story in the first place.
We forget what was so exciting about that exotic angel character.
We forget why we were so passionate about our hellscape scenery.
We forget what made us so excited to write the thing because we're rushing through it like if we don't finish it next week, we're failures as creators.
And that's just not the case. You shouldn't have to rush yourself to feel like a good writer.
Going back to the whole thing with my art. I realized I was rushing through my art and it was making my art feel sloppy to me. I started to hate my art style and feel like I'd never improve.
But then when I realized that, I realized I needed to slow down. I had a friend recommend to me that I take breaks while making an art piece to force my mind and body to actually slow down. Let me tell you, it was a struggle. I had to force myself to put the pencil, the pen, the sharpie down... but the end result? It was so much better than I thought it would be!
You, as a writer, have the potential to be all that you want to be, but you hold yourself back by acting like you have to be fast, you have to put out 2k words per day every day. You don't have to. There is no writer handbook that says if you do not write at the speed of light your writing is worthless.
And if there is, and you own it? Throw it away, it's worthless.
What makes a good piece of writing is taking your time, enjoying the process, really working on it day by day. Taking breaks when you need to. When your head is swimming or your wrists start to hurt... take the damn breaks.
I don't just say encouragement for taking breaks more than any other encouragement for no reason.
You're going to burn yourself out, not just because you're pushing yourself to go faster and harder, but also because you're forcing yourself to keep going even after you've already burnt out and putting so much pressure on yourself to be better, do better, and be making constantly.
Take a couple months off. Go out, enjoy life. Let your mind wander. Don't force yourself to keep writing just because you feel obligated either to your readers or because you feel obligated to finish what you started.
The WIP will STILL be there when you come back to it.
Please, please for the love of god, please take care of your mind. You'll be happy you did.
