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Are you proud of your work?

 
 
Tezcatlipoca
21:29 / 13.05.02
Following on from SFD's thread regarding short story writing, I decided to read back over some of my own short stories tonight, and have, once again, noticed a distrubing trend in my attitude towards them, viz. they suddenly seem shallow badly-written nonsense (which, of course, they may well be). In addition, whenever I finish a days writing, my immediate thought seems to be "X chapter could have been better" rather than "I'm happy with X chapter".

It occurs to me that - when looking back - I'm able to approach the work with a slightly more objective eye, and I'm thus far more likely to spot weak areas of writing. Am I alone in this post-writing dissatisfaction, or do any other writers out there also find themselves unhappy about parts of their work when looking back at it?
 
 
muse
00:16 / 14.05.02
It's in the revision that any work's true merit is found. It's been said that writer's never actually finish any given piece of work, they simply give up after enough time. There's nothing wrong with being disappointed in retrospect. If you were satisfied, then you couldn't get better. What good would that be?
 
 
the Fool
00:24 / 14.05.02
If you were satisfied, then you couldn't get better. What good would that be?

I'm satisfied with work I've, it doesn't mean it can't get better. Getting better is part of the doing. The doing is where all the real fun happens. You learn the craft as you practice it. I admire those whoes craft is better than my own, it motivates me to improve my own craft.
 
 
Shortfatdyke
05:59 / 14.05.02
usually with a story i get to a finishing point: the best that it can be at that point in time. then i move on. looking back, there are usually things i would ideally have done differently, but *that* was the best i could do *then* - i don't want to endlessly tinker with writing, i want to get on and get better. the first story i had published in a sci fi mag had interzone magazine calling for me to be strung up. looking back, the story was naive in some respects, but still powerful and i don't regret writing it. i always want to feel that i can be a better writer. some fool compared me to clive barker a while back, and though it was incredibly flattering, i know that barker is leagues beyond me but that amount of good storytelling is something to strive for.

as for being proud of myself: yeah, writing has helped. sounds pretentious, but i feel completely passionate about it, completely driven. i *have* to write, and i think i do it well. it's also turned around the way my parents think about me, too.
 
 
that
07:57 / 14.05.02
Never satisfied. Writing is like walking a tightrope, huge concentration, exhausting beyond belief (and I mean writing essays for school as much as writing short stories, which are the only two things I ever really do). And then I look back over the tightrope, and go "oh, shit, it was like 2 feet above the ground. How pathetic am I?". If it's school work, I'm usually glad its to a deadline, because otherwise my head would explode with dissatisfaction. I catch myself trying to keep walls up so that I don't have too many epiphanies and have to work even harder. It's a very bad habit. I wonder if I'll even survive these exams...
 
 
lentil
09:55 / 14.05.02
It's in the revision that any work's true merit is found

Quite. Sometimes when you're in the middle of something you want it to work so badly that you try to convince yourself that it does. it's a lot easier to be objective when looking at (in the cases of me and the Fool) or rereading old work, because your immediate emotional investment is smaller; you've transferred it to whatever masterpiece you're working on at the time. Also, if things are going according to plan, you've improved since that old piece, and so your ability to judge your own work is greater. I've got a painting hanging in my front room which is definitely one of my strongest pieces, but it's about eighteen months old now, and although i'm proud of it, its faults scream at me when I look at it.

Does anyone find that it can work both ways? I often find myself dredging old, barely considered, ideas out of sketchbooks which become the germ of something quite substantial. I think it’s a result of the same distancing, the change of perspective on your work. Being objective doesn’t just mean that you realise how shit you actually are, it can also mean discovering unnoticed strengths.

I hope I don’t sound complacent – as Cholister says, I am never satisfied, it’s just that I think that as an artist (used here as a catch-all, I’m not just talking about visual art) you should be your own biggest fan as well as your harshest critic.

What do people think about the question in the abstract, “Does being a [creative type] make you proud of yourself?”? I dunno… obviously there’s a sense of achievement when you’ve worked to the best of your abilities, and every time I get a show, or sell something, or get on a website, whatever, that creates a sense of pride, like “My god, I can do this thing that I find really fulfilling and some other people seem to get pleasure out of it too – how cool is that?”. The knowledge that I’m going to be at my studio tonight makes it a lot easier to get through my day job, it stops me from looking around this dingy little office thinking “Fuck, is this my life?”, because I know it’s not. On the other hand, I kind of feel that I’m just this geezer who’s decided, Quixote – like, to attempt this implausible way of living which may well not any relevance to anyone else.
 
 
Jack Fear
12:47 / 14.05.02
Are you proud of your work?

Uh.

Yo.
Nes.
 
 
Ethan Hawke
13:37 / 14.05.02
Not about writing - but about painting - This weekend I completed a painting that I am so incredibly pleased with and proud of. What's more amazing is that this feeling of pride has lasted several days instead of tailing off into frustration and contempt after a few hours, as is usual.

I'm completely untrained in oil painting, so my saga with it has been filled with frustrations when things just won't work the way I want them to. To have something beautiful and marvelous come out of this process just makes me incredibly confident. I want to do more, and I will this summer. I have plans for an entire series of paintings. My ambition is sky high. But what do I do now?
 
 
lentil
14:25 / 14.05.02
Keep on going as you have been. look at what worked in your last painting and do it again. look at what didn't and do it again, but good. get a load of canvases, or whatever you're using, and start them all at the same time. GET THINGS WRONG. and then learn from it.

above all: ENJOY creating!
 
 
Tryphena Absent
16:40 / 14.05.02
I love writing but I'm very divided about whether I'm proud of it. Sometimes I think what I've done is pretty good and other days it seems like the biggest pile of shit ever created. I suppose it's all dependent on my frame of mind... somehow I can never be objective about my own work. I definitely can't tell if my coursework's any good because I've never got a clue what they want exactly... fiction... I'm writing a book, it takes my mind of the actual work I have to do, for once it seems to be going OK. Maybe one day I'll actually finish something.
 
 
Ria
18:26 / 14.05.02
I feel that writers tend to overrate the importance of revisions. if you put down something good to begin with then that counts for a lot.
 
 
pointless and uncalled for
18:53 / 14.05.02
I'm getting close to having a sense of pride about my work. I recently complete a rather difficult and arduous shoot using strobe, with which I am unfamiliar, and much to my suprise and delight it wasn't a complete screw job. There were definitely some quality material produced and certain items will become a welcome edition to the portfolios of the people that I was working with and my own.

I'm very critical of my own work and find it difficult to feel pride, particularly when I am on assignment. I guess the time when I feel most pride is when other people like/enjoy/appreciate a piece. Ultimately that means that I have accomplished what I have set out to do.
 
  
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