I keep on seeing people making these posts like “OMG I just read such a wonderful story, my writing will never be that good, farewell cruel world throwing myself down a well!” So I’m here now to just toss out the idea that, short of certain types of major problems with your writing (incomprehensibly bad grammar, stories that are all about your own highly specific and bizarre set of kinks), your writing is almost always going to be much more enjoyable for everyone else than it is for you.
Think about it: so much of the beauty of good writing comes from surprise. Not, like, a SHOCKING TWIST, but that little jolt of surprise and recognition that you get from a well put-together metaphor or turn of phrase, or how the punchline of a joke startles you into laughing.
So of course your writing doesn’t seem that good or interesting to you: you can’t find any of it clever because you know all the tricks already.
The problem isn’t that your writing is bad, it’s that enjoying your own writing is like trying to tickle yourself.
(via littlestartopaz)
