Spiffy (Dustin Goeller) wrote:

How many people out there have had someone tell them they were really good
at something? Something like writing? I have. I have many many times. By
teachers, by friends, by students. And guess what. They were all vicious
lies.

Before I came to this list. I really thought I could write. I honestly
thought I could do something well. But reading other people's works, I must
say I really suck. I suppose this shouldn't be much of a surprise to me. I
mean, I have also been told I'm a great actor, a great mathematician, a
several other great things. But I knew they were all lies. Why not writing?

Why? I'll tell you why. Because I like to write. (I also like to act, but
that's a another story.) Well, that's not true. I don't like to write. I
like to create. I like to think. I like to make others laugh, to cry, and
to throw-up.

I wish I could write. God, do I wish I could write. But, I can't. And it's
beyond me why I even try. It seems to me as though all the really good fics

WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA!!!!

Hold it! Please stop there. We seem to have a major failure of
self-confidence here.

Look, this is a pretty standard reaction. It was the one I had when I
first entered my creative writing class and my first piece was chewed up
and spat out. It was my reaction when my first fic idea I posted to the
FFML was fried up crispy and served with lemon butter. It's natural. The
simple fact is, you can't expect to jump into something and be good at
it right away. Your first fic is GOING to suck, but that's part of the
point of the FFML, to help us become better writers.

What would have happened if you had seen BMX racing on TV as a kid and
decided that you shouldn't even try and learn to ride a bike, because
you'd never be that good? Of course you sucked at first, and fell off a
lot, and got embarrassed, but thinking back wasn't learning to ride one
of the best things you ever did?

Fanfic writing is the same. You're not going to come out a fully formed
Lawson or Biles, simply because it doesn't happen that way. Your first
few fics will bite, but then you will find your stride, and the niche
you are most comfortable writing in. If you can't do darkfics, don't!
Most of Lawsons Nuku Nuku series (except Transitions) were happy and
cheerful. Good fics aren't exclusive to one genre.

The point is that you can't give up yet. You may never be as good as
those other writers. However, you might just end up being BETTER. You
won't know unless you try, and if you don't try you throw away all the
potential you have as a writer.

I KNOW I sucked when I first started. Two years of Creative Writing and
I didn't learn a damn thing. But I'm getting better. I'm not great yet,
a lot of people don't even consider me good, but I'm a lot better than I
was. I'll probably never be rated as one of the greatest fanfic writers
of all time, but as long as somebody enjoys my stuff I don't care.

It's hard, especially when someone tears apart your piece. It's like
they just stomped through your sandcastle. But it's necessary for you to
learn how to be better, and you'll find that when you rebuild that
sandcastle, and every sandcastle after that, it'll be better.

You just have to stay at it. And believe.

The Prime Sagittarian,
Alpha Centauri

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