mmerriam | Considering Chewing The Keyboard In Frustration

I need to get better at this writing thing.

I'm frustrated because I know the stories I'm writing can be better but, try as I might, I cannot seem make the jump. I have yet to develop the skill set to make them better.

Aaarrrggghhhhh!!!

I know the only thing to be done is to forge ahead. I know the only way to push past this is to continue writing and to read and study works by writers who are doing it right.

I have felt this way before (about this time last year) and it's Just. So. Very. Frustrating!

The stories I've been making small press sales with are all stories that came out of that last stretch of difficult writing, so I'm hopeful that things are about to improve.

I know intellectually the stories I'm writing right now are better than the ones I wrote a year ago and I know part of the problem is that I'm trying to build on what I've learned and I'm trying new things. Because of that, sometimes my writing sounds (to me, at least) less like prose and more like fingernails on a chalkboard!

I know that my stories should be better. I know they can be better. I know eventually I'll be able to write better. I know it's just growing pains.

But OH MY GODS IT'S LIKE PULLING TEETH right now.

Pant, pant, pant, grump, grump, grump

Okay, back to work.

In Peace
Michael