Some of what you write won’t be good

By Dennis Mellersh

If you’re doggedly going to go down the path of becoming a writer, you will often need to reach for the eraser or the delete button, and sometimes the trash can.

In our work as writers, some of what we produce will be just “good”, some not-so-good, some passable, and some of it just plain bad. Sometimes, a book will “just not come together” and we will need to abandon the concept, regroup, and start afresh with a new project.

After working diligently on a promising idea, you may find, for example, that the idea is simply not big enough or sufficiently important to sustain a book-length project. It might be more suitable for a short story, or an essay, for example.

Or, the idea may excellent but we simply aren’t experienced enough as writers to execute it effectively – the idea is bigger and more complex than our present capabilities as writers. The tool-chest of our writing skills is not yet complete enough.

The sooner you recognize this fact of your evolving life as a writer, the better.

Otherwise you will be discouraged by your unsuccessful writing results and will not be able to feel the joy of work during those times when you are “in the zone” and the words are brilliantly flowing onto the paper like magic.

In the work of virtually all writers who tackle fiction and non-fiction, the writing will vary in quality. Even the greatest writers did not always hit home runs.

For the beginner writer, it is important to realize that over time, writing badly and learning from the experience will eventually result in writing well as we progress on our journey of becoming a writer.