I feel that way when I look back on my old writing sometimes. I think there's something kind of magical about the teen years for that kind of raw upheaval. Your emotions, or at least my emotions, felt much stronger then, and it was easier to let things out without a filter. I was less afraid of failing then, I held back less.
But, I'm not sure there is anything you can do to recapture that. It's like the way your body ages. I think as you grow older, you have to deal with your writing style changing, and trying to improve the style you develop, if that makes sense.
i often look back to 2005/2006/2007/2008 and think those were my best writing years. my own kinda adolescence in literature, i guess. now it's tough and everything sucks.
but like someone said, it's different. i was all style and no substance then. now i'm substance with no style.
i heard once in order to learn writing, to learn true and good writing, sometimes we have to break ourselves entirely and build ourselves back up from the ruin. with that we'll learn both style & substance.
i'm going through this.
maybe you are too.
it's frustrating, but we're our worst critics. we're allowed to be. it's okay. read what you wrote, remember what you loved and eventually, it'll find it's place back in your writing.
But yeah. I've felt that way hardcore. There really is something about being a teenager that makes you write brilliantly inspired stuff all over the place. Maybe not the best stuff, fundamentally, but...yeah. I think that core insight and sense of beauty stays, but the process of writing becomes more polished and less spontaneous. And the feelings you put into writing become maybe...less personal? Less immediate? Less stressful?
I kind of feel like when you're a teen, you write to cope, and because of that your writing has an incredible amount of passion, for better or worse. You learn to deal with things in other ways, so your writing changes and how you feel about writing changes. But I don't think that passion is ever really lost. If it was, I don't think we'd be writing, or worrying about writing. &hearts
Seriously, though. I wish I had advice for you. I wrote my favourite (or, well, my least hated) stuff during late 2006/early 2007 and I haven't been able to get a grasp on that sort of writing since. Maybe we're burnt out. Maybe it's just that we've changed. All we can really do, I think, is keep trying. (Also: editing. So much fucking editing.)
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But, I'm not sure there is anything you can do to recapture that. It's like the way your body ages. I think as you grow older, you have to deal with your writing style changing, and trying to improve the style you develop, if that makes sense.
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i often look back to 2005/2006/2007/2008 and think those were my best writing years. my own kinda adolescence in literature, i guess. now it's tough and everything sucks.
but like someone said, it's different. i was all style and no substance then. now i'm substance with no style.
i heard once in order to learn writing, to learn true and good writing, sometimes we have to break ourselves entirely and build ourselves back up from the ruin. with that we'll learn both style & substance.
i'm going through this.
maybe you are too.
it's frustrating, but we're our worst critics. we're allowed to be. it's okay. read what you wrote, remember what you loved and eventually, it'll find it's place back in your writing.
this is what i tell myself too.
♥
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just keep plugging away. never stop writing. never.
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But yeah. I've felt that way hardcore. There really is something about being a teenager that makes you write brilliantly inspired stuff all over the place. Maybe not the best stuff, fundamentally, but...yeah. I think that core insight and sense of beauty stays, but the process of writing becomes more polished and less spontaneous. And the feelings you put into writing become maybe...less personal? Less immediate? Less stressful?
I kind of feel like when you're a teen, you write to cope, and because of that your writing has an incredible amount of passion, for better or worse. You learn to deal with things in other ways, so your writing changes and how you feel about writing changes. But I don't think that passion is ever really lost. If it was, I don't think we'd be writing, or worrying about writing. &hearts
Reply
Seriously, though. I wish I had advice for you. I wrote my favourite (or, well, my least hated) stuff during late 2006/early 2007 and I haven't been able to get a grasp on that sort of writing since. Maybe we're burnt out. Maybe it's just that we've changed. All we can really do, I think, is keep trying. (Also: editing. So much fucking editing.)
Reply
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