So Oddly Conflicting

[kriadydragon]

Has the following ever happened to anyone?

You write a story, you feel "meh" about that story. You enjoyed writing it, like the characters and plot well enough, but you're not particularly enthused about it. And yet, deep down inside, you feel that what you've written is a good story that people will enjoy. There's nothing wrong with the story, nothing you feel needs to be fixed, and although any work can be done better, you feel this work is also just fine as it is.

This is basically what I'm going through with my currrent novel. I have these mixed feelings in which I'm not all that thrilled with this story, and yet at the same time I know that it is a good story. There's nothing about it that makes me feel like I need to change anything, nor do I feel like it needs to be rewritten. Everything in this story works, and I know that people will get a big kick out of it. But my personal feelings toward it keep leaning toward "eh, you've come up with better ideas."

Which, yeah, I know isn't fair to the poor story, and it's kind of annoying.  It's not anything that's getting in the way of my plans to publish it, I just find it strange.

(I do kind of wonder, though, if my feelings are because the first half of the story focuses more on the mystery than any magic and adventure. I love a good mystery within a story, but I'm not the biggest fan of the mystery genre itself. And I usually prefer fantasy stories that involve some sort of journey or quest. I just... really like stories with people who go places and do things. The second half of my book has the characters taking a journey, and it's the part of the book I enoyed the most. In which case, it definitely is personal feelings clouding my judgement).

Comments

[imbecamiel.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. Mothers may not, but writers certainly do have favorite children.... *g*

In this case, it really does sound like it's mainly personal taste influencing your feelings for the book, though. Maybe something to keep in mind for future books, if you want to focus more on themes that really get you excited... But I'd say you've given it enough consideration not to be really concerned about it.

Still, disappointing when you put a lot of work into something, the end result's a decent piece of work, and yet you still can't really get excited about it.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Still, disappointing when you put a lot of work into something, the end result's a decent piece of work, and yet you still can't really get excited about it.

Yes! Especially since I would really like to do a sequel for this story ^^;

(Although I also have to wonder if, maybe, I wrote this story for the sake of the sequel, which I do feel a bit more enthused about. Hmmm...)

Still, I'd always been a "I love every story I've written" kind of person, so to write a story I'm not that thrilled about yet I still consider it to be a good story is new territory for me.

[karri-kln1671.livejournal.com]

That happens to me a lot. Sometimes it turns out to just be burn out, and once I've had some distance from the tale I begin to like it again. Sometimes, I simply don't like the story anymore, despite being a perfectly good story that other people like.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah. This is why I'm always so hesitant about doing series or epics, because some stories I'll like in the moment, they're good stories, but I'm just not that interested in them and would rather not continue.

I did take a step away from the story at one point, although it didn't really change anything. However, I did find that the more I edited, the more favorable I felt toward it. I still don't feel all that much excitement for it, but I do like it a little more than I initially had.

[sholio]

I think it's pretty common - I know it happens to me. Sometimes going away for awhile helps, and I feel better about it once I come back.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I did take a step back at one point, although it didn't seem to help. However, as I mentioned in my reply above that the more I edited, the more favorable I felt toward it.

This is the first time I've ever felt of two minds about a story. I used to be very black and white about what I wrote. I either liked it and moved forward with it or I didn't and set it aside, so this is kind of new territory for me.

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you need someone else to review this and see what they think. Different perspective and all that

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I had my mom read it, which I know they say you shouldn't rely on family members to critique anything, but my family is incredibly honest when it comes to any kind of writing, and she really liked this one. In fact this was probably the first work I did where she didn't point out any places that dragged (and I tend to be the queen of dragging things about pointlessly).

I usually have pretty good instincts about whether a story is going to work out or not, and my instincts are practically screaming at me that despite my personal feelings, this is a story that a lot of people will really enjoy. That said I do plan on posting the first couple of paragraphs on a site where people can critique your work.