Never Good Enough

by ELSIE BYRON
10th July 2017

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?

Replies

I can empathise Elsie, some days I read what I've written and think that's really good that, and then the next day I'll think the same thing is a load of drivel! I'be just finished my 8th redraft (I think, I may have lost count) and the MS now bears little resemblance to the first draft - apart from the essential story remaining the same, I've changed the beginning the middle and the end! What I'd like to know is how do we know when it's done, and avoid straying into the territory of editing for editings sake!

Good luck with your writing :)

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Clare
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Clare Williams
10/07/2017

Even Shakespeare reworked some of his stuff. For the rest of us, ten drafts is probably the norm. The more you work on it, the better it gets.

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