Write.

Rewriting

Writing is rewriting.

This is an old rule but a good one to remember, especially if you've just read something you wrote last week and have come to the unfortunate conclusion it sucks. If you're one of those people, then congratulations - you might just be a writer.

If you read back your own material and think, "Wow, this is good stuff, I'm really talented," then not only are you vain, but you're much less likely to develop any actual, y'know... skill. It's for other people to decide if your work is good or not—they're the ones who will be reading it, after all.

You will never be qualified to judge the quality of your own work, not even once you're published and earning big bucks. Pros make mistakes, too. Your job is to evaluate and evolve, and that can only be done by identifying your weaknesses.

If you don't like what you've written, then that is great news, because it means you recognise that there is something wrong with your story—and that means you can fix it.

Maybe you're not happy with how a scene or a chapter has turned out. Maybe you feel the story's dragging or your main character isn't interesting enough. Maybe you're not actually sure what it is that's wrong with your story, but you can sense something isn't quite right.

Relax.

Whatever the issue is, there is no limit to how many times you can rewrite it. The more problems you identify, the more you'll learn about writing and the better you'll be at it. Here's a piece of advice every writer should hear:

You're allowed to write a bad story.

It's called a first draft.

Your first draft is most likely going to be an absolute mess. There'll be info dumps, extraneous characters, unnecessary subplots, redundant scenes, weak character arcs... yada yada yada.

No problem. Leave all that crap in. Just concentrate on finishing it.

Once you have a finished draft, that's when you can start worrying about what's wrong with it. That's when you get to dive back into chapter one and go, "This character can be cut... this paragraph isn't necessary... this would be a good place to foreshadow that thing which happens in chapter twelve...

Rewriting is where it's at. And if your second draft isn't that great, that's what the third draft is for.

And the fourth.

And the fifth.

Don't get disheartened if you don't like what you've done. Work out why you don't like it, and you'll have acquired the tools to fix it.