I’m not really good at this positive thinking business in regard to writing. But I give it a shot.
List positive messages you have received about your writing or about any creative undertaking. Then write about when you felt good about your writing. Keep these for the times when you want to berate your work.
The first thing that comes to mind about positive statements about my writing has to do with Sundown. I started writing the Sundown story as a way to “get out of the house” when it seemed like all we did was stay in. I wasn’t going out to movies, we rarely saw friends. All of this was a few months after the White Wolf project ended. I tried to bring everyone together to “play a game” online in story.
Of course, the moment after I took up the project, I became too busy to maintain it. I wanted to put stories out twice a week, but that quickly became too much. And then once a week became too much. And then I missed a couple of releases and the interest in the game started to dwindle.
But the last few issues of Sundown were among some of my more creative writings, and definitely some of the longest passages I've ever written for personal satisfaction.
Nobody really appreciated my writing in college. I think that I tried to get a little too fancy, maybe a little too gimmicky with my writing then. Although I did write one or two pretty good stories based partially on reality. But I don't remember anyone saying anything particularly good about them.
Before that I guess my writing in high school went completely unnoticed. But that's not true. I have friends from high school today tell me that they always thought that my writing back in the day was of decent quality. If they had told me that then, I might be doing more writing today, maybe even as a profession.
Hopefully, if I continue to do these exercises and go to the Effective Writing classes, I can work some style and effectiveness into my creative outlet.
