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Do This When You Hate Your Writing
Franz Kafka, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, burned over 90 percent of his work.
Today I felt like doing the same with mine.
Some of it is solid work which I’m proud of, but a strange loathing of my literary offspring engulfed me and wouldn’t let me acknowledge any quality or potential for it existed there.
A cloud of regret for years of wasted time hovered over me briefly. If I could have burned my work in a trashcan this morning as Kafka did, I might be without a portfolio now.
But luckily the internet isn’t flammable.
As I took a step back and thought more rationally about this strange desire I remembered something I read by Jane Friedman:
“Unfortunately, writers in the depths of this “crap phase” will often wonder if it’s worth their time to continue. That struggle — that feeling that you’re wasting your time — is a sign that you’re probably on the right path. But most people quit, not realizing that nearly every writer who does excellent work went through a phase of years where they had really good taste, but they produced total crap.”
This experienced wisdom parted the clouds of doom above me as I realized that even though…
