It's been a topic today in various parts of IRC, so I'm bringing it out here. Insecurity in our writing tells us that we have a lot of catching up to do, it lets us know of the errors in our writing, our plot, our characters. It provides us with a critical look at our own work and the ability to identify the areas to improve. It provides us with the urge to proofread and correct what we've written.

Taken too far, of course, we become a prisoner of it, we never put anything forward and we don't try new things. The question is, how do we harness that insecurity in one's own writing to keep growing and improving as writers without falling prey to that insecurity to the extent of giving up and not writing at all? What are your thoughts on it?

(Addendum: I don't see the point on wasting much writing on overconfidence, because we've all seen people that think they have nothing more to learn -- they're treading water and aren't going anywhere. I honestly can't imagine anyone here is actually completely satisfied with their writing and sees no room to improve.)

I write so bad I am surprised I have not been kicked out of the guild.

"There is no writing; only rewriting."

There you have it. When it comes to professional writing, you have Editor(s) who draw these lines for you. Even if you, the author, WANT to keep rewriting because of your, maybe, insecurity the editor will be there to step in, laugh at you, and wave you off.

Online, as a hobby, it's really more perfecting the art of the 'first draft.' I've never, ever, ever done a full re-write of a RP post. Nor will I ever. It's a waste of time/energy. I may correct typos or fix a sentence here or there that could use a re-work for clarity's sake, but usually that's all. Will I stop and read my post and say to myself, "That's...crap. Fantastic." Oh yeah. All the time. Way too much.

So next time the same sort of IC circumstances come up that made me really loathe a particular post of mine, I'll have that in mind and maybe put much more of a concentrated effort into the post. And of course when I'm not sure I can trust myself for the quality of a RP, I usually just ask a few RP 'buddies' whose opinions on RP quality I trust. It's the best (read: least maddening) method I've personally found.

I post, and then I spend hours after the post correcting things in the post. It's this process that drags on for a couple of days after a post.

^

I'm constantly going back and finding things to correct or change the wording to sound better, etc. Or adding in some internal thoughts because I always forget that.

HeySeuss said
I post, and then I spend hours after the post correcting things in the post. It's this process that drags on for a couple of days after a post.

I used to go through this a lot but recently I've done a progressive elaboration style of post writing where I write a new part every so often and proofread the last part. Once it's been proofread I try and avoid thinking about it again or I'll make flaws it in (in my head) and change it again.

Take a cue from university-level writing courses on this. Write a first version... Then walk away from it. Don't come back until you've thoroughly cleansed yourself of that particular train of thought. Return. Reread. Repair. Repeat until satisfied.

In a role play though you generally don't have that kind of luxury unless you have a lot of spare time on your hands. So I'd recommend just writing your first post, getting it out there, then going back a couple days later to read it over again and compare it to the other posts. Could you make it through your own post? No? Why not? Write down why not. Practice these things consciously in your next post. Reread, repair in future posts, recycle, repeat until satisfied. If there are methods of writing or certain phrases or words others use which you like a lot, maybe because it just sounds good or maybe because it's clever to you, reuse it. Repeat it. Learn where it fits and where it doesn't and keep doing it until it sticks in your mind as a subconsciously drawn from term. My favourite word of the moment is "ferreting", I'm using it everywhere.

The original Legend of Renalta, which lasted four years, went through six or seven different versions before I finally found one that stuck through constant trial and error. Legend of Renalta 2, currently on this site, had its own stat system undergo four complete rewrites before I found one I was satisfied with. I wrote roughly six hundred traits and only used 1/6th of those in the final version.

tl;dr: You will write a lot of garbage before you write things you like, and even then, what you like, another might not. So the only yardstick to measure yourself by is your own expectations. Don't set it too far out of your own bounds but always seek to improve yourself through trial and error, learning from your mistakes... And don't be afraid to make them. You will never learn unless you try. If you never learn you will never improve. If you never improve, well... Then you'll just be stuck in that rut forever.

Interesting suggestion. Sometimes, a serious rewrite of old posts has come of that in my experience, though my experience is as a total hobbyist amateur. I've never taken a fiction writing class in my life.

This is exactly the sort of thing that keeps me from getting my novel ideas into words. I get some stuff started and then next thing I know I'm erasing it all, not liking what I had down.

I don't know what I'm doing.

I had some RP's going on a few other sites but I haven't got a single posts on any of my RP's here.
Not even on the "free" section. No posts. At all. It makes me sad. :(