I read recently that writers and artists are never satisfied with their work. Is this true? I thought I was just being picky and weird about my work because it never seemed good enough. But if this is true and most creative people feel this way, then I'm in very good company. Why are we like that? What is it that makes us think our work needs to be made even better over and over again?
Absolutely true! Perhaps because it's so difficult to transfer what is, after all, a rather amorphous and indistinct vision from the safety of our imagination to that stark black and white reality on the page? It's also the difficulty of trying to use words to paint the picture you hold in your head, the one that includes all the sensory information and back detail that would be too much to include, but somehow has to infiltrate the story sufficiently to round it out. I could edit forever, if I didn't eventually rein myself in. I've also started illustrating some of my work (for children) and find it equally difficult to be satisfied with my drawings too. It's a wonder any of us worth our salt ever actually make it to a finished product!
The hardest part of editing is knowing when to stop. I could still go back to my first story and start changing it again...
Thanks Miriam and Clare. I've done the same thing, read, re-read then read again. Yeah that's ok. Then looked at it the day after and no, I don't like it, it's not right. Change it again! I drive myself crazy with it.