Quality of Writing

[Starry]

I feel like there are a bunch of variations on this question sitting around the forum somewhere, but I'm curious about this specifically.

When I started writing a year ago, I know that I wasn't exactly the best writer. But I have improved pretty consistently since then, to the point where I've had friends complain that I desperately need to revise my earlier works because they're so much worse than my current ones. Anyway, I've been working on my main story, Estara, since then, and I've discovered that when I'm writing new Estara chapters or any other project from a while back, my writing is significantly worse than on a new story.

Does this happen to anyone else? Is your quality of writing worse on projects that you've been working on for a long time than on new stories?

[Crocolyle]

All my long projects start out well but quickly go downhill after about 15,000 words. Then I decide to rewrite it, because of some minor flaw in the beginning and then I end up going nowhere fast. Like I wrote 25,000 words of a novel and it's absolutely no good after a while. Like you, my recent shorter projects are almost always much, much better.

[Majyk]

Well, not really, no. But I've been working on my novel for a month over a year now, and as I edited it, I found that the writing in the beginning needed a lot of work, while the writing at the end was somewhat better with less obvious mistakes.

[Neocutey24]

Not really. If you've got your "style" in mind, you can keep it consistent. And I advise that if you want to go somewhere with your story, plow through the rough draft and clean it up later. It doesn't matter how you wrote in the beginning or the end. Make it all flow when you write it again.

[appleofmyeye]

That's the story of my life, no joke. After the first chapter I'm kinda forcing myself to think of how to progress the story line. They all end up corny and clique and just awful. It's depressing...

[jordanisonfire]

I've started writing something now and I'm going to force myself to keep writing. I know that if I do, if I edit it with the crits I get, I'll look at it and be proud of it. ^_^

[lango]

Well short stories, be them like a page long or 10 pages are easily to visualize as a whole thus easier to keep perfect sentencing throughout the whole story, whilst novels are near impossible to visualize, thus making it harder to start the story good, and maybe even harder to write the next chapter since you're not very sure of how you want to go on about it.
I usually hate my short story plots, and love my novel plots, and yet all my short stories end up looking way more professional to me than my novels.
What keeps me going is the number of bad books available in the stores :D
That makes me see Im not alone on this

[Shaun]

This sounds a lot like what Croc was talking about: getting bored with the project. You either have to figure out a way to reinvigorate your interests in the project, or maybe take a break and work on something else. You don't always have to finish things right then and there (well, I disagree with myself there, because I hate unfinished things, but perhaps for you it's a matter of getting too tired with something and not really realizing it). It could also have to do with having lost the narrative voice. That happens too. Take a break and write something else, then come back and see if your voice comes back and the quality returns.

[Jack]

Actually. When i go back to older works my writing has often improved alot and i end up getting frustrated tht the pice of writing i am adding to isnt good enough and i discard it. Which is why when i start a story i always try to stick to it and finish it before i move onto my next.

[Starry]

This sounds a lot like what Croc was talking about: getting bored with the project. You either have to figure out a way to reinvigorate your interests in the project, or maybe take a break and work on something else. You don't always have to finish things right then and there (well, I disagree with myself there, because I hate unfinished things, but perhaps for you it's a matter of getting too tired with something and not really realizing it). It could also have to do with having lost the narrative voice. That happens too. Take a break and write something else, then come back and see if your voice comes back and the quality returns.

"Take a break." :D Unintentionally, that's exactly what I did. I didn't have any time to write for a full three months. Now, I'm back at it and (hopefully) it's better. We will have to see!

[Shaun]

You should also remember that as you grow as a writer (and as a person, depending on how old you are now), your style and methods of writing may change. That's normal. I have a couple projects I will never go back to because I'm older and different now (whether that's different in a good way or a bad way is left to be seen).