by vermis_rex » Mon Feb 26, 2007 3:41 am
I can certainly commiserate. I've been trying to figure out who I am for years, and where I fit in.
OK, so it's not quite the same thing. But as a writer, it's trying to find my own voice, which is sort of like finding my own sound.
I have also believed that pretty much everything I've been trying for years has sucked. But it turned out most of that was in my own head. While I was thinking it all sucked, the folks around me though it was amazing. But since it didn't FEEL right, I just wrote it off as sucking.
Turns out I wasn't so much looking for my own voice as doubting I had a voice at all. It was there all along, I just couldn't make myself comfortable with it for a long time. But I can look back now at stuff I've done and see that it wasn't as entirely sucky as I had originally thought (I'm still not quite up to "good", but "not entirely sucky" is a good start).
Second opinions help. So does having a massive ego (with the self assurance to tell yourself you're right even when you aren't), but since I couldn't manage an ego graft, I just had to settle for second opinions. And then I had to start believing them.
If I was ever truely satisfied with my work, I'd probably either drop dead of shock or decide there was nothing else to do. It's the lack of satisfaction that keeps me trying to get it "right" over and over again.