Melissa Barker-Simpson

My bad

Yesterday I talked about the difficulties writers face when it comes to letting go. Today is closely related to that, or it is in the sense of how we view our work. If we’re talking facial expressions, this time it’s less like we’re sucking on a lemon (cringe) and more like we’ve discovered that it’s impossible to make lemonade out of the drivel in front of us.

Whether that’s a confidence thing, a state of mind, a step out of our comfort zone, or we’ve just hit a rough patch, there are times we hate the work. And I’m talking serious dislike here, the kind of thing where you want to burn it, tear the pages into confetti, or jab at the delete button like you’re holding back aliens…(come on, you remember Space Invaders!)

That might seem a wee bit temperamental, but we are nothing if not passionate about our work. I’ve found taking a step back works for me, in fact, more often than not it’s how the writer’s block starts, so I don’t have a choice. Sleeping on it is always a good thing, getting out of the space so you don’t do something crazy like destroy it all (the work that is), or techniques to that effect.

On the plus side, once you have your objectivity back, you can get stuck in and start those revisions. That’s when the fun begins because, even if the writing is bad, at least you have something to work with!

Thanks for stopping by

Mel