I used to be a very good writer. In high school and college. And I don't even think "a good writer for a teenager," I think I actually was a really good writer. Both fiction and non fiction. I won awards, had a chance to be published that I kind of blew (long story), and had really good things said about my writing by some relatively impressive people.
I took a few years off, and then decided to write a novel for NaNoWriMo, and it was just awful. Really, truly awful. Even my mother, who I sent a chapter to in hopes that maybe I was just being too hard on myself, was hard pressed to say something nice (and she's normally very supportive!) So I started writing some short stories, and some essays, and it's all just awful. Stilted prose, 2nd grade vocabulary, difficult to follow. I started a blog, thinking that I probably just need practice and discipline, and it's so bad (it's really just about me and my kids, with some book reviews and some discussion about parenting in general: it's not like I'm trying some crazy purple prose thing!) that I've made it private.
I feel very depressed about this. Writing was always very cathartic for me, and I always considered it something that I would get back to, and try to do professionally. But I've completely lost whatever talent I had, just at the point where I'd really like to make a go of it. So many people that I've known for a long time bring it up, and it just makes me sad. My family and husband say "I don't understand why you stopped writing, you should send your stories off/write a book/get a job writing." People I haven't seen in a long time ask if I'm still writing, and all I can do is smile and say "I wish I had the time!" and change the subject.
Does anyone else feel like they should have more talent than they actually do? I feel like one of those child prodigies who grows up to be normal, even though I don't actually think I was a child prodigy! I just had a talent that I seem to have lost. Do you think there's any hope in getting it back?
I took a few years off, and then decided to write a novel for NaNoWriMo, and it was just awful. Really, truly awful. Even my mother, who I sent a chapter to in hopes that maybe I was just being too hard on myself, was hard pressed to say something nice (and she's normally very supportive!) So I started writing some short stories, and some essays, and it's all just awful. Stilted prose, 2nd grade vocabulary, difficult to follow. I started a blog, thinking that I probably just need practice and discipline, and it's so bad (it's really just about me and my kids, with some book reviews and some discussion about parenting in general: it's not like I'm trying some crazy purple prose thing!) that I've made it private.
I feel very depressed about this. Writing was always very cathartic for me, and I always considered it something that I would get back to, and try to do professionally. But I've completely lost whatever talent I had, just at the point where I'd really like to make a go of it. So many people that I've known for a long time bring it up, and it just makes me sad. My family and husband say "I don't understand why you stopped writing, you should send your stories off/write a book/get a job writing." People I haven't seen in a long time ask if I'm still writing, and all I can do is smile and say "I wish I had the time!" and change the subject.
Does anyone else feel like they should have more talent than they actually do? I feel like one of those child prodigies who grows up to be normal, even though I don't actually think I was a child prodigy! I just had a talent that I seem to have lost. Do you think there's any hope in getting it back?