A Writing Setback
The four regular readers of my blog may recall a recent blog that discussed a YouTube video trashing the movie Men in Black International. I chose to blog about this criticism because it helped me to see a writing problem.
Let’s think about the people who made the movie Men in Black International. They were all optimistic at the film’s launch and felt crushed when it did not perform. The YouTube video added to their anguish by explicitly describing the film’s failures. To add insult to injury, the video generated a profit. Since that public disappointment, these move people began new projects and reflected on their prior work. Hopefully, they learned from their mistakes and their next projects will improve. In life, the painful lessons are often the most important.
In another recent blog, I confessed that blogging is a form of low-budget therapy. Time to eat some crow. This blog is going to be a clear example of “open therapy.” A few days ago, I got back several edits on my second book. The editor included a detailed report on several issues. I have severe plot, character, logic and grammar problems. To make matters worse, they were fundamental issues that are difficult to fix without a major rewrite. In addition, these flaws were also present in my other books.
Quite a lot to confront and it caused me to stop writing for a few days to reflect. The event left me depressed, it is now difficult to write and my words don’t reflect up to my own standards. When I looked at my Men in Black International blog, it made me think about the writers went through. The difference is millions of people read the bad reviews of their movie. Fortunately, my bad feedback did not go public.
In my attempt to become a successful author, I’ve had many setbacks and even considered closing this chapter in my life. (Ha, a writing joke!) I often remind myself that a major life goal is to start a business and writing takes away from that effort.
Looking into the mirror and seeing the face of failure is difficult. “Your best is not good enough.” Of course, it is easy to deny my problems. I do not have an English degree; writing is not my career, and I went into this project knowing I would never be able to compete with the great authors.
Putting my heartache aside. How am I going to salvage this situation? My failure recovery technique evolved over time to a central theme. I will gather all the information, analyze it and form a plan. Sometimes, I talk to people about the issue, but I typically hunker down and work my problems in solitude. Hence, I took a bike ride today, and it helped.
For this problem, I am going to fix what can be fixed and ignore the other issues. The main criticism concerns my weak characters and plot. I created this book without a plan, outline or even talking with friends. It’s reasonable to expect issues.
An author writes the story they want to tell. Their story may be pretentious, arrogant, weak and unrealistic. However, my story came from my heart and I based the characters upon real people from my life. I still like the plot/characters and I think others would also like it.
I certainly appreciate my core flaws. The many repairs will take a lot of work but I’m not the type to give up on a dream without a fight; even if the dream is unrealistic.
You’re the best -Bill
December 25, 2019
Let’s think about the people who made the movie Men in Black International. They were all optimistic at the film’s launch and felt crushed when it did not perform. The YouTube video added to their anguish by explicitly describing the film’s failures. To add insult to injury, the video generated a profit. Since that public disappointment, these move people began new projects and reflected on their prior work. Hopefully, they learned from their mistakes and their next projects will improve. In life, the painful lessons are often the most important.
In another recent blog, I confessed that blogging is a form of low-budget therapy. Time to eat some crow. This blog is going to be a clear example of “open therapy.” A few days ago, I got back several edits on my second book. The editor included a detailed report on several issues. I have severe plot, character, logic and grammar problems. To make matters worse, they were fundamental issues that are difficult to fix without a major rewrite. In addition, these flaws were also present in my other books.
Quite a lot to confront and it caused me to stop writing for a few days to reflect. The event left me depressed, it is now difficult to write and my words don’t reflect up to my own standards. When I looked at my Men in Black International blog, it made me think about the writers went through. The difference is millions of people read the bad reviews of their movie. Fortunately, my bad feedback did not go public.
In my attempt to become a successful author, I’ve had many setbacks and even considered closing this chapter in my life. (Ha, a writing joke!) I often remind myself that a major life goal is to start a business and writing takes away from that effort.
Looking into the mirror and seeing the face of failure is difficult. “Your best is not good enough.” Of course, it is easy to deny my problems. I do not have an English degree; writing is not my career, and I went into this project knowing I would never be able to compete with the great authors.
Putting my heartache aside. How am I going to salvage this situation? My failure recovery technique evolved over time to a central theme. I will gather all the information, analyze it and form a plan. Sometimes, I talk to people about the issue, but I typically hunker down and work my problems in solitude. Hence, I took a bike ride today, and it helped.
For this problem, I am going to fix what can be fixed and ignore the other issues. The main criticism concerns my weak characters and plot. I created this book without a plan, outline or even talking with friends. It’s reasonable to expect issues.
An author writes the story they want to tell. Their story may be pretentious, arrogant, weak and unrealistic. However, my story came from my heart and I based the characters upon real people from my life. I still like the plot/characters and I think others would also like it.
I certainly appreciate my core flaws. The many repairs will take a lot of work but I’m not the type to give up on a dream without a fight; even if the dream is unrealistic.
You’re the best -Bill
December 25, 2019
Follow me
