I think this is
a problem that many writers face pretty often. It’s the same with artists,
singers, musicians, sports players, and basically everyone else in the world. I
think a good portion of my writing is terrible and I don’t want people to ever
read it.
My best example here is my first
novel The Year of the Elephant. I can’t even read it anymore I think it’s so
bad. I spent so little time on editing it, the plot line is everywhere, and
that character’s aren’t the great either. It’s easy to tell that I wrote myself
into a corner in various places and made up some very unrealistic scenarios in
order to get myself out of those corners. It’s a good thing no one can find a
copy of it anywhere anymore.
I think that with writers, we tend
to be very critical of ourselves. We know our best writing, so anything
slightly less than that we think is awful because we know we can do better. In
a way, this makes it very hard to finish a book, and I am going through this
process right now.
I took down The Unusual Isles because
I don’t think it’s as good as it could be. I think I published it too early, I
didn’t spend enough time editing, and I looked over some stylistic details that
I could’ve easily changed. Is it a bad thing I took it down? Well, not really
because I just want to make it better. But at the same times, it’s my obsession
with perfection that keeps me from getting a lot accomplished.
~K.M.D.
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